Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Excerpts from the Paper

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Dichotomy Between Past and Present Life
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Prisig, is about the author leading a semi-autobiographical trip from Minnesota to San Francisco, California. With his son, the protagonist explores the large, wide world of ideas and how to exist within this world. Centrally, the theme of finding nature and eastern philosophy coexist with the technological elements of the world is where the author starts, stating that “A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study in the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself (Pirsig 2008, 98).” Through reason, newer...

.....humans are haunted by their past and the myriad of baggage that come with having a past, this can be worked through to focus on the present. The past needs to be cleansed, exorcized, by whatever means is the most productive for the person who is trying to live in the present. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance shows gives a workable philosophy through the protagonist that anyone can overcome the demons in one’s past life to move forward in the present, to be present and open to living life anew.
Bibliography
Pirsig, Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008.
Leland, John. “
Motorhead
.” The New York Times, September 26, 2008, Sunday book review section.