Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto

Rating:
Summary: a perfect balance of electrons & protons
Review: We, the world's loners, are self-contained. Suspended within our own atmosphere of cerebral & imaginative sustenance. Rufus graphically & dangerously describes crowds (in full colour!) as "clots of people". She explains that company bores us, drains us, overcomes us like a steamroller. We hate to be advertised to & we have no need to proselytize or convert. When something goes wrong, we do not seek outside reassurance or advice. We need what others dread. We dread what others need.

Loners have an advantage when faced with the unkown. When it comes to being mindful like the Buddhists. We have at our fingertips the undiscovered, the unique, the rarefied. Innate advantages when it comes to imagination, concentration, inner discipline. A knack for invention, originality, for finding resources in what others would call vacuums. A talent for seldom being bored. Alone we are ALIVE. We don't dislike people - we are often loved & respected by many we hardly know. We simply & honestly don't NEED people. Our group, of which no one is a member, includes Da Vinci. Michaelangelo. Isaac Newton. Emily Dickenson. Crazy Horse. Rachel Carson. Albert Einstein. Anthony Hopkins. Johnny Carson. Greta Garbo. In olden days we were respected as the thinkers, the philosophers, the creators, the healers. In today's world of conspicuous consumption & cell phone prosthesis, we are misunderstood, even when we attempt to explain the nourishment our solitude affords us. But we don't bemoan the world's lack of understanding. It just doesn't matter to a well-adjusted loner of sufficient self-esteem. People are nice, but we don't NEED them, nor are we affected by their opinions. We are not like positively or negatively charged atoms that are frantically searching for a complementary magnetic charge to latch onto. We are a complete unit in and of ourselves. Our nourishment comes from cerebral growth, which can only come from solitude. We are intrinsically aware that when you speak, you are uttering something that you already know. It is only in silence that you can become aware of fresh, new, peaceful, intuitive insights that are privy to only a select few - the loners.

If you are a loner who needs justification, you will be pleased with this book, and will hopefully progress to the point where the opinions of others don't matter. If you are of the majority, charged with curiousity, attempting to understand loners, you may be quite enlightened by this book. Regardless, though, we loners really don't care - enjoy your lives my friends & leave us alone in our glorious, progressive solitude.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Book
Review: What most people (I call them the "outsiders" because to me, they're the truly weird ones) don't understand is that a true loner (not a loser, which is a different category) chooses to be alone BY CHOICE. I choose to not have friends. I choose to not go out when people or co-workers plan an outing. What most people also don't understand is why. This book explains why. The reason why is that most loners tend to be very artistic or intelligent (not to brag). As a musician, artist, writer, and avid reader/student of life, I don't think I'd have as much time to devote myself to my passions if I wasted all of my time going out to drink with friends. Also, as the author explains, most loners are very intelligent and instrospective, and tend to question the values of most people, including why people enjoy going out in masses and drinking or doing whatever stupid things they do.

I also like how the author deconstructs the destructive fantasy that loners are "freaks" who go on killing sprees or are "scary" serial killers or something. She explains how serial killers and psychopaths are often VERY social and needy people, they are not true loners!

In addition, I enjoyed how the author explains how our society worships loner images and connotations, but will never really know what it truly means to be a loner. Case in point, our society (of young people) loves to identify itself with, let's say, loner heroes like "The Crow" or something, yet the typical person will never really know what it's like to live the life of a "Crow" type person. They spend their days and nights surrounded by friends, then go out and watch movies about such loners, wear the movie tee-shirt, and voila, they think they're "hip" and cool loners now, but at the same time they cannot recognise the true loners in their own midst. As the author states, the true loner asks, "What do THEY know" about being a loner?

(For any true loners out there, I'd also recommend that you read Herman Hesse's novel about the quintessential loner Harry Haller, in his novel Steppenwolf.)

Rating:
Summary: Making it all make sense!
Review: When I first looked at this book I thought it was going to be rather a dry read. I was completely wrong. While light hearted, it is a serious and entertaining look into what is a loner, and why they are important to society.
Anneli Rufus pulls together so much. Why are loners the persecuted minority, yet worshiped in literature and the arts.
Perhaps the most telling chapter is how the media constantly pushes the image of the "loner" as the criminal type involved in so many violent crimes. The reality is that such people are not loners by choice, but outcasts who do not want to be alone.
If you are an introvert, and don't understand why people won't leave you alone, or why people think you are a weirdo because you prefer your own company, or even the spouse of a loner, this is a book not to be missed.