news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
from the Argentine local news site El Cordillerano, a short note of remembrance marking five years since the passing of a local hermit named Argentino Aranea, called “the hermit of Collón Cura.” Once a ranch hand, he lived in solitude beside a highway for thirty years, enduring the Patagonian climate without water or power, in a shack of corrugated metal.
The news and culture blog Gaiti.it offers a tribute to Mario Domini, who died in Nov. 2024. Domini lived for thirty years as a hermit in caves near the central Italian village of San Vittorino. He was not a retiring person but regularly interacted with the small community, raising modest funds in support of animal rights and prison abolition among other causes. Domini died a hermit, refusing hospital as his health deteriorated. The town mayor commemorated him in a public obsrvation. (Article in Italian).
URL: https://www.gaeta.it/mario-dumini-leremita-che-ha-scelto-di-vivere-in-solitudine-e-natura-e-morto
“Dancing with the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation” is an 84 min. film featuring author Bill Porter (“The Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermitss” and other titles on China, poetry, and eremitism). The film is available for ticketed viewing on the site, with a 2 min. trailer. The film was released in Oct. 2024. From the Seatle International Film Festival:
“A master of ancient Chinese poetry and the search for a lost tradition. Bill Porter, who goes by the pen name Red Pine, is recognized as a living gateway to ageless Chinese history and culture. He has published over thirty books, including Road to Heaven, his quest to find hermits in the Zhongnan Mountains that reignited a movement in modern China to seek enlightenment through poetry and mountain solitude.”
URLs: https://redpinemovie.com/; SIFF: https://www.siff.net/cinema/in-theaters/dancing-with-the-dead-red-pine-and-the-art-of-translation; film trailer, 2:24 min.
NPR affiliate station WBUR (Boston) presents a conversation with Thuy-vy Nguyen, professor of psychology at Durham University (UK) and director of the Solitude Lab at the University and co-author of the2024 book <em>Solitude: The Science and Power of Being Alone</em>. The interviewer is “On Point” host Meghna Chakrabarti. The program aired in June 2024 and runs 48 min.).
URL: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/06/03/power-science-solitude-alone-creativity-emotion
The popular social media forum Reddit includes a category for the topic of hermits. The category was created in 2012 and has over 6,500 members. The site presents itself “for those who walk the path of solitudel,” duscussing personal solitude, friendship, loneliness, and lifestyle.