Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Meg, Kyle, and I choose the “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” because Brett Peterson thought that we would enjoy it; and would be able to have good conversations about it. This book is an autobiography about Robert M. Pirsig, but is really thought provoking because he analyzes his own thoughts. Pirsig wrote this book to convey his thoughts and to tell the story of his life. He wanted to ask the bigger questions and break them down in order to examine them. This book’s point was to get the questions out there for people to think about. He was able to communicate his views and arguments for the question, but usually presenting the other side. I would say that he would present his side, present the other side, and then give reasons to disprove the opposing view. This book makes you really think about life and the forces that we don’t notice or never have thought about. I think that it is very important for people to ask these questions and for people to discuss them in depth. These questions can help you come to realizations about yourself, life, or the human population in general. Most I find these questions and theories important because I find them fascinating and feel that they better define why humans do the things that we do. The topics that were discussed in this book were truth, quality, but mainly the freedom of the mind and the relationships that exist between, emotion, thought, and the physical world. The focus of the majority of the later chapters was on quality and what quality really is. I thought that the absolute truth aspects were more interesting but the focus of the book is definitely on the quality. For me it didn’t really seem to reach a conclusion other then that quality is subjective. I think Kyle reached a different conclusion but I don’t remember what it was. Well what frustrated me most about
quality was that in the very beginning he talks says that it is indefinable but continues to try to define it. He talks for a large amount of time after that and seems to go in circles but uses evidence to split the hairs. I found the part about truth where he says “The truth knock on the door and you say, ‘Go away, I’m looking for the truth,’ and so it goes away.” It just made me realize that absolute truth is not obtainable because we won’t ever believe it’s the truth or there are too many unknown factors affecting the truth. I didn’t really disagree with any of the ideas that were brought up because I never thought of them before. I was just confused about quality and what the consensus was, I think that I need to read this book a couple more times to get all of the topics presented. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will be sure to read it a few more times to fully understand what Pirsig was trying to express. I think human psychology is extremely interesting and insightful to the way that humans act. It’s crazy to have things like absolute truth explained to you, or even think about it for the first time. I learned more about how to think and question questions that arise. I think that this book presented a lot of ideas to me that I still haven’t decided how I feel about, such as quality. I would recommend this book to anyone that can sit down and think about what they are reading and would be compelled to share their thoughts with others. This book is catalyst to many meaning discussion that I have had and hope that others would have similar ones. Pirsig wrote a prequel called “Lila” about Phaderus in more depth. Well “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” is autobiographical, so the whole book is essentially about him and his journey and experiences. I haven’t read any books really similar to this, just psych books occasionally. Compared to what I normally read this
book was really insightful and has opened my genres of books to read. I was stuck in a murder mystery rut but now I see that there are good books out there that make you think as well. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to read “Lila” but if I do it will be later on because I have other books that I have to read first. I think that this book presents both sides but Pirsig makes his position known; but ultimately I think that he leaves up to readers to decide what they believe.