Analysis of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Analysis of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
This book is a rambling dissertation on the introduction of classical versus romantic thesis.
A person does not need to know about motorcycles to understand this book, nor do they need to know about Zen (a type of Buddhist religion). They will come back from this mental journey of understanding that a person can figure out how they think a lot similarly to disassembling a motorcycle and putting it back together in the proper order to make it work. as to how and why we think about different subjects, a condition that the author calls "Quality" of thinking.
As the main character drives his often non-functioning motorcycle across country with his 11 year old son Chris the reader gets an inside look into the brain of a man struggling with his own sense of wondering of his quality of thinking and also his struggle with his son. Pirsig wonders to himself "why" does he fight so much with his son? Meanwhile the reader is given a sense of history of the journeys progression with frequent stops along the way to camp, eat, and hike. Most of the story is told from the mind of the main character due to necessity since conversations are not easily held when one is riding in the open on a motorcycle.
As the book progresses you get the sense that Persig was wanting to perpetrate a sense of sincerity to the main character so that we would side with him when there were difficulties, like not willing to take his motorcycle to be repaired by a professional, thereby slowing down the rest of the group, which ultimately is for the best.
This is a very deep and introspective story on Greek thinking.