Mixed Minds discussion

1. Finkel poses an interesting question a little way through the book that I’m interested to ask you all. He writes, “I began asking cabin owners–and, later, many others–to estimate the longest time they’d ever spent without human interaction. By this I meant not seeing anyone or communicating in any way, including phone, e-mail, or text messages. Just time by oneself, unconnected, though reading or listening to the radio or watching TV alone was okay. Nine out of ten people, often after a contemplative pause, realized that they had never passed a single day in solitude.” How long do you think you’ve spent without human interaction?

2. We see throughout the book that the people affected by the thefts are a bit divisive in their feelings about Knight. Many didn’t care since they weren’t there, there was no damage, and nothing of value was ever stolen. Yet, there were also a lot of people that were enraged because his thefts made them fearful and took away their sense of security, one family even dealing with their young boys having nightmares of “the hermit.” Where do you think you would fall if you had been a victim of the thefts?

3. Follow up; many people on either side said if he needed things they would have gladly left things out for him and in the beginning of the book a few people did just that yet he didn’t take them and still broke in. Why do you think he refused to take things left specifically for him?

4. Doctors attempted at diagnosing him, generally landing on autism, depression, or schizoid personality disorder. But there was still a lot of contention surrounding this, with one person even saying “I diagnose him as a hermit.” What did you think of these speculations? Why do you think people feel the need to diagnose a person when these rare situations occur? To get answers? To gain a sense of understanding?

5. Did you find it odd that his family never contacted authorities to file a missing persons report? He was only a few years out of high school when he left yet they didn’t look or alert anyone? Would you have told someone if you’d been in their position?

6. What did you think about Finkel and Knight’s relationship? Do you think Finkel ever overstepped? Do you think they came to form a friendship in the end?

7. On page 78, Finkel notes that Knight’s decision to retreat to the woods “had elements of a suicide, except he didn’t kill himself.” Considering Knight’s promise to go back into the woods at the end of the book, do you think this was the underlying cause of his isolating but changed his mind once he found that the woods were a place he felt comfortable? What do you think this says about human’s relationship to nature if anything?

8. On page 50, Finkel states that Knight “seemed to say exactly what he was thinking, raw and true, unfiltered by the safety net of social niceties.” Do you think this way of interacting is just his personality or do you think it’s due to the years of isolation? Both?

9. Throughout the book, Knight is defined by many labels: He is a hermit, a thief, a prisoner, etc. Which of these labels does he associate himself with, if any? What do you think about society's determination to label people?

10. Do you think he deserved jail time? How do you think the transition from total isolation to prison with hundreds of other people affected him?