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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
This book is a masterpiece of metaphysics, introspection, humanity, philosophy, and existence. Pirsig explores the story of Quality and its facets, while guiding you through a beautiful tour of western America on motorcycles. You can't help but feel the call of the road - and the pull of Quality - by the time you've set it down.
Change the main character's name to 'Hubris' instead of Phaedrus and this book might be much more insightful.
Not at all what I was expecting, and not a moment of 'zen' to be had.
Not at all what I was expecting, and not a moment of 'zen' to be had.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It insists upon itself
I honestly have no idea what to rate this. In the beginning, I thought I loved it, and read the first 100 pages late into the night. The next 100 pages bored me, and I barely picked it up. I read the last 200 pages, ish, today because I was doing a great deal of travelling and waiting around. On one hand I found Pirsig to be what I've heard about him before: self-obsessed, a bit of an arsehole, preachy... I suppose he is these things in this. And some parts were very dull for me. There is a lot about 'Quality' and what 'Quality' is. The travel parts, with Pirsig and his son and the mountains and the coffee and the driving was amazing and then the philosophy sort of got in the way of that. Sometimes I felt they were two seperate books, his adventure with his son (would have been amazing) and then his Zen book, his enquiry into values.
Regardless of the boring bits, I also found, today, nearing the end, that it was slowly creeping up on me in this oddly profound way. I had a similar experience with Kerouac's 'On the Road'. Did I enjoy it? Well, yes, in a way. I also found it boring, a little repetitive and many other things. Somewhere in that though I felt it was doing something, whatever it was, something was getting through and making me feel something. I don't know. I wanted this book to change my life and it hasn't, sadly. I'm glad I read it. I give the 'Afterworld' five stars, too. An odd opinion to have maybe but there we go. I found it touching, heartbreaking. Only because of what is revealed.
Because it's a book about a road trip and philosophy, there are some good quotes across the 400/500 pages. So here are some, but there are many more.
'We're in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it's all gone.'
'Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive.'
"Nonrepresentative art is one of the root experiences I'm talking about. Some people still condemn it because it doesn't make "sense". But what's really wrong is not the art but the "sense", the classical reason, which can't grasp it. People keep looking for branch extensions of reason that will cover art's more recent occurrences, but the answers aren't in the branches, they're at the roots."
'The explanation, I suppose, is that the physical distance between people has nothing to do with loneliness. It's a psychic distance, and in Montana and Idaho the physical distances are big but the psychic distances between people are small, and here it's reversed.'
This quote is personally one for me, as it's on writing.
'I tell him getting stuck is the commonest trouble of all. Usually, I say, your mind gets stuck when you're trying to do too many things at once. What you have to do is try not to force the words to come. That just gets you more stuck. What you have to do now is separate out the things and do them one at a time. You're trying to think of what to say ad what to say first at the same time and that's too hard. SO separate them out. Just make a list of all the things you want to say in any old order. Then later we'll figure out the right order.'
There's some great landscape descriptions, about trees and birds and roads and sleeping bags but I can't write them all down. I enjoyed a lot of Pirsig's writing. This rating may change. I have no idea what I think anymore.
Regardless of the boring bits, I also found, today, nearing the end, that it was slowly creeping up on me in this oddly profound way. I had a similar experience with Kerouac's 'On the Road'. Did I enjoy it? Well, yes, in a way. I also found it boring, a little repetitive and many other things. Somewhere in that though I felt it was doing something, whatever it was, something was getting through and making me feel something. I don't know. I wanted this book to change my life and it hasn't, sadly. I'm glad I read it. I give the 'Afterworld' five stars, too. An odd opinion to have maybe but there we go. I found it touching, heartbreaking. Only because of what is revealed.
Because it's a book about a road trip and philosophy, there are some good quotes across the 400/500 pages. So here are some, but there are many more.
'We're in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it's all gone.'
'Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive.'
"Nonrepresentative art is one of the root experiences I'm talking about. Some people still condemn it because it doesn't make "sense". But what's really wrong is not the art but the "sense", the classical reason, which can't grasp it. People keep looking for branch extensions of reason that will cover art's more recent occurrences, but the answers aren't in the branches, they're at the roots."
'The explanation, I suppose, is that the physical distance between people has nothing to do with loneliness. It's a psychic distance, and in Montana and Idaho the physical distances are big but the psychic distances between people are small, and here it's reversed.'
This quote is personally one for me, as it's on writing.
'I tell him getting stuck is the commonest trouble of all. Usually, I say, your mind gets stuck when you're trying to do too many things at once. What you have to do is try not to force the words to come. That just gets you more stuck. What you have to do now is separate out the things and do them one at a time. You're trying to think of what to say ad what to say first at the same time and that's too hard. SO separate them out. Just make a list of all the things you want to say in any old order. Then later we'll figure out the right order.'
There's some great landscape descriptions, about trees and birds and roads and sleeping bags but I can't write them all down. I enjoyed a lot of Pirsig's writing. This rating may change. I have no idea what I think anymore.
I "made" myself finish this book, had never read it & it just seemed like something a well-read person should have read. Way too long, in my opinion, and could've gotten his point across with a much shorter book. Liked the parts about him & his son, got kind of bored with all the philosophical stuff.
Pirsig manages to dance around the flames of his ineffable Quality until his point is finally made in the shadows of the cave wall. His ability to link philosophy with pleasant metaphors is impressive as is his ability to maintain pacing.