news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
From New Zealand, The Wireless offers a profile of “Pete,” a wanderer settled on the Kaikoura coast for over 30 years. The article is appropriately titled “What It’s Like to Be a Hermit.” Pete speaks frankly about wandering, surviving, growing old, and being alone.
URL: http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/what-it-s-like-to-be-a-hermit-in-new-zealand
Hermits, a 2015 documentary film directed by Shipig He and Chengyu Zhou, follows author and translator Bill Porter’s three decades’ long journeys in search for modern Chinese hermits in the Zhongnan mountains of China. The film is based loosely on Porter’s classic book Road to Heaven, and includes some hermits who appeared in the film Amongst White Clouds.
Information about the film is scanty (Internet Movie Database IMDb lists the several film festival showings around the world) FilmFreeway includes a 4+ minute trailer and the director’s summary “13 Commandments” for hermits.
A 77-year old hermit living alone on the Sardinian island of Budelli for the past 27 years is threatened with eviction. Mauro Morandi has maintained the island for many years, benefiting summer tourists, but the island is now in public hands and he fears eviction. A petition drive on his behalf using Change.org is being championed by supporters.
URL: https://www.thelocal.it/20160525/italy-launches-petition-to-stop-eviction-of-paradise-islands-hermit-custodian; Change.org petition (in Italian): https://www.change.org/p/facciamo-in-modo-che-mauro-il-custode-eremita-di-budelli-possa-continuare-a-vivere-l%C3%AC-glgalletti?utm_source=embedded_petition_view
The hermit remains a cultural artifact studied as an interesting social phenomenon. Here is note by German University professor Ina Bergmann, who specializes in American Studies, announcing research on a book to be titled: A Cultural History of Solitude in the USA. A topic to be included is Robert the Hermit of Massachusetts (18th-19th century). Notes Bergmann:
This is the fascinating story of Robert, a hermit and former slave, who lost his freedom due to deceit and was separated by force from his family. [Robert chose solitude and became a hermit out of desperation and distress]. This narrative aptly demonstrates the impact of slavery in the US and the close link of solitude and freedom.
In a larger context, Bergmann indicates that, as the note states,
she is studying a subject that is a recurring theme throughout US history. It is about solitude and seclusion from society as an extreme expression of the American values of freedom and individualism. Bergmann’s main interest is how hermits and recluses are depicted in literature and culture.
Another project is intended publication of presentations to a summer 2015 conference “Cultures of Solitude, held at the University of Wurzburg, described in part:
The withdrawal from society is an international and transhistorical, yet also culturally specific phenomenon. This international and interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore American cultures of solitude and their representations in cultural products from the colonial era to the present time. Representations of hermits and recluses – whether fictional or historical, deliberately seeking or forced into isolation, temporarily or finally withdrawing from society –, abound in American cultural history. Media depicting hermits and recluses range widely in time, from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, and in genre, from broadsides to novels, from poems to plays, from songs to musicals, from ballet to opera, from engravings to art installations, from documentaries to TV shows, and from computer games to social media.
URL: https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/sonstiges/meldungen/detail/artikel/eremiten-in-der-amerikanischen-kultur-1/; http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/uow-hia050416.php; http://www.anglistik.uni-wuerzburg.de/abteilungen/amerikanistik/konferenzen/international_and_interdisciplinary_conference_2015_cultures_of_solitude/
An article from the Sun Community News in northern New York state titled “Of Mountain Men and Malcontents: The Story of the Cold River Hermithttp://www.suncommunitynews.com/articles/ncl-magazine/david-greene-the-man-who-translated-ronde” revisits the now famous Adirondack hermit Noah John Rondeau (1883-1967). About Rondeau:
Rondeau was not a typical hermit. While he left civilization to live a life of solitude in the woods, he also enjoyed regular visits from dozens of hikers and hunters each season. He had very little formal education, yet effortlessly conversed on a broad range of subjects ranging from science to politics. Rondeau rejected society for decades, but reveled in the attention he received as a hit “attraction” at sportsmen’s shows, as the guest on radio shows, and even a spot on a television show.
For all that, Rondeau was a born solitary and effectively projected the hermit penchant for garrulousness mixed with eccentricity. The article includes harder-to-find photos.
NOTE: A subsequent article in the same source describes David Greene’s successful efforts to decipher the code writing that Rondeau had devised for his private journal.