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“Geographies of Solitude”: film

The CinemaGuild presents a 103 min. film titled “Geographies of Solitude.” From the Guild: An immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island, a remote sliver of land in the Northwest Atlantic, ‘Geographies of Solitude’ follows Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived there for over 40 years collecting, cleaning and documenting marine litter that persistently washes up on the island’s shores. Shot on 16mm and created using eco-friendly filmmaking techniques, Jacquelyn Mills’ award-winning film is a playful and reverent collaboration with the natural world filled with arresting images and made with an activist spirit.”

URLs (film trailer)Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elPD39kyF6c; Vimeo: https://store.cinemaguild.com/nontheatrical/product/2660.html



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Zhuangzi on identity

Aeon presents an essay by Alexander Douglas titled “Essence is fluttering,” with byline:”As Zhuangzi saw, there is no immutably true self. Instead our identity is as dynamic and alive as a butterfly in flight.” Alternative title: “How to be yourself when you have no self — lessons from Zhuangzi.”

The article contrasts Confucius and Zhuangzi, the former representing the societal insistence on conformity and the latter opposing it. While the Western philosophical tendeny — from Romanticism to existentialism — has emphasized identity with the individual, fashioning the self subjectively and contrasted with societal authority, the tradition of Zhuangzi argues, in effect, that “The ethical ideal is not to replace a conformist identity with an individual one. It is to get rid of identity altogether.” The article does not explore the Taoism represented by Zhuangzi and the many built-in elements of eremitism that give substance and context to how Taoism shapes identity.

URL: https://aeon.co/essays/how-to-be-yourself-when-you-have-no-self-lessons-from-zhuangzi

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“She wants to be alone”

Aeon presents an essay on women hermits, by Rhian Sasseen, titled “She wants to be alone.” Byline: “When even a simple stroll down the sidewalk is an exercise in self-loathing, why don’t more women run away into the woods?” Working subtitle: “Is becoming a hermit the ultimate feminist statement?”

This essay is ten years old but continues to be a succinct expression of the dilemma of women seeking solitude. Mentions a wide range of representative hermits, from Thoreau to Mary of Egypt, from Anne LeBastille to Ji Xian, from Christopher Knight (the Maine woods hermit) to Christopher McCandless (the Alaska bus hermit).

From the essay: “For those of us who want to be alone, who still crave it [solitude] even after all the abuse and skepticism, there are few guides and even fewer celebrations of female solitude. Who is the female hermit? Does she exist? Who is the woman who can look out at the world and in all seriousness say: ‘I want to be alone’?”

URL: https://aeon.co/essays/is-becoming-a-hermit-the-ultimate-feminist-statement

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Lawrence Nault, Canadian hermit

A Fawesome documentary film (52 min.) about Canadian writer Lawrence Nault is titled “Echoes of a Hermit: Solitude, Resilience, and the Power of Writing.” Nault, called by media the “Mountain Hermit,” lives alone in the isolated Alberta Badlands. From a description: “The film chronicles a life shaped by homelessness, creative conviction, and the quiet strength of chosen isolation. Through candid conversation and contemplative visuals, viewers are invited into a story that is less about escape and more about endurance.” Another: “Through conversations and stunning visuals, the documentary delves into his past, creative challenges, and pursuit of artistic fulfillment in isolation.”

URL: https://fawesome.tv/movies/10649413/echoes-of-a-hermit-solitude-resilience-and-the-power-of-writing

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Barba Gnasi do Giardin, Italian hermit

La Voce del Canavese, a news website in Turin, Italy, runs a remembrance of Gnasi [Ignacio] do Giardin (right, in photo), an old hermit who lived near the village of Traves , in Lanzo Valley, in a makeshift hut in the woods near an abandoned 17th-century chapel. The writer (named in the article) visited the old man once in a while and they would converse idly. Gnasi never revealed what had brought him to live in solitude, and the writer never inquired.

One day in early spring, the writer was about to visit the old man but found the hut abandoned; in the village the writer learned that Gnasi was now in a rest home. The writer learned that the old hermit had fallen in the woods one snowy winter night and had nearly frozen to death. Gnasi was rescued, barely alive, and rushed to a hospital where his legs had to be amputated. The writer went to visit Gnasi. Gnasi was depressed and unconsolable, so accustomedwas he to the freedom of solitude and self-sufficiency. Gnasi died days later.

URL: https://www-giornalelavoce-it.translate.goog/news/attualita/609918/barba-gnasi-do-giardin-un-eremita-tra-le-valli-di-lanzo.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_hist=true
Original article in Italian titled: “Barba Gnasi do Giardin. Un eremita tra le valli di Lanzoin.”