Average customer rating:
- The Lazy Man's Search for Meaning
- Richly deserved its National Book Award.
- The template.
- "It was not anger. It was discovery."
- Binx or Jack Enlivens Malaise of New Orleans [60][T]
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The Moviegoer
Walker Percy
Manufacturer: Vintage
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ASIN: 0375701966
Release Date: 1998-04-14 |
Amazon.com
This elegantly written account of a young man's search for signs of purpose in the universe is one of the great existential texts of the postwar era and is really funny besides. Binx Bolling, inveterate cinemaphile, contemplative rake and man of the periphery, tries hedonism and tries doing the right thing, but ultimately finds redemption (or at least the prospect of it) by taking a leap of faith and quite literally embracing what only seems irrational.
Book Description
Winner of the 1961 National Book Award
The dazzling novel that established Walker Percy as one of the major voices in Southern
literature is now available for the first time in Vintage paperback.
The Moviegoer is Binx Bolling, a young New Orleans stockbroker who surveys the world with
the detached gaze of a Bourbon Street dandy even as he yearns for a spiritual redemption he
cannot bring himself to believe in. On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, he occupies
himself dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the
"treasurable moments" absent from his real life. But one fateful Mardi Gras, Binx embarks
on a hare-brained quest that outrages his family, endangers his fragile cousin Kate, and
sends him reeling through the chaos of New Orleans' French Quarter. Wry and wrenching, rich
in irony and romance,
The Moviegoer is a genuine American classic.
Customer Reviews:
The Lazy Man's Search for Meaning.......2007-10-10
This is the kind of book I finish reading and have to begin a search of my own. I look for Cliff Notes, Wikkipedia entries, Amazon reviews, anything to help tell me what it is I'm missing, because I put this down after reading the last page and did not see the point.
I have a lot of respect for Binx's "search" because we all go through that at one time or another--a lot of males when they get into their 40s--hoping to find some cure for the ordinariness of daily life. We'd all like to be some adventuring superhero, though I think if we were we'd like nothing more than to settle down with a wife and 2.3 kids in the suburbs--the grass always seems greener on the other side until you get over there.
Still, while the idea of the search is presented, when does Binx really perform this search? Most of the book entails Binx Bolling--stockbroker, skirt-chaser, and silver screen worshiper--talking with his grandma and cousins. The idea presented in the Amazon description that he's rootless seems silly when he has such a close extended family. The problem is more about the conflict between tradition and new thinking. Really the only time when Binx could be said to perform this search is on a trip with his latest secretary to visit his mom and half-brothers/sisters--more extended family for the "rootless" Binx!--and an aborted trip to Chicago with his suicidal cousin Kate, whom he's devoted to if not actually loves.
That demonstrates the problem here in that the novel is too short and too underdeveloped. When you think about it, the search for meaning should really take more than 200-250 pages depending on the size of your font. At that length it's like scaling a gentle hill to find a guru instead of a Himalayan mountain. The most insightful gurus are the ones that are hardest to find because the dangers presented in the search lay the seeker bare so he can truly see inside him/herself.
But I suppose other people have found some meaning in it. Maybe they'll clue me in one of these days.
The Amazon description also called this book funny. It's not really that funny. For something funny set in New Orleans at the same time read "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole, which Walker Percy championed to publication. For more epic soul-searching try "The Adventures of Augie March" by Saul Bellow.
That is all.
Richly deserved its National Book Award........2007-08-01
Walker Percy, The Moviegoer (Vintage, 1960)
By rights, The Moviegoer should be a minor novel. Nothing much happens in it, and the lead character is one of the most thoroughly unlikable people traipsing through modern fiction. And yet Walker Percy manages to make this novel compelling in practically every way it can be through the immense power of his writing. That this slim novel won the 1961 National Book Award was no accident, nor is the fact that it survives today as a modern classic.
Binx Bolling is a New Orleans stockbroker in the late 1950s suffering an existential crisis. He spends his existence having loveless affairs with his string of secretaries and going to the movies, seeing the idealized version of life on screen and comparing it with his own relatively useless existence. He sees his family members through the most jaundiced of eyes, and never passes up an opportunity to belittle them in the internal monologue that comprises the text of this book. Binx is convinced that he can find the meaning his life is supposed to have, and starts off on a classic quest to find it. The problem is that he goes about it in the most wrongheaded of ways; the result is a classic tragedy laced with pointed black humor. The best part of the whole thing is that Binx himself doesn't see the tragedy inherent in his actions; he just tries to approach the quest the same way he approaches everything else, by muddling through.
