Zen and the Art of Mororcycle Maintenance. An Inquiry into Values

Pirsig, Robert M. (Maynard)

ISBN 10: 0370103386 / ISBN 13: 9780370103389

Published by The Bodley Head Ltd, London, 1975

About this Item

First UK edition, fourth impression, published the following year. Some edge wear and chipping to top and bottom of jacket and spine, corners very slightly rubbed, spine slightly yellowed, slight lean, not price clipped (£3.50), no inscriptions, internally clean and tight, overall a vg+ copy for its age. 412pp, illustrated. The book describes, in first person, a 17 day journey on his motorcycle from Minnesota to Northern California by the author (though he is not identified in the book) and his son Chris. They are joined for the first nine days of the trip by close friends John and Sylvia Sutherland who they part ways with in Montana. The trip is punctuated by numerous philosophical discussions, referred to as Chautauquas by the author, on topics including epistemology, ethical emotivism and the philosophy of science. The book sold more than five million copies worldwide and was originally rejected by 121 publishers, more than any other bestselling book, according to the Guinness Book of Records. Robert Maynard Pirsig (1928-2017), explains that, despite its title,'it 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'. A cultural classic.

Seller Inventory # 011345

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Zen and the Art of Mororcycle Maintenance. An Inquiry into Values
• Publisher: The Bodley Head Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 1975
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0370103386
• ISBN 13: 9780370103389
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Jacket by John Sewell
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance[An Inquiry Into Values] [ZEN & THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MA] [Hardcover]

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