Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Meaning of Life
 Get-go edition | |
| Author | Robert M. Pirsig |
|---|---|
| Country | The states |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Philosophical fiction, Autobiographical novel[1] |
| Published | 1974 (William Morrow and Visitor) |
| Media blazon | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 418 pp |
| ISBN | 0-688-00230-7 |
| OCLC | 673595 |
| Dewey Decimal | 917.3/04/920924 B |
| LC Class | CT275.P648 A3 1974 |
| Followed past | Lila: An Inquiry into Morals |
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values is a book by Robert 1000. Pirsig first published in 1974. It is a work of fictionalized autobiography, and is the first of Pirsig'southward texts in which he explores his "Metaphysics of Quality".
Pirsig received 121 rejections before an editor finally accepted the book for publication—and he did so thinking it would never generate a turn a profit. Information technology was afterward featured on all-time-seller lists for decades, with initial sales of at least 5 million copies worldwide.[two] The title is an apparent play on the championship of the 1948 book Zen in the Fine art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. In its introduction, Pirsig explains that, despite its championship, "information technology should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either."
Structure [edit]
Co-ordinate to Edward Abbey, the book is a fictionalized autobiography of a 17-twenty-four hour period journey that Pirsig made on a motorcycle from Minnesota to Northern California along with his son Chris.[i] The story of this journeying is recounted in a beginning-person narrative, although the author is not identified. Father and son are also accompanied, for the first 9 days of the trip, by shut friends John and Sylvia Sutherland, with whom they part ways in Montana. The trip is punctuated by numerous philosophical discussions, referred to as Chautauquas by the author, on topics including epistemology, the history of philosophy, and the philosophy of science.
Many of these discussions are tied together past the story of the narrator's ain by self, who is referred to in the third person as Phaedrus (after Plato's dialogue). Phaedrus, a teacher of creative and technical writing at a small college, became engrossed in the question of what defines good writing, and what in general defines good, or "Quality", which he understands similar to Tao. Phaedrus's philosophical investigations somewhen drove him insane, and he was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy, which permanently inverse his personality.
Towards the cease of the volume, Phaedrus'due south stiff and unorthodox personality, presented every bit dangerous to the narrator, begins to re-sally and the narrator is reconciled with his past.
Writing [edit]
In a 1974 interview with National Public Radio, Pirsig stated that the book took him 4 years to write. During two of these years, Pirsig continued working at his job of writing figurer manuals. This caused him to autumn into an unorthodox schedule, waking upwardly very early and writing Zen from 2 a.thousand. until six a.m., then eating and going to his twenty-four hour period job. He would slumber during his lunch break and then go to bed around six in the evening. Pirsig joked that his co-workers noticed that he was "a lot less perky" than everyone else.[3]
Themes [edit]
Philosophical content [edit]
In the book, the narrator describes the "romantic" approach to life of his friend, John Sutherland, who chooses not to acquire how to maintain his expensive new motorcycle. John simply hopes for the best with his bicycle, and when bug exercise occur he often becomes frustrated and is forced to rely on professional mechanics to repair information technology. In contrast, the "classical" narrator has an older motorcycle which he is usually able to diagnose and repair himself through the apply of rational problem-solving skills.
In an instance of the classical approach, the narrator explains that 1 must pay continual attention: when the narrator and his friends come into Miles City, Montana he notices the engine running roughly, a possible indication that the fuel/air mixture is too rich. The side by side day he is thinking of this as he is going through his ritual to adjust the jets on his motorbike's carburetor. During the aligning, he notes that both spark plugs are black, confirming a rich mixture. He recognizes that the higher elevation is causing the engine to run rich. The narrator rectifies this by installing new jets and adjusting the valves, and the engine runs well once again.
With this, the book details two types of personalities: those who are interested mostly in gestalt—romantic viewpoints focused on existence in the moment, and not on rational analysis—and those who seek to know details, understand inner workings, and chief mechanics—viewpoints with awarding of rational analysis, vis-a-vis motorcycle maintenance.
The Sutherlands correspond an exclusively romantic attitude toward the world. The narrator initially appears to adopt the classic approach. Information technology after becomes credible that he understands both viewpoints and is aiming for the center footing. He understands that technology, and the "dehumanized world" information technology carries with it, appears ugly and repulsive to a romantic person. He knows that such persons are determined to shoehorn all of life'south feel into the romantic view. Pirsig is capable of seeing the dazzler of engineering science and feels practiced near mechanical piece of work, where the goal is "to achieve an inner peace of mind". The book demonstrates that motorcycle maintenance may be ho-hum and tedious drudgery or an enjoyable and pleasurable pastime, depending on attitude.
