Comment on Priya's Post

 Priya I agree with you in that technology seems to be extremely relevant in the book. I mean it's even mentioned in the title. I like your thesis and I think you will not have a very diffucult time writing a term paper on the topic. My only suggestion would be perhaps an adjustment in your first topic in which you said that you would focus on technology in general in the novel. Given how you decided to discuss john and the narrator's different views on technology, which is a realitively integral part of the over all topic of technology in the novel, I suggest you get a bit more specific with your point. Perhaps you could discuss the narrator's use as an example for nearly all of his philosophical tangents. I found it a bit ironic how something man made seemed to be the narrators choice for exemplifying an observation inherent to the nature if mankind and the world. So perhaps you would like to talk about that because I find that irony is always a interning addition in the discussion of a book.

Thesis and Outline

Thesis;
There is great comfort to be found in simply yet undeniably knowing thing. However the truth to be found in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is that nothing can be truly known because there is something that is just out of mankind's grasp.
   
    I have chosen to write my term paper on the idea that there is not concrete truth in the world. The idea is eluded to multiple times in the novel and seems to be what  has the narrator so unhinged. I plan to begin with a discussion on the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the time during with he wrote the book. From there I feel I should go into how the book addresses the concepts that we cannot understand. There are quiet a few examples, including the discussion on hypothesis and the scientific method and the questioning of the truth in supposed facts. Then I plan to discuss intelligence. The narrator is an extremely intelligent person which is what ultimately leads to his ability to be so confused by his inability to know something. It is his intelligence that is is undoing.  This is loosely based on the idea of the more you know the more you know you don't know. Everyone, or at least almost everyone can be plagued by what they do not know, however it is only the very intelligent who realize that there is "something" that is simply out of their grasp and because of that those with extremely high IQs can be terrible effected, as is evident with the narrator. I plan to end by discussing how the book Notes from the Underground relates to Zen and the inability to find solid answers in world and the way it can cause a person to be unhinged. The outline is written out below.

I. Discussion of the Narrator and his writing environment

II. How the book eludes to concepts the cannot be grasped

III. The effect of intelligence on the narrator and how a person is affected by the unknown

IV. Notes from the Underground's connection to the thesis

Comment on Shannon's Topic

I like the topic you have chosen because I think it has a lot of significance throughout the entire book, so you will definitely have enough material to use for support. Also, I think it was a good decision to combine this topic with the one about the narrator finding himself, as I think the two will connect well together. I like the set-up that you have for organizing each sub-topic. Organizing it that way shows parallelism, and I think it will make your paper very organized.

Chosen Topic

I have chosen the topic of technology for my term paper. I think that technology is a recurring topic throughout the entire book, so there will be sufficient support for my ideas. The narrator gives many different examples about how technology is perceived, whether it be good or bad perceptions. There are certain aspects in technology itself that are thought to be bad, while there are also positives.

I plan on using the characters’ different opinions regarding technology, in addition to its practical application in the real world. Also, I am going to explain technology’s presence in the book as a whole, which will be separate from the specific opinions that each character holds. Lastly, I want to find out a little bit more about how technology was present during the time the author wrote the book, as well as the time period that the story takes place in. I think that intertwining the story’s emphasis on technology with its historical and modern application will prove to be more beneficial than to simply focus on the book as a whole. Therefore, two of my main points in the paper will focus primarily on the novel itself with specific events and quotes as supports, while the other two ideas will center around practical application in both history and modern day.

i.                     The manner in which technology is presented to the reader from the book as a whole

ii.                   The different opinions regarding technology as presented by the narrator and John/Sylvia

iii.                  How technology was used and perceived during the time period and location in which the story was written by Pirsig

iv.                 How technology demonstrates its positives and negatives in modern society

Thesis: Technology is one of the central topics in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which focuses greatly on highlighting both the positive and negative attributes that it has to offer. 

