11 ms·

The Strange and Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit

383 points by randomwalker 12y ago

riemannzeta 12y ago
This guy is more worthy of admiration and emulation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke
- shimshim 12y ago
  He was not a true hermit. He received supplies from outside yearly and brought his own tools with him - minus handles,e tc. However, Alone in the Wilderness is a fascinating watch and I recommend it for anyone who wants to see what living and working in the wild, alone, making your own tools.
personlurking 12y ago
He may have lived in an uninhabited place but it seems, considering the amount and variety of stuff he stole, his mind was almost constantly inhabited by the modern world.
- PhasmaFelis 12y ago
  Doesn't sound like either the amount or the variety was exceptional, given that he was living off of what he stole. Food, clothes, books seems to be the bulk of it; I doubt he had to replace that tent very often, for example.
  - personlurking 12y ago
    Perhaps exceptional for hermit standards (though I admit I don't rightly know what those would be). "He'd fled the modern world only to live off the fat of it." Among the items: metal bedframe, toilet paper and hand sanitizer, laundry detergent and shampoo, Coleman two-burner stove connected to propane tanks, deodorant, disposable razors, flashlights, snow boots, spices, mousetraps, spray paint, and electrical tape, pillows, three different types of thermometers (digital, mercury, spring-loaded), watches, radios and earphones (conservative talk radio, Everybody Loves Raymond, Who, AC/DC, Judas Priest, and Lynyrd Skynyrd), handheld video games (Pokémon, Tetris, Dig Dug), hundreds of books and magazines.
    - j1o1h1n 12y ago
      There have been many hermits to compare him with but my favourite is Simeon Stylites who spent 47 years on a pillar. ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Stylites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Stylites
      - stef25 12y ago
        Mount Athos in Greece (which you can visit if you're male) still has "hermitages" of Orthodox priests. Google turns up a few nice images. See also this short article http://www.robertsemeniuk.com/mount_athos.html http://www.robertsemeniuk.com/mount_athos.html
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
    - PhasmaFelis 12y ago
      Yeah, it looks like I somehow missed the bit that cataloged his possessions.
    - hyp0 12y ago
      He fled people, not the world.
      - smacktoward 12y ago
        But you can't get the one without the other. Nature does not produce disposable razors and Coleman stoves; people do.
- dotrob 12y ago
  I'd love to read his account of how he interpreted the increasingly digital and electronic items he encountered during his burglaries: flat screen TVs; computers; ever smaller radios, flashlights, calculators; thermostats; microwave ovens; clocks. He had some education in electronics, so it seems he must have spent some time, even a little bit, reflecting on the technological changes he witnesses as an outside observer.
sixQuarks 12y ago
fascinating read. With 7 billion people in this world, it never ceases to amaze me the different types of experiences humans have had. I also just finished listening to the latest "Hardcore History" podcast regarding WWI. Holy shit, what crazy things humans have done/experienced.
- mr_luc 12y ago
  I highly recommend both "Storm of Steel" (best first-person view of the war) and "Dreadnought" (best telling of the majestic story of the runup to the war).
  - cafard 12y ago
    Just finished The Sleepwalkers about the diplomatic and political maneuvers from about 1900 on. I would strongly recommend Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory for reflections on the writing that came out of and around the war.
joeyspn 12y ago
Why is that article dated on September 2014?
- seren 12y ago
  The article will probably be in the September issue of the printed magazine. This pretty common in the paper world.
  - patrickyeon 12y ago
    That doesn't even need to be future tense. The "September issue" often means the "display until September" issue for periodicals.
- jvagner 12y ago
  I find your question hard to believe.
ithought 12y ago
I marvel out how perfect this story is in various ways. No real resolution to it, no motive, no discernible point. The unfolding of it all and the brutally abrupt ending; "We are not friends", seemed predictable shocking and sad at the same time. Interestingly, the journalist has an upcoming movie where he's played by Jonah Hill. A fugitive murderer had used his name as an alias and through that, he'd developed a relationship with him and interviewed him after the person was convicted.
GotAnyMegadeth 12y ago
You could argue that he missed out on a lot of the amazing things about modern life, you could argue that we are missing out on many of the things of a solitary life in the forest. Either way, I'm glad that he didn't miss out on one of the most important things about modern life: Pokémon.
arjn 12y ago
