Word: pirsig
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Robert Pirsig's new book, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, will please readers who enjoy this genre. However, those that expect ideas to be developed rigorously will not be satisfied by Pirsig's latest philosophical ramblings...
...Lila is Pirsig's first book in 17 years, and in order to appreciate it, one should have read Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. A motorcycle trip from Montana to California frames the narrator's flashbacks and philosophical musings in Zen. The narrator, Phaedrus, undertakes a psychological quest to restore the part of his personality that shock therapy obliterated. He claims that philosophizing about unresolvable issues drove him crazy...
...argument in Lila is more comprehensive than that in Zen. It is satisfying as a work of pop philosophy because it raises big questions and provides unusual answers to them. Also, in Lila, Pirsig presents the musings of both the narrator and Lila, giving the plot a sense of depth which is lacking in the monologue of Zen. Lila's thoughts offer an alternative perspective on the "actual" events of the novel...
Phaedrus is back in Lila, Pirsig's second book, this time alone on a boat, wending his way leisurely down a water path that originated in Lake Superior and may bring him to Florida or even Mexico. He had hoped that all this free, undisturbed time would allow him to sort through the thousands of note cards he has assembled for his next book, tentatively titled Metaphysics of Quality or Metaphysics of Value. And this book, as Phaedrus describes it, sounds interesting: an attempt to find some middle path between scientists and mystics, between those who swear by facts alone...
Such passages will probably not bother members of the Pirsig cult. Gurus are supposed to talk funny and are always deeper than they seem. But the uninitiated may have a hard time making much sense out of Phaedrus' attempt "to go all the way back to fundamental meanings of what is meant by morality." At moments like this, Phaedrus resembles someone hacking away at a flat rock and wondering if he will come up with the wheel...