@maporsche,
I'm 19 years old, and when I began reading the book I had absolutely no idea it was written in the 1970's. His opening statement concerning how the American stream of consciousness is expanding only to "obliterate its own banks and perpetuate its own internal momentum", seemed to ring far to true in the modern world, thus causing me to believe the book was modern (this is ironic of course considering Aldous Huxley's brave new world was inspired by America in the 1930's). He wants to bring back the Chautauqua era of America by dabbling in first in dualism (Western, Eastern thought, classical, romantic thought) and then expounding upon that by adding in a third entity (quality). This book first struck a major chord for me when he poses the question "what the hell is quality? What is it?". The moment I read that paragraph I picked up a notebook and recorded that I should use quality as a way of getting people to understand Tao. You can imagine my surprise when Pirsig decided to liken quality to Tao by replacing every mention of Tao with quality in the Tao Te Ching. Zen really consists of a man who harbored immensely transcendental ideas about western society and its shortcomings and was penalized when he couldn't reconcile his idealism with the modern world. His new personality, seeing what happened to the former, couldn't fathom what would happen if he allowed his former to flourish outside the sensorium of his own mind. "thats the first normal thing I've said in weeks. the rest of the time i'm just feigning 20th century lunacy like you." He discovers that, using his definition of quality, as a judge, that "success" in our material world has allowed no room for quality and therefore rendered its exploits rather shallow, creating a psychic disconnection in western society, the "funeral procession". He is locked in a deep internal struggle which is clearly illustrated by contrasting his thoughts with his actions. Zen is philosophically dense book, very subjective, but its tomes are built upon a strong foundation of truth-seeking. Although the overlying theme seems to be allowing quality to flourish in our endeavors be they romantic or classic, its hard to say that's the only thing hes getting at. But its a good place to start. Its a layered and complicated book, but fiercely felt when looked at through a lens which allows you to reconcile your perspective with the narrarators. Hope this helps a bit. Sorry if it seems choppy, but I wanted to keep it kind of short. 0_o