jlhutch 's review for:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig
4.0
Basically a book all about living in the moment, but explained in more a scientific/philosophical way from the point of view of an INSANELY smart guy, literally. Along the way Pirsig tells the story of a cross country motorcycle trip he had with his son Chris. The interesting idea he poses to start the book is that everyone either looks at the world through the lens of a romantic, seeing things at the surface as they are, or scientifically, perceiving the underlying form of things more pragmatically. He shows this with the example of how different people look at a motorcycle. Some people look at a motorcycle and see a bunch of metal parts, while others see a complex system of many intricate parts working together seamlessly. He explains his history throughout the story, and explains how his past affected his views on the topic. As a child, he was able to take college level classes very early and became disillusioned with science at some point (I don't remember how but it had to do with the fact that every scientific hypotheses leads to a growing number of other possible hypotheses). Eventually, through some struggling while teaching, he came to a definition of what he called Quality that unified the two schools of thought. He came to this realization after he tried to define quality for the class he was teaching which was a writing class of some sort. When he couldn't do it, he had them try. No one was able to and the realization he came to was that the second he tried to define quality, which was becoming a grading criteria for the class, the students were unable to write with it. However, when shown essays, without fail the class was able to pick which had more quality. He posed that it was indefinable, but everyone has the innate ability to see it. Also, that Quality can be seen everywhere. Again he exemplifies this with a motorcycle example, observing that the mechanic that gets lost in the job is much more competent than the one that is classically trained. He shows this in many other examples ranging from math to writing. After he fleshed out his theory more, he goes on a journey to try to spread his idea and get it academically backed at the University of Chicago. He basically has an intellectual battle with a teacher of rhetoric at the school, whose ideology is diametrically opposed to his. I thought these were some of the most interesting chapters. Pirsig is going through the story this entire time of how his former self (Phaedrus) started to lose grip of reality at this time. The ending culminates with a very poignant and emotional exchange between Pirsig and Chris where Pirsig explains to Chris that he isn't the same person that Chris remembers (throughout the trip this causes a strain on their relationship) and that things will never be the same. He does this when he realizes that he seems to be losing grip on reality again. This is prompted after he realized that Phaedrus really never left him completely. The trip is cut short and he brings Chris back to his mom. The afterword was very sad, and it is interesting to hear how Pirsig is living with the tragedy mentioned. Overall a really good book, with many different contrasting parts. I enjoyed the "Chautauqua" style in which the story was told.
*this summary doesn't do the book justice, Pirsig was either a genius or close to it*