Very nice article and writing - and a great subject. To wander the woods all day, read when you want, To be free of all connections, to not even need a name. There is something to it. Oh ..and Rudyard Kipling ... wonderful.
- andregoiano 12y ago
  Just like Christopher McCandless, he searched for some privacy and isolation in the remote corners of America.
yuvalo 12y ago
"You speak like a book, one inmate teased."
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
kingkawn 12y ago
Kickstart an LLC that employs him to maintain his camping ground alone, a privately funded forest ranger. Satisfy the terms of the court decision while allowing him to return to his place and live in peace with supplies provided at a drop site.
coldcode 12y ago
There are many times in life where you wonder if you would be better living alone outside of the regular world. This guy actually did it. I would go insane if I was alone for more than a few weeks.
- keithpeter 12y ago
  Its OK for about a week or 10 days. Then you need to return to maintain normality. I did hang out on my own when I was younger, but never longer than a couple of weeks. This is UK, very high popn density place. Knowing that there are people to go back to is really important of course. I wonder about the rough sleepers who have no-one sometimes.
wglb 12y ago
A remarkable article. The author of this has written a number of other spellbinding articles: http://www.gq.com/contributors/michael-finkel http://www.gq.com/contributors/michael-finkel
- kqr2 12y ago
  For reference, Michael Finkel was fired from the New York Times for fabricating a character in a story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Finkel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Finkel From the description of his book "True Story": http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Murder-Memoir-Culpa/dp/B002ACPMKO http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Murder-Memoir-Culpa/dp/B002... In 2002, Finkel, a rising star at the Times, was fired for fabricating a character in a story about child laborers in Africa
soneca 12y ago
"I did examine myself," he said. "Solitude did increase my perception. But here's the tricky thing—when I applied my increased perception to myself, I lost my identity. With no audience, no one to perform for, I was just there. There was no need to define myself; I became irrelevant. The moon was the minute hand, the seasons the hour hand. I didn't even have a name. I never felt lonely. To put it romantically: I was completely free." This part resonated a lot to me. I consider self-awareness one of my qualities. But I too feel like the more I try and understand myself, the more distanced of the world I am. If I micro-analyze every reaction I have, I miss the point to connect to another person. I take myself out of society. I found out that being defined by another person is a good thing for me. Particurlaly by people I love. I want to naturally be the person that made people I love love me.
- personlurking 12y ago
  Would you say your response is rooted more in your own personality or the fact you're from, according to your profile, what's considered a hyper-social culture (Brazil)?
  - soneca 12y ago
    It is hard to determine that by myself. I think it is also hard to determine how much different on their essence are people from different cultures. Said that, I think it is more rooted in my own personality. I have good social skills, but I consider myself an introspective person. I always liked the silence, I don't care about small talk, I enjoy eating by myself, thinking for hours alone, etc. So my personality would be in opposition to the brazilian culture in general, in this sense. So I could see how our culture can be inapropiate some times. But after a time, I decided that there was more happiness in being part of a society than in being totally focused on myself. That dichotomy that is not obvious at first and me and the Hermit arrived at a similar conclusion. The diference is that he is happier opting out of society and I am happier opting in. Not that I betray my nature. I still enjoy a lot my moments alone. But I learned to see the value in connecting with another person, in developing empathy, not just self-awareness.
- pinkyand 12y ago
ilamont 12y ago
Did this remind anyone else of the Satoshi Nakamoto outing (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7353283 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7353283)? Journalist befriends recluse, turns it into a magazine story.
- qzxvwt 12y ago
  Truth-finding and ethics in journalism is really interesting. "The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_journalism#Codes_of_practice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_journalism#Codes_of_p... But what if "providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues" requires lying/manipulation? "Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible." Janet Malcolm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journalist_and_the_Murderer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journalist_and_the_Murderer
- gwern 12y ago
