Rating: 
Summary: My perspective of Robert M. Pirsig's "Lila."
Review: Robert M. Pirsig's "Lila" is one of the finest and most challenging books in print today. For those of you who have read his, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," (ZMM) and enjoyed the philosophical and mystical challenges there, "Lila" offers even more. I have read "Lila" multiple times. I only recently discovered that lila in Hindu mythology means the never-ending dance of the Divine in an ongoing alternation between the World and the Divine and back again. It is like sacrifice of the Divine to create the World and then sacrifice of the World to create the Divine. Lila is this continual dance. I found the dance a strong metaphor of the main female character in "Lila" and her relationship to Phaedrus. I am unsure Pirsig intended this metaphor, but I suspect he did. In both ZMM and Lila, Pirsig's prime pursuit is the definition and philosophy of quality. He conjoins the epic struggle of mankind to intuit and rationalize the mind-body, subject-object dichotomies. Note that Pirsig would emphasize intuition here and de-emphasize rational thought. In "Lila" he accomplishes three major feats:
1) a non-dichotomous and holistic view of subject-object,
2) a moral value framework for sentient beings, and
3) rules for static and dynamic balance. Holistically, he shows that reality is composed of three things: subject (mind), object (matter), and Quality. He says that objects precede subjects, subjects emerge from objects, and quality occurs where and when subjects become aware of objects. He develops this prescient philosophy while weaving a powerful human story of his quality events with Lila as he pushes his sailing vessel through the waters of the great northeastern US. Second, he develops a beautiful framework consisting of four value layers: intellect, social, biological, and organic. Intellect is his highest value layer and organic is the lowest. He breaks the four layers into two groups: subject and object. The top two layers correspond to subject and the bottom two layers correspond to object. Each layer in the hierarchy has moral precedence over the other. Intellect has the highest moral precedence followed by social, biological, then organic. It is moral for the higher of two layers to dominate the other. It is immoral for a lower layer to dominate a higher layer. This is a profound discovery and for me it is the new value ethics. I see world legal structures eventually adopting this ethical system. Finally, he unifies the static versus dynamic dichotomy. He shows that the world is both static and dynamic and if long-term dynamic world patterns are to work, good static patterns must latch to permit the next dynamic emergence. He does not say so, but I infer that just like his value framework, he sees a static and dynamic framework that scales from zero to infinite space-time intervals. A careful read of "Lila" for those of you who know of quantum theory shows significant correlation to the concepts of the new physics. Many prominent folk have seen this correlation and Pirsig has presented on the subject in Brussels Belgium at the conference entitled, "Einstein Meets Magritte." Some of us see quantum mechanics as the layer just below the organic layer, and we infer more layers above intellect. I suggest further reading for very interesting connections to "Lila:" Eugen Herrigel ("Zen in the Art of Archery"), Gary Zukav ("The Dancing Wu Li Masters"), Fritjof Capra ("The Tao of Physics"), Heinz Pagels ("The Dreams of Reason"), and Dana Zohar & Ian Marshal ("The Quantum Society"). Pirsig, among his peers and antecedents, in my opinion, has come closest to defining a new philosophical reality. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Oh holy crap
Review: I was a real novice to philosophy and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance confused me a lot the first time I read it. But I read it again and then got Lila. Wow. Pirsig seems to have the ability to explain nearly EVERYTHING. I agree that sometimes his conclusions are a little hasty. However, Pirsig effortlessly explains away things that I had barely registered subconsciously. His view of reality seems to make a lot of sense. Anyway, I don't know enough about philosophy to say, but I think this book is grossly under-rated. This book is very, very important indeed. Even if it is not true it is well worth reading. I found the story itself amazing. As you might have guessed, I'm a fan! Awesome book.
Rating:
Summary: A must read if you are always wondering Why?
Review: The great thing about Pirsig's writing is that he takes apart and analyzes many beliefs that we take for granted in our every day lives. Then he resassembles them into a logical mapping that literally provides an explanation for everything, from the behavior of cells, bacteria, animals, trees, humans, societies. Granted, the structure of the 'story' makes it such that it is more of a doctrine on morals and values rather than a page-turning novel. But that is what makes it great. We don't have to put up with unnecessary story fluff if it were a true novel, and we also don't have to deal with dry philosophical incantations with equations and symbols etc. This book will only really be enjoyed by those who liked the first book for its philosphical analysis, because he picks up the discussion and takes it many steps further. For those of us interested in understanding our lives and our behaviors, of why we do what we do, how we got to where we are today, and what it is each of us individually and collectively value, he offers some very amazing and compelling arguments. And he backs each of his theories up with quite rigorous logical explanations. This is one of the main reasons I enjoy his work; he doesn't just throw something esoteric idea out there and wait for someone to prove him wrong; he follows every argument up with logical analysis. Bottom line, if you are into the philosophy of it, you will come out of each chapter of this book with a different outlook on your everyday life. You will see things in a different light, and that is what makes this book great for me. There are very few other books out there that successfully do this.
