Loneliness

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…see on amazon.com, Storr analyzes the life of some famous people that apparently managed to be happy through work despite 'inferior relationships'. The one I've read is 'Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection' by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick. It quotes a lot of studies that statistically link feeling disconnected with all sorts of things you want to avoid, including health problems. Of course, instead of having friends, you can try to avoid loneliness by getting rid of your social needs, in a kind of ascetism. I never managed to do that. On the other hand I read that Alexander Selkirk, the stranded sailor who inspired Robinson Crusoe, suffered terribly from loneliness the first one and a half years, but then got over it completely. Later, back in Scotland, he even regretted his time on the island. I was wonder…

…progress. At the end it seemed to me like a journey into a sick mind, which makes it all the more interesting. I would recommend semi-autobiographic books by sick minds. Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, by Robert Pirsig who was actually treated by electrotherapy in a psychiatric ward. He ended up writing a not so sick book with a philosophy I find a lot more convincing than Ayn Rand's. Valis, the novel in which Philipp K. Dick describes how he more or less fails to make sense of his religious (or whatever) experience. It's sold as science fiction, but that's just a weak way of saying that book is completely crazy. Since it is semi-autobiographic, the characters are much more alive than in anything else I read from Philipp K. Dick. And if you want to know why Howard Roark has a low life expectancy: Loneliness, human nature and th…