About this title: Robert Pirsig's journey to enlightenment on the back of a motorcycle was rejected 121 times before its publication in 1974. ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE immediately hit the best-seller lists, and, even decades later, it remains a cult classic. A combination of travelogue, philosophical tract, gripping novel, and probing memoir, ZEN encompasses both Eastern and Western thought in an exploration of the concept of "Quality"--what it means and how to achieve it. Pirsig's method involves an examination of self: who are we, how did we get where we are, and what is worth striving for? ...
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Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Quill
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780688052300ISBN:0688052304
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 432 p. Audience: General/trade. Has pencil notations throughout and a stain at the top. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780553103106ISBN:0553103105
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780553103106ISBN:0553103105
Description: A good reading copy only. Book has tanning or browning due to normal aging process. Small tear to spine. -, Trade PaperBack, Good / read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ISBN-13:9780060839871ISBN:0060839872
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners, and may have creases. Spine has wear at edges and creases. read more
Edition: Third Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: William Morrow & Co, Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780688052300ISBN:0688052304
Description: Very Good Minus. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Shelfwear and edgewear to wrapper. Toning to text. Light staining and foxing to edges of text block. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Quill
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780688052300ISBN:0688052304
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. some wear to cover edges; writing on inside front cover; RTB481. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 432 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"In this book, Pirsig challenges American universities and the origins of western thought (Plato & Aristotle); arguably he tears the mansion of western thought down to its foundation. As he searches for "quality" his journey takes him to insanity and beyond. Similar to Thoreau's Walden, this book is dense and a slow read; the subject matter is not light. This book is a key point in both American Literature and American Thought. Oh, did I mention that his philosophical journey is paralleled by a motorcycle trip the narrator is taking with his young son?
A great book, Pirsig is a decent writer and a transcendent thinker."
"This is one of those books you hear about your entire life that actually lives up to the hype. I was very impressed.
It helped to sleep next to someone who is far better studied in philosophy than I am. I took an introductory course in undergrad many moons ago and knew all the names Pirsig was contrasting, but I really only retained thumbnail summaries of their actual philosophies. Terran was very patient in taking breaks from Anne of Green Gables to dissect the implications of subjective and objective world with me. It must have been jarring for him, but I think he vastly enhanced the nuance of what I was able to take away.
I was immediately drawn into the personal narrative, and in some ways I preferred it to the philosophical discourse from the beginning. However, by midway through, I started wanting to smack Pirsig for his dismissive treatment of his clearly bright and sensitive son. People out there: when your kid asks you what you're thinking and honest-to-God wants to know, COME UP WITH SOMETHING TO TELL HIM. Do no blow him off, even if you are thinking deep thoughts. It is incredibly precious that he wants to know. This conflict becomes the center of the personal story and reaches a satisfactory resolution, but the process gets agonizing before the end.
I made the mistake of looking up Pirsig on Wikipedia, where I learned that this boy Chris was knifed to death in a mugging in 1979. That hit with some of the blow of Ennis Cosby's death. I guess I would have already known this if I had read a more recent edition, and I'm curious to see Pirsig's commentary about it.
Of course, the real purpose of the book is to put forth a philosophy that combines the classic and romantic views of life and technology. I found his writing style to be incredibly accessible, and to a philosophy layman, the ideas seemed to jump off the page as profound and insightful. Unlike any traditional philosophy text that I have ever read, Pirsig tries to speak to everyman and not just high-thinkers. He weaves his ideas tightly with examples from everyday life, making them seem both true and relevant.
On the other hand, he went too far for me. The central premise of Pirsig's philosophy seems to be that "Quality is the Buddha." Quality is God. It is the source of our sense of the rightness and wrongness of things. It is the source of our perception of things. There is no subjectivity or objectivity, only Quality. And as a result, there are no objective facts to be discovered, only new facts that come into existence through our interaction with Quality. The truth is that I'm just too much of an empiricist to follow this thinking to the end of the road.
I did, however, drink about 75% of the Kool-Aid, and what I did drink seems to stand on its own merits. Quality is the interaction between subjects and objects. It is shaped by perceptions, ours and others', of the world around us. In the best case, it lifts us out of our own heads and shows a wider world of perspective. This perspective-expanding effect may in itself demonstrate good Quality, but any attempt to define it in more specific, objective, technical terms inevitably fails. It exists as indefinable and is yet is incredibly important to our happiness, and thus it can stitch together the rift between the classical and romantic experience. Even if you can't bring yourself to believe that Quality is God, this line of thinking has a lot to recommend it.
I highly recommend this book for the thought it inspires, however many of the ideas themselves work for you."
"He starts pretty full of himself: he clearly believes that he has deep wisdom to impart. But when he starts telling the story, he loses the didactic tone, and captures my interest. I'd love to read the story as written by his son, captive audience to Pirsig's strange 1968 cross-country odyssey. Tragically, Chris was murdered in 1979.
And I GET the reference to Daedalus. It gets to be a bit narcissistic after a while."
"I first read this book as a recent college graduate when it came out in the 70's. I understood less of it then than I think I understand now. It is compelling for the author's internal dialogue and honesty. Pirsig traces his life's journey, including the management of mental illness, his troubled children, his rocky marriage, and his struggle with his life work, by analogy to the joys and mishaps of riding across the American Northwest on his motorcyle. He rarely, if ever, mentions Zen, which is the best way for the reader to experience it, but Zen is the energizing power behind his story telling and the philosophical framework of the quest. I have re-read it now at least a half dozen times. As I have grown older it has clarified more and more of my own quests and joys in work, family, spiritual questions and answers. It has been central in framing my view of reality. The first edition copy I found on Alibris is nearly perfect and is a treasure in my library. I recommend this work as a classic, and as a friend to return to every few years. It is worth the intellectual stretch it may take to grasp the author's philosophical dialogue. I would love to be able to encounter it for the first time again."
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