kind of freaks like Lovecraft, but more literary ones. list them here please.
kind of freaks like Lovecraft, but more literary ones. list them here please.
Julien Gracq
Arthur Schopenhauer was a bit of a hermit ... apart from his beloved poodles.
Last edited by Panglossian; 07-25-2011 at 06:25 PM.
All scholars need their solitude.
Saint Jerome.
Lovecraft did not live in solitude. So what do you mean by solitude, if your example ddid not live in solitude?
Fair point. Bypass it, Distant Dreams.Originally Posted by PeterL
Thoreau wasn't completely secluded, he was fairly close to a small town but I think he's a good example of a writer living in solitude.
There's your pass, Distant Dreams. Lovecraft was a definite hillbilly bumpkin.
Emily Dickinson lived in relative solitude. J.D. Sallinger became a recluse later in life.
Nietzsche was pretty hermetic. Proust is also said to have cut himself off from the world pretty heavily after his mother died.
The quintessential weirdo recluse. Apparently, she used to lower cookies to children from the windows of her house. If anyone ever gets a chance to read her personal letters, they're absolutely bonkers.
She wrote this to a her pen pall T. W. Higginson:
"I went to school - but in your manner of phrase - had no education. When a little Girl, I had a friend, who taught me Immortality - but venturing too near, himself - he never returned - Soon after, my Tutor, died - and for several years, my Lexicon - was my only companion - Then I found one more - but he was not contented I be his scholar - so he left the Land.
You ask of my Companions Hills - Sir - and the Sundown - and a Dog - large as myself, that my father bought me - they are better than Beings - because they know - but do not tell - and the noise in the Pool, at Noon - excels my Piano. I have a Brother and Sister - My Mother does not care for thought - and Father, too busy with his Briefs - to notice what we do - He buys me many Books - but begs me not to read them - because he fears they joggle the Mind. They are religious - except me - and address an Ecipse, every morning - whom they call their "Father." But I fear my story fatigues you - I would like to learn - Could you tell me how to grow - or is it unconveyed - like Melody - or Witchcraft?"
She wrote this in 1862 before she became a recluse, but I feel like her letters are strikingly bizarre and revealing of a troubled mind. It's also nuts that she uses dashes instead of periods, just like in her poems.
"If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia."
- Margaret Atwood
The Marquis de Sade was bonkers, but even he showed sparks of brilliance. The letter shows wholesale genius, not madness.
How does the letter show genius? It shows to me, like it shows to pip also I suppose, a socially awkward recluse, whom unfortunately lives in solitude half by her choice and half by choice of others.
If anything this letter evokes in me a deep sense of pity for the girl.
I dont see why some younger people think that, socially awkward= genius
Genius is not formed by personality it is something independent, just look at the great writers of the past whom we deem Geniuses, some were socially awkward solitary creatures, and others make Mick Jagger look like an steady headed and calm school boy.
Wasn't using a lot of dashes pretty common for the time, at least when it came to letter writing? I looked over some letters written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and they are full of them, and she was definitely not insane.
Thoreau spent most of most days in town with his friends. The on;y times when he didn't hang out with people were on camping trips.
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