news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
Edward A. Burger is the director of Amongst White Clouds, the 2005 documentary film on the Chinese hermits of the Zhongnan Mountains. In October 2011, Burger was interviewed by Kyoto Journal on questions about the hermits: their inspiration, practice, and daily life, and how it affected Burger.
URL: http://www.kyotojournal.org/the-journal/conversations/alone-with-your-self-the-hermit-experience/
Essay contribution to the Catholic magazine America describes a visit to Christ of the Desert, a Benedictine monastery in New Mexico, in search of self and solitude, titled “Monks aren’t the ones living in silence and solitude. We are.”
URL: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/12/14/monks-arent-ones-living-silence-and-solitude-we-are
Nippon.com offers an informed view of Japanese recluses by a psychiatrist working directly with hikikomori, offering definitions, descriptions, and communication and work issues.
The life and story of a 18th-century New Hampshire (US) hermit is recreated in a new book by Amani Willetts titled The Disappearance of Joseph Plummer. The book uses narrative, photography, and archival material to recreate the mystery.
“Before he left society for a life in the woods he [Plummer] was basically anonymous,” Willett said. “It was his act of leaving that turned him into a myth. Paradoxically, his desire to become invisible has only fueled people’s interest in his life.”
URL: https://hyperallergic.com/400898/amani-willett-photo-portrait-joseph-plummer/
According to the Japan Times, The Labor Ministry is extending job help to hikikomori, specifically older adults:
The government has decided to expand the scope of its job support program for socially withdrawn people, which is limited to those 39 or younger, to include people in their early 40s.
Many people aged 40 to 44 have been living as hikikomori (recluses) who shut themselves in at home, or NEETs, an acronym for “not in education, employment or training,” because of the hardships they suffered during Japan’s “employment ice age,” the officials said.