Has anyone else read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence?

Question

What an indept book. I was just amazed that someone could even think like that. No wonder he got a fellowship to write the sequal to it! Does anyone think that there is any symbolism in the novel? Or irony even?

sorry everybody, I didn't mean "indept" I'm pretty sure that's not a real word! I meant DEEP. It's moving if you ask me. It really gets you to question several things. And I do know that it's a true account, which makes it that much better because the emotions are true. Some of the topics really got me to think about how it is in real life too.

I actually finished the book in about 2 weeks, and didn't find it that hard to understand because he tells you what he's going to explain, and then he explains it. I found it quite entertaining and enlightening.

I'm still trying to figure out if there is any symbolism or irony in the account though. Any ideas? I'm thinking there has to be, but I just missed it.

Answer 1

I'm having a hard time wraping my mind around your question. In your intro you asked whether there was symbolism in the "novel," and now you say you're aware that it's actually non-fiction. The reason this is strange is that the concepts of Irony and Symbolism are literary devices. They're artifices employed to give greater meaning to a work of fiction.

Since this is a non-fiction work, there's no irony or symbolism intended or revealed. If you're referring to the importance of the motorcycle, Persig explains the significance in (I believe) the last paragraph of the first chapter when he says (in effect) that the Buddha is just as much at home in the gears of a motorcycle or the circuits of a computer as the petals of a lotus blossom -- and that to think otherwise is demean the Buddha, which is to demean oneself. Other than that, I'm stumped, unless you can add clarification.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence wasn't a novel. It is the true story of Robert Persig and his son. He actually studied in Chicago and taught at Bozeman. All of the events were real and so was his eventual breakdown. His son, Chris was also real, and alas, was murdered a few years later as he left a Zen study center in Minneapolis. Some gang bangers wanted the jacket he was wearing and killed him to get it.

If you read Persig's follow-up (also non-fiction work) Lila, he recants his earlier soft attitude on crime and states that people who behave in destructive anti-social ways should be wiped out like a virulant bacteria. He never mentions his son's murder in the book, but those who know the whole tragic tale understand how this change of mind took place.

Both books were totally real.

Answer 2

It's one of the best books I ever read. It takes a real committment to get through it - took me several months of reading and rereading pages to get around the concepts. I then gave it to a friend in her 90s and she loved it too.

I think the main message is to seek quality, and discard everything below it. Well, that's the TV gone for a start.

Not sure what you mean by an 'indept' book. Is that a word?

Answer 3

I read this years and years ago. I found it to be a difficult read, but fulfilling in the end. Motorcycles and mechanics are not the best basis for zen consciousness for me, as they bore me more than a hardware store. Still it was well worth it. There are often classes on this story at community colleges (that's where I read it). They're great fun. I can't comment on the symbolism because it was fifteen years ago and I'm no spring chicken anymore. Sorry.

Answer 4

Read it 30 years ago. By the way you moron, what is an indept book?

Answer 5

I tried reading the book some years ago and became so bored I didn't finish it. Maybe I missed something.

Answer 6

Yep. Cool book, huh?

Answer 7

My goodness! I had forgotten all about that book! Time to dig it out and re-read it! Thanks for a jog to the old memory!