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Summary: Read Zen and the art... instead!
Review: Once in the outskirts of Gothenburg, Sweden, an american journlist stumbled over the secret hideout of Robert M. Pirsig and knocked on his door and asked for a interview. Pirsig declined, but the journalist suposedly put a lot of pressure on him to get it. And it ended with Pirsig telling him to come back the following morning. Next morning the apartment was empty and Pirsig gone. Where to? I almost discovered it myself one day in 1986 (87?). A farmer I was visiting for my work told me about this american with a big motorcycle, who just like me loved books and who was renting his little house just up the road; Why dont you go and visit him, he knows nobody here, he said. And I almost did, I almost knocked on that door and I almost got to say hello to Pirsig. In my pocket that day I was carrying Zen and the art of motorcycle maintainance, reareading it for the xth time on the long ferry runs I did every day. This was in inner Rogaland which is in southwestern Norway on the inside of the Finnøy Islands. I later found out who the mysterious man was when Pirsig gave an interview (many years later) with the newspaper Dagbladet. I am not to fond of Lila, maybe because I didn't understand it (?), maybe because I liked Zen so much, so I had to big expectations. But mostly I do not like it because I feel this is Pirsig's way of running away from what he did and said in Zen, his way out from all the attacks (perceived or real, only Pirsig knows) on the essence of Zen. Because he really kills the whole idae of quality in the end, saying it is just another idea. As the creator of Zen, that is his right. But as a reader I am still disapointed. Maybe I should reared Lila sometimes, but no, I also found the story itself inferiour to Zen (a bit to much down the river and the drain). I don't doubt the story about Redford, and I finished the book, to the bitter end. But the whole book reminds me to much of Jostein Gaarders; Sophies world. Interesting philosophy but uninteresting story (he wrote for children and not grownups, so that may explain why Gaarders book was so bland, even if the philosophy bit is brilliant). If you have not read Zen...., do not do the mistake of reading Lila first. Thats my advice.
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Summary: Phaedrus' Voyage
Review: All my life people have told me about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I could never get into that book. This book gripped me from the start. I immediately felt a kinship with Phaedrus and hope someday to be able to claim half the knowledge he holds. I originally had borrowed this book from the library and have now added it to my permanent collection
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Summary: King of Ethics
Review: I felt like I got Pirsig's "Quality" moral system stamped into my brain when reading this book. To me, Pirsig's argumentative style is very charming, but my sister just couldn't stand his "I can explain everything with this ONE theory"-attitude... As I remeber it, Pirsig's main point is very simple - that you both need laws (to not degenerate) and need to break laws (to make progress). He exemplifies with scientific progress and biological evolution, but the book lacks in real-world social problems and solutions. I think Pirsig is in love with his and others great intelligence. But well, who isn't?
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Summary: Not as interesting as "Zen," but more important
Review: Pirsig's Theory of Almost Everything. He divides reality into four levels: the most primitive Inorganic, on top of which sits the more advanced Biological, on top of which sits the even more advanced Societal...and on top of that is the Intellectual. Each level has its own morality, which is mostly opposed to the one above it. For example, the murder and theft that animals routinely engage in is moral for them, since they couldn't survive without it (and we couldn't survive without them). But for humans it is immoral and destructive, since we are on a different, higher moral level. (Interestingly, the Ten Commandmants are prohibitions against our animal natures, and when they are followed what springs up is a peaceful, prosperous, free-market society). One of the purposes of society (and this is not original with Pirsig) is to hold down our animal, biological natures. There are a lot of gems in this book, such as his discussion of William James Sidis (considered to have had the highest known IQ), of the purpose of celebrity (including his own) and his belief that the fundamental division of reality is into Static and Dynamic. Probably the culmination of a lifetime of his thought.
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Summary: the long awaited start of a filosophical theory of everythin
Review: This book is nothing less but a giant in the written world of science and art. It continues at the point "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" has ended to develop the most comprehensive basic principle of nature ever written: "the metaphysics of quality". The weaknesses of the contemporary framework in which science works, are deducted in a very clear way using this theory. It offers on the one hand a solution to philsophical problems such as mind vs. matter, objectivism vs. subjectivism and on the other hand it introduces a very clear, comprehensive intellectual framework combining both metaphysics and the behaviour of elementary parts (quantum physics). These insights should have to be taught to every teenager in the world because it helps you understanding your life but remember that it is necessary to drop all prejudices whithin your mind if you want to fully understand the book.
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Summary: Search for God ends with Quality for Sure!
Review: I keep saying to my friends that Robert Pirsig and Julian Jaynes (Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bi-Cameral Mind) have made it easier for me to go along with life, seeing as how I did not have to spend so much time and so much agony to come up with what they both have researched and written so honestly. I'm no college professor, but I've been to enough colleges to know that these guys are not your average teacher. LILA puts it all together for Pirsig, and that is enough to keep me thinking about it without putting him down. As a matter of fact, the more I read that book, the better I feel about those lullabies that are sung to young children. Good is a noun, and we all must seek the innocence of certainty by going through the mythology of facts. Go get em in Scandanavia, Pirsig.
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Summary: A tremendous dissapointment
Review: I loved "Zen and", it's one of my favorite books, but I really did not care for Lila at all. It had none of the economy, and very little of the grace of his previous book. I'm sure that both books are more-or-less autobiographical, and it's interesting to see what happens to Pirsig after the astonishing success of Zen -- but it's incredibly depressing as well. Zen is all about striving, about devotion -- and Lila is, too me, about failure. Now, failure is important...but I'd just as soon not have read it.
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Summary: Another Interesting Book From Robert Pirsig
Review: Pirsig's follow-up novel to his famous Z.A.M.M. is a book worth reading due to its wealth of ideas and lucid expression, which are an indication of the unusual intelligence of its author. For these reasons, I would recommend it. It is not as tightly knit from the perspective of plot or philosophical examination as "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", and at places may have benefited from some editing (a difficult task for such a unique work). One feels a sense of sympathy for the central character (author), and some of the others in the book. Dusenberry jumps off the pages as he is depicted, and the author's sense of loss at his death is felt if not spoken. It is curious that Pirsig, an American, would attempt to characterize the foundations of metaphysics from a moral perspective. This may be related to the strong moral orientation of the culture, with its puritan origins. Evolution, which Pirsig discusses, is driven simply by modification by descent. Greater sophistication is not a measure of evolutionary success. From this perspective, his concept of quality as the driving life force is as misplaced as LaMarck's will to power. Although one might question the basic premises of some aspects of his philosophy, it is nonetheless rich and worthy of exploration.
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Summary: life begins here
Review: if you have any doubt as to the fundamentals of human experience, read this.
Rating:
Summary: A Life Changing book
Review: One of the best books I have ever read (and I've read a few!). This book will change the way you view the world.Be warned, however, for me it's tough to read another book that lives up to this one! If you find one,
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