Robert M. Pirsig’s seminal novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) is as relevant today as it was in 1974. Readers will find that this book only gets better the more it is read and re-read.
That said, it’s easy to see why more than 120 publishers rejected ZMM at first. Readers may have trouble keeping up with Pirsig’s rambling, wandering mind as he weaves his way through Quality and the experiences that led to his breakthrough (and subsequent breakdown).
In addition, some of Pirsig’s ideas are borderline heresy considering the intellectual world we live in today. From food security to modern medicine, logic (and by extension, science) has granted us unprecedented comfort and security when it comes to material needs. Science has done such a good job of this in fact that we’ve convinced ourselves it is the only lens through which we can see Truth. It’s this very mindset Pirsig ruthlessly fights against in ZMM.
This attack on intellectualism is nothing new – pick up any New Age mysticism book and you’ll find similar ideas splattered throughout. What makes Pirsig stand out, however, is how he weaponizes rationality against itself. Armed with an academic’s arsenal, Pirsig systematically picks apart logic and the scientific method, illustrating how the very framework we rely on to eliminate uncertainty is actually creating more or it. In this intellectual era, this is a tough pill to swallow.
To get the most out of this book, readers should open themselves to the idea that there’s a difference between experience and analysis, and consider the possibility that our need for truth-by-analysis is blocking our ability to access Truth by experience.
We see something similar when taking pictures of an awe-inspiring landscape. While the picture may come out clear and beautiful in its own right, something is always lost in the process. The picture will never compare to the full experience of being in the landscape.
To really understand what Pirsig is trying to tell us, the reader needs to think of science, logic, and reason as the camera. Strict analysis can only ever give us a snapshot of reality. What can we learn when we put the camera down and experience the world around us?
ZMM is Pirsig’s attempt to get us to put down the camera and open ourselves to the idea that there’s more to life than what we see inside the frame.
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