"... and fleeing with them when the hunters came. Now 37, he has written an extraordinary memoir of his experiences: a literary sensation in France, and already translated into 11 languages. It has also caused profound unease and scepticism in certain quarters. Is it true? Or is the author a mere fantasist?... Delorme lives with his friends the deer, finding true peace and freedom there. As a boy he always hated school, was 'somewhat timid by nature' and was finally taught at home.... Lacking the material ambition and hypocrisy to forge a career, by late adolescence Delorme was spending whole days and nights in the nearby forests.... Finally he moved to the forest full-time.... 'Disgusted by my own species,' Delorme embraces a 'childlike mysticism' and his motto becomes: 'To live happily, live hidden!' ... He eventually returns to the 'inhuman human world,' as he calls it, to tell his story and fight for his friends.... 'I want to save them from the destruction of this world which is losing its mind.'"
From "Deer Man by Geoffroy Delorme review — the story of a French Mowgli/This astonishing story has been a literary sensation in France. But is it true?" (London Times).
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55 comments:
Was Jayson Blair one of the ghost writers??
L'enfant sauvage, grown-up version?
Eating acorns, yeah...
I wonder if he got Lyme disease.
“Lacking the material ambition and hypocrisy to forge a career,”. If he claims to eat only moss and acorns for years, he must have a severe vitamin b12 deficiency In addition to massive weight loss. I think he does indeed have enough hypocrisy to forge a career.
The notion of “savage” comes to mind. Poor deer just wanted to be with its own species.
While grizzles have supposedly killed 8 (or is it 12) people in Yellowstone Park since 2010--and the Alaska Brown Bears finally chewed up that idiot who wanted to live with and "be a bear", deer aren't so vicious. Although every now and then a buck deer will kill someone. I want to know that this guy was wearing for shoes---deerskin mocassins?
Is it true?
Stand him in front of an oncoming car at night and see if he moves...
I do recall the story of a man who went wild for a summer, but he ate the deer and used the tendons for bowstrings. He also developed a fine eye for game and an intuition for where the deer could be found. So it is possible. But I have doubts that lichens, acorns, and wild garlic would provide sufficient nutrition. No fire, no grubs?
From the Great Beyond, I suspect Carlos Castaneda is chuckling.
does he mention how he leached the tannins out of the acorns?
did he mention DYING, from NOT leaching the tannins out of the acorns?
Gotta be One, or the Other.. OR: LYING!!
I Know, Let's prepare meals the way He "says" he ate.. and Then, Let's FORCE HIM to eat it!
hahahahha death is hilarious!! smirk smirk
From Last Thurs
https://nypost.com/2022/03/27/montana-hiker-craig-clouatre-was-killed-by-grizzly-bear-in-montana/
The bears were quoted, as saying "Stupid Humans, but DAMN! they sure Taste Good!"
Gary Larsen cartoons featuring bears:
tinyurl.com/4hn6xntc
Gary Larsen cartoons featuring deer:
tinyurl.com/3m2jaunp
heh
Does he speak deer? Who did the translation?
"Is it true? Or is the author a mere fantasist?"
Not just a grain of salt, but a whole deer lick.
does he mention how he leached the tannins out of the acorns?
did he mention DYING, from NOT leaching the tannins out of the acorns?
That was my first thought, that raw acorns are not edible. But, I was not interested enough in this fantasy to research it.
Almost certainly bullshit.
I for one believe it. I lived for 20 year amoung squirrels, learning to scamper into trees and hide nuts in random places. And now I will sell my story for the millions I deserve for such inspirational living!!
It’s the creation story retold over and over because the completion is in the retelling. You can’t discover your life’s secret and keep it to yourself. You have to share it.
Check this guy on a Rogan clip, recounting the satisfaction he gets when he’s in a zone doing the thing he loves. He “purée it”. But he went thru a rebirth or something to get there.
Copy pasta 👉🏽 https://youtu.be/8rzpyjlkAZ4 (Ary’s Ayahuasca Revelation)
The French fellow chose his animal guide more wisely than the last animal lover to gain this much fame, Timothy Treadwell. His self-proclaimed "protection" of grizzly bears in Alaska led to him becoming part of their diet as fall approached.
