2. What is loneliness?
● “Cities can be lonely places, and in admitting this we
see that loneliness doesn’t necessarily require physical
solitude, but rather an absence or paucity of connection,
closeness, kinship: an inability, for one reason or
another, to find as much intimacy as is desired.” (3)
4. Words to know
● Gneiss, top of 4
● Cloche, bottom of 15
● Indelible, bottom of 16
● Patina, middle of 20
5. Major points
● Loneliness isn’t all bad
○ It can be essential for art
● Loneliness can feed more loneliness (28)
● Loneliness is (often) melodramatic (25)
● Loneliness is a paradox in many ways
○ “What Hopper’s urban scenes also replicate is one of the central
experiences of being lonely: the way a feeling of separation, of
being walled off or penned in, combines with a sense of
near-unbearable exposure (17).
○ It propels one toward intimacy and yet also away because of the
threat of intimacy
○ Loneliness is confinement and exposure (22)
6. Major Points
● It’s hard to empathize with those feeling loneliness
because of a “self-protective amnesia” (26)
● It can lead to chronic stress on the body (29)
7. References & Key people
● Sociologist Robert Weiss (pg. 4)
● Link to “Loneliness: The Experience of Social and
Emotional Isolation” and New York Times review
● Described loneliness as “A chronic disease without
redeeming features”
● Laing is searching for what redeeming features it may
actually have
8. References & Key People
● Hamilton Fish Park (11)
● Martha Clarke’s Miracolo D’Amore (12)
○ Video, review of production
● Edward Hopper’s “Automat” (15)
9. References & Key People
● “Morning Sun” and “Hotel Window” by Edward Hopper
10. References & Key People
● “Night Windows” by Hopper
○ Pg 18
● Robert Henri (32)
11. Key People
● Edward Hopper (1882 - 1967) American painter.
○ You can see his work at The Whitney (free with a CUNY ID)
Met. Great videos of him here and here
● Andy Warhol
● Henry Darger
● David Wojnarowicz