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Alone, Not Lonely: On Modern Hermits
by BrainBurner

    Hermits were not people often on my mind and hermitages had never occurred to me as a possible vacation destination. If you had asked me several months ago what I knew about hermits, I would have dipped into a limited trove of literary and cinematic examples, Boo Radley being the most prominent, and he’s really more of a shut-in.

    But then came the Maine Hermit.

    Last spring, Christopher Knight became a media sensation. According to news accounts, the 47-year-old man had walked into the Maine woods at the age of 19 and never come out. He told authorities he had never talked to anyone in those ensuing years, except to greet a passing hiker. He built himself a makeshift house that, at one point included a television, and staved off hunger by taking food and other sundries from nearby homes and a summer camp. Which is what he was doing when police apprehended him on April 4, 2013.

    Neighbors were (understandably) distraught, but for the public, it was captivating. Who hasn’t fantasized about a life off the grid? A life without the usual obligations. Without instant messaging. It is the ultimate in rural idyll, the extreme version of buying a summer home upstate.