An objective and positive article in the British Independent by Henry Hemming, author of the book In Search of English Eccentrics on the subject of hermits, recluses, and eccentrics in modern Britain. Looks at two contemporary recluses; includes a few historical notes about famous British eccentrics and mentions the historical travails of women hermits in England. Hemming concludes that “As well as reminding us that it’s possible to live without material possessions, by their example Woodcock and Leppard [his interviewees] remind us not to confuse the words ‘alone’ and ‘lonely’.”
Zerzan on silence
John Zerzan maintains an “anti-civilization” view often identified as primitivism, derived in part from anarchist thought (Zerzan edits the journal “Green Anarchy”). His essay “Silence” calls on classic authors from Heidegger to Picard to describe the place of silence, noise, and technology in the modern world. The opening lines:
Silence used to be, to varying degrees, a means of isolation. Now it is the absence of silence that works to render today’s world empty and isolating.
URL: http://www.greenanarchy.org/index.php?action=viewwritingdetail&writingId=666.
Hermit nun interviews
Sister Laurel O’Neal, whose blog is Notes from Stillsong Hermitage, is a hermit of the Camaldolese Benedictine tradition. She was interviewed by Sister Julie Vieira, IHM, of A Nun’s Life. The two installments are: first and second.
Sister Laurel makes a realistic point appropriate to both religious and secular solitaries. When asked what she would recommend to someone interested in the eremitical life, she replies (among other things):
If you have substantial healing of your own to do, get to it before you make any commitments to eremitical life. The hermitage allows for such work to be done but actual commitments to the life need to have that out of the way as much as possible.
Hermits in music & poetry
Of interest because of its themes of solitude and eremitism is a music program reviewed by the New York Times under the tile “Exploring Solitude, With the Help of Others.” The program by pianist and baritone Julie and Nathan Gunn, including choreography and visual projection, featured Olivier Messiaen piano works, Samuel Barber’s “Hermit Songs,” and Frank Ferko’s “Five Songs on Poems of Thomas Merton.”
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/arts/
music/17gunn.html?_r=1&ref=music&oref=slogin.
Glouchestershire “hermit”
Perhaps a classic case of society versus individual is represented in this news article titled “Hermit Battles to Save His Hut,” about a man whom local city authorities wish to evict from a parcel of land on the outskirts of Cotswald, Brimpsfield near Birdlip, England. The man describes his makeshift home as “Hermit’s Corner” and is in trouble ostensibly for specific infractions of code. The authorities apparently want to oust him altogether. Interesting comments from readers, too.
And the district council’s decision was against the “hermit.” URL: http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=231771
&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231754&
home=yes&more_nodeId1=231776&contentPK=20465452