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Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes comes from an author who traveled to a remote island in the Patagonia wilderness with enough supplies to live alone for a year. His diary of his year alone chronicles both physical and mental challenges and makes for a powerful account in Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes: a 'must' for any new age collection.
For some reason it seems that many of the previous reviewers of this book went into it thinking it was going to be the feel good story of the year. They chide the author for being selfish, cruel, insensitive.shame on you Bob Kull for being human and being willing to tell us about it. Please continue to seek.
This book should come with a bookmark. It is a complete mystery how anyone who professes to be interested in Buddhism could treat any animal that way, let alone a cat that was his sole companion.The philosophical aspect of this book is even harder to digest. Robert Kull's "Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes" disappoints at multiple levels.As a literary piece, it sucks. It was a good thing Dr. That disconnect is perhaps not surprising, since the latter cannot be a pre-determined goal achievable simply by running away from the society. If you close the book without marking where you leave off, you will have difficulty finding it again. If he had abused the cat like he did in any civilized city, he would have been prosecuted for cruelty to an animal.
And I've learned that in coming into a deeper relationship with my self, I develop the capacity to connect more deeply with others." Unfortunately, this reader did not find much insights for 'developing' or 'connecting' in the book. If one can publish a book by slapping together pages of boring, repetitive diary scribbling, why should anyone border to learn good writing. According to the author, "In many cultures, solitude is recognized as an opportunity to journey inward. But then, it probably doesn't matter, no matter where you choose to continue, you'll find similar grumbling about the foul weather, nagging bodily pains, and the poor cat. Kull was in the middle of nowhere. There is a huge gap between author's physical ordeal and his purported spiritual development. At the end, this reader found it difficult to shoehorn the author's philosophical musings into his physical experience, utterly exhausted but certainly not wiser.
What a disappointment. His relationship with his cat is frankly unbearable. Since the cat remains affectionate when not having cold water thrown in it's face or being immersed in a mud puddle, he seems to conclude that this indicates the positive nature of their relationship. There are some magnificent books in which people faced the elements and their own nature and came out the victor. Kull, search that on your google engine. This is not one. I too am a fan of solitary adventures, both my own and those of others. He abuses the cat relentlessly, and lest remorse enter into his consciousness, he creates the idea that the cat enjoys being abused.
This is a story of a man child. His grasp of Buddhism, which he pursues quite avidly, is shallow at best. Traumatic bonding, Mr. Do yourself a favor and find a wilderness adventure where the author has gained the status of adult maturity.
Other people don't let you delude yourself as much as this guy was able to do when he was in solitude. This book is interesting but I thought the author kind of nutty, frankly. When he talks about how he treated the cat he brought with him (hey wait, I thought he wanted to be alone) or how he treated other people in his life, I thought him a pretty selfish and pushy individual. He went into solitude to 'find himself' but of course, he brought all his inner garbage with him. I think you have to deal with that stuff whether you're alone or living in society and for those people who choose to live completely apart from society, well, I suspect that is more self-serving than anything else. He seems to ask an awful lot of his friends and, at least from what he says in this book, doesn't give much if anything back. While he tries to confront his weaknesses, he manages to just touch the surface and then makes a lot of excuses for himself.
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