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Editorial Reviews
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 technology with the warm, imaginative realm of artistry. 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 important philosophical questions of the 20th century--why has technology alienated us from our world? what are the limits of rational analysis? if we can't define the good, how can we live it? Unfortunately, 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 originality 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 other philosophers, Pirsig writes a compelling story. And he is a true innovator in his attempt to popularize a reconciliation of Eastern mindfulness and nonrationalism with Western subject/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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
George Steiner, The New Yorker
It lodges in the mind as few recent novels have...The book is inspired, original...the narrative tact, the perfect economy of effect defy criticism. The analogies with Moby Dick are patent. Robert Pirsig invites the prodigious comparison. What more can one say? -
From AudioFile
Although more than twenty years have passed since the book's original publication, Pirsig's philosophies on technology and science, nature and love still offer much to this generation. Lawrence Pressman's delightful performance conveys the author's deep awareness and self-discovery. The combination of the book's vivid imagery and Pressman's contemplative delivery help ease the listener into Pirsig's lesson: we should pay less attention to "what things mean," more attention to "what they are." R.A.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Book Description
The extraordinary story of a man's quest for truth. It will change the way you think and feel about your life.
"The cycle you're working on is a cycle called 'yourself.'"
"The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon." -- Robert M. Pirsig
Ingram
Both the autobiography of a troubled man who motorcycled across the country with his 11-year-old son and a harrowing look at insanity and the terrors of the mind as well.
From the Publisher
The extraordinary story of a man's quest for truth. It will change the way you think and feel about your life.
"The cycle you're working on is a cycle called 'yourself.'"
"The study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon." -- Robert M. Pirsig
"Profoundly important... full of insights into our most perplexing contemporary dilemmas... It is intellectual entertainment of the highest order." -- The New York Times
"It lodges in the mind as few recent novels have... The book is inspired, original... As the mountains gentle toward the sea--with father and child locked in a ghostly grip--the narrative tact, the perfect economy of effect defy criticism... The analogies with Moby Dick are patent. Robert Pirsig invites the prodigious comparison... What more can one say?" -- The New Yorker
"It's a miracle.. sparkles like an electric dream. Freshness, originality... that seduces you into loving motorcycles, as tender in their pistons as the petals in the Buddha’s dawn lotus." -- The Village Voice
Reviews
A Literary Acid Trip, November 6, 2002
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (which may be the best title of all time) is a bizarre and insightful journey into ... well, psychology, motorcycle maintenance, and pretty much everything in between. This unique book is impossible to classify. Its long-winded tangents into Zen philosophy range from inane navel contemplation to mystical mountaintop profundity.
The book begins with a first-person narrative of an unnamed man taking a motorcycle trip from Minnesota to the Northwest with his young son, Chris, and another married couple. The author's description of biking absolutely nails its allure, frustrations, and rewards. His book is required reading for all serious bikers (those who can read, that is). As the journey progresses, the narrator expounds upon the art of motorcycle maintenance and why some shy away from it, dividing riders into two groups: romantic and classic thinkers. Then he spends 100 pages splitting the romantic/classic atom. Surprisingly, the result is not some pot-smoker's rambling, but a sophisticated and well-informed essay on the human condition.
The book continues with alternating passages of narrator lucidity--as he describes their mundane travels through America's backwaters--and more deep dives into topics most of us have never invested two seconds pondering: the definition of technology, quality, duality, and Aristotelian reasoning. But Pirsig slowly introduces a third component to the story: a shadowy character named Phaedrus. A mystery develops for the reader. Is Phaedrus a real person? Or a figment of the narrator's imagination? His alter ego? Is the deep-thinking narrator schizophrenic? Or descending into madness?
Zen and the Art is at times maddening with its hour-long dissections of trivial matters, but will also have you seeing many things in a whole new light. Apparently, almost nothing in life is as it seems. In the end, it's a "quality" book (you'll have to read the book to understand this). I might have enjoyed it more as a younger, more idealistic person, but it's well worth the time investment at any age. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.
Zen and the Angst of Modern Life-Maintenance, November 8, 2000
Reviewer: from West Palm Beach, Fl USA
Of all the angst in modern life, the principal manner of thought with which we most often struggle is that of the seemingly limited choice we face between only one action(thing) or another(thing): does one marry or remain single?; does one raise a family or remain childless?; does one fight or accept peaceful compromise? Deeper still is the troubling notion that people may now more regularly unconsciously view others as either objects or subjects, rather than the multi-dimensional, holistic beings we really are.
Pirsig's basic tale--yet profoundly philosophical insight--about an undefined essence called "quality" being the true force behind all decisions of man or nature, offers a unique alternative to the way we have classically limited our attitudes to the "yes or no" solution. How ironic it is, also, to read Pirsig's insightful exposition of how history's renowned Greek philosophers both enlightened and elevated the western mind while trapping it, at the same time, in a cognitive subject-object division that we rely-on today.
The essential "paradigm shift" in thought and attitude suggested by "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" will become far more meaningful in this 21 century, as people grow ever more technologically dependent, and simultaneously emotionally-isolated, from one another.
