Rating: 
Summary: The smallest possible summary of a great work.
Review: In LILA the Phædrus figure (from 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance') reappears, this time as a sailing philosopher underway from the Great Lakes, by way of canals and Hudson River, to the ocean. The distinction between him and Robert Pirsig is - as in ZMM - a bit interactive so from now on I will mostly use the Kafkaesque P. as a common denominator. Being held up in a small up- state lock station, he and the crews of some other boats spend the evenings in a local cafe. A sailing groupie named Lila of obscure age and unclear former relationship with P, enters his boat after a row with her Canadian friend. Richard Rigel - the skipper of the boat he is berthed alongside, and also a former aquaintance of Lila - has got the author and his quality idea up to his throat, and the next morning over breakfast table in the cafe, he takes it all out and ends with launching a crucial question at P.: "Does Lila have Quality?" At the spur of the moment P. cannot come up with an answer, and on his - and Lila's - journey down the river to New York City he ponders this dilemma which bears a faint resemblance to the one put to him by his teacher colleagues in Bozeman ('Zen and the Art..'). His claim is that there is nothing except value, but Lila is obviously not a very valuable social member. She has a difficult relationship with Rigel (who was her attorney in a divorce case), and she even accidently killed her child due to carelessness. Nor does she have much of an intellectual prowess, and has simply ended up as a bitter and irritably sailing hooker, fetching a ride with her still useful - but also on the brink of going bad - body. Where is her Quality? The trip goes along river banks with Victorian mansions placed in the distance on top of the bluffs. Like Lila they are a bit worn, and their effort to try to keep up their former grandeur is doomed. They demonstrate this age's emphasis on curlicued language and buildings; it was the crowning time of social values, when appearance was the only virtue that counted. The boat is not provisioned for sailing in the style Lila is used to. For lunch she only finds some dry biscuits and a jar of old peanut butter but the skipper promises her a good meal when they reach their harbour for the night. A bad mood develops over a show of Lila's travel mementos - among them a picture of a Florida paddle wheeler that P. dismisses as a "head-boat" - its fake smokestacks and gingerbread ornaments being there only for selling tickets to romantic tourists. She is on edge over his rebuke and gets another jolt when they see the floating carcass of a dead dog. On reaching Nyack they go ashore to buy food and drinks. In the store Lila has a row with the attendant and becomes even more edgy, but back on the boat they prepare a king size meal that is described in mouth-watering detail. They eat and drink and talk into the night. She tells about a friend who may sign on for the trip south along the storm-prone east coast. In New York City things develop in unexpected directions as P. meets the prospective deckhand and later the film actor/director Robert Redford for talks about filming ZMM. Meanwhile Lila has a series of mishaps on her way to the boat and this, together with memories of childhood abuse and misery, finally breaks her; she ends up in the bow bunk in a cataleptic state. The next morning he flees the pier with the deckhand left ashore bleeding from a knife attack by Lila, and heads out toward the Atlantic Ocean with a psychotic Lila clutching a doll that she fished up from the river the previous night and pronounces is her baby girl. In a cove near Sandy Hook where P. makes his first stop, Rigel in his boat eventually turns up and another chain of events unfolds until the book ends (in a just as unexpected and happy way as ZMM). In parallel with all this P. unfolds the final version of his Quality idea that he coins "The Metaphysics of Quality". A development that may appear like just another theory to a shallow reader, but - as I see it - will ring down through the ages as the first stirring of a quake that will end an epoch and start another. And, by the way, it also answers the question about Lila's quality. ---------------------------
Rating: 
Summary: Great Ideas, Crappy Story
Review: All right - first off, I love Pirsig, not only his philosophy but his tangential insights into things that have plagued me all my life. In this book I especially like his view society (NYC, in his example) as a sentient, intelligent life form. His description of this idea helped me understand dozens of irritating, seemingly unrelated ideas of my own. The Metaphysics of Quality is fascinating, of course - a helpful framework that will shed lots of light on a variety of topics. He does seem to use it as a panacea, however... "I forgot where I left my lighter - what does the Metaphysics of Quality say about this...?" and half a page later the lighter is found. I actually got tired of the phrase Metaphysics of Quality, not because I think it's bogus, but because he seemed to stretch it a bit. As for the story dealing with Lila herself... COME ON! "Phaedrus" was a complete knothead in the way he treated her. And the story had a supremely unsatisfying ending PRECISELY because his sacred Metaphysics of Quality couldn't provide any practical solution to a real-life problem. Someone who reviewed "Zen & The Art Of..." on amazon.com said he/she felt frustrated because Pirsig was unable to use his fantastic brain to improve the quality of his own earthly condition, and I think that went double in this story. And, if I understand correctly, this story was entirely fictitious, not based on actual events, as was "Zen..." Maybe I'm just missing something. However, I would read 1,000 pages of Pirsig's thoughts, even without a story line tying them together. I really do love the guy. It's just that this book drove me nuts!