The book is slow, deliberate, giving us time to get to know Binx and the principal players in his family despite its brevity. Percy's descriptions, through Binx's eyes, are the stuff National Book Award winners are made of. If you've never checked The Moviegoer out, you're missing a great ride. **** ½
The template........2007-05-18
This book is a sort of template for Percy's later work, and should be read by anyone who likes his other books.
For those who haven't read his later novels yet, I'd suggest reading this one first, and also "Lost in the Cosmos."
"It was not anger. It was discovery.".......2007-04-08
Binx Bolling runs a small financial office for his wealthy extended family; he's also the titular moviegoer. The book takes place in late 1950s New Orleans. The country and Binx are flourishing financially after WWII, but a certain ennui is starting to engulf both. Binx comes from a long line of distinguished Southern gentlemen, the kind who populate heroic novels. However, he is not made of the same stuff, as he'll prove throughout this terrific work. Indeed, he spends more time worrying about making money, bedding his secretary, and escaping into movies than he does attempting anything vaguely "heroic." This disconnect leads to his "quest" - a search for meaning.
Fortunately, "The Moviegoer" doesn't rely on this "quest" for much of the plot or ambience. It has plenty of the latter, and just enough of the former to make it all go down nicely. Life's greater questions and dilemmas are touched upon, but Binx is not the type to spend too much effort trying to answer them. Instead, we're left with a fantastically written character study - a piece of life from a fading period about another fading period. "The Moviegoer" is solid Southern literature, with just enough dashes of Mardi Gras and decaying mansions to attract fans of that genre. However, it's also just a damned good novel.
Binx or Jack Enlivens Malaise of New Orleans [60][T].......2007-04-07
John (Jack) (Binx) Bolling narrates this story about the last few days of his 29th year of life. In the end, he is 30 and a very different man.
Jack is not an ordinary New Orleans citizen. He grew up wealthy and amid an educated family: father was a doctor. He attended a private boarding school in New Hampshire (Exeter?) attended Ivy for college and avoided medical school to earn money by the barrel as a stockbroker. And, his family wanting him to meet his goals, kindly and gently keep urging him to leave his self-described life of "malaise" and descend upon a greater life - being a doctor like his father. If you read the biography of the author, he led a similar life - he had been a practicing doctor in the Deep South for decades before this novel's publication occurred in his 40's.
Tennessee Williams probably wrote more about the south than anyone of this generation. But, his characters came from the earth, they were the everyday people who easily trip over ordinary issues - culminating with extraordinary stories. This book deals with extraordinary people who make extraordinary stories from everyday issues.
Leading a life of "malaise" soaked by the humidity and heat of New Orleans, Binx encounters life-making decisions with Kate (a woman too odd to be anything but his beloved), Sharon (another attempted conquest within his one-man office) and assorted friends affected by he and Kate.
If one lives in the south, the character and civility emanating from the lead characters remains true even in this 21st century - publicly polite people can affront others and conspire in private - but in a gentile and fair-minded fashion. And, like any southern authors who preceded him, Percy depicts these strong characters of southern grace to have eloquence. They discuss issues with a great command of the English language which accentuates their already uncommon personalities.
The references to movies are fun and are highlights which permeate this novel - and from which the title arises. Recent novels have shared this concept - "Sideways" being the most obvious with its references of wine names and tastes.
I would recommend this novel to anyone and most especially to those who love southern literature.
Book Description
"Marketing to Moviegoers" is the essential guide to film marketing. Although there are many resources available about how to make a film, there are few about how to get your film seen once it's made and none that reveal the closely-guarded marketing secrets of the major motion picture studios. The author goes right to the source and provides data, quotes, and insights from high profile industry professionals and information on market research that the major studios don't want the moviegoing public to know.
This book will be indispensable for film marketing executives, consumer product marketers, students, and people new to the filmmaking field. It provides practical data, such as templates for advertising campaigns of different sizes, solutions, and an insight into the complicated movie marketing process. Armed with the strategies that Hollywood professionals would prefer not to share, film professionals and marketing professionals alike will have a leg up in this complicated business.
