Rambling and often incomprehensible, the author fails to extol any clear understanding of his philosophical ideas. Whilst smooth, the transition from motorcycle maintenance to philosophical lecture leaves me begging for more motorcycle maintenance. The philosophy veers from simplistic life lessons that can be expounded in a short lecture to the idea of ‘quality’, an undefinable mass the author leaves vague and gooey floating above our heads. He tries to paint it as something of the utmost importance, almost deifying it in his reverence but simply leaves the reader lacking.
There are a few golden nuggets that resonated with your reviewer, for example his ideas on the education system as a system for teaching imitation, and the limits of scientific theory. However one genuinely interested in these would be much better off reading an actual introductory guide to works by Hulme or other relevant philosophers. Although there is something to be said for ideas requiring time dedicated by a reader to truly sink in, the 300-odd pages written for a morsel of interesting nuggets is insulting. Indeed, at times the writing seemed almost masturbatory in its aloofness and refusal to pin down this idea of quality.
Perhaps your reviewer failed to understand the philosophical discussion underpinning Pirsig’s work, but the quality of the prose did little to alleviate this ineptitude.