Rating: 
Summary: An obvious Rehash
Review: When I was in junior college, Pirsig's "Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was required reading for an intro to philosophy class. The professor informed us that Pirisig's ideas were simply a rehash of those of G.E. Moore's, but insisted that we read "Zen" anyway. After reading many of the literary classics, I found Pirsig's style unerringly pedestrian. After reading "Lila", I must say that he is indeed a one book author. Nothing is new here. He begins the novel with the protagonist making continual references to a disco song, and from there the author's use of plot is hastily scribbled so that he may continue to hammer his theme of quality, and what constitutes quality. Again, there is the continual rehashing of what constitutes right and wrong. As an author of ideas, he is never on par with Ayn Rand, Hermann Hesse, or Dostoievski. Pirsig would have done better to write as an essayist, because he shows little or no concern with plot, setting, or character development. I do not take issue with his philosophical ideas, but as an author, he should show some concern for the structure of the novel.
Rating:
Summary: Guy and girl meet in bar and sail down river...
Review: I rate the book "10" because in a very human way it puts the computer into context with the human. I first read LILA in 1992, after stumbling onto the title in the reference section of a computer history book. The Metaphysics of Quality is exemplified in the guy/girl interactions and in the mind-presentations of the author. Read again in 1994, again in 1997, and 4th reading in early 1998. In 1995, read ZEN, THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE. Good philosophy, plot was not as interesting as LILA. Afterward on death of his son was chilling. Your other reviews are superb so instead I will give some chapter events that grabbed my attention. Chapter 1. Phaedrus meets Lila in a bar and begin their journey down the river. Chapter 2. The card catalog, using slips of paper to record throughts. Organizing, reviewing, saving, discarding. The perfect tool for random access. I have used this system throughtout my life, and I was astounded to read an account of my system in a book. Chapter 3. Americans are the amalgam of American-Indians and Europeans. This concept is expanded thoughout the book. Chapter 6, 11. Does Lila have Quality? Expansion on Metaphysics of Quality. Chapter 8. The Platypus does not fit anthropological structure. Platypus analogy is used throughout the book. Chapter 11. The "...jungle of evolutionary patterns..." Patterns. Quantum theory. Chapter 12. Patterns. I love the hardware and software analogies....the guy who designs the hardware is independent of the guy who designs the software. Chapter 13. The world is full of static and dynamic patterns. The dynamic patterns build onto the static patterns and if accepted by a critical mass of people then the dynamic pattern becomes static, building on or replacing old static patterns. Phaedrus gives examples that are obvious to the reader. Chapter 17. The giant moth and the light globe. Chapter 19. You are reading along, enthralled with Lila and Phaedrus and MOQ, and all of a sudd! en Robert Redford walks into Phaedrus' motel room... Chapter 20. Celebrity. Social pattern devours intellectual pattern. OJ and verdict comes to mind. Chapter 24. Does Lila have quality? (Again.) The price of dynamic quality is instability. The Professor in the black neighborhood...a short lesson on racism. Chapter 25. Insanity. Phaedrus reveals his earlier life in an insane asylum...hmmm. And discourses on the experience. Chapter 26. Insanity. Language. Philosophology. More. Chapter 32 (last chapter). "Good is a noun. That was it..." Well, the author concludes that the Metaphysics of Quality defies precise definition due to the lack of precision in language..."but if you had to reduce whole MOQ to a single sentence, that would be it." The fact that Pirsig is not well-known, not LarryKing material, speaks volumes for public interest in philosphy. The internet, bless the Internet, is a forum for hidden treasures such as Pirsig. And this review is intended as a contribution to those who seach for such treasure.
Rating: 
Summary: Steely Dan and the Art of Writing
Review: There's something about reading Robert Pirsig's Lila that reminds me of listening to Steely Dan records. Everything seems to be mastered, the writing is tight and it allows Pirsig to zone off into what can either be described as self-indulgent tengents or brilliant essays on metaphysics - just like those extended solos and cryptic lyrics on albums like Aja. But like Steely Dan, there's also a cold, almost clinical atmosphere to Pirsig's character Phaedrus. If you're like me you can indulge Pirsig a bit just as much as you can put on a Steely Dan record. There really isn't any other author I've encountered quite like Pirsig, and that's a good thing. On the surface this is the story of Phaedrus, a man who's written a novel - Zen and the Art, it seems - that has given him fame but also turned him into a recluse. He's traveling alone down a river in upstate New York when he ends up picking up a woman. That woman, Lila, becomes the focus of his wandering search for a more inclusive system of thinking. He calls this system the Metaphysics of Quality and it resembles a computer program in its design. The book then alternates between the story of Phaedrus and Lila (who increasingly is revealed to be mentally ill) and Phaedrus's (sometimes ingenious) musings. Sleek, well-written, fascinating but also cold and indulgent, I'd recommend Lila to those who aren't bloody-well annoyed when a Steely Dan record comes on.