*Learn how to get your film seen by the public
*Learn how to inspire confidence in and generate excitement among investors and distributors
*Find practical solutions and strategies that you can apply to your own film
*Learn the secret strategies of the major studios, and find out information on market research that the studios don't want the moviegoing public to know
Customer Reviews:
Grate book.......2007-10-03
This is a grate and very useful book. It is very clear and understandable, it have many actually information about movie business which I cant find anywhere else!
Excellent guide.... a page turner!.......2006-09-04
I bought this book because I'm getting involved in the movie making business (my expertise is mainly from a product development background). Even though a film can be viewed as a product I needed to understand the complex market in which I'm getting into.
"Marketing to Moviegoers" is an incredible way to get insight on all aspects of the film marketing process: from creative ad campaigns, test screenings, media buying strategies, product placement, merchandising and getting to know the distribution strategies for both big studios and independents.
Rather than a how-to manual, Robert Marich compiles numerous examples and case studies, in an enticing and easy to read format (using indsutry charts and graphics), that allowed me to understand what to expect when producing, promoting and distributing my film in a few days.
I think this book, with its broad coverage of the movie industry and its practices is a great compliment to "The Complete Independent Movie Marketing Handbook", because the latter focuses more on step-by-step recommendations on how to get your movie packaged and sold.
The Inside Track on How Movies Are Marketed.......2006-03-10
As London bureau chief of The Hollywood Reporter, I covered the whole range of movie marketing strategies, from bad to brilliant. Bob Marich gives those who market movies and those with an interest in the film business a great inside look at how it's done, from market research to promotions and publicity to distribution. He covers major studio releases, movies distributed by indies, and foreign-language films. This is a great read for anyone who cares about how movies reach the ticket buying public.
Comprehensive and Easy to Read.......2006-02-23
This book is a must-read for any aspiring or practicing film marketer -- even marketers of non-entertainment products can learn a few tricks here. Thoroughly researched and logically presented with a liberal use of tables, "Marketing to Moviegoers" leaves no stone unturned in its elucidation of the whys and hows of selling a movie to the public. It delves into everything from concept testing and surveys to trailers and projection equipment and even the special challenges posed by foreign-language films. Should be required reading at all film schools.
Book On Movie Marketing Touches Every Base.......2006-02-21
I have written on films for a decade for VARIETY and have subsequently free-lanced for other publications. I found "Marketing for Moviegoers" a highly comprehensive account of marketing in the industry, of films winding their way to hoped for profitability employing multiple strategies through multimedia and ever expanding technologies. Even the most seasoned professionals in marketing will want to compare notes with this book's wealth of information and anecdotal material. It is definitely a must for neophyte filmmakers or those aspiring to that calling so that they will know exactly what they are getting into.
As the book gives a thorough rundown of the fields of marketing research, media advertising, promotional tie-ins, merchandising, publicity and distribution it carefully notes the opportunities and pitfalls of assorted game plans. Chronicles of standard industry practices are interlaced with boom or bust investment tales. It is especially skillful in coping with the constant changes of new technologies. On the subject of the Internet, for example, the various advances and retreats, strategies and counter strategies are duly recorded.
"Marketing for Moviegoers" bolsters its points with numerous charts and examples of recent movies. While this book's primary appeal will be to those in the trade its inside story of the intense media battle for consumers' dollars should have the attention of some just plain moviegoers.
Book Description
LET THE MOVIES BE YOUR GUIDE!
* Hike THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE Trail!
* Behold the KILL BILL Chapel!
* Enter THE DOORS Indian Caves!
* Swim at BEACH BLANKET BINGO's Malibu!
* Escape to SOME LIKE IT HOT's Resort!
* Raft the STAGECOACH River!
* Explore HIGH PLAIN DRIFTER's Ghostly Lake!
* Trek to the LOST HORIZON Waterfall!
* Discover the STAR WARS Sand Dunes!
Here is the first comprehensive guide to Southern California's outdoor filming locations taking you to more than 50 of the Golden State's most cinematic beaches, mountains, deserts, lakes, hot springs and waterfalls. Illustrated with over 100 scenic photos and 20 easy-to-read maps, The Hollywood Guide to the Great Outdoors not only takes you to movie history's most memorable destinations, but also recommends places to dine and lodge along the way, from mountain hideaways to beach side resorts.
