This Longreads essay, published in 2020, evolved into a chapter in Sarah Fay’s book, , published in March 2022 by HarperCollins.It’s decidedly male and often nationalistic, a symbol of American independence. It’s Thoreau, who writes inLooking back, that time I spent in solitude is bracketed; that’s how it’s punctuated for me now.What about other media? Television? Radio? Do these media release us from solitude, rescue us from isolation, save us from loneliness?Brackets emit a feeling of enclosure. Which is how I now see those four remote years: walled off, the self alone with the...… This Longreads essay, published in 2020, evolved into a chapter in Sarah Fay’s book, , published in March 2022 by HarperCollins.It’s decidedly male and often nationalistic, a symbol of American independence. It’s Thoreau, who writes inLooking back, that time I spent in solitude is bracketed; that’s how it’s punctuated for me now.What about other media? Television? Radio? Do these media release us from solitude, rescue us from isolation, save us from loneliness?Brackets emit a feeling of enclosure. Which is how I now see those four remote years: walled off, the self alone with the...WW…