Comments on: Being a Hermit Sounds Kind of Cool, Actually.

By: Julian

Julian — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:23:27 +0000

Hello Folks!

My appologies first, didn’t know this was a strictly female web-site, so please accept my applogies. Have to empapathise with all the above. I’ve lived happily most of my life as a hermit of one sort or another, I even lived in small monestaries as a Pujari/sadhu for four years in Uttar Prasdesh in Northan India, I did so from 18 years of age to 22 years of age and loved every minute of it! But alas! Life is not that simple here in the UK, but it is not impossible to live as a hermit, I still am one at 33 years of age. Currently I’m studying Diagnostic Radiography, I wear a shirt and tie to Uni and everyone thinks I’m a ponce! And I don’t care! Imagine what they would think if I wore something I would consider more appropriate as a hermit. In my case, old military gear or good work wear to keep out the cold, I often carry a sheath knife and an axe, sometimes I even wonder around with a horse on loan planning my escape. In all honesty, living the way I do isn’t that bad, I’ve worked for many years in the NHS and I’m seeing a sharp rise in alcholism and abuse of every kind! Especially amongst the females, I’ve seen it all in A&E at a restless and busy city hospital and nothing surprises me! So the call you feel in your hearts to get away is the herd like responce to fight or flight!

I prefer flight, I generally dislike people because I’m a self confessed snob, I think most people are rude and brash so I prefer what God made for us all.

‘Thy Lord is Thy Shepard, I shall not want but to lie in pastures green.’

By: A Room of One’s Own: Part Two - The Pursuit of Harpyness

A Room of One’s Own: Part Two - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:02:00 +0000

[...] But for the first seven years I lived in New York, I lived in a building where I didn’t really know my neighbors beyond an occasional “hi there.” My friends were scattered around the five boroughs, and they reported feeling similarly estranged from their immediate neighbors. Urban life is often alienating, leaving people socially disconnected in spite of close physical proximity. We’ve come a long way from the days when people tended to stay within a few miles of where they were born. That eminent observer of human interactions, Jane Austen, wrote: “three or four families in a country village is just the thing to work on.” That’s easy for her to say; there are two bustling country villages just in my building alone. And while I like having my own space, and consider it a hallmark of my independence, I don’t want to be a hermit (at least, not all the time). [...]

By: bellacoker

bellacoker — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:59:18 +0000

Yay! A forum in which to reference one of my favorite articles ever! http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

Also, I second (third? +1?) the hermitage idea, it would be lovely to have a retreat for retiring feminists. Retiring in the napping sense, of course.

By: Dragon

Dragon — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:16:11 +0000

HAH, my life in rural Missouri is sort of like that…except w/o the prayer….

By: yosafbridge

yosafbridge — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:14:12 +0000

I’m having the same problem as everybody else. I’m unemployed and have SO much time on my hands and I’m trying to do productive things with that time but then I look up at the clock and realize I’ve been on the internet for 6 hours and forgot to eat. I have 12 tabs open of things that struck me as “interesting” as I’m reading other interesting things. I’m beginning to feel dumbed-down. I’m getting so much “information” but I’m not getting any knowledge. I look forward to coming to Harpyness because it makes me engage and think. That said, I’m hearing the rain start to pitter-pat on my roof and am thinking this would be a nice time to sit on the porch with a cup of tea and read.

By: emilyanne

emilyanne — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:53:17 +0000

although Bleak House does have my favourite ever Dickens line:

‘For Mr Voles is an honourable man and he is make hay of the grass which is flesh to feed his three daughters in Taunton’ – I love that line more than any other I think.

By: emilyanne

emilyanne — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:51:59 +0000

PHDork – it’s my second favourite Dickens (although i’m oddly reading it at the moment), my favourite is Our Mutual Friend, which i would be reading but i’ve lost my copy (read lent it to an ungrateful person who has not given it back).

I’ve just had a great week in a cottage in montauk being a hermit (sort of). I didn’t take my cell phone, there was no computer and between us my husband and I found we had 75 bucks to last the week we were there. We had a fantastic time reading, looking after small daughter on beach, walking everywhere (we can’t drive) and making proper meals which lasted. And then I realised that I hate modern life large amounts of the time.

By: Kivrin

Kivrin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:48:30 +0000

I'm so glad to see all the Bleak House love around these parts. I read that last year, and everyone I met IRL looked at the book in horror whenever I carried it with me. I love Dickens.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:22:03 +0000

@PhDork: If I were going to retreat to the Harpy Hermitage, I would take a stack of Dickens with me. I need time and quiet to read him. It’s so obvious that he was writing back in the days when the written word was people’s primary form of entertainment, b/c he was never a “less is more” kind of guy (also, he was paid by the word, so no reason to be!). I miss my big thick Victorian novels.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:06:56 +0000

@JDRegent: “I am not a villain, sir! I am a member of the legal profession!”