Rating:
Summary: what exactly is his philosophy?
Review: I ended up not caring for this book for several
reasons.
1) Pirsig is not a very nice or likeable
person. Certainly it is not a requirement
to be likeable, but it helps you get through 400+ pages.
He knows this, but doesn't seem to mind enough to
change.
2) Everyone and everything is a foil for his own ego.
He never learns any thing from anyone that doesn't
groove with what he already wants to think.
3) What is his philosophy? There are numerous interesting
observations on indians and victorians, but
his philosophy reminds me of utility theory.
If you are sufficiently clever you can argue for anything.
In these reviews people are saying how great is his
thinking, but if you had to tell someone what his
thinking is, what would you say?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, thought inspiring book.
Review: After ZAMM Lila is a different flavour, but just as interesting and inspiring. For me Pirsig fights for the under dog, and sometimes in this world, thats all you need to do. Put your hand up and say, "wait wait that's not right". There's a few reviewers vehemently ripping into Pirsig, it's great, he love's it I'm sure. Pirsig says that his MOQ deals with things better than the standard dualistic metaphysics, he draws a few conclusions that are quesionable, but all conclusions on ethics and morals are questionable, it's doesn't stop the fact that his MOQ is fundamentally more useful than western dualism in some situations. Try explaining a city to a child in terms of Subjects and Objects, and then try with Patterns of Value. The MOQ doesn't create the conclusions its another useful tool available to the open minded, Pirsig's not forcing anyone to use it. I guess people are reading this like a text book, one reviewer even complained that there's no foot notes, the book is not a textbook. Pirsig has to shoot down his opponents to make his point, it's unfair maybe but it's life. If you make a point and then say, "of course this could all be rubbish, it's just an idea", people won't have confidence in what you're saying and won't publish your book. The one star mob and the academics wanted Pirsig to right a text book so they could burn it. He didn't he wrote a book about one mans ideas and most people including myself think it's another brilliant book. Wright or wrong Pirsig is dynamic, he's trying to push philosophy either upward toward further evolution or accidentally into degeneracy, but without people like Pirsig life would be very boring. The one star mob should concentrate on their own books.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad, bad, bad
Review: If you liked Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance don't read this, it'll put you off Pirsig forever. A disasterous attempt to prove that his first attempt at writing wasn't a fluke, which ironically proves the precise opposite. Most of this is just barmy - worthy of a self-published no-hoper. There's a hapless attempt at building a philosophy, pretentiously titled the Metaphysics of Quality, which makes no sense from beginning to end. Other than that he spends most of his time trying to prove that what he says is what everybody already thinks anyway - his metaphysics is consistent with free will, evolution, the American constitution etc - so it MUST be right. The story part of the book falls flat, the characters never come alive and are too obviously put in to illustrate aspects of his oh-so-precious theory. He borrows from ancient religions under the pretext that he is the first person to dig up these ideas and the only person who has ever really understood them. (Gosh aren't we lucky he was born!) In fact he seems not to even understand what he is writing, because he contradicts himself all over the place. It's as if he just copied bits and pieces from other texts that he fancied without really knowing what they meant. There are no footnotes, no references, nothing, we're supposed to believe that this all came from him. Basically it's all about proving that he's the greatest genius who ever lived and if you don't believe him well that's because you're just too blind to see it.
Rating:
Summary: does this book have quality?
Review: Well, this is certainly not as easy a read as Zen. While the first book cleverly drew the reader into philosophical debate, gently revealing the background and views of the author almost stealthily, in this new volume Pirsig clearly expects the reader to have already cleared any psycholoigical block that might require such intellectual massage. Twenty years on Pirsig is far more forthright in his attempts to explain his highly original and complex world view, to the extent that the 'story' becomes something of an irritating interuption. What plot there is (a couple of days on a boat), is so clearly autobiographical, that the use of the 'character' name Phaedrus would be highy pretentious were it not for a need for continuity from the previous book. Even more that Zen, this is little more than an attempt by the author to convince the audience of his very personal philoshophical standpoint, and in this he is evangelical to the point of arrogance. But this detracts only a little from the undeniable fact that his socio-metaphysical standpoint is indeed highly self-consistant and quite staggeringly original. That he falls into the trap of proving his points using an internal logic that pre-assumes the veracity of his system is no more or less a problem here than in conventional philosophy. All in all, the writer is more mature and cynical after the intervening years, and this book lacks the sense of revelation to be found in Zen, but it has to be recognised that this follow up is refining a concept first espoused in the earlier book, and it's hard to imagine how it could have been presented differently. What Pirsig has to say definitely deserves to be heard, and it is to his credit that he delayed following up a previous smash hit until he had something concrete to add.
| 
