On Being a Hermit

And reading Ottessa Moshfegh.

The hermit’s appeal for me lies in the fact that this archetype retreats to aloneness for reasons.

I relate to these reasons.

When I’m creating something I retreat and I try not to let too much of the outside world in. This is difficult, I have Real Life Adult responsibilities just like everyone else.

“I felt I needed to hide a little. My mind needed a smaller world to roam.”

Ottessa Moshfegh, Death in Her Hands

In the tarot, the hermit represents following your own path and being guided by your own light.

This era of online life is noisy. It can be hard to hear our own voice or feel our own internal compass. Late stage capitalism would suggest that this falling back, this inconsistency, is problematic, but I’m wholeheartedly encouraging it.

Consistency is something I’ve always struggled with. I’ve only recently begun to understand that my overcommitment and overpromising are related to my perfectionism and prioritising issues; aka my ADHD.

I believe it is essential to sometimes be a hermit because there are reasons for retreats from society/life;

• Overwhelm and overstimulation - needing to recalibrate, especially if you’re neurodivergent.

• Sickness, be it mental or physical.

• A period of grief.

• A deep level of learning or study.

• Raising children.

• Seasonal. (I’m sure I’m not the only one who does less social stuff during the festive season, not more.)

We all have levels of Life Engagement that we feel comfortable with. These are subject to change depending on what we’re going through.

What I find fascinating is seeing a fictional character go through periods of isolation, be these intentional, or the opposite.

If you’ve read any of

Ottessa Moshfegh

’s work, you’ll know she excels at the interior voice of her characters and their lives. Her First Person Point of View manages to reach beyond the thoughts of the characters and push the boundaries of how a writer can show who they are.

Some examples;

• The titular character in Eileen (2015).

• Vesta; the main character from Moshfegh’s 2020 novel, Death in Her Hands.

• The unnamed narrator of My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018).

• The teacher in Slumming¹ and the character of Charles in A Dark and Winding Road². These short stories are both from Moshfegh’s Homesick For Another World (2017).

We get SO CLOSE to Moshfegh’s characters, that when they do despicable, or questionable, things we read on, wanting to know how it worked out for them. It’s this that makes these characters (and some of them are awful) more three dimensional.

Their raw humaness makes them more relatable, despite their disgusting habits. These characters jump off the page, commanding to be read.

Her protagonists are gross and abrasive because they have already begun to moult; peel back their blistering misanthropy and you will find lonely, sensitive people who are in this world but not of it, desperate to transform, ascend, escape. ³

In the end, sometimes it’s just time for a break. So, to the surprise of absolutly no one reading, this will be my last letter of 2023.

I’d love it if you read the stories I’ve linked to below, then come back and let me know what you think.

To hermit is to human.

If Ottessa Moshfegh wrote about Obi-Wan’s time in the cave…

1. Read Slumming here https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/6347/slumming-ottessa-moshfegh

2. Read ADark And Winding Road here https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/6268/a-dark-and-winding-road-ottessa-moshfegh

3. From a review of Lapvona (2022) https://www.vulture.com/article/ottessa-moshfegh-lapvona-review.html