Thoughts on "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig

5/12/05
2004 seems so long ago... In May 2005, how can that be?

I feel like I would like to describe a mundane, every day task, such as one's morning routine, and write about it in such a way as to make the mundane seem vividly rich... Poetically I mean. "Leaning against the cool marble sink, contemplatively brushing each tooth five times..." The funny thing is, why should I want to do this? I do not fancy myself a writer, so why should such a challenge of elevating the mundane via rich imagery appeal to me? Anyway, now I get the feeling that one sentence alone pretty much got it out of my system... ;-)

What is insanity anyway? There seems a very large, very vague gray area between eccentricity and genuine mental illness. Of course in centuries past, even epileptics were diagnosed as mad and locked away... But I think misdiagnosis continues today. It seems as if the more the study of mental health advances, the fewer conditions seem genuinely "insane." At least I hope this is the case -- that would be a good thing. Better understanding leading to fewer people being considered insane, hopeless, beyond our ability to help, institutionalized. I'm reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig. I'm only about a quarter of the way into it, but after an incredibly insightful description of two completely different ways of viewing the world and everything and everyone in it, it comes out that the author had been institutionalized and "treated" for insanity. Apparently the "treatment" was to run electricity through his brain in specific doses, that resulted in the complete destruction of his personality and sense of self, and most of his memory. And presumably this eradicated his insanity too, whatever that was. At least at this point in the book, he does not know. This is effectively a "mind wipe," which I thought was only the stuff of science fiction. This book was written in 1974. That such things are actually possible, and have been for about as long as I have been alive, I find quite disturbing. It's called "Annihilation ECS" and all I could find on the internet about it were more references to this book.

Anyway, his wisdom is in distinguishing two kinds of people and the equally valid, but seemingly incompatible ways they see the world. One the one hand there are the rational, logical, "scientific" people, who sound heavily "left brained," which he terms "classical." Rational thought, using the scientific method and reason to understand the world. On the other hand are those he terms "romantic," who view the world emotionally, poetically, perceptively, "right brained." These are the creative people. Experiencing life in terms of perceptions, with feeling. The romantics see beauty or ugliness in the outward appearances of things. The classicals see beauty or ugliness in the underlying forms. The same bird may be seen as beautiful by a romantic because of its beautiful appearance, grace or colorful plumage, whereas a classical may see its beauty in terms of an elegant, effective, efficient design as a flying creature that fits well into its ecological niche. Outward appearance understood mainly emotionally vs. underlying form understood mainly rationally.

I don't mean to make either sound "bad," and neither does the author. If I am, it is my inadequacy at summarizing his points. These are two extremes of a continuum that may describe some people. I do not believe the author means to say this can describe everyone, and don't think he has any desire to force everyone into this mold. And neither do I. But if either of these types seem to describe anyone well, surely they actually fall at some point on the continuum short of either extreme. Describing myself in these terms, I think I am one of the "classical" people who is trying to become one of the "romantics." My old interests: space exploration, astrophysics, history. My new interests: Buddhism, art work, poetry. You could say I'm a rational thinker trying to rediscover what it means to be fully and truly human. One who has seen that as awesome as rational thought is, it is nonetheless a box, outside of which there is so much more to life! So much more we can do with our minds!

So, after such wisdom, to find out that the person it came from was once deemed "insane"... I discovered the idea in my head that, the ideas of someone who has been branded as insane cannot be trusted. I think many people share this idea, perhaps unrealized. I see now that this is clearly not the case, and so wonder what insanity really is.

I realized today that the whole way of thinking about mental functions in terms of "right brained" or "left brained" is biased in favor of the right brain. The logical and rational is cast in an unfavorable light, the left brain as the mental oppressor of the right brain, whose noble creativity should be freed and released. This explains why despite that there seems to be a lot of truth to this notion, I've always felt put off by the whole idea.

I realize now that but for the first line about 2004, this entire post is reflections on this book. I think perhaps I want to elevate the mundane through rich description because I am impressed with how well Pirsig does this. If you've never read this book, I recommend it. It's a great read and seems quite important too. And it's not really even about Zen! At least not so far. And he's only even mentioned the Buddha a handful of times. It's about these two ways of seeing the world and life, it's about science and rationality, it's about sanity and insanity. It's a travel story, a motorcycle trip, about coming to terms with who he is, who he was, and the insanity and missing memory in between. It's a motorcycle story wherein he uses the motorcycle and its maintenance as much as metaphor to explain these things as he does as a vehicle to continue the journey.

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