Comments on: The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/ Fascinating true stories from science, history, and psychology since 2005 Sat, 11 Jul 2015 22:11:26 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 By: anonymous https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-38612 Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:29:12 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-38612

ConcernedCitizen said: “@journeyman: it says “a bible”, not *the* Bible. geez.”

really, really, WOW!!

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By: sankalp https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-38425 Wed, 08 Jan 2014 12:01:22 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-38425 Certainly a DI boy!!!!! Way to go, Ben!

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By: Anthropositor https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-20473 Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:07:39 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-20473 There are solitudes of more than one kind. The first time I escaped from the Presbyterian kingdom into which I was born, and in which the King was not God, but his anointed representative, I felt a greater solitude than I had ever experienced. Having always felt quite alien to those around me, a trait not uncommon among preacher’s children, I was still singularly unprepared for my sense of total isolation.

I had made my escape on a bicycle, a one-speed with fat tires. My father was no longer a minister, having been not quite defrocked. But he was still a dangerous king from my perspective. I had, in my entire lifetime of twelve years, heard continuously of God, had heard countless ceremonial prayers, (indeed, I never heard my father pray once from the heart, even on his deathbed when I was a half century old) but I had never heard a compelling reason to believe, which did not evaporate when thought caught up with turbulent emotions.

I certainly had no thought of God as I pedaled up and down the seemingly endless hills of Pacific Coast Highway heading to Mexico, more than a hundred miles distant. It took a few more attempts and two more years before I made it into Mexico.

But this first attempt affected me quite profoundly. Isolation had never been strange to me, but this sense of solitude and lonliness was of an almost unbearable intensity, even with passersby in clear view in all the cars that traveled by me on that highway.

So I conversed with Chuckie almost continuously. Chuckie was my friend. He was quite a help. He may have been invisible, but I knew in my mind’s eye what he looked like. And even his voice was very much like mine. I knew that he would stay with me.

So it was quite a surprise, when I was arrested two days later, during a predawn visit to a donut shop in Oceanside, with Mexico tantalizingly close, that Chuckie abandoned me. I missed him but I couldn’t really blame him. He just couldn’t be around my dad. I sort of thought maybe when I escaped again, I’d run into him, but I never did.

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By: PudgeDiesel https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-20143 Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:19:42 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-20143 Hey, just started reading this sight today. Love it! Great DI article.

Note: The word “bible” is a noun “the sacred writings of any religion”, and in this context is not capitalized.

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By: K8theGr8 https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-20142 Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:03:29 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-20142 I always thought that book was fictional… guess not.

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By: Zeavos https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-18780 Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:28:46 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-18780 Thank you for the really interesting article. I had heard that Crusoe was based on a real person, but I never knew any details. (Only comments relative to the article’s topic should be posted.)

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By: tarteauxpommes https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-18702 Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:09:22 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-18702 [quote] Jeffrey93 said: “It’s a joke people… I didn’t honestly think about how or where I’d de-flower an innocent goat. I wonder if Selkirk’s marriages were so short lived because he’d continually bring up “Ya know… I’ve done goats that were better.” “[/quote]

*shiver* I didn’t need that thought in my head.

Besides that, DI! Something new every update.

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By: Ted Rickard https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-18615 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:20:20 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-18615 I actually own an original copy of that book by Woodes Rogers, published in 1711. If anyone is interested in investing in antique books, we could talk.

Ted Rickard

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By: Jeffrey93 https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-18509 Mon, 19 Nov 2007 06:44:22 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-18509 [quote]Inti said: “There are some interesting links about the other guy, Pedro Serrano at:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Serrano (SPANISH)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Serrano (ENGLISH)
If Selkirk was good at surviving in isolation, then Serrano was the master of masters. He leaved for 8 years in a small sand bank in the Caribbean with almost no vegetation or shelter, and no fresh water. However, he was not completely alone, being accompanied by another sailor three years after Serrano’s arrival to the island.
A map of the island where Serrano lived can be found at:
http://oceandots.com/atlantic/san-andres/serrana-bank.htm%5B/quote%5D

I thought Pedro Cerrano was a guy that played for the Cleveland Indians…he could hit fastballs a mile but could never connect with those pesky curve balls, even with Joeboo’s help.

I think something like this would be fun and you could probably charge people to do it. It didn’t sound like there was much for predators on the island, if you could re-create a shorter experience like this I am sure people would pay to do it. Here’s an island….here are some limited supplies…..now go survive for a week or two. Of course, you would need a distress signal if the participant wanted out. I thought about this idea when watching ‘Unknown’, all of these challenges and things that need to be done just to try to stay alive, you’d completely forget about the typical stresses of the daily grind…..you wouldn’t be worrying about the price of gas, or the new boss at work, or the credit card bill. It’d be all consuming and challenging, I’d pay to do it. It might take me a bit to be able to catch and slaughter a goat though. As for the goat romance…I think I could go a week or two without resorting to that. If I did though…I’d make sure to do it on the edge of a cliff, you know….so the goat will push back to avoid falling to it’s death.

It’s a joke people….I didn’t honestly think about how or where I’d de-flower an innocent goat. I wonder if Selkirk’s marriages were so short lived because he’d continually bring up “Ya know….I’ve done goats that were better.”

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By: pyrhho https://www.damninteresting.com/the-solitude-of-alexander-selkirk/#comment-18129 Thu, 01 Nov 2007 03:32:46 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=912#comment-18129 [quote]Inti said: “I wonder how many people currently live on the Island.”[/quote]

According to Wikipedia, about 633.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Fern%C3%A1ndez_Islands

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