bikelif3

"I thought maybe in this endless grass and wind she would see a thing that sometimes comes when monotony and boredom are accepted. It’s here, but I have no names for it."
- Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I think this applies to cyclists as well.

indyfabz

Is that about North Dakota?

Polaris OBark

SurferRosa

Horrible book.

DangerousDanR

Sounds more like parts of Wyoming. North Dakota is endless crops and wind...

Outrider1

When you can snatch the pebble from my palm...

shelbyfv

Painfully desperate

big john

Long Chautauqua today.

skidder

You beat me to it.

indyfabz

I’ve ridden in the state twice. While there are lots of crops (saw a lot of sunflower fields and canola), there’s plenty of grassy areas as well.

As for wind, ugh. One 9 mile stretch of moderately rolling terrain took us 1 hr. on road bikes. I remember maxing out at 12 mph. going downhill in a tuck. Lots of people got hopped the SAG bus that day.

BobbyG

@bikelif3

Pirsig's book is problematic as a work of philosophy and as a work of literature, although these may be overlooked somewhat as it is a work of fiction and as such, many shortcomings can be attributed to its characters, including the narrator.

For instance. Here is the passage from the book with more of a pre-amble:

“In my mind, when I look at these fields, I say to her, “See?…See?” and I think she does. I hope later she will see and feel a thing about these prairies I have given up talking to others about; a thing that exists here because everything else does not and can be noticed because other things are absent. She seems so depressed sometimes by the monotony and boredom of her city life, I thought maybe in this endless grass and wind she would see a thing that sometimes comes when monotony and boredom are accepted. It’s here, but I have no names for it.”

Also in the book:

"Zen has something to say about boredom. Its main practice of “just sitting” has got to be the world’s most boring activity… You don’t do anything much: not move, not think, not care. What could be more boring? Yet in the very center of this boredom is the very thing Zen Buddhism seeks to teach. What is it? What is it at the very center of boredom that you’re not seeing?"

I believe the first passage refers to the narrator's ex-wife, who tired of endless motorcycle touring and left him, and also because of the narrator's increasingly anti-social behavior. As he becomes manically obsessed with the impossible goals of relating mechanics to philosophy, and zen Buddhism to Western Philosophy, his interpersonal relationships wither. In the above passage he laments that his ex-wife doesn't share his preferred style of monotony and boredom, which he mistakenly believes akin to zen Buddhist meditation. He feels that if she were exposed to more and more of it, at some point, she'd possibly find enlightenment...and possibly help him attain it too.

One big problem is that the book's narrator, seems to relate the monotony of sitting on a motorcycle while riding through monotonous scenery as an activity akin to zen Buddhist meditation...but it is not. Even monotonous riding "in the zone" occupies parts of the brain, conscious or unconscious with balance, navigation, reading the road and adapting to it (like curves or obstacles) and more. And if one were to encounter traffic, it would force one even further away from pure meditation. Motorcycle touring is an activity and as such fall short of merely sitting still and meditating.

As proof, while he rides, the narrator conducts these philosophical explorations (or 'chautauquas' as he calls them), rather than becoming 'one with everything'. The narrator is really carrying out a Platonic dialogue and even refers to himself as 'Phaedrus'.

I would say, then, that riding a bike would propel one even further from zen Buddhist meditation since in involves more physical activity, and more rigorous activity than riding a motorcycle.

I read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" in high school, again in college, and again in my early thirties. Being younger I assumed those older than I had life sorted out, and that when I was older and wiser I would understand the book better. I recently re-read the book two years ago at age 60 and realized there were no answers in there for me, and the narrator reminded me of my own painfully awkward searches for meaning earlier in my life. Furthermore, as a former English Lit major and as professional writer for almost 40 years (advertising), Pirsig's book is unfocused, misguided and rambling; but again, this can be a deliberate choice and attributed to its narrator.

Still, it gets one thinking...which is very Western Philosophy-like, and very not very zen Buddhism-like.

I understand your attraction to the quote you picked, and how it might resonate with you, but the book has too much baggage for me.

Wildwood 

Adding in some 'Stop Signs' would take it from Zen to Machiavellian. .
Assuming one stops!

Maelochs

The book is about the author's return to sanity after being institutionalized, and his slow slip back, and rescue from insanity where he even considers suicide---because of the presence of his son, who is on the back of the bike through most of the book.

I believe the forward says the book is not really about. nor explains nor contains any truths about Zen Buddhism, nor motorcycle maintenance.
The book is actually a treatise on Ethics, as in, "What is The Good" which Pirsig calls "Quality."

The revelation seems to be that "quality" living in the moment, seeking pure, undiluted sensation at the very point where the external world impinges upon the senses ... which the author reached at the same time that he completely lost sanity.

No book is "good" or "bad." Some like it, some don't.

My personal rating system .... is it entertaining enough that reading it is better than being bored, and weighty enough that if you throw it at someone, they need to duck. I say it scores on both accounts.

TiHabanero

Never been able to understand how the book became an iconic work as it really is a bore to read and unreasonably dull.

shelbyfv

Maybe OP can ask that this be moved to the motorbike section.

Maelochs

Too easy.

Polaris OBark

Hunter S. Thompson published a Hell's Angels' critique of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

It was outstanding.

It was not positively reviewed.

Polaris OBark

eBikes?

MikeWMass

I don't think that book has aged well.

indyfabz

Spot on. Ages ago I got through maybe half of it and never opened it again.

staehpj1

I read and enjoyed the book ages ago. Not sure how I'd feel about it now, but not too long I tried to read his follow up book Lila: An Inquiry into Morals and didn't get far.

Maelochs

Yeah ... it seems he was pretty high or clear-minded or focused when he wrote "Zen and the Art", but "Lila" is just a much lower-level book. He seems not to understand the stuff he explained so well in his first book. Almost as though it were written by a different person ... I did not enjoy the book, nor do I feel I learned anything from it.

indyfabz

Interesting topic to me after trying to re-read "Catch-22." I first read it at the start of my Seattle to Cortes, CO tour in 2000. I am a slow reader and, it's not a short book, but I finished it in under two weeks of evening reading. I remember sitting outside my tent in Rexford, MT on the Northen Tier and busting out laughing at the end. I used to say it was probably my favorite book ever. I tried re-reading it last summer. Don't think I was able to make it even halfway through. I kept asking myself "How could I have liked this book so much?"

staehpj1

Yeah, I wasn't sure whether my inability to get into the second book was because I changed, times changed or it was just a different book. Maybe a combination of all three. I was a young man exploring new ideas and found some of what he had to say in zen and the art very interesting. At one point I'dhave said it was one of my favorite books. Now as a 70 something who has a different view of life I'd likely see it very differently. It may still be interesting of may be a snore fest. It wouldn't be listed as one of my favorites at the moment.

NJgreyhead

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance resonated with me in part because it promoted do-it-yourself simplicity in the face of increasing automated complexity. It encouraged me to work on my own vehicles and to be more concerned about the quality of the job. Plus it was a road trip.

Despite the pooh-poohing today, it was well-reviewed in its day (1974) and went on to sell over 5 million copies.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Wikipedia