  I don't see much of a connection. The problem with the Leah outing was that it was based on very weak and apparently distorted evidence. (And how exactly did she 'befriend a recluse'?) No one, least of all the hermit, denies what he did.
- andyakb 12y ago
  In the author's first letter to Christopher Knight, he told him that he was a journalist
hyp0 12y ago
The moon was the minute hand, the seasons the hour hand. Guy can write. Once his weekly obligation ends, he could make it work with a source of income as a writer, using a smartphone, bluetooth keyboard, solar panel, and get near a cell phone tower. Without rent and utils, he needs much less money than usual. Order groceries etc online, so he can remain isolated (and of course hunt/fish). Or write a book, invest, live on interest in the woods. He wouldn't really like having to write, but he admires good writing, and if it would grant contentment... See also, coding in the woods http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/cottage_computer_programming.php* http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/cottage_computer_programmi...
- thaumaturgy 12y ago
  A person writes because they have something to say. He does not believe he has anything to say.
- jkaunisv1 12y ago
  That couplet hammered me in the heart. It was the best part of the article.
- pp19dd 12y ago
  Always awesome to see an outlier, and one removed from our busy lives. I can't help but romanticize living far from others (though, in a cabin- for some good eyecandy, see the 'cabin porn' tumblr.) But, having read this a second time, the part that I definitely didn't appreciate is the burglaries. There are plenty of people who homestead (low-cost, off the grid) just fine without instilling fear into their communities (IMO, despite being a hermit, he did have a community by definition of pillaging them to survive.) Many people escape the busy life and it works for them. Plenty of them blog about it. Martha from Canada: "I fondly remember an old friend saying that he would never live in a place that had a traffic report." Her latest blog posts are a selection process for which chickens get put on the chopping block. Others write about getting new wood stoves, or photographing piles of wood they chopped for the winter. No one blogs about burglarizing cabins.
bmj 12y ago
Reminds me a bit of the story of the Russian family that lived in a remote section of the Siberian taiga: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian-family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/?no-ist http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russ... Granted, they weren't alone (it was a family), but they truly lived a hermit's existence, even when they were discovered by geologists.
grecy 12y ago
> He was never happy in his youth—not in high school, not with a job, not being around other people. Then he discovered his camp in the woods. "I found a place where I was content," he said. His own perfect spot. The only place in the world he felt at peace. This resonates very strongly with me personally. So much so, I traveled to Alaska and hiked into "The Magic Bus" of Chris McCandless/Into The Wild fame [1]. From there, I spent 2 years driving to Argentina, sleeping out in my tent as often as possible. I'd often go a week without seeing or talking to another person, two weeks when I found somewhere remote enough. Since then I've moved to the Yukon, where I've met some very interesting characters. One guy, in Dawson City, lives in a cave across the Yukon River from town. He has a second cave full of chickens, and he sells the eggs in town to make enough money to pay for food/beer. He boats across the river in summer and walks across the river for 7 months of the year. I once again feel the pull, and I'm heavily planning my next trip - 2 years around Africa, hopefully getting as remote as possible. With luck, that will lead into a 2 year Europe->SE Asia trip, once again camping and hiking as much as possible. [1] http://theroadchoseme.com/the-magic-bus http://theroadchoseme.com/the-magic-bus
- keithpeter 12y ago
  "With luck, that will lead into a 2 year Europe->SE Asia trip" Plenty of people, high population density, enjoy that don't do a McCandless!!!
  - grecy 12y ago
    I'll be sticking to the least populated countries and areas possible.. the 'Stans, Mongolia, Eastern Russia, etc.
- vacri 12y ago
  Ironically, you can also find isolation in the heart of cities. A lot of mentally ill people become homeless in order to find that isolation, that release from social requirements. Yes, you see people, so aren't literally physically isolated, but you're not seen yourself.
  - 12y ago
gre 12y ago
Chris Knight was the name of Val Kilmer's character in Real Genius.
comrade1 12y ago
Did he not have a sex drive? I just can't imagine an existence like that, without sex. I'm about 1/2 through the article.
- jqm 12y ago
  You must not have come to the part about the stolen Playboy magazines yet....
- archagon 12y ago