This choice of deer, rather than squirrels (risk of falling from trees), songbirds (risk of falling from trees), owls (risk of falling from trees) or grizzly bears (significantly less falling from trees risk, but see Treadwell, above) demonstrates the excellent safety procedures of the author, in advance of writing the story. Here's hoping they don't have Lyme disease in France!
Next may we have a first hand account of someone from Australia befriending any of that continent's famously deadly wildlife, from giant saltwater crocodiles to potent spiders to cute but painfully venomous male platypuses? Or does the Irwin family have that market monopolized already?
My Side of the Mountain tells the tale better, and Disney made a movie out of it already.
The French have a long history of literary frauds.
Now that people involved in the Second World War are pushing 100, new topics have to be found to keep the fraudsters in business.
“What does it do to us when we’re living in an environment where the seasons don’t affect us”
My dinner with Andre clip 👉🏽 https://youtu.be/GkQD3lUE6kM
My Side of the Mountain, Paramount Pictures, 1969.
I am skeptical, but it's evidently being widely read; nothing wrong with that.
Years ago I watched what I think was a self-made documentary about a man who was living alone in a remote area of Alaska. (Maybe Fairbanks) It must have been made in the late 40's or early 50's. He would set up his camera either inside or outside of his cabin and document his activities. I think it covered a full year and it was fascinating. I wish I could find it to see it again.
There are very few varieties of acorns that can be eaten, and most of those must be roughly ground and boiled repeatedly to clear them of tannins and other alkaloids.
Why in this age of iPhones and GoPros does Geoffie lack photographic evidence of his absurd claims?
Actually, Delorme's tale is mainly the invention of his literary agent/mountebank who accurately envisions wealth and luxury beyond the dreams of avarice. There are so many who have structured their lives around bizarre fantasies that this fraud cannot help but succeed handsomely. Delorme is just the lazy underachiever he's always been, content with mere comfort.
I hear France and forest and I think of the Ardennes and the Battle of the Bulge and very cold, horrible conditions.
But different times, of course, and now I also think this will be useful to the Biden White House, helping us learn how to survive with the coming food shortages, for those fortunate enough to live near a wooded area. Simple really, just learn from Deer Boy. There are some bushes and other plant life on the other side of the fence out back that I'm eying already and thinking about how to set some traps for the wildlife I hear screeching back there late at night.
documentary about a man who was living alone in a remote area of Alaska. I wish I could find it to see it again.
Ask, and ye shall receive
silent film by Harmon “Bud” Helmericks
Our Alaskan Winter 1949
this is the one I remember (with sound) Dick Proenneke in Alone in the Wilderness
Dick Proenneke part II
". . . Disgusted by my own species . . . "
But only humans feel disgust. And, of course, it is only human beings other than himself for whom Delorme feels disgust.
"Disgust" is a very deep emotion, we don't experience any sense of choice about what we feel disgust for. But it does seem to be learned.
gilbar, thank you. I think it was the Dick Proenneke film that I remember.
Does he have hunter red pajamas?
Was he banned from Twitter for promoting that people should go out and eat poison? ( per Gilbar)? Trump was blamed for that.
My little brother Simon wandered off on a golf course when he was like 2 and disappeared. We thought he was gone forever, but unbeknownst to everyone, he was living happily on a par 3 water hazard for years and was raised by newts.
One day the phone rang. It was the golf pro. Simon had been spotted by a ball-hunting golfer. A hunt was quickly organized. Simon was driven from cover by beaters clanging golf cart hub caps together until he was finally captured after a big, happy woman from Animal Control armed with a dart gun nailed him clean.
We took Simon home, cleaned him up, hired some experts and they got to work on him, but his re-integration was a limited success and sadly, despite extensive therapy and appeals to his common decency, he became a fuckin' lawyer.
Timothy Treadwell would have done better choosing deer as his playmates.
What a hilariously photoshopped picture.
Before I saw that I had the same questions about nutrition and shelter that the others had. It's bs, obviously.
IIRC the Wild Boy of Aveyron was raised by wolves. At least that's what was thought, since he had a hard time explaining things in French.
I taught my son a little ditty (little bitty ditty)--
Slugs and bugs and fungus are my favorite things to eat.
Slugs and bugs and fungus really can't be beat.
Bugs and slugs and fungus, better than red meat.
Bugs and slugs and fungus, I'm hungry now. Let's eat!
