Decontructing "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Classicism and Romanticism: Opposing Realms of Consciousness or Consituents of Quality?
by Anna Chan

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The word 'romantic' is derived from Romance or lingua romana, the ancient vernacular of France. In later periods, this became romance or romant in French, roman in German, and romaunt in English. The adjective 'romantic' first appeared in England and was commonly used in the 18th century as a synonym to 'wild' or 'fanciful.' Romanticism "sprang from the desire to assert instinctual needs which had been too far suppressed in the Enlightenment and which developed when the claim of rationalism that Man was capable of solving his problems by the exercise of reason was shown to have left too much out of account." (endnote 6)

It appears that classicism and romanticism in music are clearly defined. This split between the two musical realms support Pirsig's main categorization. Yet, if we are to consider music as a form of art, then the notion that Art is Romantic and Science is Classic remains enigmatic, as we shall later see.

In literature, the search for the fine line between classicism and romanticism is much more complicated. One essayist defines a true classicist as

"an author who has enriched the human mind, increased its treasure, and caused it to advance a step; who has discovered some moral and not equivocal truth, or revealed some eternal passion in that heart where all seemed known and discovered; who has expressed his thought, observation, or invention, in no matter what form, only provided it be broad and great, refined and sensible, sane and beautiful in itself..." (endnote 7)

It is interesting to note that this definition of classicism carries romantic ideals such as passion and self-expression "in no matter what form." There are many more instances where the romantic and classical worlds of literature converge. Here is another example, this time an essay describing the romanticist:

"To the Romantic, Ambition, Imagination, and Self-Determination are virtues, and the proper course of life is to work and struggle to attain these goals - that is, to attempt Self-Fulfillment. Restraints are tyrannical and threatening. They impose stifling limits on the personality and its inherent need to express itself without restraint." (endnote 8)

There are many similarities between these descriptions: self-expression leads to self-fulfillment; likewise, imagination induces invention. This raises the question: What, then, is the purpose of making such a distinction between works of literature when they harbor the same attitudes? As Josephine Miles once wrote, "Whom shall we call the romantics? Was there actually a sufficient number of poets in agreement at the turn of the century to make what one would call a style or mode?" (endnote 9)

According to Miles' crticial essay on the romantic poets, the romantic works "are more narrative than descriptive." (endnote 10) Once more, the classic/romantic barrier is defined, since detailed description is often linked with classicism. However, the author points out that the predominant verbiage employed by the poets are "in terms of art,...head, heart, mind,...nature, power, thought, virtue..." (endnote 11) Hence, the romantic poet cannot and should not be stereotyped as a bag of hormones. Here, he has "nature," "power," and "thought": qualities which are traditionally thought to have been harbored by hard core classical intellects. However, the mention of art in romantic poetry draws attention to the classic/romantic split in art. One art historian says about classicism:

"It is rigid, simple, sober, objective, in a word, puritanically rational. Simple groups and straight lines form the whole composition and serve to make it clear and striking.... At the same time there is a great deal of objective naturalism in this painting, a naturalism that determines its sober colouring, its accuracy of detail, its clear presentation of simple objects." (endnote 12)

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