  Many people live without sex (or even masturbation), including for religious reasons, and have throughout history. The idea that sex is some sort of carnal "need" like hunger feels like a very modern one. I find it odd that people tend not to question it.
pthreads 12y ago
Who is to say he is the last true hermit? There could be several in this world. We just don't know.
daveslash 12y ago
Being someone who grew up in Maine, not too far from there, spending hours upon hours as a young child, alone exploring acres and square-miles of woods - what struck me the _most_ was "whoah, the boogie man WAS real all those years...."
keithpeter 12y ago
OP reminded me of this http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-09-25/news/sky-writer/full/ http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-09-25/news/sky-writer/fu... And this http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/contemporary-prose-on-essex-the-edge-of-the-orison-in-the-traces-of-john-clares-journey-out-of-essex-by-iain-sinclair/ http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/contemporary-prose-o... Fugue? Small scale stroke? Or just a need to quieten the brain? Has this man had a neurological examination of any kind?
grownseed 12y ago
Many, many times have I considered isolating myself, separating myself from the seemingly vacuous concerns of a society riddled with senseless traditions, layers upon layers of societal band-aids and pointless struggles over ridiculously subjective arguments. I spent most of my life being disgusted by the frivolity of most people's desires and qualms, and for this reason, I feel I deeply understand why Chris Knight did what he did. No reason, no justification, no particular aim, just life. While I still catch myself wishing for such a life, I realized I could not blame or reject what I do not actively participate in. Furthermore, I came to the conclusion, possibly wrongly, that a life worth living is a life worth sharing, that society will always be able to offer you more than you can offer it. I now believe that the solution is not to reject society, nor be tied by its requirements or norms, but rather behave as a free agent, with independence, compassion and mental fortitude. Law, Economy, Politics, Religion, Science, Technology, ... are, in my opinion, mere relics and artifacts of thousands of years of civilization, localized attempts at guiding the seemingly mis-guided, while becoming eventually meaningless in the grand scheme of things. These civilized relics are not necessarily bad, but as with anything else attachment becomes the issue. While becoming a hermit is possibly the quickest way of severing those ties, attachment is the burden of the mind, not of society at large. Isolation diminishes, or even wipes attachment issues altogether, but it does not resolve them. This might come across as preachy, though it certainly isn't my intention, I simply wanted to share my view with anybody who, like I used to, wishes for isolation as a remedy.
- mcs 12y ago
  I've had a recurring dream of building a little shack out in the woods and I've constantly wondered if the Ted Kaczynski would have turned so dark with modern access to the internet.
  - xnull 12y ago
    Kaczynski's case was very complicated by the experiments he was a victim of and his retreat into the certainty of his own internal logic. Kaczynski with internet is an interesting thought - though I'm not sure whether I would expect things to have turned better or worse. Interestingly, Kaczynski is alive and does send and receive mail. One curious enough could ask his perspective.
zem 12y ago
as a kipling fan, he was almost certain to have read "the miracle of purun bhagat" [http://www.hermitary.com/literature/kipling.html http://www.hermitary.com/literature/kipling.html]. i would have loved to see his opinion of it.
lazyeye 12y ago
For anyone for whom this story resonated, this book is well worth a read:- An Island to Oneself http://www.amazon.com/An-Island-Oneself-Tom-Neale/dp/0918024765/ http://www.amazon.com/An-Island-Oneself-Tom-Neale/dp/0918024... More info on Tom Neale:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Neale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Neale
- webnrrd2k 12y ago
  One to add to the reading list: Ordinary People As Monks & Mystics: Lifestyles for Spiritual Wholeness by Marsha Sinetar http://books.google.com/books?id=hxzvdKqddzQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ordinary+People+As+Monks+%26+Mystics:+Lifestyles+for+Spiritual+Wholeness+Paperback+%E2%80%93+May+14,+2007+by+Marsha+Sinetar&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2Jb2U8jDN5bcoASix4KgCg&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=hxzvdKqddzQC&printsec=front...
suprgeek 12y ago
If you want to put faces to names mentioned: http://www.pressherald.com/2013/04/09/north-pond-hermit-suspect-in-more-than-1000-burglaries-captured/ http://www.pressherald.com/2013/04/09/north-pond-hermit-susp...
contingencies 12y ago
自然: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziran 樸: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu_%28Daoism%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu_%28Daoism%29