Written by inveterate movie buffs and outdoors enthusiasts Harry Medved and Bruce Akiyama, these two native Southern Californians have interviewed dozens of actors, filmmakers, location scouts and rangers to help you explore Hollywood's most spectacular scenery.
Customer Reviews:
Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer's Guide to Exploring Southern California's Great Outdoors.......2007-02-18
Great book for people interested in movie lore and making a trip to LA or who live there and like to make day trips. Lots of information and the organization of the material makes it very user friendly, and easy to find again when you are driving or trying to show a friend.
I bought it for my husband who is a history buff and he loved it! In California our history is limited sometimes, but this opened up Southern California for him.
Get Off Your Couch!.......2006-10-13
Armchair movie aficionados beware! Leave your remote control behind and visit hundreds of famous movie locations in person! This one-of-a-kind travel guide (very few authors can claim that) is the result of exhaustive research covering hundreds of film shooting sites and is a must have for anyone who loves movies and the great outdoors. I liked this book so much, I bought TWO copies - one to keep clean and one whose margins are already filling up with notes as I visit the places featured. Get this book and go touch Hollywood history in person!
Book Description
Walker Percy (1916-1990), the reclusive southern author most famous for his 1961 novel The Moviegoer, lived most of his adult life in Covington, Louisiana. In the spirit of traditional southern storytelling, this biography of Percy takes its shape from candid interviews with his family, close friends, and acquaintances. Their voices—sometimes in agreement, sometimes not—reveal the ways Percy interacted with the people in his very deliberately chosen environment.
In thirteen interviews, we get to know Percy through his lifelong friend Shelby Foote, his brothers LeRoy and Phin Percy, his former priest, his housekeeper, and former teachers, among others, all in their own words. Over the course of the interviews, readers learn intimate details of Percy's writing process; his interaction with community members of different ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds; and his commitment to civil rights issues. Presenting Percy from a variety of vantage points, David Harwell provides new material to help us better understand Percy's existential questionings and offers a more comprehensive treatment of the writer's character than traditional biographies provide. What emerges is a multidimensional portrait of Percy as a man, a friend, and a family member.
Customer Reviews:
Walker Percy Remembered.......2007-08-14
Walker Percy best described by his brothers Phin and Roy, and Shelby Foote. In Walker's books there appears to be no influence by Shelby, and in Shelby's books there is not a hint of Walker, but these friends from childhood were always a part of each other's life. The person who knew Walker Percy the least appears to be the ex-priest, James Boulware and sadly, the person who knew him best, his wife Bunt, is not heard from. A marvelous little book...will make you want to read all of Walker Percy's books!
Unique windows into Walker Percy through his friends.......2007-05-15
Nicely packaged little treat for Walker Percy junkies, it can also serve as a fine introduction to the man. Harwell gives us an intelligent and well researched, but utterly unpretentious and accessible, set of interviews with some of Percy's closest associates. The reader is given insights from brothers of Percy, his priest, Shelby Foote, his teachers, housekeeper, New Orleans bookstore owner Rhoda Faust, and, most interesting of all if illusive, Rev. Will Campbell.
The picture that emerges is beautiful and complex. Percy is the committed Catholic convert, yet forever questioning. He is warm and social, yet private. Civil RIghts activist, but Vietnam War supporter to the end.
Takes its place alongside Ralph Wood as my favorite work on Percy.
Average customer rating:
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The Moviegoer
Manufacturer: The Noonday Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000CSIEF8 |
Product Description
A National Book Award Winner, 1962 for Fiction. Takes place in and around New Orleans.
Book Description
How many times has James Bond been told he’s going to die? In which film did the co–star get eaten by hungry pigs? Which director gave his audiences an extra fright by making their seats vibrate? Which film star’s last words were, “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”? Was “The Madness of King George III” really renamed “The Madness of King George” so that American audiences didn’t think they had missed the first two installments? And who shot a 90–minute movie in one take? If you have a burning desire to know the answers to these questions and hundreds more like it, this book is a must. Facts, fiction, statistics, lists—it’s the best collection of film trivia you’ll ever read.
Customer Reviews:
Fun, varied book of movie insight and information.......2005-11-15
This slim volume comprises surprising substance and lots of variety. For example, it has loads of surveys from film magazines and institutes (Hollywood's ten funniest films, ten most passionate films, ten scariest monsters, etc.). These are fun for sharing with friends as they are eternally debatable. Why isn't Godzilla on the scariest list of monsters? How does your list of screen villains match up with that of the American Film Institute?