Response to Melanie’s Topic (Zane Mandell)

After reading through everything you had to say I found myself very intrigued but also slightly confused. I find that this may be a problem with all of these posts as we are trying to bring something that may be very large into a concise explanation. Having said that, I find your topic is very well grounded in necessary support points. The major problem that I have with your post is the thesis itself, because you talk about the concept of ‘Zen’ so much in your argumentation setup but the word doesn’t even appear in you most important thought. So I think the thesis will have to be redone and tinkered with, just like I think of mine, but I believe that you are off to a very good start, as you have a strong sense of direction with your paper. I will be interesting to see the more that you have to say about ‘Zen’.

Defining the Undefinable (Zane Mandell)

I have chosen Quality to be my topic because I believe it is not only the most important notion presented in the book, but the most important subject to remember in life. The thing about Quality is that it is known to be there; every person can distinguish the Quality of something against another, but that is just it, we know it is there but we are unable to explain it. Everything that we see is based upon its Quality yet we are still unable to define the concept at its essence. But that is what makes Quality so important. I would like to reiterate the quote that I used last time when presenting the topic as it is central to the ideas I have behind Quality based upon the novel. “A real understanding of Quality captures the System, tames it, and puts it to work for one’s own personal use, while leaving one completely free to fulfill his inner destiny” (283). Quality is the subject that I feel is best to approach as it encapsulates so many other idea presented in the novel. As I plan to support the idea of Quality I will attempt to approach the following topics. I also would not like to limit myself to these as I have not delved deep enough to fully understand where this paper is headed at the moment.

I.               The classic clash between Romantic and Classical Thought – the “Subject-Object Duality”. For this subject I plan to show how Quality is in fact the midpoint of this duality, therefore destroying the sense of a duality itself.

II.       The understanding of what Quality is within the Church of Reason.

III.              What the “System” is and its deep relationship with Quality.

IV.            What Quality means to the narrator in his conflict with his past (Phaedrus).

V.            How Quality in the end becomes the solution for the narrator and how this solution relates to the conflict that is so central to the novel that is the conflict that the narrator is having with himself between about his son, Chris.

What I feel like I am trying to do here is capture all the important bits and pieces of what makes Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance such a powerful work of philosophy. I would love to be able to capture all of the topics that I chose last week within the context of Quality. After all, Quality truly does encompass everything else within it. Therefore I came to the conclusion of this thesis:

Quality is the framework by which humans judge all matter and thought. It is so central to how humans are, yet it is something that can only be known and not fully explained. That is what makes Quality so powerful; it is a ghost that is always with man, but it is always just out of reach. 

Topic Chosen

The topic I chose is this one:

The conflict between the consciousness of Phaedrus and the consciousness of the narrator, and the decision of whether one is “better” (which can be defined in many ways). We are lead to believe that Phaedrus was unstable, an unsuitable husband and father, and difficult to deal with, whereas the narrator seems calm, rational, albeit still not the best father. Yet, at the conclusion of the novel, we find that Chris liked Phaedrus more than the narrator, and that the narrator felt most comfortable, most “zen” as Phaedrus. He describes being Phaedrus as “living in a dream”, and describes his current life as “living in reality”, so are we to assume that he is running away from his reality, or was Phaedrus his reality all along?

Although I usually become quite “gray” with my opinions, this is a paper, so I must choose a side. Because the novel is called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and the narrator claims his most zen state is when he is Phaedrus. Although Phaedrus was unstable, the narrator constantly reminds us of the importance of finding one’s self- what we never realized was that he was taking that very literally.

There is a reason why he underwent electroshock therapy; without a doubt, Phaedrus was not secure in the mind, but I do believe that if the narrator finds that this state is the most “zen” for him, then it would defeat the purpose of the whole novel to not agree that this was the best state for the narrator.

I.                    The narrator describes his most comfortable state as Phaedrus, despite his instability

II.                  Others around him best know him, and love him, as Phaedrus (except for John and Sylvia, who I assume he met later on), especially his own son, who greets Phaedrus at the end with “where have you been?”

III.                The analysis of his reoccurring nightmares and his inability to reach the peak of the mountain

IV.                The fact that this novel is somewhat autobiographical, so it should be applied in an honest situation; is an insane person a zen person, and is it safe let him be this way?

Thesis: The betterment of one’s self begins with finding one’s self, and in order for the narrator to achieve that, he had to become Phaedrus once more, despite plunging into insanity.