Abstract:
A young idealist sets out to save the world and barely manages to save himself. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" gets "Lost in Translation." His Peace Corps mission transmutes into a Quest for the Truth and ends with an excursion into insanity. India's Earth-Goddess mythology unravels his American, Sky-God belief system. It doesn't matter whether we cleave to our systems or not (he doesn't), they inform our outlooks regardless. Nothing says it better than this tale. He begins as an unbeliever, and is undone by themes from his own religious tradition anyway.