NYT article on “shyness”

Susan Cain writes an article titled “Shyness: An Evolutionary Tactic” (or the more tentative version of the title “Is Shyness an Evolutionary Tactic?”) in a recent edition of the New York Times.

Shyness is here a synonym for introversion, which is examined as a means of observation and assessment by “sitters” versus the extrovert (“rovers”) curiosity and attraction to novelty that often ends in a rush into danger. Mentions introversion as a tool for creativity, contemplation, workplace stability, and psychological well-being. Important point, too, is the medical and pharmaceutical industry’s attempts to make introversion a disease in need of a drug.

The author has a blog titled “Quiet: The Power of Introverts” and a forthcoming book with the same title.

URLs: article – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/opinion/sunday/26shyness.html
blog – http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com

Wales hermit Neil Ansell

Neil Ansell
Wales Online reviews the book Deep County: Five Years in the Welsh Hills (2011) by Neil Ansell. Ansell spent 5 years as a hermit in Wales, and recounts the solitude, nature, and rural life.

URL: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/need-to-read/2011/06/27/writer-relives-his-five-years-living-a-hermit-s-life-in-rural-wales-91466-28944919/

Another source is this Guardian article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/27/neil-ansell-my-life-as-hermit

Alec Soth’s “Broken Manual”

Alec Soth is a Minneapolis photographer and publisher of Broken Manual, a collection of documentary photographs which, as its Vimeo preview puts it,

investigates the places in which people retreat to escape civilization. Soth photographs monks, survivalists, hermits and runaways, but this isn’t a conventional documentary book on life “off the grid.” Instead, working with the writer Lester B. Morrison, the authors have created an underground instruction manual for those looking to escape their lives.

The book is presently only available in a limited special edition.

URL:
website – http://alecsoth.com/photography/projects/broken-manual/
blog entry – http://littlebrownmushroom.wordpress.com/broken-manual/
Vimeo preview – http://vimeo.com/14759277