He calls his former self, the terrifying ghost stalking him, by name of Phaedrus, which in Greek means wolf. The name suits his ghost well as it comes from a dialogue of Plato’s about “the nature of love and the possibility of philosophic rhetoric” with Socrates and his rather aggressive, non-Sophist foil, Phaedrus. On Robert M. Pirsig’s motorcycle trip from home in Minnesota to southern California with his teenage son, Chris, and a couple who are friends who join him in the beginning, his quest shall be finding a better relationship with his deeply troubled son and to understand the mental meltdown he experienced after his traumatic journey into ancient Greek thought.
Since I have never much studied Plato or Aristotle or analyzed other philosophers like David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Jules Henri Poincare and Alexander Hegel, this slowed me down quite a bit! Pirsig aggressively explores these great thinkers, as well as math principles and why motorcycle maintenance should be an art, with us in a kind of old-fashioned Chautauqua, which were traveling tent-shows trying to make America a more unified, cultured nation in an entertaining way.
My little hometown once held a Chautauqua not many years ago, but they are very rare these days. Unfortunately, I didn’t attend, but my Mom could fill you in if you’re interested. As Pirsig puts it:
The Chautauquas were pushed aside by faster-paced radio, movies and TV, and it seems to me the change was not entirely an improvement. Pp 15
I guess I shouldn’t complain about having to take a couple of weeks to finish this then. Obviously it’s meant to be stewed on for a while so your mind expands! Pirsig brings to our attention how his friend John doesn’t know how to make simple adjustments to his BMW motorcycle and doesn’t care to, but their romantic view of technology needs the balance of the classical, more ugly and systemic view of it like Pirsig has.
As the subtitle suggests,
...this autobiographical book “based on actual occurrences, although much has been changed for rhetorical purposes,” delves into how we select what we value or care about. Pirsig’s former self, Phaedrus, was a teacher of rhetoric (how to write) and in between detailed description of the present road trip are memories of Phaedrus’ teaching frustration that begin as fragments in Pirsig’s mind. He gets stuck on what constitutes quality and that is the beginning of his desperate study of philosophy.
To understand what he was trying to do it’s necessary to see that part of the landscape, inseparable from it, which must be understood, is a figure in the middle of it, sorting sand into piles. To see the landscape without seeing this figure is not to see the landscape at all. To reject that part of the Buddha that attends to the analysis of motorcycles is to miss the Buddha entirely. Pp 83
Phaedrus also consults the Tao de Ching of the Taoist way of seeing things that corresponds with Quality as the Buddha , scientific reality and the goal of Art. Quality goes beyond objectivity and subjectivity; it creates the subjects and objects of the world and a person who gets this is a person filled with gumption. They don’t get trapped in ruts, but are aware of new ways of thinking, seeing, feeling, doing.
Teachers, in fact the whole education system, were to his frustration part of the Church of Reason and towards the end of the book, Phaedrus as a rhetoric teacher taking a graduate-level class taught by the Professor of Philosophy has scared the Professor away. In his place comes the Chairman for the Committee on Analysis of Ideas and Study of Methods to teach the Platonic dialogue Phaedrus and in my favorite scene of the book, Pirsig remembers shutting down the Aristotelian, dialectician Chairman’s whole belief system with this observation:
Phaedrus (Pirsig) says, “All this is just an analogy.”
Silence. And then confusion appears on the Chairman’s face. “What?” he says. The spell of his performance is broken.
“This entire description of the chariot and horses is just an analogy.”
“What?” he says again, then loudly, “It is the truth! Socrates has sworn to the Gods that it is the truth!”
Phaedrus replies, “Socrates himself says it is an analogy.” Pp 389
Unfortunately Phaedrus soon realizes that the Church of Reason wants teachable students, sheep in other words. He doesn’t fit in and leaves. He also becomes fed up with being a shepherd to his rhetoric students and teaching Aristotelian rhetoric. Not able to sleep, he has his meltdown. In the rest of the book we discover the source of Pirsig’s recurring nightmare and of his son’s anger and fear.
We worried throughout the book with Pirsig and Chris that they were going insane and finally the truth comes out in a very emotional, but not sappy conclusion.
Thoughts and Feelings
These 412 pages were some of the most dense reading I’ve done in a long time. I had to skip a couple of parts that weren’t that necessary, anyway, and sometimes he repeated himself to drive a point or two through. Of the four sections, the last was the most fun as well as gripping and easy to read because it all came to a head.
I enjoyed taking the trip with him through his eyes, especially since bikers like my sweetie fascinate me how they can enjoy the hardships of long rides. It proved how friendly small towns can be with their peace of mind and how lonely and alienating cities are.
His Chautauqua, for the most part, also helped me to understand the different philosophical beliefs and which had Quality. I have checked out the hefty Guidebook to this book by a couple of Ph.D.’s, but not glanced at it yet. I don’t really appreciate being told how to read a book, so I may not.
In conclusion
I‘ll confess that 1974’s Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance put me to sleep a sad number of times before the last section, but reading it a second time might not since I wouldn’t be learning and assimilating so much. I do recommend it to adults, particularly deep thinkers with gumption, bikers (my sweetie read it in high school), those who love them and parents trying to relate to their teen.
Now I feel like I’m trying to graduate a difficult class and you hold my report card. If you hear a wolf howling when you rate, it’ll be me with a little bit of Phaedrus’ personality itchin’ to get out!
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