5 ms·

"garden hermit" is a very interesting and evocative phrase. Where is that from?

mrtksn 2y ago
It's a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_hermit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_hermit In the past, in Europe, some wealthy people used to look after of a scholar living on their premises so they can ask them questions etc.
- Mistletoe 2y ago
  This is so strange, my girlfriend was just telling me about those yesterday. The word “ornamental hermit” fills me with about as much disgust as I can experience. > Later, suggestions of hermits were replaced with actual hermits – men hired for the sole purpose of inhabiting a small structure and functioning as any other garden ornament.
- noduerme 2y ago
  aha, this is really something. I just got around to watching "Furiosa" last night. So something like having a personal "history man" (although, my take on the whole Mad Max series is that it's just bottled up fear-porn about white settlers going uncivilized and becoming "tribal" - a colonial horror tale, "The Heart of Darkness" with motorcycles - common anywhere a relatively small group spread themselves out on a lot of ill-gotten land, did some nasty deeds and lost touch with the mothership). In the Furiosa context, it's a bit like a medicine man or shaman, then. A private, unreliable source of verbal hand me downs, whose main utility is to make elites feel like they have access to knowledge without needing to acquire it for themselves or question its veracity. We really are entering a new dark age.
  - mycall 2y ago
    > We really are entering a new dark age. All the indicators are there: Instead of leaders like Charlemagne who unified the Frankish domain, stabilized society, and promoted education and culture, we now have leaders who want to dismantle society, education and use culture for wars. Long-distance ocean trade routes since the 1950s have taken international commerce to another level for humans, but this is being challenged now by aging/leaking tankers, unruly piracy at transit choke points, communication cable destruction, etc. Loss of interest in classical learning and the arts where dystopian, murder or horror movies, music and books now are the best sellers as WW3 seems to be on many people's minds now. While innovations are still occurring for improved navigation and agricultural productivity, the Earth's ecosystem collapse is in full effect. I wish it could reversed somehow.
- rsynnott 2y ago
  > The one at Painshill, hired by The Hon. Charles Hamilton for a seven-year term under strict conditions, lasted three weeks until he was sacked after being discovered in a local pub I mean, fair. Very bad hermit-ing. (Terry Pratchett has a fun parody of this in one of the Discworld books; the garden hermit gets two weeks' holidays a year, which he spends in a large city.)

It's a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_hermit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_hermit In the past, in Europe, some wealthy people used to look after of a scholar living on their premises so they can ask them questions etc.

Mistletoe 2y ago
This is so strange, my girlfriend was just telling me about those yesterday. The word “ornamental hermit” fills me with about as much disgust as I can experience. > Later, suggestions of hermits were replaced with actual hermits – men hired for the sole purpose of inhabiting a small structure and functioning as any other garden ornament.
noduerme 2y ago
aha, this is really something. I just got around to watching "Furiosa" last night. So something like having a personal "history man" (although, my take on the whole Mad Max series is that it's just bottled up fear-porn about white settlers going uncivilized and becoming "tribal" - a colonial horror tale, "The Heart of Darkness" with motorcycles - common anywhere a relatively small group spread themselves out on a lot of ill-gotten land, did some nasty deeds and lost touch with the mothership). In the Furiosa context, it's a bit like a medicine man or shaman, then. A private, unreliable source of verbal hand me downs, whose main utility is to make elites feel like they have access to knowledge without needing to acquire it for themselves or question its veracity. We really are entering a new dark age.
- mycall 2y ago
  > We really are entering a new dark age. All the indicators are there: Instead of leaders like Charlemagne who unified the Frankish domain, stabilized society, and promoted education and culture, we now have leaders who want to dismantle society, education and use culture for wars. Long-distance ocean trade routes since the 1950s have taken international commerce to another level for humans, but this is being challenged now by aging/leaking tankers, unruly piracy at transit choke points, communication cable destruction, etc. Loss of interest in classical learning and the arts where dystopian, murder or horror movies, music and books now are the best sellers as WW3 seems to be on many people's minds now. While innovations are still occurring for improved navigation and agricultural productivity, the Earth's ecosystem collapse is in full effect. I wish it could reversed somehow.
rsynnott 2y ago
> The one at Painshill, hired by The Hon. Charles Hamilton for a seven-year term under strict conditions, lasted three weeks until he was sacked after being discovered in a local pub I mean, fair. Very bad hermit-ing. (Terry Pratchett has a fun parody of this in one of the Discworld books; the garden hermit gets two weeks' holidays a year, which he spends in a large city.)