Rating: 
Summary: Hmm , 1 line summary...ok, somewhat provocative, a listen
Review: It's okay....very oka
Rating:
Summary: Reality in 25000 words or less.
Review: Pirsig extends the analysis laid out in Zen And The Art... effectivly. The analysis is quite similar to one of Pirsigs contemporaries : Ken Wilber. Wilber calls it nothingness, Pirsig calls it Quality. At the end of the book Pirsig realizes, however, that his Theory is a model not actual reality.
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Summary: Un-appreciated Best of Philosophy. Encompasses "IT ALL".
Review: [Companion 'pre-quel' book: "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a prerequisite.] Having read the works of all writers (and some that exist only through oral histories eventually described in writing) on the subjects of Philosophy/Morality/Values, i can state that this is the all encompassing work of a man very much un-appreciated in his lifetime. It truly does encompass Everything, by breaking all of our knowledge/assumptions apart, tracing them through History, and presenting "it all" Logically (a subject that the author even states/explains could not be written about logically). If/when you understand Pirsig's work, you will be at peace with this existence. It does take a lot of effort, re-reading, and re-thinking. NOT EASY (what is?). Robert was last known to be living somewhere in Scandinavia, in a new life. His life producing these works was truly phenomenal. [Did you know Robert Redford had the rights to produce a movie about these works? See the books for info.] email: ldcjmd@Hotmail.com
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Summary: Dynamic Quality all the way!
Review: Lila is a brilliant book continuing Pirsig's journey concerning the Metaphysics of Quality in Philosophy.
This book is for those die hard Robert Pirsig fans,psychology majors like myself and true philosopher kings debating Quality.
Its a great book summarizing everything from shamanism to psychiatry to "dynamic quality." It's an interesting romance novel with a philosophical bent. It's all an examination of one woman's sanity and a pure philosophical inquiry into reality.
It's about a practical philosopher traveling in a boat through the Great Lakes region and how he's discovered The Meta Physics of Dynamic Quality. ZAMM was about Quality. This book is about the Meta Physics of Philosophy. It's refreshing as he lectures on Anthropology, Archaeology, Cowboys, Indians and Shamanism as he brilliantly weaves a story concerning unbonded relationships.
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Summary: Another great book
Review: I gave this book to my brother back when it first came out. He is a conservative newspaper columnist and I am somewhat liberal. We used to argue no end about politics and philosphy. This book provided a framework which we could both agree on, and allowed us to get past our old used-up rhetoric and discuss issues more thoughtfully. What better recommendation can I give than that?
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Summary: A paradoxical voyage through the sea of ideas
Review: In the midst of reading the book, I realized that most of the ideas Pirsig explores are paradoxical.(pg 2491st paragraph) Pirsig states: if man invented societies and cities why are they repressive to man. I concluded that repressive may be a bit too strong. The paradox is that rules(seemingly repressive) ideally exist to preserve the very thing man created. This novel is imperative for anyone who thinks they have it all figured out!
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Summary: Dynamic novel
Review: Although Lila was translated into Turkish I preferred the original since the way the author treated the ideas are as important as the ideas themselves. One thing on his style; even the book was written in third person omniscient, I could not get used to it and always think it should be first person because Phaedrus is the one who had the relation with Lila and who asks the questions to think and comment on the happenings. I haven't read ZMM so the philosophy of Pirsig was new to me but while I was reading I understood that it is what I think generally, in written form. I found Plato's Theory of Ideas in the effort for the pursuit of truth and good in mystic ways and what is called Dynamic Quality reminded me an anarchist behaviour without degenerating human morality. These two may seem very distant but the novel carried me from one idea to another so my ideas were directed from one side to another and I found that mind is not a rootless vagabond but a system of connections between quite seperate experiences. In another rewiev it is said that the book is incomplete. It is true and I think this is both because of the author's not finding true visions of his hypothesis or because of the dynamic quality of his novel that it still evolves. But I believe that if we can't answer if Lila has the quality or not? or if it was dynamic for her to turn back or not? then it is not finished.
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Summary: Mysticism, West Indians have it
Review: I finished "Lila" last night. I was captured by this book from the point when Phaedrus tells of Duessenberry and the Indians. I live on The Rocky Boy Reservation in Northern Montana and am personally acquainted with a number of people who knew Duessenberry. I am still in the process of digesting many of the concepts. Reading the other reviews has been helpful. I agree with Pirsig when he says the Native Americans still have the essence of this "quantum reality". However, not many recognize this because they don't make a show of it.
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