This book is an essential read for both the less-engaged, as well as, the deepest of thinkers among us. And like the Zen concept of Mu(that non-thing in the middle)which Pirsig speaks about, it can offer insights for all of us "somewhere in the middle" people, also. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews
Worth the effort, April 2, 2003
Reviewer: from Cincinnati, OH
Just finished reading ZAMM for the third time. Once again, I got something different from this great book. ZAMM is inspiring, challenging, difficult, fun, thought-provoking ... it requires you to THINK. It isn't an easy read, but it is well worth the effort.
The last time I finished reading ZAMM, I persuaded three friends (all intelligent people) to read it. They all hated it. Go figure.
Don’t take it all at face value, March 28, 2003
Reviewer: from Denton, TX, USA
I just wanted to say that although this book is a work of great importance and genius on its own, and can be very valuable without any knowledge of Zen, an understanding of some Zen principles can bring on a whole new level of comprehension of the book (and no, you don’t have to be a Buddhist for this to help). A good place to start is with the writings of d.t. suzuki. Although his writings are many years old now, the language is timeless, and his simple, reverent style is very readable. Read his Introduction to Zen, and then read this book again. You’ll be amazed at what you missed the first time around.
Fine Tuning Your Life, March 22, 2003
Reviewer: from Madison, WI USA
Sitting in the sunlight, seeing others darkly in the shade. The universal human experience of separateness and differentness during interactions with others.
Experience as experience instead of scorekeeping.
Noticing what is being experienced while it is being experienced. Dispassionate. Interested observing of one's own feelings, thoughts, imagination; one's own life.
The human experience from a high place of observation. Fearlessly describing human fear. Joyously presenting human exuberance.
Telling us the story of human frustration in challenges that don't go away, until - like the eventual choice of focusing on one brick of a building of bricks in a block of buildings - we get to the absolute simplicity of the situation and see clearly.
Within this new view, this new thought, this new action, is a new life and a new choice and another step in the direction of being our self.
A man discovers the spiritual world is not the world of the dead. He discovers it is not up there somewhere but right here, right now and he discovers that he has been a ghost of his real self.
The Holy Grail is his own body and the Quest is to be his real self buried under layers of habits of thought frightened into him by past experience.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of the great books of our time. I read it more than twice and listened to it on tape. It is an inspired work.
This book changed my life., March 19, 2003
Reviewer: from Madison, WI
Pirsig takes such an amazing approach to this book. He encompasses everything in our modern world. How and why everything we have created exists as it does is explained in this book. The night after I finished it the whole thing came into view and I understood our reality in a new way. QUALITY has become a word with more meaning than I could have ever imagined, and it has become such a powerful word that I cannot even really believe it, but Pirsig lays it all out for all of us to see. READ THIS AMZING BOOK!
A must read.., March 14, 2003
Reviewer: from Illinois
Had heard about this book, back in college --somehow slipped my thought for a while. Bumped into this on the shelves of B&N, picked it up without a second thought...
The way the author has dealt with some fundamental aspects of life, its very insightful...definitely not a philosophical take on life. but the mundane things that we see and do in our lives are dealt with in amazing clarity. Did it change my life? hard to say, but I did bookmark a lot of pages..for future reference. A must read, and definitely worth a re-read.
like Nietzsche said, February 24, 2003
Reviewer: A reader from Columbus, Ohio United States
the story of one man's journey to the origins of modern occidental thought, pirsig attempts to diagnose modern man's vapid condition and find a cure. Zen and the art... is the tale of phaedrus, "the wolf," who favors intuition before reason, concluding the foundation of all thought is emotion, the primary reality. the problem is, so few today recognize the importance and value of emotions. having deified reason and demonized passion, individuals have lost any authentic zest for life; they are mere sheep. simply adjust the definition of "what is good?" and recognize that which is good cannot be rigidly defined rationally by some shepherd--i.e. Jesus--who knows best, but rather must be intuited and expressed naturally--like a wolf--beyond the bounds of what the shepherd deems safe. the wolf is liberated, living dangerously, free to wander in solitude wherever, slave to none.
pirsig has a real eye for beauty and an almost-Hemingway skill with words. the book is an excellent read, but the author is not as revolutionary as he makes himself out to be: his epiphany is shared by many, especially by Nietzsche and the existentialists. another re-valuation of values, updated.
Not life changing- but a very good read, February 12, 2003
Reviewer: A reader from Wichita, Ks USA
After stubbornly resisting this book for 25 years because of the silly pop culture that surrounds it, I finally broke down and read it last week. No coffee shop, no backpack in the student union - just me and the book in the suburbs. It was good - very good. Did it change my life? No, absolutely not. For a better search on 'what it all means' read Gregg Easterbrook's Beside Still Waters ,and for the fascination with our day to day lives, I prefer the first two Nicholson Baker novels. Nevertheless, I still highly recommend this book. The interspersion of the trip with Pirsig's study of values is quite well done. The Greek philosophy covered and subsequent personal interpretation more than makes up for some of the hippie stuff didn't age all that well. Another plus was the trip itself, which is much better than just about any road book before or since.
While my good - but not life altering -review certainly heaps more praise than the one star ones found here, it appears such middle ground is a minority position in these parts. Still, I'll stick with 3.5 stars. Once I waded through the hype and cult like following, I am glad I finally read this modern classic.
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