Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) is a life defining
book for many of us of a certain age who grew to maturity in a certain era. I
remember people in my undergraduate days
who carried the book around as a badge of honor, a way of declaring their “coolness.”
It is claimed that ZMM is the best-selling philosophy book in history, I don’t
know about that, but I do know that it seems everyone I know has at least heard
of it. It is so popular that it merited a guidebook associated, with in depth
background analysis and a collection of critical reviews of the book. I held
off on reading this book until I had a chance to revive my own memory of the
book this time.
I was too busy treading water in my studies that I missed
out on reading the book. It wasn’t until is entered gradual school and had some
down time available that I picked up ZMM, partially out of a duty to read all
the books I am supposed to read — I outgrew out of that phase many years and
books ago, partially out of my curiosity about the incongruency of the title,
and partially out of a need to fill my mind with something non-technical as I
was pursuing a technically challenging degree.
I hunkered down in my cheap $100 a month room and read ZMM,
much the same as I had read Rene Descarte’s Meditations as a freshman in
my Philosophy 107 class.
ZMM made such an impact on my perspective on society,
culture, and philosophy that I had reread the book many times in the
intervening years. I forget which reread this is, but it is time for me to set down
on paper some of my thoughts on this tome after the latest re-read. I am a firm
believer that while a book is the author’s way to communicate a message to the reader,
the reader can interpret in multiple ways and with multiple perspectives. This
venture back into ZMM is a way for me to gain another perspective — hopefully a
more mature and more knowledgeable perspective.
ZMM comes at the reader from multiple levels: a
psychological examination of a father and son relationship, a travelogue centered
on the motorcycle sojourn through the western United States, an examination of Western
and Eastern philosophy, a mini tutorial of motorcycle maintenance, a
disciplined exploration of the aforementioned Western and Eastern philosophy as
filtered through Pirsig, or as Pirsig calls it, a Chautauqua.
The Chautauqua, as defined in Wikipedia is:
Chautauqua is
an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in
popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies
expanded and spread throughout rural United States until the
mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole
community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, showmen, preachers, and
specialists of the day.
Pirsig intended the use of the term to mean — for his
purposes — an assemblage of various and variable topics that are to be
investigated. The order of presentation is varied as it suited Pirsig’s
purposes. This is where reading ZMM can be somewhat trying as some readers are
seeking to gain traction into the story, or the philosophical inquiries, or the
travelogue. I found the variations more attractive with my present mind space because
of various reasons. The first reason is that I welcomed the pause in the narrative
so that I can rest and ruminate on the meanings that Pirsig is presenting; the
travelogue gave me a chance to reframe and add some structure to what I had
read regarding the philosophy. Another reason that I found the changes in
narrative is because my mind had adapted to the modern means of communication
and my attention span had shortened in the last few years, a shame to be sure.
The first few times I read the book, I was not up to speed
on the Greek philosophers and their ideas, which is probably why is was so
difficult for me to follow, I have since become more acclimated to Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle, which allowed me to gain a much deeper understanding of
what Pirsig had intended; this goes also for my understanding of the Eastern
philosophies that Pirsig alludes to. I don’t remember the extensive discussions
of the European idealists from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, but
this was a bonus for me as I had been reading their philosophies recently. This
means that the philosophical framework for Pirsig’s main thesis is coalescing nicely,
I can better understand why it took a quick but clear detour to European
philosophy. It is all to buttress his argument.
The question is: what argument? What is he discussing? The
center of ZMM is about the concept of Quality. He steadfastly and deliberately refuses
to define the term, partly because this is the center of his concept: Quality,
Goodness, arête.
I had accepted this premise when I read ZMM the first few times but this time I
had built enough of my own understanding of the concepts that he had relied on
to truly appreciate and implement the concept, I had managed to broaden my
perception and deepened my ability to analyze, which made the experience of rereading
ZMM more impactful.
In the meantime, the other parts of the Chautauqua had
remined with me, the story of Pirsig’s relationship with Chris, his son, was
recalled readily because I had retained the story in my long-term memory. The
details of their interaction with the other characters had faded in my memory, so
that part of the Chautauqua brought nuance to the travel narrative and helped
explain a few things.
I am trying very hard not to reveal the center of ZMM — the
reason for reading the book — because I think this is a story that needs to be
read, dissected, analyzed, and ruminated upon by all thinking humans. There is
reason behind Pirsig’s style of storytelling, the reason he treats it like a
Chautauqua at first seems to be overly complicating the story, but in the end,
this time around, I grew to appreciate the intent and structure. It opened the
door in my mind about many things. Even though I have finished the written book,
the thoughts that the story elicited within me reminded me of the times that I
had read the same book in my past. The gift that ZMM gave me is that it allowed
me to re-examine previous impressions and perspective and compare it with my
new, more up-to-date impressions and perspective. In some ways, this rereading
allows me to assess how my world view had changed. The comparison is the
important aspect, it gives me a tangible sign of how I had changed
philosophically.
I had to restart ZMM many times the first time I tackled it.
The unconventional structure of the book threw me off and I could not gain
traction. It was on the third or fourth try that I fell under its spell.
I hope this review encourages other readers to persevere and
continue to attack this most complex book and that they gain traction as well.
Ultimately, I hope they fall in love with ZMM as I have over the decades.
