(Larger Image)
|
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
by Robert M Pirsig
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Bantam New Age Book (1982-05)
ISBN: 0553207083
EAN: 9780553207088
Binding/Media: Paperback - 373 pages
Edition: 28th
SKU: P0095-0141-
Condition: Collectible: Good
Comments: Tight spine, clean unmarked pages. THis issue is the 28th printing, May, 1982.
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. A story of love and fear -- of growth, discovery, and acceptance -- that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence . . . and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.
|
Amazon.com Review
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
|
Customer Reviews
|
It's a myth that people who don't like this book simply aren't smasrt enojugh to get it.
Rating  (1)
Date: 2010-09-09
There is a sort of elitism about ZMM that requires a person to either proclaim it a masterpiece, or be subjected to scorn at not being smart enough to "get it." I notice how many other one-star reviews begin with an acknowledgment that it takes courage to dislike this book, which reveals something ominous about the cultural mystique that surrounds it.
But the book itself is tedious. I am NOT saying that the philosophy within it can't be life-changing and enlightening, which is why many readers adore this book, but as a book itself it's as profoundly dull as it is profound. There are several crucial problems.
First, the "plot" device of a cross-country motorcycle trip is nearly disposable. You can barely call this a novel, or claim it has a plot at all. What we have instead is a father-son road trip, a topic which had me excited to read this book. What a wonderful context for meaningful storytelling! But no, instead we have a "plot" that nearly gets abandoned; it gets so distant that at times Pirsig merely throws in an obligatory comment about the road going uphill now, as a token gesture to what was supposed to be the book's whole premise. Consequently, the narrator actually becomes LESS likable, as the 12-year-old son is nearly shoved aside for the narrator's self-involved musings. The narrator rhapsodizes endlessly about HIS philosophical obsessions, while the emotions and experiences of the son are happenstance story litter. This is ironic for a book claiming to be an investigation of values and quality. Here's a thought: how about you stop musing about your own brilliance, and actually PRACTICE quality values with your son? Merely thinking while he sits in the background of your self-absorption is abominable.
Second, Pirsig accidentally mistook this for a novel. It's not. It's a series of essays with a few tacked-on details about road sights interspersed. Pirsig doesn't even pretend otherwise; the narrator actually begins many passages with phrases like, "What I'd like to talk about now is..." The narrator makes no effort to hide the fact that he's simply lecturing. If Pirsig wanted to do this, he should have just written essays instead. But to write such dry essays and disguise them as first-person musings is a dull thing to inflict on us. These "Chautauquas" go on and on..."Now let's compare Euclidian geometry with..." AARGH!
This is the Ekhart Tolle of bygone decades. I've seen reviews that call this "exhilarating," and I always wonder if people read the same book as I. Or perhaps they also regard collecting antique twine to be an "exhilarating" hobby, or spending hours ignoring your bored kid while you debate Aristotle to be "exhilarating."
Real Zen masters teach us that after enlightenment, go chop wood. In others words, enlightenment ought not to take you out of the everyday tasks that must be attended to. Perhaps that could include using a cross-country road trip to actually explore your child's mind, bonding with him in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, rather than tossing him crumbs of attention so you can get back to your deep, clever "Chautauquas"?
|
|
A decent introductory text
Rating  (3)
Date: 2010-08-12
I've been a bit disappointed in this book, given the number of stellar recommendations I've heard. My main disappointment is in the careless logic that's presented--unverifiable generalizations that the author expects you to accept as true, even without support. And if you don't accept them as true, then the following generalizations are meaningless. (As a quick example, opening to a random page: "You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in." This is an absolute statement that simply cannot be proved, yet he expects you to accept it and builds further arguments upon it.) He's built a house of cards out of cards that are ripped or torn, and if you examine one card too closely, the whole house falls down.
I'm also extremely put off by the way the main character treats his son in the book. He's somewhat kind to him, but he refuses to communicate with him on a serious level and very often cuts him off because he's "too tired" to talk, and then wonders and whines about his "lack of connection" with his son. Please. . . .
All in all, an interesting book, but far too long and very weak on logic. If I were to use it in a classroom, I'd use it to demonstrate how easy it is to tear apart a supposedly logical argument that's built on sand, not stone.
|
|
Boring!
Rating  (2)
Date: 2010-08-12
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
OK, maybe I'm being a little too harsh. I actually enjoyed the idea of the cross-country motorcycle ride, the details about motorcycle mechanics, and especially the portrayal of the narrator's relationship with his son. The son was the best part of the whole book. Unfortunately, there wasn't much space for sonny, because dad was too busy advertising the author's brilliant philisophical insights. Even more unfortunately, the insights weren't brilliant, and consumed hundreds of tedious pages. It occured to me to wonder whether the author was trying to make the point that the narrator was a pompous idiot; however, the intent seemed to be for the reader to be blown away by the brilliance of the narrator's philosophical insights, and hence by the brilliance of the author who conceived of the narrator and the philosophical insights. I can't believe I made it through 380 pages of this.
|
|
THIS. BOOK. SUCKS!!!!!
Rating (1)
Date: 2010-07-20
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
I had to read this book for summer reading for my sophomore ap world history class. I may just be too young to understand this book, but personally i hated it with a huge passion! It litrally bored me to tears, I hate this book with all of my heart and do not reccomend it to ANYONE!!!! And what's worse- i cannot for the life of me find a summary of this book, and since i couldn't retain any of this book, i'm going to fail the reading comprehension test when i go back to school. Just don't get this book..
|
|
My Book Review
Rating  (4)
Date: 2010-07-09
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a great read. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a non-fiction philosophical novel.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an autobiography, allowing Pirsig to narrate his own life experiences. Along with sharing his motorcycle trip with his son Chris and some friends, he mainly focuses on what quality is. What is quality and how do you define it? He believes that it doesn't exist. In this certain area of the book it is harder to comprehend, but he does prove a good point that I agree with. He goes into great detail explaining his belief that quality is something made up, and he actually gets pretty emotional about it as he struggles to find the truth. On top of all of this, Robert Pirsig is schizophrenic, dealing with his battling alternate personality, Phaedrus.
Some weaknesses I found include going into too much detail about some ideas; they seemed unnecessary. He drifted into too much detail about some philosophical ideas and terms that the reader wouldn't be prepared for and didn't explain them well enough. Also, at the end of the book, his Phaedrus personality actually takes over; however, throughout the book he reflects back on how he was a student in India and his experience there, but that was his alternate personality. Since he went through electroshock therapy, there is no way he could have remembered any experiences Phaedrus went through.
Though he couldn't have remembered these things as Phaedrus, Pirsig does do a good job at helping the reader understand what he's going through as he battles his alternate personality. As mentioned before, he reflects on his experiences in India and has multiple dreams about those experiences. Though he wants to deny it, his son Chris also struggles as he tries to figure out if there is something wrong with his dad; asking questions and reflecting on good times in the past with his father makes his dad realize that it was Phaedrus that experienced those good times. Along with this, the reader is able to understand how Chris feels about the whole situation: he wants his dad back, you know, the dad that he has great times with and loves so much . . . Phaedrus.
This book really makes the reader think about how to find truth and if quality actually exists. It also lets the reader take an adventure inside the narrator's mind as he battles against his schizophrenia disease. I recommend this book to anyone who loves to think. As Pirsig himself writes, "The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there".
|
|
|
|
|