An Island to Oneself | Hacker News Reader

An Island to Oneself

janesoceania.com

61 points8_hours_ago11 comments

This reminds me of some awesome documentary footage of a man who built a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss

Alone in the Wilderness - Dick Proenneke

The same dry commentary made riveting by insightful and sometimes whimsical observations, the same hardship usually effortlessly overcome, and of course the same solitary strength of a middle-aged man. Both stories make me a bit envious, and inspire me to create a little more with my hands.

Interesting - I was given that DVD years ago, but never watched it. Now I will make time to watch. Thanks for the recommendation.

Slightly OT, but Firefox's reading mode is a great help to consume that post...

Not off topic at all. (I came to post the same thing but you beat me to it).

It's a great read but hard on the eyes. Reader mode lays it out just beautifully.

If he was completely alone on the Island, who took those beautifully composed pictures of him fishing, considering it was the 50s where there were no electronic cameras with timers and stuff? ex: http://www.janesoceania.com/suvarov_tom_neale/fishing.jpg

Was it Tagi, the pearl diver? If yes, then he wasn't really alone, was he? What am I missing from this situation?

He lived the majority of the time alone with the occasional visitor who took photos. Thats what your missing.

I've found that in most of these stories, the people who have lived alone haven't been without human contact for any significant period of time. If that fact wasn't downplayed or outright omitted the story probably wouldn't sell as well. In this aspect, their stories are not that different from the tens or hundreds of thousands of lonely people whose apartment or house might as well be an island. It's probably also very difficult to live anywhere for years without eventually running into someone, never mind decades.

The sibling comment gives what is probably the correct answer (visitors), but in fact self-timers for cameras have been around for 100 years or so: https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/dating-the-original-ko...

It's a long, but great read (i read it over the last 2 days.) Thanks to the original sharer on here.

It's interesting that the book mentions 2 of the times he stayed on the island, but doesn't mention the last, and longest (of 10 years). Nor does it mention that he had kids in between, which is mind boggling to me, how you could leave them.

That was because the book was written before the third time he went. (See Wikipedia.)

Apple engineers here, please use this as a test case for Mobile Safari’s reader mode. It cuts off after 2 paragraphs.

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