The narrator examines the modern pursuit of "Pure Truths", claiming it derives from the work of early on Greek philosophers who were establishing the concept of truth in opposition to the force of "The Good". He argues that although rational thought may find a truth (or The Truth) it may never be fully and universally applicative to every individual'south experience. Therefore, what is needed is an arroyo to life that is more inclusive and has a wider range of awarding. He makes a case that originally the Greeks did not distinguish between "Quality" and "Truth"—they were i and the aforementioned, arete—and that the divorce was, in fact, artificial (though needed at the time) and is now a source of much frustration and unhappiness in the earth, particularly overall dissatisfaction with modernistic life.
The narrator aims towards a perception of the world that embraces both sides, the rational and the romantic. This ways encompassing "irrational" sources of wisdom and agreement as well as science, reason and applied science. In detail, this must include bursts of creativity and intuition that seemingly come from nowhere and are not (in his view) rationally explicable. He seeks to demonstrate that rationality and Zen-like "being in the moment" can harmoniously coexist. He suggests such a combination of rationality and romanticism can potentially bring a college quality of life.
Information technology has been noted that Pirsig's romantic/classical dichotomy resembles Nietzsche'south Dionysian/Apollonian dichotomy as described in The Nativity of Tragedy. For instance, in his book The Person of the Therapist, Edward Smith writes, "In his popular novel ... Pirsig also addressed the Apollonian and Dionysian worldviews, naming them respectively classical agreement and romantic understanding."[4]
The self and relationships [edit]
Beverly Gross (1984) writes that Pirsig is seeking a synthesis of "the normal, everyday, functioning self with the person given to extremes, excesses, dizzying heights, obsessions—our crazy self with our sane self, the greatness in us with our ordinariness". The exceptional in the narrator is represented past Phaedrus, who, despite the narrator's effort to proceed him in the past, pushes to the foreground of his mind toward the book'southward end, threatening the narrator's stability and relationship with his son. Notwithstanding, the narrator's difficulties with his son during the journey also question whether giving up parts of himself in exchange for "sanity" has fifty-fifty helped this human relationship. Gross writes, "He relates to mechanical things, not to people. There is dazzler in his recognition that personality inheres in motorcycles, riding gloves; in that location is sadness and sickness in his removal from the personality of people, his own nearly notably". The Chautauquas, which emphasize the narrator's tendency toward solitary thought and over-analysis, may reverberate his avoidance of the problems earlier him: his relationships and the resurrection of Phaedrus. To the extent that the narrator denies Phaedrus, the Chautauquas are practical, but when he decides that he will admit himself to infirmary over again, he realizes the undeniable presence of Phaedrus in him, and the Chautauquas are given over to those more abstruse topics.[5]
Gumption traps [edit]
According to the author, A gumption trap is an event or mindset that tin cause a person to lose enthusiasm and become discouraged from starting or standing a project. The word "gumption" denotes a combination of common sense, shrewdness, and a sense of initiative.[6] Although the last of these traits is the primary victim of the "gumption trap," the kickoff two suffer indirectly in that a reduction in initiative results in a reduction in constructive activity and therefore inhibits one'southward development of the start two traits. Persig goes on to inform his readers that the "trap" portion of the term refers to the positive feedback loop that the event or mindset creates: the reduction in the person'southward enthusiasm and initiative decreases both the person's likelihood of success in that project and the caste of success likely, thus doubly affecting the expected outcome of the person'due south efforts. The usual event further discourages the person, whether it exist a mere lack of success or a bigger outright failure complete with embarrassment and loss of the resources initially invested.
The specific term "gumption trap" was coined by Pirsig, and the associated concept plays an important part in the practical application of his Metaphysics of Quality.[ citation needed ]
Types [edit]
Pirsig refers to two types of gumption traps: setbacks, which arise from external/"exogenous" events, and hang-ups, which are the product of internal/"endogenous" factors such every bit a poor fit between i'south psychological state and the requirements of a projection.
Setbacks [edit]
The nature of setbacks can vary considerably. For example, a pocket-sized setback might result from a minor injury. Larger setbacks include the lack of knowledge that a certain procedural step or other condition is necessary for a project's success: If ane attempts to keep working despite the lack of knowledge that this obstacle exists (let solitary how to bargain with it), 1's lack of progress may prompt 1 to take long breaks from the project, to focus one's attention on other endeavors, or even to lose interest in the project altogether. Pirsig suggests preventing these kinds of gumption traps by existence tedious and meticulous, taking notes that might help later, and troubleshooting in advance (e.g., by laying out the requirements for ane's project in logical and/or conceptual order and looking for procedural problems ranging from unaccounted-for prerequisites to gaps in ane'south instructions or plans).
