Post #3569036

📗 “The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit” by Michael Finkel Very mixed feelings about this book and its existence. It’s the story of a man who successfully lived in the woods for 27 years, as told by the journalist author. Fascinating and fun to read, but in the end it felt like a book filled with mostly unsympathetic people. The ‘hermit’, the people he burgled, the people who caught him, and most of all the author himself all did questionable things that made me go: eh... Christopher Knight was in his early twenties when he drove to the woods and was never heard from again. His camp was located close to a lake with lots of cabins, so he survived by burgling everything he needed from those homes: food, clothes, gear, building material, entertainment. It took almost three decades of effort and modernization of equipment before he was caught. It seems overboard how far they went: alarms, cameras, highly advanced border patrol technology, people staying up in cabins with weapons in wait, police running over there in the middle of the night at the slightest peep… Just looking at that side of the situation, Knight easily becomes the underdog of the story. From my username it’s pretty obvious that I quickly feel sympathetic towards anyone who wishes to withdraw from society. Knight’s situation is an odd one and it’s hard not to feel both judgemental and understanding towards him. He didn’t fit in anywhere and found his peace alone at his camp in the woods. Taking him out of that environment and forcing him into prison and later into a ‘normal’ living situation, it seems very cruel once you see how much he suffers. But it’s also hard to overlook his hypocrisy. He says theft is bad and claims to feel horrible about stealing, so he only takes what he needs. Then he steals alcohol, candy, magazines, videogames, a TV and endless amounts of batteries for it, and more. Nobody can convince me that Playboy is essential for survival, not even if you use it as a camp floorboard afterwards. I also feel sad for the people who had to live with a sense of fear, paranoia or unease because they kept getting burgled for years without any explanation, their sense of safety in their home lost for good. It’s an interesting case because Knight’s family already lived very privately, they were barely known by anyone and had land for themselves. He could’ve lived in relative obscurity with little human contact legally, but he chose to disappear more inconveniently, leaving his debts to his brothers and leaving his family forever wondering where he went. He doesn’t really seem able to imagine well what suffering he can cause for others, beyond a simple paradigm of what’s right and wrong (and then ignoring that too). He has the skills to farm, forage, hunt and fish, yet he chose to live from stealing supplies. He didn’t want to live from the land, he just wanted to be left alone and found a strange way of doing that. Anyway, I didn’t read this book to judge its subject, but it sure is an interesting case study. The most unpleasant aspect of this book arrives at the last part, although red flags were already visible earlier. Initially, Knight wanted to be left alone. However, the author keeps hounding him with letters and then keeps visiting him in prison. Knight said he felt bad about refusing to speak after the author had traveled from so far, so he spoke. After getting out of prison, he wants to be left alone again, but the author keeps sending him mail. Not just Knight, he starts to call family members, even showing up at their work places. Despite their refusal to cooperate, he keeps trying. He flies in from far away and tries to speak with anyone related to Knight and Knight himself. He doesn’t understand the word NO. You could call it a journalist’s tenacity, but it feels more like stalking and I think he definitely crossed the line. He wrote some justification on the very last pages, about how Knight said no but his behavior said yes. Ehm. Dubious consent at best. It sounds like the author wore Knight down and Knight gave up protesting. It makes me uncomfortable that this book is now out there, and I feel discouraged from ever reading another Finkel book again. #AmReading