Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mantenance is an elemental work that has helped to shape and define the past twenty-five years of American culture. This special audio edition presents this adventure in a compelling way—for the millions who have already taken this journey and want to travel these roads again, and for the many more who will learn for the first time the wonders and challenges of a journey that will change the way they reflect and feel about their lives.
In his now classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig brings us a literary chautauqua, a novel that is meant to both entertain and edify. It scores high on both counts.
Phaedrus, our narrator, takes a present-tense cross-country motorcycle trip with his son during which the maintenance of the motorcycle becomes an illustration of how we can unify the cold, rational realm of equipment with the warm, imaginative realm of invention. As in Zen, the trick is to become one with the activity, to engage in it fully, to see and appreciate all details–be it hiking in the woods, penning an essay, or tightening the chain on a motorcycle.
In his autobiographical first novel, Pirsig wrestles both with the ghost of his past and with the most vital philosophical questions of the 20th century–why has equipment alienated us from our world? what are the limits of rational analysis? if we can’t define the excellent, how can we live it? Sorry to say, while exploring the defects of our philosophical heritage from Socrates and the Sophists to Hume and Kant, Pirsig inexplicably stops at the middle of the 19th century. With the exception of Poincaré, he ignores the more recent philosophers who have tackled his most urgent questions, thinkers such as Peirce, Nietzsche (to whom Phaedrus bears a passing resemblance), Heidegger, Whitehead, Dewey, Sartre, Wittgenstein, and Kuhn. In the end, the narrator’s claims to inventiveness turn out to be overstated, his reasoning questionable, and his understanding of the history of Western thought sketchy. His solution to a synthesis of the rational and creative by elevating Quality to a metaphysical level simply repeats the mistakes of the premodern philosophers. But in contrast to most additional philosophers, Pirsig writes a compelling tale. And he is a right innovator in his attempt to popularize a reconciliation of Eastern mindfulness and nonrationalism with Western theme/object dualism. The magic of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance turns out to lie not in the answers it gives, but in the questions it raises and the way it raises them. Like a cross between The Razor’s Edge and Sophie’s World, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance takes us into “the high country of the mind” and opens our eyes to vistas of possibility. –Brian Bruya
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Yeah: it all makes sense when you get to the part about the leader getting shock treatments.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
My dad encouraged me to read this book, and he had a free copy so I thought what the hell. I had a job at a coffee shop at the time and during down time I would read a few pages. Man, everyone has heard of this book. You don’t know how many people came into the store and saw it sitting there and mentioned what a fantastic book it was, I questioned everyone of them if they personally read it and I can remember them all adage “Uh, well I heard it was excellent from a friend”. Anyway, save your hard earned cash and buy a motorcycle manual or something this is the most dull book I’ve ever read. There’s not a hint of inspired writing or insight here, then again I should have known better my dad reads books on playing chess.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Pirsig leads us on hundreds of pages in a self-indulgent quest for the definition of “quality,” in an East meets West context. Note to leader: Webster defines quality in many ways. Among them are 1.) Character (as in attribute) 2.) Comparative rank (for the relativists out there) 3.) Superior rank (as a contrast to #2). It’s really that simple, Mr. Pirsig. Get over it.
Oh, and by the way, next time you criticize the “Church of Reason,” be aware that your speechifying is really a reasoned argument against reason. This alone should be “reason” enough to avoid your convoluted ideology.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
He is insane, and in fact, receives electroshock treatments for his illness. Being forced to receive the treatments renders him powerfully resentful, and his entire book is an attempt to say he wasn’t sick. This mess of a book should convince you he was sick.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
That review by “Woodchuck” helped clarify what I wanted to say.
I read it years ago, and “knew” that the leader was unbalanced, but also that he held an enormous attraction to many, many people. I couldn’t reconcile the two.
I’ve never known anyone who was schizophrenic, but Pirsig’s belief system echoes exactly what the reviewer was adage; something I would have catagorized as “grandiosity,” with no tiny amount of paranoia thrown into the mix.
In any case — should you choose to pursue this book — know that the text is rambling and simplistic.
I’ve read many of the reviews, and persons people who were lost or to some extent depressed (or even mentally disturbed — I’m not reasonably sure) seem to really delight in the book. Persons people who are basically pleased with their lives and mentally “sound” are dismayed and (to some extent) disgusted with the book.
I’m not disgusted with the book, but with people who recommend it blindly to others.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5