It has excerpts from actors' memoirs, filmgoers' memoirs, and film moments in literary works. A favorite among these is the excerpt from Alec Guinness's memoir in which he tries to dissuade a young Star Wars aficionado from future viewings of the (then) space trilogy.
It has humorous lists, such as how to survive a horror movie: "12. Slap the screaming hysterical girl, she will be the one to distract everyone when there really is danger." Or the ten things learnt from the movies, such as "4. When foreigners are alone they speak English to each other," and "8. All bombs constructed by madmen have a large red display of the time left before they explode."
And there are bits of real information, such as a description of the Dogme 95 film movement and a glossary of terms like "best boy" and "gaffer."
The book would benefit from an index, but that's my only complaint. This is a great bathroom book (to read in bits) or car book (to inspire conversation).
Note for those who care about this sort of thing: of the 150 pages of entries, there are a couple that deal with the pornographic film industry.
Average customer rating:
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The Moviegoer
Walker Percy
Manufacturer: Noonday Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O3MPBA |
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Love Song to a Long Gone Time: Memoirs of a Moviegoer from Way Back
Chris O'Grady
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- Read under the author's name. . .
- How..... Zen.
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Robert M. Pirsig
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The Tao of the Ride: Motorcycles and the Mechanics of the Soul
ASIN: 0060589469
Release Date: 2006-04-25 |
Amazon.com
Arguably one of the most profoundly important essays ever written on the nature and significance of "quality" and definitely a necessary anodyne to the consequences of a modern world pathologically obsessed with quantity. Although set as a story of a cross-country trip on a motorcycle by a father and son, it is more nearly a journey through 2,000 years of Western philosophy. For some people, this has been a truly life-changing book.
Book Description
One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better. Here is the book that transformed a generation: an unforgettable narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father and his young son. A story of love and fear -- of growth, discovery, and acceptance -- that becomes a profound personal and philosophical odyssey into life's fundamental questions, this uniquely exhilarating modern classic is both touching and transcendent, resonant with the myriad confusions of existence . . . and the small, essential triumphs that propel us forward.
Customer Reviews:
Read under the author's name. . . .......2007-09-24
I had heard of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig long before I read it. But when someone compared some of my emails on Postfix mail servers to this book, I had to read it. I am glad I did.
The one mistake people make with this book is thinking it has to deal with zen and motorcycle maintenance. It has little to do with either, but under the author's name, in the sub title, the truth is exposed.
Pirsig's work is not some giant philosophical leap forward. In fact, there are many earlier works that cover the same material as Pirsig's with far more detail and accuracy! But where they fail to make things digestible to a layman, Pirsig succeeds.
That is perhaps the one bad thing in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." He has made some mistaken quotes by simple mis-remembering, and hands them out as accurate information. But even this is not terrible when you look at the overall goal of the book, to inspire people to examine quality in their lives.
I think that this book should be required reading in every high school. There is a lot in there that people coming of age need to learn, and so rarely do. The allegorical examination of quality through the tools of Zen and Motorcycles is very wonderfully written. And with a teacher to correct the few misquotes, even the down side can be eliminated.
Now while I feel that Pirsig's viewpoint is somewhat polarized, I do not find that hinders the learning process or enjoyment involved in reading this book.
So please, read this book, even if you are interested in philosophy, zen, motorcycles, or quality. You may be surprised about the other parts of your life that it touches on.
How..... Zen........2007-09-01
This is one of those books I always thought I should read and when I finally got around to it I was blown away. I am reminded of catcher in the rye and one... cuckoos nest. This book was not what I expected. It is not about motorcycles or philosophy, it is about people. The story is skillfully woven between these elements. This is not a book you read once. This is not a book though, to escape from thinking. If that's what you need try Matthew Riley.
Quality without six sigma.......2007-08-24
I have probably purchased over 25 copies if Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for friends, family and customers. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) is about finding quality through "being the job" instead of 25 pages of process documentation for a 55 second operation.
Implied in this is identifying yourself with the job and finding satisfaction in a job well done. Being the job.
