Some good Hermits (or near hermits)
* The Sandwich Maker- both Arthur Dent and a Hermit, therefore very cool
* St Paul the Hermit (he lived until he was 113)
* St Kevin (brilliant misogynist madman in tree)
* Jeremy Bentham (known as the Hermit of Queen's Square)
* The Hermit of Grub Street, whose brother tried to kill him so he retired to his room for 44 years.
* St Inigo, who was brilliant and monastic and willing to stop being an hermit for a bit.
* Salinger, who is pretty much an hermit
* I can make an argument for Maximilien during one of the long periods of illness
* Stanislawa
* Montesquieu (who had a castle, and an almost literal ivory tower)
Left off that list (a top ten but not in order, suggestions of order would be appreciated) were St Bridget, an awful lot of other Saints, Demosthenes, Euripides at points, the random people in the Library of Alexandria (whom one suspects were almost hermits) and many others. Oh, and apocryphal Cornish Hermit. And probably one of my cousins.
All of which makes being an hermit seem fun.
posted by pseudo bohemian loser at 10:59 AM
6 Comments:
As discussed given the people on this list Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus (Augustus Brittanicus) should be here. Partly because of his years writign histories on Carthage and Etruria on his farm (I know Calpurnia was there too) and partly for his reputation. Not sure I want to be in love with a hermit though...
Yes, I think they are Perfectly Normal Beasts. It was the bit done really well when they radioised Mostly Harmless.
xM
The argument was that if Robespierre counts I think Claudius definitely does. Surely it is hard to be a hermit while being a provincial lawyer? I know he had hermit tendencies while he was being in the french revolution, but Claudius did spend 20 years (I think- can't be bothered to check) writing his books.
Do you think Claudius and Robespierre might get on?
xM
The argument for Maximilien is that he would have been considerably better off as an hermit. Probably survived past thirty-six, not been eternally defamed by the "New Yorker" and Orczy, not sanctioned the execution of his dearest friend... Same applies for Claudius really, had he stayed on the farm with Calpurnia all would have been nice and Agrippina would never have happened.
Oh, Maximilien also didn't really do people/ talking to them during Arras, so probably counts as an hermit with female relatives then.
I see there are no objections to Stanislawa.
I think they would get on rather well. Claudius decency but rather amoralness would probably help in that respect. And there are lots of similarities (people abruptly making Claudius a dictator, suddenly assuming in 1794 that Robespierre was a dictator).
By the way revised rules for hermits mean that they are allowed have limited female company (see Eleonore Duplay, Calpurnia, woman St Kevin pushed in a lake etc)
You know the objection to that one, don't you?
This all assumes G is going to become a hermit.
Whihc she is NOT.
xM
Are we allowed fictionary characters in this? If so I'd like to have the hermit from Arcadia (forgotten his name) as he spent decades in a faux-hermitage working on complex mathematical formulae out of guilt.
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