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This course is a synchronized supplement to a parallel reading of Robert Pirsig’s classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM / ZMM) and Plato’s Phaedrus. As such, it functions something like a sidecar to a motorcycle. The core sidecar readings include (selections from) works on Zen/Buddhism, a “guidebook” to Pirsig’s novel, the book whose title was the model for Pirsig’s title, and the philosophical text that first introduced Pirsig’s narrator to the “classic and romantic modes of reality and probably shaped these terms in his mind more than he ever knew.” Two bonus readings and a film are the subject of a separate stand-alone session several weeks after the completion of both the primary readings and the core sidecar readings.
Primary Texts
- Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Plato, Meno [Selection]
- Plato, Phaedrus
Core Sidecar Texts
- Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism [Selections]
- Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery
- Hesse, Siddhartha
- Northrop, The Meeting of East and West: An Inquiry Concerning World Values [Selections]
- DiSanto & Steele, Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [Selections]
Bonus Sidecar Texts & Film
- Richardson, Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work
- Ordinary People (1980, d. Robert Redford, 124 min.)
TAUGHT: SUMMER 2024