Like it.......2007-07-28
I love it that I can find used books at a great price, fair shipping price, plus they show up in a timely manner in wonderful shape! Thanks!
Thought provoking!.......2007-07-26
The book is based on true accounts experienced by the author. The book doesn't really talk about Zen, but is more based on Western Philosophy. The author writes, "What follows is based on actual occurrences. Although much has been changed for rhetorical purposes, it must be regarded in its essence as fact. However, it should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either."
The book is about the author's cross-country motorcycle trip with his 8 year old son Chris, which leads to a journey of self-discovery. It is an examination of the spiritual relationship between a parent and a child, and man's search for reason. During this journey, the author teaches us about life and the human condition in a profound and thought-provoking way. It is a terrific book about philosophy and life, albeit a difficult read. After reading this book, you might reevaluate the way you live, go on a personal quest for the meaning of life, and be interested in reading more books on philosophy. In my case, the book made me want to read more about Kant and Hume, and review some of the books I read before on Plato and Aristotle.
Some of the deep philosophical questions and conundrums raised by the author are:
(a) Before Newton discovered The Law of Gravity, was there gravity? Did gravity exist before Newton or is it the thought of Gravity that suddenly manifested the Law of Gravity? Is it the thought of something that suddenly creates it?
(b) The Arabs and Indians used the `zero' before the Romans and Greeks. Why did the Greeks not invent the zero? How did their societies function for so long without the zero? Could it have continued without the discovery of `zero'? Was the `zero' always there regardless of whether it was discovered or not?
(c) All arguments, solutions, and scientific `truths' have already been invented. We simply discover the best solution.
(d) How do we define the "present" when everything we're conscious of has already happened, and is already a part of the past?
(e) Which self is the real you?
(f) What is good and what is bad? The book opens with the following quote:
"And what is good, Phaedrus,
and what is not good--
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"
(g) "Astronomers would be telling mankind that if he looked long enough through a telescope powerful enough, what he would see is the back of his own head."
(h) In life there is no grade, no pass or fail.
(i) "Any intellectually conceived object is always in the past and therefore unreal. Reality is always the moment of vision before the intellectualization takes place. There is no other reality."
(j) "Religion wasn't invented by man. Man was invented by religion." [No idea who invented women, hihihihihi]
(k) How can something can be exclusively "material," when our reality is exclusively spiritual
(l) We should remain open to the part of the world that is beyond appearances, beyond the so-called matter, and cannot be experienced but only imagined.
(m) How do you deal with technology and remain sane?
(n) Man searches for something that he can't quite define, identify or reach.
Plato and Aristotle, the author argues, conceived a system of thought in which beauty is severed from functionality. Functionality became less attractive to us than beauty. Plato and Aristotle, according to the author, committed a murderous act by this system of thought that is still carried out till today. "Quality" has thus been victimized.
The author went insane as a graduate student as he searched for the answer to "what is quality?", and spent considerable time at the asylum. He was subjected to shock treatments that wiped out his personality and most of his memory. He later realized that he was not really insane, but thought in a different level than most people.
Pirsig sees the problems in our world as the result of an overemphasis on beauty, when functionality is more essential. One reviewer puts it nicely, "...pure `function' has problems of its own. For example, our bodily organs carry out the function of allowing us to live, but one doesn't really desire for our skin to be translucent so we can watch these functions. In fact, we would have a revulsion to such a thing. Therefore, we have a combination of both "form" [beauty] and "function"; our organs work very well without our having to see them. This is the desirable state. This desirable state is called `Quality'."
However, `Quality' is indefinable. It comes before thought, and before actions. Any attempt at describing it is useless, because as soon as you attempt to, you are only talking about one aspect of it.
This is one of those books that you either both understand and enjoy or you don't. It is really all about timing, your past experiences and knowledge, and your reasons for reading this book in the first place. If you don't understand it put it down and wait until the time is right. Don't throw it away!
Read this book slowly if you really want to understand it. If you like to read thought provoking and intellectually challenging books, you will love it!
To close, one reviewer wrote, "Many of the negative reviews are from people who had a preconceived notion of what this book was before they read it (either from the title or from a recommendation) and were upset that it didn't meet their expectations. It seems to me that these folks have received their Zen lesson..."
Product Description
The true story of one man's quest for truth set within a father and son's cross country motorcycle trip. A bible of 70s culture that is profound and timeless.
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Books Index
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