Monday, July 22, 2024: … “ Not Lonely — Worse. Nothing. Like The Attendant’s Expression When He Filled The Tank. Nothing. A Nothing Curb, By Some Nothing Gravel, At A Nothing Intersection, Going Nowhere. ”
..The ZMM Narrator Says =>
….“The real cycle you’re working on is a cycle called yourself. The machine that appears to be "out there" and the person that appears to be "in here" are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from Quality together.
….We arrive in Prineville Junction with only a few hours of daylight left. We’re at the intersection with Highway 97, where we’ll turn south, …. .“
…“I watch the cars go by for a while on the highway. Something lonely about them. Not lonely—worse. Nothing. Like the attendant’s expression when he filled the tank. Nothing. A nothing curb, by some nothing gravel, at a nothing intersection, going nowhere. …”
….“Something about the car drivers too. They look just like the gasoline attendant, staring straight ahead in some private trance of their own. … “
….“Chris comes and sits down too, and we don’t say anything, but this is the worst depression yet. All that talk about gumption traps and I fall right into one myself. Fatigue maybe. We’ve got to get some sleep.
.... I watch the cars go by for a while on the highway. Something lonely about them. Not lonely—worse. Nothing. Like the attendant’s expression when he filled the tank. Nothing. A nothing curb, by some nothing gravel, at a nothing intersection, going nowhere.”
The Above ZMM Passage Most Likely Fits To => Intersection Of Rt-370, At US-97, 0.36 Mile West Of Prineville Junction, Which Is Some 17 Miles West Of Prineville, Oregon. Which Is Shown In The Previous Google Street View Photo.
….And STARTING at US-26 IN Prineville, Oregon, practically the only road Robert Pirsig 1968 could have used to travel West and most efficiently arrive at US-97 near Prineville Junction, would be to follow Rt-370, also called the O’Neil Highway:
…This 18 mile road, is a slower, low traffic, scenic, back-country byway, i.e. A ZMM High Quality Road, which travels FROM Prineville, Oregon TO Prineville Junction, Oregon,
… For the first ~9 miles, the road stays just south of the Crooked River’s wetlands. Soon after the 4 or 5 house town of O’Neil, Oregon, the road continues approximately West, but the river trends off to the Northwest.
..****************..
SUMMARY: The ZMM Narrator says=>
“…arrive in Prineville Junction … at the intersection with Highway 97, where we’ll turn south, and I fill up the tank at the corner … “
….But, from this ZMM Passage, it is un-certain just where could have been that => “gas station … at the corner” along “Highway 97”.
BUT WHAT IS FOUND AT THE ZMM NARRATOR’S =>
…“ at the corner” along “Highway 97” ??
A) Seen In The /\Above/\ Panorama See in panorama, Photo =>
….1) The ZMM Narrator’s Busy US-97 (Four cars & big truck).
….2) And One Third Panorama, See The ZMM Narrator’s “Gas Station”: Where Back In 1968, This Building Could Have Been, A Gas Station, and Most Likely What Author Robert Pirsig Saw.
B) AND In The Satellite View, Blue Link Below => We Can See What, 2026, Is Currently At => The. Intersection Of US-97 & O’Neil Highway (Rt-370). Plus, This Satellite View, Is Good Way To Project, What Was There Back In 1968.
….1) Southeast Corner a) Bare Red Dirt, b) Scatter of Trees, and c) Business Buildings & Parking Lots, none of which look like a “gas station”. By Dry Grass & Trees.
….2) Southwest Corner a) Open fields b) Scatter of Trees, and c) Farm Buildings. . ….3) Northwest Corner a) Scatter of roads with red dirt between. b) Truck parking lot. , ….4) Northeast Corner a) Scatter of Trees, and Green Forest. b) Scatter of Business Buildings, AND
C) Closest by the corner of this intersection, is the pavement & Small Building, Also Seen In The /\Above/\ Panorama Photo.
…This is clearly the most likely location where => The ZMM Narrator Could “Sit & Watch Drivers On US-97.”
……Studying This /\Above/\ Panorama Photo, You Can Imagine => How This Building & Property Lay-Out, Could Have Once Been A Gas Station, Albeit Unusual In Appearance.
********************
A SIDE NOTE Concerning Western Culture’s => Dualisms, Such As The Habitual Separation Of Subject From Object.:
,,,The above “ are not two separate things. ”, is an example of Author Robert Pirsig’s continuing stance against “dualisms”: => Google AI Finds Click Here.This =>
…”Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . (1974) and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals(1991), built his philosophy, the
… Metaphysics of Quality (MoQ), as a direct challenge to the fundamental dualisms of Western thought. He argued that separating the world into rigid binary oppositions—most notably subject/object, mind/body, and romantic/classic—creates a fractured, "sick" society that fails to understand the true, unified nature of reality.”
*******************
File = DSC 0555 PhotoSetOfHGUpLdJan142025PrinevilleJnPirsigNothingGoNo Resize2874x400