50th Anniversary of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

An Inquiry Into Brilliance: One Last Ride With Robert Pirsig

In the introduction to the 25th anniversary edition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig makes some profound observations. He talks about a university class he took in the /50's about Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. 

The professor talked about how a second completely different interpretation was also plausible. Robert said he had to reread the book to see it. He explains how things can be hidden from the reader if the book is written in the First Person narrative. The first person only tells you what they want you to see.

He states that in the book Turn of the Screw, the reader does not see that the governess is the villain not the hero because what the governess sees is all the reader ever sees. It's very interesting. Then he relates it to his story about Phaedrus which I obviously haven't read. It also relates to our present political climate of misdirection. History is written by the victors.

Pirsig mentions the Hollywood ending in his book and states "In the intended ending it is not the narrator who Triumphs over a villainous Phaedrus. It is an honorable Phaedrus who triumphs over the narrator who has been maligning him all the time." 

"In Phaedrus's view the narrator is a sellout, a coward, who has abandoned truth for popularity and social acceptance. He sees that the narrator doesn't want to be honest any more, just an accepted member of the community, bowing and accommodating his way through the rest of the years."

"Phaedrus was dominated by intellectual values. He didn't give a damn who liked or didn't like him. He was single mindedly pursuing a truth he felt was of staggering importance to the world. The world had no idea of what he was trying to do and it was trying to kill him for his trouble. For more on the real Phaedrus, who is  not a villainous ghost but rather a mild mannered hyper intellectual let me recommend Lila, a sequel that has been properly understood by a few."

Wow, Robert Pirsig wrote a sequel called Lila which examines life's essential issues as he recounts the journey down the Hudson River in a sailboat of his philosopher-narrator Phaedrus. Awesome. I just ordered it. Zen and the Art was written in 1974. That was over 50 years ago. Lila was written in 1991.

My kids are trying to teach me how to use Chat GPT. AI can be a useful tool to learn languages but it does frighten me.