Brooklyn (NY)-based photographer Joey L. offers a portfolio titled “Holy Men” on his website, 39 photographs of Hindu sadhus of India and Christian hermits of Ethiopia.
RT , Siberian Times on Agafia
Hermitary readers will be familiar with Agafia Lykov, the Siberian hermit and Old Believer. (Find more on Agafia in this blog, photos in Features, video in Films, and a review of the book Lost in the Taiga.)
RT visited Agafia and prepared a summary “Agafia’s Story: Old hermit lives alone deep in Siberian forest, seeks help” in preparation for premiering a documentary film.
URL: http://rt.com/news/188532-russia-agafia-siberian-forest/
An additional item with an emphasis on the difficult straits of Agafia expected in the upcoming winter months is presented by <i>Siberian Times</i> as “Bear threatens the loneliest woman in Russia who begs for a companion to join in hermit lifestyle.”
Silence & the brain
A Nautilus Magazine article on the neuroscience of silence titled “This is Your Brain on Silence.” A popularized review of the scientific research that demonstrates, surprisingly to many, that the brain is actively and positively stimulated by silence as much as by sound. The brain deteriorates as excessive sound or noise assaults the body via blood pressure increases and cellular changes. Further, silence promotes a higher sense of alertness and consciousness. Investigators mentioned ranged from neuroscientists and cardiologists to musicians naturally interested in the neurological role of silence in musical compositions, and tourism marketers seeking to promote Finland’s abundance of silence. From the article:
Noora Vikman, an ethnomusicologist … lives in the eastern part of Finland, an area blanketed with quiet lakes and forests. In a remote and quiet place, Vikman says, she discovers thoughts and feelings that aren’t audible in her busy daily life. “If you want to know yourself you have to be with yourself, and discuss with yourself, be able to talk with yourself.”
URL: http://nautil.us/issue/16/nothingness/this-is-your-brain-on-silence; summary:
http://www.designntrend.com/articles/18934/20140905/noise-silence-neuroscience.htm
Clockworker’s solitude
A New York Times article about art historian turned antique clock restorer Sule Gurbuz of Turkey, who pursued the job because of its ample solitude. From the article “A Clock Restorer Makes Time for Solitude”:
“The clocks at the palaces were all mostly broken, or at least they seemed to be in very bad shape,” she said. “I thought if I could learn this job, I could be by myself, listen to music, read books, not be completely hermetic but maybe 90 percent,” she said smiling. “It seemed wonderful to me.”
…“I enjoy being a clock restorer, to make a life that is different from that of other people,” Ms. Gurbuz said. “But mostly I love my job because it has helped me make this dream of a life, to work alone.”
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/fashion/a-clock-restorer-makes-time-for-solitude.html
North Pond “hermit” interviewed
GQ or Gentleman’s Quarterly has published an article by Michael Finkel about Christopher Knight, the so-called North Pond Hermit, who was arrested in April 2014 for stealing from Maine summer camps in the vicinity for 27 years. The article is titled “The Strange Tale of the North Pond Hermit” and is published in the September 2014 issue. The Bangor Maine News has a succinct summary.
The article is based on interviews that are the first public statements of Knight, who insists he was not a hermit but a thief, and indicates that he will have a hard time adjusting to society upon his release from jail, for he is obliged to retain a job and to stay out of the woods. From the Bangor Maine News:
“Sitting here in jail, I don’t like what I see in the society I’m about to enter,” Knight told Finkel. “I don’t think I’m going to fit in. It’s too loud. Too colorful. The lack of aesthetics. The crudeness. The inanities. The trivia.”
URLs (GQ): http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201409/the-last-true-hermit;
(Bangor Maine News): https://bangordailynews.com/2014/08/20/outdoors/north-pond-hermit-tells-gq-people-want-me-to-be-this-warm-and-fuzzy-person/