Technology: Friend or Foe?

Some suggestions for writing about Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . . .

Back in the 1950s, a German writer named Eugen Herrigel published a book that was translated in English as Zen in the Art of Archery. At the time there was a surge of interest in Zen Buddhism, and the book quickly became a minor classic. Herrigel's book -- at least its title -- was obviously one of the influences for Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, first published in 1974 (during another wave of popular interest in Asian spirituality). Pirsig is lighthearted about the connection; in the preface to his book he notes that it "should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhism." He goes on to add that "it's not very factual on motorcycles, either."

Despite the jokiness of the title and the author's remarks about it, though, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is extremely ambitious, attempting to answer no less a question than "What is best?" At first Pirsig was unable to find a publisher and suffered countless rejections before William Morrow decided to take a chance on this unclassifiable book with the weird title. It was an immediate success. In the waning days of the peace-and-love hippy era and the beginning of the Me Decade, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance found an enormous audience eager for Pirsig's fresh insights about the spiritual crisis gripping the modern world. The book has gone through dozens of printings and has sold millions of copies in the past twenty years, and has become a classic of popular philosophy.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is both a very easy and a very difficult book to write about -- easy because it pulses with ideas and touches upon nearly every aspect of human existence . . . and hard for exactly the same reasons. Where to begin? Your journals should be as good a starting point as any; look through them for questions that arose during your reading of the book. What intrigued you? What bothered you? What delighted you? The assignment calls for you to choose some topic relating to Zen and to write a thousand-word essay about it. Be sure to narrow your focus sufficiently; you can't possibly address everything in such a short paper!

If you're feeling stuck, here are a few possible topics:

Pirsig chose the title of his book mainly as a humorous allusion to Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery, and he disclaims any notion that his own book has anything to do with "orthodox Zen Buddhist practice." Nevertheless, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance does discuss Asian philosophies, including Zen. What, exactly, is Pirsig's understanding of Zen Buddhism and how is it relevant to the main themes of the book?

Despite all the high-level abstract philosophy in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig intends it to be a very practical book, and he centers many of its lessons in the here-and-now ordinariness of motorcycle care and repair -- that is, maintenance. How would Pirsig like readers to apply the lessons of Zen to everyday life?

As Pirsig describes it in the book, the key breakthrough in his "inquiry into values" came when a colleague remarked, "I hope you are teaching Quality to your students." This "Quality" -- always capitalized -- becomes a central concern throughout the book. According to Pirsig, how do people recognize Quality, and what happens when they do?

Pirsig uses a couple of terms, "The Church of Reason" and "The Real University," to characterize the truest and most enduring values of higher education. In his role as writing teacher at Montana State University, he set extremely high standards for himself and his students. According to Pirsig, what part does rhetoric -- that is, the study of language and especially writing -- play in bringing students into "The Real University"?

It should come as no surprise that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a very carefully crafted book; after all, the author was a professional rhetorician and the book is about care and craftsmanship. How is the book constructed, and how does that structure work to bring readers closer to Pirsig's main ideas?

Of course, countless other topics are possible: the "classical" and "romantic" modes of understanding, subjectivity and objectivity, East and West, the extended metaphor of the motorcycle trip, ways to develop "gumption," and so forth. Almost any such topic will take you into the heart of the book . . . providing that you have your own heart in it, too. By all means, pick a topic that you really do care about; if you don't care, you can be sure that your reader won't care either! Push beyond your superficial or "romantic" reaction to the book ("Gee, I really liked Zen," or "I just don't get it"), and try to encounter Pirsig's original and provocative ideas on their own terms. Be sure to quote the book directly and to anchor your essay in the world of the book, not just in your reaction to that world.

Above all, be interested and be interesting. Good luck!

Berkeley, California

October, 1996

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