The Last Hermit

[Malone]

Utterly fascinating article.

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/news...?currentPage=1

[gveranon]

The journalist who interviewed Knight has written a book about him, which will be published in March 2017.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-101-87568-1

[Revenant]

Excellent story. Thanks for sharing. I must admit, if I could find a way to meet my basic needs without stealing, I think
I would happily disappear also.

[BeelzeBob]

This book was a pretty good read. Wish I had the courage to just drop everything and walk out on society like this truly unique man did. Color me jealous.

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit: Michael Finkel: 9781101875681: Amazon.com: Books

 

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit: Michael Finkel: 9781101875681: Amazon.com: Books

[gveranon]

A few passages I marked:

Quote

Knight, of course, felt that anyone's willing assistance tainted the whole thing. Either you are hidden or you or not, no middle ground. He wished to be unconditionally alone, exiled to an island of his own creation, an uncontacted tribe of one. A single phone call letting his parents know he was okay and suddenly there would be a connection.

Quote

His chief form of entertainment was reading. The last moments he was in a cabin [to steal supplies] were usually spent scanning bookshelves and nightstands. The life inside a book always felt welcoming to Knight. It pressed no demands on him, while the world of actual human interactions was so complex.... To Knight it all felt impossible. His engagement with the written word might have been the closest he could come to genuine human encounters. The stretch of days between thieving raids allowed him to tumble into the pages, and if he felt transported he could float in bookworld, undisturbed, for as long as he pleased.

Quote

Not for a moment did he consider keeping a journal. He would never allow anyone to read his private thoughts; therefore, he did not risk writing them down. "I'd rather take it to my grave," he said.

Quote

Most of Knight's most cherished and intense experiences in the woods, he said, were close to his most horrific. In the dead of winter, there was not a rustling leaf, not a candle flick of wind, not a bug or bird. The forest was locked in arctic silence. This was what he craved.

Quote

The loss of self was precisely what Knight experienced in the forest. In public, one always wears a social mask, a presentation to the world. Even when you're alone and look in a mirror, you're acting, which is one reason Knight never kept a mirror in his camp.

Quote

He does not care if people fail to understand what he did in the woods. He didn't do it for us to understand. He wasn't trying to prove a point. There was no point. "You're just there," Knight said. "You are."

[gveranon]

This essay by Michael Finkel isn't in Finkel's book about Knight, but it appears to be based on material in the book, with some additional commentary.

A Man Who Spent 27 Years Alone in the Woods on the Best of Hermit Literature | Literary Hub