Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxq.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!ihuxq!ken From: ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow) Newsgroups: net.philosophy Subject: Re: Robert Pirsig Message-ID: <1132@ihuxq.UUCP> Date: Sun, 12-Aug-84 19:27:23 EDT Article-I.D.: ihuxq.1132 Posted: Sun Aug 12 19:27:23 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 13-Aug-84 03:30:18 EDT References: <2063@rlgvax.UUCP>, <329@oliven.UUCP> <1089@ihuxq.UUCP>, <823@ut-ngp.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 57 -- >> Robert Pirsig hasn't gotten very good reviews on the net. I'd like to >> present a dissenting opinion, just so others aren't discouraged from >> reading him. His book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the >> best philosophical novel that I've ever read... >> ...The book holds its own as >> literature also--I couldn't put it down. I was fascinated by Pirsig's >> unrelenting pursuit of truth, a struggle so intense that it drives him >> insane! In sum, the book is not mumbo-jumbo or purple prose, but a book >> with a substantial question and a substantial answer. It can entertain >> yet also make you think. That's what a philosophical novel is for. >> Sebastian [Sebastian noted also my observation that far more men like "Zen...", and as philosophy, than women, who regard it as mediocre literature.] My hypothesis about this effect has to do with sex differences in thinking. In my experience, men get locked into logical rules and precedents, stick scrupulously to deductive inferrence, and often generalize broadly, if not wildly. Women look much more at the unique details of a situation and make more case-by-case judgements, often questioning assumptions and givens. There is no value judgement intended or implied in this observation, and there was no scientific sample. I think the debate in net.abortion follows this trend, though. I can always guess the sex of the author after 1 paragraph. So now we go to the heart of the matter, "Zen..." Pirsig latches onto an idea and follows it to absurdity. So what is quality, anyway? We know it implicitly, yet we don't. I guess what the man was trying to say was that it's all in patterns. We learn patterns and rules for patterns. And thus we filter our senses. Well, he could have said "you are what you eat" and been done with it. The book is readable, sure. For me, I saw another guy who carries around "Walden", and who thinks like a good machinist. And there's some basic lessons from Philosophy 101, and even some social contract theory. I have recommended "Zen..." to people who were not familiar with the uses of linear thinking. But, geez, for all Pirsig dwelled on quality, he exercised very little quality control. So there he is on the high plains, watching the horizon, thinking "low wall of clouds, no mediating cirrus, a cold front" (or however he phrased that bit), and I'm quite spellbound--I can't put the book down either--because when I'm riding, that's the way the perceptions go through my own head. But it's not literature. Poe's "Descent into the Maelstrom" is literature. OK, this is the 20th Century. Byrd's "Alone" (a diary of his winter in isolation at the South Pole) is literature. "Zen..." isn't a book, it's a shop manual. -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 12 Aug 84 [25 Thermidor An CXCII] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7261 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!ihuxq!ken *** ***