Hello internet friend and welcome to my review of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. If you prefer to just skip to the dog picture, click here. It probably goes without saying, but there will be spoilers and if you haven't read the book, but you want to read it in the future, you might consider waiting until you have finished the text to read this review.
I've been meaning to write this review for the last few weeks and unfortunately I let the book get more rusty in my memory than I would have liked. Instead of waiting longer, I find myself with a little bit of time this evening, so I thought I would write this review now.
My first impression of the book was that I didn't think it was as Earth-shattering as some of the reviews made it sound. I think that the idea of studying quality is an interesting one, and I found the parallels to the thinking of the ancient Greeks to be thought provoking. However, it didn't strike me as this grand revelation. Rather, it struck me as a sad story about a man who was not able to relate to his child. Part of this outlook was probably impacted by reading the Wikipedia page for the author. But knowing that Chris would not survive to be older than 22 made it really hard to read about this child, knowing that his life would be cut so short. I'm in my late 30s at the time of this writing, and when I think about what I had accomplished by 22, it was very little!
I admit that I do not like to be faced with my own mortality. That probably biased me against the book, at least a little bit. I also have strong opinions about the ancient Greeks. Friedrich Nietzche wrote on the philosophers who came before Socrates in a book I read years ago. Nietzsche's biggest problem with Aristotle and Plato was that they weren't original thinkers. The book was called The Pre-Platonic Philosophers and in it, Nietzsche thought that Socrates was one of (if not the) last true philosopher. True in terms of having his own ideology that didn't borrow from others. Given the western philosophical tradition of borrowing from others, I should have been more willing to listen to their thinking. However, I think the book did a good job of putting into words some of my issues with Aristotle.
For Aristotle, patience was not a virtue. Too much patience means that you are like a doormat and people can just take advantage of you. While I don't disagree with this part of Aristotle's thinking, there is much not to like. But that is getting off the topic of this book. I might write a more thorough critique of Aristotle in the future, but that is not the point of this post.
Looking back (and if I am being totally honest), I'm not sure if a big part of what I didn't like about the book was that I could hear my Dad in the voice of the author. This felt like one of those books that my Dad used as part of the basis of his personality. Another part of me wonders if it was because it took me so long to graduate college (I was 29 when I finished my first undergraduate degree, after attending five different schools over the course of seven years to earn that degree), but I have a thing about not leaving things half-finished. Ultimately I think that part of my success in life has come from that grit, that refusal to quit even when things get hard.
"Luck favors the prepared mind." This is a phrase that Richard Hamming attributed to Louis Pasteur (if you don't know Pasteur just check out that link). I think there is something to that. I don't know that I believe in luck, but I believe in good fortune. Moreover, I think that the more prepared one is, the better able they are able to take advantage of the situation, when it comes along. There have been opportunities in my life where things could have gone differently, had I acted in one way or another. I think the point is not to have regrets about what I didn't do, but instead to make better decisions in the present and in the future.
I realize that the book had lots to say on the subject of quality, but I've not said very much in this review. I think the discussion of quality is one of the high points of the book. When the author asserts (and I am paraphrasing here) that quality is the sort of thing that perhaps 80% of people can describe, there will always be some people who just don't get it. There is something about quality in the line or phrase, "I know it when I see it." Like how it can be hard to describe a good song, but you know you like it when you hear it. That's quality. I think the pursuit of quality is a laudable goal, but if you let it be all encompasing, you can lose yourself like Phaedrus did. Or like the author did when thinking about Phaedrus and re-obsessing over quality.
Upon further consideration, I think a big part of what I didn't like about the book was that it felt like the author was describing a trap they could not escape. It felt a bit like you were being drawn off the path of sanity with this person, and you are stuck watching alongside their child. When they left on that motorcyle trip, that kid didn't sign up to watch their parent have a mental breakdown. Yet that is the journey you are taken on.
Ultimately, I think there was some value to this book, but not as much as people indicated before reading it. Looking back, I probably should have stopped about a hundred pages in and I would probably have been better off. Perhaps someone else will find value from this, but it wasn't me.
Anyway, that's my super negative review of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as part of my series on philosophy. I'm not sure what topic I am going to write about next when it comes to philosophy, but I appreciate you taking the time to read my thoughts on this book. I hope you have a nice day and a great rest of your week. Cheers, internet friend!