TFP Book Club: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
 

So, I totally dropped the ball on starting this thread last week. Anyway, here is the schedule:

The book itself (at least my edition) is divided into four parts so those will serve for the weekly splits

Part 1: Now-Nov. 21
Part 2: Nov 22-Nov 28
Part 3: Nov 29-Dec 5 <-- We'll be picking the next book this week too.
Part 4: Dec 6-Dec 12
Next Book - Dec 13

The idea is to discuss the part of the book we're in during that week and anything we've previously read. If you want to read ahead, for the love of all that is sacred use the spoiler tags. I'll be back with my thoughts, I read the first 5 chapters last night but really should have taken notes as I read.

Also:
[carrot]
Whoever contributes the most (quality) can pick the next book.
[/carrot]

----

I will say this for an initial thought from what I remember of the first chapter: I definitely want to buy a motorcycle now.

Excellent!!!!!

I'm going to attempt to participate in this! I'd got the ebook of it.

I suppose firstly I should explain that I've never really done anything like this, talking about something I'm reading. I hope you can follow me even though I can be a bit scatterbrained about books.

So, I honestly had no idea what to expect from this book. It seems to be heading toward an eventual intricate philosophical discourse, but who knows. The beginning of this section was good, I liked it in that it lays out what I hope is going to be a main theme. That of the two opposite viewpoints in relation to technology, his classical versus romantic viewpoints. He sets us up for John as the romantic and himself as the classic, which is an ok thing to do. I really like that the time was taken to talk a bit in depth about 'classical vs. romantic' away from the narrative, it's what gives me the hope I mentioned above about an intricate discourse.

...and then there is this Phaedrus bit. Just isn't doing it for me. It was ok at first, the sort of hazy flashback relationship, but the mental hospital/new personality bit just kind of threw me. Jumping the shark a bit, I think, for now. Hopefully it will have some important relevance later that requires it to be told in the way that it is (which if I remember correctly is what was stated explicitly by the narrator).

I also thought it was interesting to not that he's seems to me to be a sort of loose Cartesian dualist, that of a mind/soul inhabiting a body as though it was a separate entity. Anybody else get the vibe from the bit in the hospital?

It also reminds me of that old philosophical chestnut that asks what you call it when two people switch brains (literally in a sci-fi sense). If you call it a brain transplant, then you would see a persons body as the main component of their identity and the brain as a part. If you see the brain/mind being the main component of self then you ought to call it a body transplant.

I just finished Part 2, which puts me a couple days behind the proposed schedule. The book really isn't doing that much for me. I find it interesting that the book I read just before this one also dealt with recovering lost memory -- but it was science fiction, "Mindkiller" by Spider Robinson. So far, I prefer his approach as well. This one seems less a book than a philosophy, couched in characters.

Oh, and I really disliked the part where he said he wouldn't flesh out the characters of his friends on the motorcycle trip, because that would happen in a book. Yes, cute, you are in a book, but are pretending that you aren't. Whoop-de-do.

Am I the only person who finished this book?

Anyway, I did, and I'm not pleased with this one either. The last book club book took one of my favorite authors, and found the only thing I've read of his that I've hated. Now, a classic high school reading requirement that I somehow missed, and I didn't enjoy it either.

Of course, I'm not one for philosophical discussions.

I added this to my reader and I just can't get into it. I've read 2 other books since I installed it. I wish I could read it. I've tried and it just seems so uninteresting.

I'm thinking it may be a period-specific work. I was 5 in 1974.

I'm going to try again when I'm done with the current one I started yesterday. I tried when I finished Let the Right One In, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, and now I'm reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential.

I'll try to get back to this later, as I think I suggested it. On my mobile, don't feel like scrolling. I will say this, if you tried to read this as a straight novel, and don't like quasi philosophical conversations, then I don't think you would like this much. The book is pretty much a metaphor for pirzig's approach to ontology and maybe some quasi personal history with relation to the character phadreus. Incidentally, I believe that name comes from a work by plato, if I recall correctly.

here's a wikipedia cliff notes thing on plato's phaedrus:

Phaedrus (dialogue) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

here's the dialogue, if you're interested...

The Internet Classics Archive | Phaedrus by Plato

i'll maybe catch up with this on the weekend...interesting.