Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

[bascule]

I've recently begun reading this book, and so far, I'm enjoying it incredibly. It's not exactly an easy book to describe, but one of the themes that has come up right away is the juxtaposition between art (which the author calls romantic knowledge) and science (which the author calls classical knowledge).

 

So far references to eastern mysticism have been, well, mostly eschewed by the author with confusion. I suppose the conclusion of the book will be an acceptance of eastern mysticism. I await such a conclusion.

 

Until then, I've been rather amazed by the book's treatment of science and technology as essential parts of our lives. I've also been rather impressed with the author's philosophical background, particularly his descriptions of his studies of Hume and Kant.

 

Anyone else read this book and wish to opine? Please note I'm in the middle of reading it. Spoilers would be rather unappreciated

[iNow]

That was quite a good read. I picked it up a little over a decade ago. There are many themes touched upon like duality of self and the search for identity, and the flow of the prose was pretty outstanding in the way it was set around a trip across the highway. It was nothing like I expected, and that was a very good thing.

[StringJunky]

I read that book not long after it came out, so my memory of it is a bit vague, but I remember being very engrossed with it. It touches on many philosophical themes and one I remember being struck by was his pursuit in defining the concept of Quality.

 

The title of the book is a bit of a misnomer! It's a solid bit of popularly presented philosophy in my opinion.

[Syntho-sis]

I want to read it, haven't located a copy yet.

 

Sounds rather interesting..

[bascule]

The title of the book is a bit of a misnomer!

 

If I understand the juxtaposition of the concepts in the title correctly, it's some rather clever wordplay by the author, centered around the relationships between "classical" and "romantic" ideas. The author just started namedropping Quality. I suppose I'll learn a bit more soon.

[iNow]

There are a lot of folks who genuinely think it's a standard motorcycle manual... stuff like teaching people how to change oil or lube a chain. Many are rather surprised to hear it's an interesting philosophical exploration.

[bascule]

One of the first people I talked to about it suggested being interested in wanting to retrace the author's journey on a motorcycle as close as possible.

 

I'm like "you're totally missing the point"

[mzatanoskas]

I remember being mesmerised by the book a good, oh dear, 15 years or so ago... my how time flies. I remember really identifying with the author's concerns, attitudes and way of thinking and then getting really worried when I found out he had recently suffered a nervous breakdown and had been diagnosed with clinical depression and paranoid schizophrenia!

 

But most depressing of all is that now I barely remember a thing about the content of the book at all...

 

I'll have to pick it up again when I have the time.

[bascule]

...then getting really worried when I found out he had recently suffered a nervous breakdown and had been diagnosed with clinical depression and paranoid schizophrenia!

 

LOL, way to spoil!

 

That said, I put together fairly early on that "Phaedrus" had a mental breakdown and it sounds like he received electroconvulsive therapy.

 

I'm a bit concerned about the direction the author is going. At first Quality was a romantic concept and the classical world was separate from it. Then it became part of the classic world as well. Now Quality is the root of EVERYTHING, and Quality is the Eternal Tao and the Buddha. I can't say it's entirely unexpected, but... perhaps he's descending into madness...

 

Perhaps the narrator discovered some dangerous knowledge...

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Reading a bit more, the author sees Quality as being an inextricable part of the universe, yet he pays immense attention to the role of the perceiver in using Quality to discern what observations are relevant.

 

No slight to the author, but while I entirely agree Quality exists, it is entirely subjective. This is a difficult book to follow as the author is retracing his steps and conveying his fluctuating views on various matters, and the there's the whole "Phaedrus" factor to account for. The author relates to his former self as a different person with a different set of values.

 

Overall I seem to relate more to "Phaedrus" than the author himself, although I do like the author's separation of classical (i.e. left-brained) ideas versus romatic (i.e. right-brained) ideas. At least that's how I interpret them.

 

This is the kind of book I would really like to read as part of a group.

 

That said I am drawing close to the conclusion and not really sure what to make of it. I am sure this book is revolutionary to people who don't have an extensive philosophical background. I certainly relate to it, but I wouldn't consider it "life-changing".

[ishmael]

This is the only book I have read three times, over the years (30?). The author also wrote a follow-up book, called "Lila", wherein he expands upon his philosophy, the metaphysics of quality. It is more challenging than Zen.

There is also an online community of Zen discussers.

[bascule]

I finished this book yesterday.

 

So my take: the central preoccupation of the book is some sort of epistemological monistic archetype from which all knowledge may be derived.

 

"Phaedrus" called it Quality. The Taoists call it Tao. Zen Buddhists call it Zen.

 

I personally do not buy the idea of "quality" (I'll keep my lower case to distinguish from Phaedrus's Quality) as this central monistic idea. Indeed Phaedrus himself described a universe absent of quality. Rather than this universe being nonexistent, it is simply boring and purposeless. But it's still a universe!

 

I understand where Phaedrus was going with Quality though. If I had to pick something to liken it to in my own mind, it wouldn't be anything from eastern philosophy. I would pick the "classical"/modernistic and very much western idea of Extropy.

 

Even if it's in our one little nook of the universe, we are complexifying reality in ways we have never encountered elsewhere in the universe. We create complex relationships which have no intrinsic value in terms of physics but are meaningful to intelligent systems.

 

Humanity as a whole continues to get better at doing this. To me, Quality is increasing.

 

Robert Pirsig would likely not see this as an improvement in Quality. But I do!

[mzatanoskas]

LOL, way to spoil!

 

Ooops, sorry!!

 

I forgot that the breakdown featured as part of the narrative, I was imagining I had found that out independently of the book but of course there was no wikipedia in those days!