Posted on 04/24/2017 5:19:16 PM PDT by ameribbean expat
Published in 1974 after being rejected by more than 100 other publishers, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, was the father-son story of a motorcycle trip across the western United States. Loosely autobiographical, it also contained flashbacks to a period in which the author was diagnosed as schizophrenic.
The book quickly became a best-seller. Pirsig said its protagonist “set out to resolve the conflict between classic values that create machinery, such as a motorcycle, and romantic values, such as experiencing the beauty of a country road”.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
How Pirsig deals with his own insanity (if that’s what it was) in that book would be an incredible achievement all by itself. Young Chris was trapped on the back of a motorcycle on a cross-country trip, and due to the confines of the helmet saw very little but the back of the man who used to be his father and now, due to electroshock therapy, was somebody else. He got to discard the helmet, and he got his father back. Tremendous, metaphorical narrative.
He believed Quality exists as something real we instinctively recognize. He felt he’d devised a whole new philosophic view of the world. I wasn’t convinced of that but he taught me a lot.
BTW, I owned only a motorcycle for transportation at the time I read it and for a few years afterwards. I have about 500,000 miles on motorcycles since my youth.
I read it as an expat in Japan. A solid B+ book.
“Repair of Japanese motorcycle requires great peace of mind.”
We just called them riceburners and refused to own them.
RIP.
L
I read it a couple of times. Its one of those books I would bring up in conversation from time to time to make a point.
If you’re married and trying to get through grad school, the wife doesn’t necessarily appreciate you sitting home all day reading to finish a book, but this is what I did, and fortunately everything worked out OK.
... and I’ll never forget the book.
I re-read it several times. Plus there was a section about being stuck that I referred to often, whenever I was stuck.
You’re not a heathen, nothing ruins a good book like having it assigned in a classroom.
I laugh when I see kids assigned to read Montaignes Essays in a classroom...the guy had lived an entire life before retiring to write, and here we’re handing it off to a bunch of noobs who couldn’t lose their virginity in an Amsterdam whorehouse.
I came across “Zen” in my early thirties, done with school- and you have to be educated to read the book, done with the army, unattached and time on my hands. The things that stick with me are...
1. The difference between the Puritans and the Victorians, and why the Puritans are superior;
2. Etymology of “Kin” and “kind”, and a wondering about who teaches people to hate their own kind.
3. His description of his sons death. Can’t have two guys riding the same motorcycle across country, then one of them gets whacked, with no consequences. But it did surprise me that the father went nuts over philosophy, but not his son’s death.
4. Finally, the discussion of Quality. An important discussion in a culture with no sense of it.
Of course no one remembers that the title of the book was a takeoff of another book which was also remarkable,” Zen in the Art of Archery” written by Eugen Herricgel. I read this first in German and it relates the story of a German professor who was teaching in Japan and remained stuck there throughout the entire second world war. He learned the Japanese classical archery system and with it a lot of Zen philosophy. It’s also a good read and I’m sure Persig used some of it to form his thoughts on how to strike the target of a quality life.
I read it in college as a French major. At the time I was a pre med and did not have the wherewithal or organizational habits to make it in med school.
Reading the book was crucial to my success later on.
I still remember his example of the mechanic who lays down everything without a plan but “keeps everything in his head”. He can work wonders but if somebody misplaces one or two of his key tools he is lost.
The “methodical” mechanic seems like he is wasting a lot of time on meaningless categorization, but he will be able to cope with chance occurrences the best.
Gotta go read it again now....
It always bothered me that he took the title idea from Zen In The Art of Archery. Just made him seem untrustworthy. I seem to be the only person who feels this way though.
There are times I really, really love Free Republic. This is one of them. Y’all are just BRILLIANT.
I read the book two or three times, thought it was fascinating. RIP sir, thanks for the journey.
Oh my. Godspeed Mr. Pirsig.
I read this book when I was twenty-nine, while experiencing what seemed to be an inner waking. My hippie moment;) The book had an impact on my view of things , which I sorely needed. I read it again about 15 years later and learned things that flew right by me the first time.
I’ve always appreciated the differences between loving the motorcycle for where it took him, what he saw and felt, and how it’s made, what makes it work. Classicism vs. Romanticism wasn’t it?
His son’s death...so horrible.
I can’t believe he was 88.
I think I was too young when I tried to read it. Couldn’t get through it. The responses to this thread make me want to try again.
As a former BMW rider and mechanic I found it to be a valuable and timely tome. Read and re-read it several times.
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