383 points by randomwalker 12y ago

This guy is more worthy of admiration and emulation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke

shimshim 12y ago
He was not a true hermit. He received supplies from outside yearly and brought his own tools with him - minus handles,e tc. However, Alone in the Wilderness is a fascinating watch and I recommend it for anyone who wants to see what living and working in the wild, alone, making your own tools.

personlurking 12y ago

He may have lived in an uninhabited place but it seems, considering the amount and variety of stuff he stole, his mind was almost constantly inhabited by the modern world.

PhasmaFelis 12y ago
Doesn't sound like either the amount or the variety was exceptional, given that he was living off of what he stole. Food, clothes, books seems to be the bulk of it; I doubt he had to replace that tent very often, for example.
- personlurking 12y ago
  Perhaps exceptional for hermit standards (though I admit I don't rightly know what those would be). "He'd fled the modern world only to live off the fat of it." Among the items: metal bedframe, toilet paper and hand sanitizer, laundry detergent and shampoo, Coleman two-burner stove connected to propane tanks, deodorant, disposable razors, flashlights, snow boots, spices, mousetraps, spray paint, and electrical tape, pillows, three different types of thermometers (digital, mercury, spring-loaded), watches, radios and earphones (conservative talk radio, Everybody Loves Raymond, Who, AC/DC, Judas Priest, and Lynyrd Skynyrd), handheld video games (Pokémon, Tetris, Dig Dug), hundreds of books and magazines.
  - j1o1h1n 12y ago
    There have been many hermits to compare him with but my favourite is Simeon Stylites who spent 47 years on a pillar. ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Stylites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_Stylites
    - stef25 12y ago
      Mount Athos in Greece (which you can visit if you're male) still has "hermitages" of Orthodox priests. Google turns up a few nice images. See also this short article http://www.robertsemeniuk.com/mount_athos.html http://www.robertsemeniuk.com/mount_athos.html
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
  - PhasmaFelis 12y ago
    Yeah, it looks like I somehow missed the bit that cataloged his possessions.
  - hyp0 12y ago
    He fled people, not the world.
    - smacktoward 12y ago
      But you can't get the one without the other. Nature does not produce disposable razors and Coleman stoves; people do.
dotrob 12y ago
I'd love to read his account of how he interpreted the increasingly digital and electronic items he encountered during his burglaries: flat screen TVs; computers; ever smaller radios, flashlights, calculators; thermostats; microwave ovens; clocks. He had some education in electronics, so it seems he must have spent some time, even a little bit, reflecting on the technological changes he witnesses as an outside observer.

sixQuarks 12y ago

fascinating read. With 7 billion people in this world, it never ceases to amaze me the different types of experiences humans have had. I also just finished listening to the latest "Hardcore History" podcast regarding WWI. Holy shit, what crazy things humans have done/experienced.

mr_luc 12y ago
I highly recommend both "Storm of Steel" (best first-person view of the war) and "Dreadnought" (best telling of the majestic story of the runup to the war).
- cafard 12y ago
  Just finished The Sleepwalkers about the diplomatic and political maneuvers from about 1900 on. I would strongly recommend Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory for reflections on the writing that came out of and around the war.

joeyspn 12y ago

Why is that article dated on September 2014?

seren 12y ago
The article will probably be in the September issue of the printed magazine. This pretty common in the paper world.
- patrickyeon 12y ago
  That doesn't even need to be future tense. The "September issue" often means the "display until September" issue for periodicals.
jvagner 12y ago
I find your question hard to believe.

ithought 12y ago

I marvel out how perfect this story is in various ways. No real resolution to it, no motive, no discernible point. The unfolding of it all and the brutally abrupt ending; "We are not friends", seemed predictable shocking and sad at the same time. Interestingly, the journalist has an upcoming movie where he's played by Jonah Hill. A fugitive murderer had used his name as an alias and through that, he'd developed a relationship with him and interviewed him after the person was convicted.

