Posts

Posted on

Maine hermit thief caught

News items about a Maine hermit caught stealing from area camps for 27 years are everywhere on the web. For example, a Guardian report is headlined “Hermit caught after 27 years in Maine woods” with the byline “Christopher Knight, who disappeared aged 19, lived by stealing food and supplies from woodland camps in Maine, say police.” The item notes that Knight did not light fires even in extremely cold winters of Maine in order not to be observed. His camp reveals only a tent, bedding, tarps, propane tanks, and a radio. He is being held for the most recent theft. Doubtless further details of his lifestyle will be forthcoming.

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/11/american-hermit-caught-27-years

Posted on

Modern hermits & Crusoes

A page of the web site io9.com offers a colorful collection of what it calls “Modern day hermits and Robinson Crusoes,” some familiar to Hermitary visitors, others new.

URL: http://io9.com/modern-day-hermits-and-robinson-crusoes-470874532

Posted on

Hong Kong’s “hidden youth”

An article in the South China Morning Post suggests a growing concern about adolescents in Hong Kong dropping out of family, school, and social life to become recluses in their homes. The phenomenon is familiar in Japan as hikikomori, or what the article calls otaku, a Japanese term for “home man,” or one who stays at home, presumably playing video games or watching anime.

The term “hidden youth” is also applied. The article title is: “Inside the caged work of Hong Kong’s ‘hidden youths.'”

Most observers attribute the phenomenon to the stress of low expectations among young people aged 16 to 29, chiefly unemployment, which for youth officially runs below ten percent, though other sources say it is as high as 33 percent.

URL: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1202673/inside-caged-world-hong-kongs-hidden-youths

Posted on

“The Hermit in the Garden”

A forthcoming 2013 book by Gordon Campbell is titled The Hermit in the Garden, published by Oxford University Press. The author talks about the book in a YouTube posted by the press, described as “the cultural decline of the hermit”:

Author Gordon Campbell talks about the imaginary hermits of the eighteenth century, discussing the subsequent cultural void left with the disappearance of the great English houses and the rise of decorative garden gnomes.

URL: http://youtu.be/5E0SWQs1kQY