Bob Boyd writes, "We took Simon home, cleaned him up, hired some experts and they got to work on him, but his re-integration was a limited success and sadly, despite extensive therapy and appeals to his common decency, he became a fuckin' lawyer."
In the firm of Casper, Hauser, Remus & Simon, LLP.
Narr writes, "[The] Wild Boy of Aveyron was raised by wolves. At least that's what was thought since he had a hard time explaining things in French."
That's very odd, since any random concatenation of grunts, barks, and howls means something in French.
Hey, maybe the NCAA could seed him for the animal Olympics.
One in fifty oak trees has edible acorns, it's a randomly distributed trait that requires two Independent genes, so it's not just passed on, but you can eat the rest if you treat them, the Indians did, by leaving them soak in a running stream. I guess it's not impossible that there were a few of these trees around.
A real hermit story from Maine. Article's author wrote a very good book about the subject, based on a fair amount of assistance from said hermit, 2014. Partway through the book he had to address a problem with some of his prior "reporting" for the NY Times. But I found the book engrossing.
https://www.gq.com/story/the-last-true-hermit
I’m going to sayyyyy… nahhhhh. Doubt it like h-e-double- hockey sticks.
You ever see the terrains they cover and how fast they move? I suppose he could have had a nice base camp and befriended them- tamed them a little, but to live w/them means to move.
“That's very odd, since any random concatenation of grunts, barks, and howls means something in French.”
Easy now, Hoss. No need to hit so close to my genes:0)
My 1st thought was- who cares if it’s true? He fits right in w/living his own reality. He must have a name all made up for whatever alterhuman he thinks he is…
Did he use the wild garlic to add a zestful taste to the lichen or was it a separate course?....It's not a lie if you believe it. Not him. You. Especially if you bought the book. It was an enriching experience for him.
The garlic part is a good touch for a French diet.
White oak acorns are edible if you prepare them sort of like chestnuts, boil them to soften the hull, peel them, boil them again, then roast them. They still don't taste good and give you gas.
How about butternuts? We had a lovely butternut tree on my farm growing up. And a horse chestnut tree. Just thinking of them makes me wish I could go back. I’m kind of a weirdo about trees. I’m no treehugger- but, I do love to hug trees. Tamarack trees are my favorite b/c they look like newborns when their needles start to come out. Like newborn foals…
A Frenchy, eh?
Did he claim he stuck his honker into the ground searching for truffles?
I not buying.
I think the burden of proof here has to be in the "French Mowgli." The fact that he characterizes one of the qualities necessary simply to have a career as "hypocrisy" makes my bs antennae twitch.
Also, farmgirl - are you from Indiana by any chance? Are you familiar with the early 20th century (now somewhat problematic) novelist and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter?
Because of the tamarisks. S-P seemed to have quite a soft spot for them.
Treadwell's demise was entirely his own doing. People who had studied those bears for years warned him, but his training in photography obviously made him more qualified. The sad part of his story is that he convinced his girlfriend of his expertise, and she died along with him.
Jamie- I’m a VTer.
My relatives hail from “over the border”, for the most part. Saddest thing for me is the loss of the bilingual capabilities of this corner of the Country. I never spoke French, my Mom never having learned despite living w/her French Canadian grandparents during HS. All my Dad’s brothers and sisters visited “the farm”- homebase- often and card playing, joking and drinking- whoo the drinking- was a French thing growing up.
Now, it’s dying out. Maybe not the drinking… or maybe so. It’s a different world than the one I grew up in. The merrymaking for the sake of merrymaking- is gone.
I will definitely make note of Gene Stratton-Porter.
Tamaracks always make me smile.
You can certainly be accepted by deer and sleep with them, but eating acorns and wild garlic? Starve to death. Acorns need to leached with water to get the bitterness out. You will barf eating them raw. To leach them you need equipment, not just your hands. The American Indians (in Cali for sure) used to eat lots of acorns but leached them and ground them to flour. Technology again. And of course no way he could survive a winter unless it was S france. It is romantic to get "back to nature" but that door is closed to us. Even the most primitive human societies left (e.g. Bushmen) live in groups, have huts, have bows and arrows and don't eat raw acorns.
On Treadwell: grizzlys will ignore you when they are busy eating a salmon buffet, but otherwise you can be a tasty snack. They are carnivores, the largest on earth.
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