GotAnyMegadeth 12y ago

You could argue that he missed out on a lot of the amazing things about modern life, you could argue that we are missing out on many of the things of a solitary life in the forest. Either way, I'm glad that he didn't miss out on one of the most important things about modern life: Pokémon.

arjn 12y ago

Very nice article and writing - and a great subject. To wander the woods all day, read when you want, To be free of all connections, to not even need a name. There is something to it. Oh ..and Rudyard Kipling ... wonderful.

andregoiano 12y ago
Just like Christopher McCandless, he searched for some privacy and isolation in the remote corners of America.

yuvalo 12y ago

"You speak like a book, one inmate teased."

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

kingkawn 12y ago

Kickstart an LLC that employs him to maintain his camping ground alone, a privately funded forest ranger. Satisfy the terms of the court decision while allowing him to return to his place and live in peace with supplies provided at a drop site.

coldcode 12y ago

There are many times in life where you wonder if you would be better living alone outside of the regular world. This guy actually did it. I would go insane if I was alone for more than a few weeks.

keithpeter 12y ago
Its OK for about a week or 10 days. Then you need to return to maintain normality. I did hang out on my own when I was younger, but never longer than a couple of weeks. This is UK, very high popn density place. Knowing that there are people to go back to is really important of course. I wonder about the rough sleepers who have no-one sometimes.

wglb 12y ago

A remarkable article. The author of this has written a number of other spellbinding articles: http://www.gq.com/contributors/michael-finkel http://www.gq.com/contributors/michael-finkel

kqr2 12y ago
For reference, Michael Finkel was fired from the New York Times for fabricating a character in a story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Finkel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Finkel From the description of his book "True Story": http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Murder-Memoir-Culpa/dp/B002ACPMKO http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Murder-Memoir-Culpa/dp/B002... In 2002, Finkel, a rising star at the Times, was fired for fabricating a character in a story about child laborers in Africa

soneca 12y ago

"I did examine myself," he said. "Solitude did increase my perception. But here's the tricky thing—when I applied my increased perception to myself, I lost my identity. With no audience, no one to perform for, I was just there. There was no need to define myself; I became irrelevant. The moon was the minute hand, the seasons the hour hand. I didn't even have a name. I never felt lonely. To put it romantically: I was completely free." This part resonated a lot to me. I consider self-awareness one of my qualities. But I too feel like the more I try and understand myself, the more distanced of the world I am. If I micro-analyze every reaction I have, I miss the point to connect to another person. I take myself out of society. I found out that being defined by another person is a good thing for me. Particurlaly by people I love. I want to naturally be the person that made people I love love me.

personlurking 12y ago
Would you say your response is rooted more in your own personality or the fact you're from, according to your profile, what's considered a hyper-social culture (Brazil)?
- soneca 12y ago
  It is hard to determine that by myself. I think it is also hard to determine how much different on their essence are people from different cultures. Said that, I think it is more rooted in my own personality. I have good social skills, but I consider myself an introspective person. I always liked the silence, I don't care about small talk, I enjoy eating by myself, thinking for hours alone, etc. So my personality would be in opposition to the brazilian culture in general, in this sense. So I could see how our culture can be inapropiate some times. But after a time, I decided that there was more happiness in being part of a society than in being totally focused on myself. That dichotomy that is not obvious at first and me and the Hermit arrived at a similar conclusion. The diference is that he is happier opting out of society and I am happier opting in. Not that I betray my nature. I still enjoy a lot my moments alone. But I learned to see the value in connecting with another person, in developing empathy, not just self-awareness.
pinkyand 12y ago

ilamont 12y ago

Did this remind anyone else of the Satoshi Nakamoto outing (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7353283 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7353283)? Journalist befriends recluse, turns it into a magazine story.

