This was my Junior Paper--at my school, every junior has to write a relatively long essay showing analytical thought, concerning some modern American literary work. It was worth a nice chunk of my English grade. Why does everything look so fucking short, online?

Jonathon Rubin

Dr. Littlefield

English 11-H

April 17, 2000

The Triumph of Monism in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Robert Pirsig subtitled Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as "An Inquiry into Values," which it is; a large portion of the novel is devoted to promoting Pirsig’s concepts of Quality. On the other hand, far more is going on in the book, especially when it is looked at as a novel more than a philosophical text. From incidents in the plot, he spins off into tangents which begin innocuously enough but which soon exhibit careful planning. Musings on his friends’ fear of technology lead into the rift between classicism and romanticism (Pirsig, Zen 66). The musings, the reader soon learns, are those of the narrator’s former personality, and as such tie back into the plot as Phædrus attempts to retake his body. Meanwhile, the novel flits back and forth between these musings– the Chautauqua–and the plot of the novel. In the words of one reviewer, "Pirsig’s work is, like so much of classic American literature, Manichæan. It is formed of dualities, binary oppositions" (Steiner 147). But the true catalyst in the novel is when Phædrus, in flashbacks, develops his theory of Quality. After it is reached, the dualisms in the novel begin to break down. The theory is not, however, as important as the idea of monism which it represents. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance can be viewed as a struggle between monism and dualism at three levels: philosophy, the mind of Robert Pirsig, and the structure of the novel itself. On all three tiers, monism is the obvious victor.

Throughout Zen, Pirsig attempts to solve a philosophical problem he sees repeated over and over with different names. Classicism versus romanticism, humanity versus creativity, intuition versus reason–to Pirsig, or, at least, to Phædrus, these are all aspects of the same problem, "the alienating gap between subject and object." (Sheppard 99) That problem, he alleges, was created when Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle co-opted Greek (and therefore Western) civilization from the Sophists. They replaced a monistic style of thinking with a dualistic one. "The more [Phædrus] studied, the more convinced he became that no one had yet told the damage to this world that had resulted from our unconscious acceptance of [Greek] thought." (Pirsig, Zen 343) The systems of thought involved are rhetoric, the monism, and dialectic, the dualism. First Socrates used dialectic analysis to seemingly tear rhetoric apart. (Pirsig, Zen 363) Then Aristotle carefully placed it as a tool of science which kept it "isolated from any concern with Truth or Good or Beauty." (Pirsig, Zen 358) This has, he argues, stymied philosophy for millennia by giving it questions which cannot, in the spirit of Gödel, be answered within the system. The only way to solve the problem is to look above subject and object, or perhaps a better term would be outside subject and object. It is only by returning to a monistic system of thought that answers may be found: "The Quality [Phædrus] talked about lay outside the mythos […]. Because Quality is the generator of the mythos." (Pirsig, Zen 345) So argues the narrator’s ante-electroshock personality.

The novel is narrated by a semi-autobiographical character that, for clarity, will henceforth be called "Robert." Robert uses the Chautauquas to relate the thoughts of his former personality, Phædrus, to the reader. Phædrus is a proponent of Quality and monism in all parts of life. Ironically, though, he is trapped in a dualistic prison by his struggle with Robert. This is rather analogous to Pirsig’s discussion of Plato, if one views Phædrus as aretê and the struggle between Phædrus and Robert as Plato’s dichotomy:

Aretê, excellence, is Quality, but in Plato, and later Aristotle’s forms, its power is lost, just as Phædrus’ power as a monism is lost by being inside a system with Robert. When, at the novel’s climax, Robert and Phædrus merge, with Phædrus as the dominant personality, a different personality is created: "It has all come together." (Pirsig, Zen 402) This new character–which, in the name of confusion, will be henceforth called "Robert Pirsig," may even represent the former personality of which both Robert and Phædrus were part, and which Robert mistakenly identifies as Phædrus–for all that Robert Pirsig says "That’s what Phædrus always said–I always said," there is nothing in the text to indicate that this means Phædrus has taken over the body. (Pirsig, Zen 403) In fact, were the words truly and purely those of Phædrus, the character would have no reason to reaffirm his identity in such a manner. A new or reborn personality including both Robert and Phædrus, however, would. Regardless, this stronger, unified personality of Robert Pirsig is a representation of monism. More importantly, this monistic product is better and greater than its parts; Pirsig’s message is clearly in favor of monism. "We’ve won it. It’s going to get better now." (Pirsig, Zen 406)

As that climax on a California beach nears, a peculiar thing begins to happen in the structure and pacing of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. At the beginning of the novel, the Chautauqua and plot sections are clearly delineated and markedly different in subject matter–in Pirsig’s words, "Two different books are commingled here, one about ideas and the other about people." (Interview) Starting with Chris and Robert’s Colorado mountain hike, those differences begin to fade away. A dualistic style wherein the prose was either plot-related or philosophical gives way to a more unified, monistic story where Phædrus’ ideas are integrated into the main text. It is interesting to note that Goethe’s poem "The Erlking," quoted in the novel in its original German, uses an AABB rhyme scheme–a dualist rhyme scheme. It does not seem a far leap to connect the dualist rhyme scheme of "The Erlking" to the dualist structure of Zen. By switching to a monistic structure, though, Robert Pirsig avoids the fate the poem would have had waiting for Chris, at least for awhile. (Pirsig, "Looks Ahead at the Past" 7)

The word "monism," one must understand, is not synonymous with "Quality." Quality is the last step on Phædrus’ value inquiry, and it is a type of monism. The issue at hand is not the triumph of Quality, but that of its class of thought, monism. While Quality’s value as a philosophical coup on the part of Pirsig is debatable, it does serve to illuminate from a different angle the problems it attempts to solve. Quality as a concept can do this because it looks above dualistic differences to see the two halves as part of a whole. This is the idea which one sees acted out and promoted again and again in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: philosophically, Zen offers a solution to the rift between subject and object through Quality–solving a dualism by superseding it with a monism (DiSanto 183). In Robert Pirsig, the novel ends a struggle between two halves of the man’s personality when the two sides merge–solving a dualism by superseding it with a monism. In the novel’s structure, as the end is approached, the motorcycle trip and philosophical primer merge–superseding a dualism with a monism. Quite obviously, in all three of these examples, monism is being forwarded as an answer to dualistic questions.

Works Cited

DiSanto, Ronald L., and Thomas J. Steele. Guidebook to ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle

Maintenance’. New York: William Morrow, 1990.

Interview with Robert Pirsig. William Morrow Books. May 1999. 14 Feb. 2000

http://www.williammorrow.com/features/may99/pirsig.html.

Pirsig, Robert. "An Author and Father Looks Ahead at the Past." New York Times 4 Mar.

1984, late ed., sec. 7:7.

Pirsig, Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. New York: Bantam, 1974.

Sheppard, R. Z. "The Enormous Vroom." Rev. of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle

Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig. Time Apr. 1974: 99-100.

Steiner, George. "Uneasy Rider." Rev. of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by

Robert Pirsig. New Yorker Apr. 1974: 147-150.