Hermits around the web – Hermitary
news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
“The Virtues of Isolation” is a thoughtful, sympathetic, and up-to-date essay in the Atlantic. Solitude is given an exact context in modern life and society, with a firm psychological and social basis, and includes lots of references to various scientists and observers.
URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/03/the-virtues-of-isolation/521100/
Start the year with a comic strip that will delight introverts: “Where’s My Bubble?” by a young UK designer and artist. “Where’s My Bubble?” is “Debbie’s sketches of everyday life, comics and illustrations.” It’s also a labor of love, an unexpected gift, and a smile of self-recognition.
The New Yorker features a brief essay titled “My Prison Cell: the Refuge of a Recluse” by an imprisoned man who is personally also a recluse. He describes the paradox of imprisonment and reclusion in a poignantly direct manner.
I’m a recluse. By definition, that implies I don’t like being around people. But the oddity of this situation is that I don’t enjoy the feeling of being alone. It’s just that I feel as if I should be alone.
URL: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/my-prison-cell-the-refuge-of-a-recluse
A useful summary article on solitude today appears on the freelancer website Quartz titled “How the Mind Changes, Time Expands When There’s No One Else Around.” Besides mention of familiar names like Thoreau and Nietzsche, the article refers to a recent Chinese news item on the solitary resident of a village, and to the part-time hermit Roc Sandford, who lives a portion of the year on a remote Scottish island. Sandford reports of his days of solitude:
“Your senses get heightened, whether you’re reading, writing, looking at the landscape, thinking. It’s a bit of an amplifier. If you’re sad you get much sadder and if you’re happy you get much happier,” adds Sandford. “I suspect you get closer to own mind and personality because you’re not compromising and negotiating with other people.”
URL: http://qz.com/668641/how-the-mind-changes-time-expands-when-theres-no-one-else-around/
io9 is a breezy generic website serving up free-lanced cultural curiosities. One recent contribution is a little article titled “The Secret History of Hermits,” offers a quick overview to types of hermits: mountain and wilderness hermits, stylites, and anchorites. Hermitary readers will recognize the highlights presented, and note links to Hermitary content.
URL: http://io9.com/the-secret-history-of-hermits-1666040708