qzxvwt 12y ago
Truth-finding and ethics in journalism is really interesting. "The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_journalism#Codes_of_practice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_journalism#Codes_of_p... But what if "providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues" requires lying/manipulation? "Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible." Janet Malcolm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journalist_and_the_Murderer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journalist_and_the_Murderer
gwern 12y ago
I don't see much of a connection. The problem with the Leah outing was that it was based on very weak and apparently distorted evidence. (And how exactly did she 'befriend a recluse'?) No one, least of all the hermit, denies what he did.
andyakb 12y ago
In the author's first letter to Christopher Knight, he told him that he was a journalist

hyp0 12y ago

The moon was the minute hand, the seasons the hour hand. Guy can write. Once his weekly obligation ends, he could make it work with a source of income as a writer, using a smartphone, bluetooth keyboard, solar panel, and get near a cell phone tower. Without rent and utils, he needs much less money than usual. Order groceries etc online, so he can remain isolated (and of course hunt/fish). Or write a book, invest, live on interest in the woods. He wouldn't really like having to write, but he admires good writing, and if it would grant contentment... See also, coding in the woods http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/cottage_computer_programming.php* http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/cottage_computer_programmi...

thaumaturgy 12y ago
A person writes because they have something to say. He does not believe he has anything to say.
jkaunisv1 12y ago
That couplet hammered me in the heart. It was the best part of the article.
pp19dd 12y ago
Always awesome to see an outlier, and one removed from our busy lives. I can't help but romanticize living far from others (though, in a cabin- for some good eyecandy, see the 'cabin porn' tumblr.) But, having read this a second time, the part that I definitely didn't appreciate is the burglaries. There are plenty of people who homestead (low-cost, off the grid) just fine without instilling fear into their communities (IMO, despite being a hermit, he did have a community by definition of pillaging them to survive.) Many people escape the busy life and it works for them. Plenty of them blog about it. Martha from Canada: "I fondly remember an old friend saying that he would never live in a place that had a traffic report." Her latest blog posts are a selection process for which chickens get put on the chopping block. Others write about getting new wood stoves, or photographing piles of wood they chopped for the winter. No one blogs about burglarizing cabins.

bmj 12y ago

Reminds me a bit of the story of the Russian family that lived in a remote section of the Siberian taiga: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian-family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/?no-ist http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russ... Granted, they weren't alone (it was a family), but they truly lived a hermit's existence, even when they were discovered by geologists.

grecy 12y ago

> He was never happy in his youth—not in high school, not with a job, not being around other people. Then he discovered his camp in the woods. "I found a place where I was content," he said. His own perfect spot. The only place in the world he felt at peace. This resonates very strongly with me personally. So much so, I traveled to Alaska and hiked into "The Magic Bus" of Chris McCandless/Into The Wild fame [1]. From there, I spent 2 years driving to Argentina, sleeping out in my tent as often as possible. I'd often go a week without seeing or talking to another person, two weeks when I found somewhere remote enough. Since then I've moved to the Yukon, where I've met some very interesting characters. One guy, in Dawson City, lives in a cave across the Yukon River from town. He has a second cave full of chickens, and he sells the eggs in town to make enough money to pay for food/beer. He boats across the river in summer and walks across the river for 7 months of the year. I once again feel the pull, and I'm heavily planning my next trip - 2 years around Africa, hopefully getting as remote as possible. With luck, that will lead into a 2 year Europe->SE Asia trip, once again camping and hiking as much as possible. [1] http://theroadchoseme.com/the-magic-bus http://theroadchoseme.com/the-magic-bus

keithpeter 12y ago
"With luck, that will lead into a 2 year Europe->SE Asia trip" Plenty of people, high population density, enjoy that don't do a McCandless!!!
- grecy 12y ago
  I'll be sticking to the least populated countries and areas possible.. the 'Stans, Mongolia, Eastern Russia, etc.
vacri 12y ago
Ironically, you can also find isolation in the heart of cities. A lot of mentally ill people become homeless in order to find that isolation, that release from social requirements. Yes, you see people, so aren't literally physically isolated, but you're not seen yourself.
- 12y ago

gre 12y ago

Chris Knight was the name of Val Kilmer's character in Real Genius.

comrade1 12y ago

Did he not have a sex drive? I just can't imagine an existence like that, without sex. I'm about 1/2 through the article.

jqm 12y ago
You must not have come to the part about the stolen Playboy magazines yet....
archagon 12y ago
Many people live without sex (or even masturbation), including for religious reasons, and have throughout history. The idea that sex is some sort of carnal "need" like hunger feels like a very modern one. I find it odd that people tend not to question it.