Hang-ups [edit]
Hang-ups stem from internal factors that tin get in the manner of starting or completing a project. Examples of such hang-ups include feet, boredom, impatience, and the failure (oft borne of excessive egotism) to realize that a) one might not have all the information necessary to succeed and/or b) certain aspects of the problem might be more or less important than ane believes. Dealing with hang-ups can exist as simple as reducing hyperfocus on a specific aspect of a trouble by taking a short break from working on the problem or that specific aspect of it.
Pirsig notes several aspects of hang-ups.
- Affective (i.due east. receptive or dynamic) understanding or "value traps": these tin be described generally as an inability or reluctance to re-evaluate notions due to a commitment to previous values. On the whole these types of issues tin can be addressed by (1) rediscovering facts as they arise; (2) recognizing that the facts are bachelor and credible; (3) deliberately slowing down to permit unstructured processing of information; and (iv) reassessing the weight attached to the current knowledge.
-
- Egotism may encourage ane to believe misleading information or disbelieve a potentially inconvenient fact. Appropriate recourses include humility, modesty, attentiveness and skepticism.
- Anxiety may forestall the confidence necessary to begin a project or the self-assurance needed to patiently work through a project systematically. Advisable recourses include enquiry, report and training prior to kickoff the project; detailing the anticipated steps required to accomplish the job; and agreement the personhood and fallibility of professionals.
- Boredom may crusade sloppy work and inattention to detail. Appropriate recourses include taking a break to allow involvement in the projection to rebuild or ritualizing mutual practices. Pirsig notes that at the first sign of boredom, it is of import to stop work immediately.
- Impatience, like boredom, may crusade sloppy work and inattention to particular. Appropriate recourses include assuasive indefinite time for the project and value flexibility to rediscover aspects of the project.
- Cognitive agreement or "truth traps": these can be described as misunderstanding the feedback of a given activity.
-
- Reliance on yep-no duality may cause misinterpretation of results. Pirsig notes the concept of mu and suggests the reply to a item question may indicate that the question does not lucifer the state of affairs. An appropriate recourse may be to reconsider the context of the inquiry.
- Psychomotor behavior or "muscle traps": these surround the interaction of the environment, machinist and automobile.
-
- Inadequate tools may lead to a feeling of frustration. Appropriate recourses include proper equipment acquisition.
- Environmental factors may lead to frustration including inadequate lighting, temperature extremes and physically uncomfortable positions.
- Muscular insensitivity or lack of proprioception may pb to a disproportionate amount of force beingness practical to a textile that leads to frustration. Misunderstanding of dissimilar tolerances of diverse materials may lead to broken parts or inadequate tension.
Reception [edit]
At the time of its publication, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, in his book review for The New York Times, wrote,
I now regret that I lack the expertise in philosophy to put Mr. Pirsig's ideas to a proper test, for this book may very well be a greatly important one—a nifty one even—full of insights into our most perplexing contemporary dilemmas. I just don't know. Just whatever its true philosophical worth, it is intellectual amusement of the highest lodge.[seven]
Since then, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has become the best-selling philosophy volume of all time.[8]
See also [edit]
- Dehumanized
- Lila: An Inquiry into Morals
- Quality (philosophy)
- Pirsig'southward metaphysics of Quality
References [edit]
- ^ a b Abbey, Edward (March 30, 1975). "Novelistic autobiography, autobiographical novel? No thing". The New York Times.
- ^ "Robert Pirsig, Author of 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,' Expressionless At 88". Huffington Post. Reuters. 25 April 2017.
- ^ "'Zen and the Fine art of Motorcycle Maintenance Author' Robert Pirsig" at NPR online sound annal
- ^ Smith, Edward Due west. L. (2003). The Person of the Therapist, McFarland & Visitor Inc, p. 97.
- ^ Gross, Beverly (1984). "'A Heed Divided against Itself': Madness in 'Zen and the Fine art of Motorcycle Maintenance'". The Journal of Narrative Technique. xiv (three): 201–213. JSTOR 30225102.
- ^ "gumption". thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
- ^ "The Motorcycles of Your Mind; Books of The Times". The New York Times. April 16, 1974.
- ^ McWatt, Anthony (October 2017). "Robert Pirsig & His Metaphysics of Quality". Philosophy Now.
External links [edit]
- Audio: 1992 NPR Interview with Pirsig
- Guardian interview from 2006: Short version and Long version
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance
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