pthreads 12y ago

Who is to say he is the last true hermit? There could be several in this world. We just don't know.

daveslash 12y ago

Being someone who grew up in Maine, not too far from there, spending hours upon hours as a young child, alone exploring acres and square-miles of woods - what struck me the _most_ was "whoah, the boogie man WAS real all those years...."

keithpeter 12y ago

OP reminded me of this http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-09-25/news/sky-writer/full/ http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-09-25/news/sky-writer/fu... And this http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/contemporary-prose-on-essex-the-edge-of-the-orison-in-the-traces-of-john-clares-journey-out-of-essex-by-iain-sinclair/ http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/contemporary-prose-o... Fugue? Small scale stroke? Or just a need to quieten the brain? Has this man had a neurological examination of any kind?

grownseed 12y ago

Many, many times have I considered isolating myself, separating myself from the seemingly vacuous concerns of a society riddled with senseless traditions, layers upon layers of societal band-aids and pointless struggles over ridiculously subjective arguments. I spent most of my life being disgusted by the frivolity of most people's desires and qualms, and for this reason, I feel I deeply understand why Chris Knight did what he did. No reason, no justification, no particular aim, just life. While I still catch myself wishing for such a life, I realized I could not blame or reject what I do not actively participate in. Furthermore, I came to the conclusion, possibly wrongly, that a life worth living is a life worth sharing, that society will always be able to offer you more than you can offer it. I now believe that the solution is not to reject society, nor be tied by its requirements or norms, but rather behave as a free agent, with independence, compassion and mental fortitude. Law, Economy, Politics, Religion, Science, Technology, ... are, in my opinion, mere relics and artifacts of thousands of years of civilization, localized attempts at guiding the seemingly mis-guided, while becoming eventually meaningless in the grand scheme of things. These civilized relics are not necessarily bad, but as with anything else attachment becomes the issue. While becoming a hermit is possibly the quickest way of severing those ties, attachment is the burden of the mind, not of society at large. Isolation diminishes, or even wipes attachment issues altogether, but it does not resolve them. This might come across as preachy, though it certainly isn't my intention, I simply wanted to share my view with anybody who, like I used to, wishes for isolation as a remedy.

mcs 12y ago
I've had a recurring dream of building a little shack out in the woods and I've constantly wondered if the Ted Kaczynski would have turned so dark with modern access to the internet.
- xnull 12y ago
  Kaczynski's case was very complicated by the experiments he was a victim of and his retreat into the certainty of his own internal logic. Kaczynski with internet is an interesting thought - though I'm not sure whether I would expect things to have turned better or worse. Interestingly, Kaczynski is alive and does send and receive mail. One curious enough could ask his perspective.

zem 12y ago

as a kipling fan, he was almost certain to have read "the miracle of purun bhagat" [http://www.hermitary.com/literature/kipling.html http://www.hermitary.com/literature/kipling.html]. i would have loved to see his opinion of it.

lazyeye 12y ago

For anyone for whom this story resonated, this book is well worth a read:- An Island to Oneself http://www.amazon.com/An-Island-Oneself-Tom-Neale/dp/0918024765/ http://www.amazon.com/An-Island-Oneself-Tom-Neale/dp/0918024... More info on Tom Neale:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Neale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Neale

webnrrd2k 12y ago
One to add to the reading list: Ordinary People As Monks & Mystics: Lifestyles for Spiritual Wholeness by Marsha Sinetar http://books.google.com/books?id=hxzvdKqddzQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ordinary+People+As+Monks+%26+Mystics:+Lifestyles+for+Spiritual+Wholeness+Paperback+%E2%80%93+May+14,+2007+by+Marsha+Sinetar&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2Jb2U8jDN5bcoASix4KgCg&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=hxzvdKqddzQC&printsec=front...

suprgeek 12y ago

If you want to put faces to names mentioned: http://www.pressherald.com/2013/04/09/north-pond-hermit-suspect-in-more-than-1000-burglaries-captured/ http://www.pressherald.com/2013/04/09/north-pond-hermit-susp...

contingencies 12y ago

自然: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziran 樸: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu_%28Daoism%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu_%28Daoism%29