UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology_SS 2025_FOR PRINT - Flipbook - Page 13
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
understood, if you feel like a mis昀椀t being around other people who
sharing, he creates space for others to also undertake what he did
feel like mis昀椀ts, even if it isn’t the same way you understand the
with the book, which is to create an argument “that attempts to
perspective, you’re not going to be completely resolved.” For some,
know, to understand, loneliness at its core allows us to recognize
their otherness is their driving force. While Hurston was always
that such a feeling, though always our own, is something we share,
a big personality, that was perhaps especially appreciated during
inevitably, with others.” His book could be seen as a call to action,
her time in Harlem. Deming agrees. “I don't think she comes to
a way to encourage his readers to investigate what is at the core of
New York and she is suddenly di昀昀erent, but she enters the room
their own lonelinesses and what antidotes they already hold, the
and everybody knows she's there, and she's that way for a good
tools needed to negate or shift the direction of their loneliness.
period of time. But she’s had a pretty full life before she even gets
Magsamen and Ross had previously shared that after just 10
there, where people don't necessarily react in the way she did. She
hours without human contact, we crave it in the way we crave
seems like kind of a big character, but not like she is when she gets
food when hungry and that it has been relatively recent that we
to Harlem, and I'm really fascinated by that and so I think she's a
as a species have moved indoors and created spaces where we
case where there were people that very much liked her and were on
spend time on our own. The walls that grant solitude might as
her side. But she early on has this experience where she feels that
easily isolate. Deming says, “Certainly occasional or symptomatic
she is profoundly di昀昀erent from other people because she has these
visions.”
or circumstantial loneliness is something that everybody’s
But it is Hurston’s feeling of otherness that drives her forward.
hopelessness or existential dread. And even if one 昀椀nds themselves
She returned to Eatonville, Florida, the town where she grew
in that state, it can be the driving force to reach out, sometimes
up and where her feeling of being di昀昀erent began. Although
through creating rather than physically connecting with another
this was a place where she was lonely, it was also her gold vein
person. Sometimes art can be the antidote. Writing or making
that only she could mine, and by returning to the source to
something and sharing from one’s own experience doesn’t only
reckon with her past, what she was able to mine became her 1935
lift the maker; it also elevates those who engage with what has
autoethnographical book of African-American folklore, Mules and
been shared. Dr. Santos suggests attempting to enter situations
Men. The now-canonical work was an undertaking that may have
believing you are liked so that both you and the other party have the
never happened if Hurston had not had the drive she did, if she
opportunity to connect and have a meaningful interaction. Holt-
had not had the experiences she’d had. Too, the book ensures that
Lunstad suggests small acts of kindness, and has found through
stories of her time and of her history would not be lost to time. In
her studies that these enrich the lives of the ones taking action to
his introduction, Deming asks, “What can we do with loneliness?
bene昀椀t others. There are myriad ways to navigate our loneliness.
What can we make of it?” Hurston, as is true of the other makers
Deming writes, “If we are to keep going, push through, or slip
Deming writes about, has provided an answer that worked for
around, I believe we must reinvent loneliness in order to survive
susceptible to.” But loneliness does not have to be approached with
her, not by answering the question directly, but by crafting that
it.” How might each of us, too, reinvent loneliness in constructive
which made her feel other and lonely into something to be shared
ways? ☐
and valued. Of the six makers, Deming writes, “Taken together,
For more information on Richard Deming or This Exquisite Loneliness , visit:
penguinrandomhouse.com
they are a disparate group of people who forged insights and
perspectives in the cold 昀椀res of loneliness. They responded to
the inner turmoil of their own forms of loneliness and fashioned
Contributed by: Ciara Shuttleworth
something out of it, not simply an expression, but as a signal, a
Ciara Shuttleworth is an alumnus of the prestigious San Francisco Art Institute. She
昀氀are, so as to be of use to others.”
has worked for three prominent San Francisco fine art galleries. Additionally, she has
provided art consulting for private and corporate collections, including Google. She is
also a published writer with works in the Norton Introduction to Literature and The
New Yorker. Her most recent book is the poetry collection, Rabbit Heart.
Deming, too, undertook the writing of This Exquisite Loneliness
as a way to send up a 昀氀are. He shares that after readings, despite
Cover Photography: Dhaya Eddine Bentaleb
having shared parts of his experience with others, he still goes
back to his hotel room as the sole person who has experienced
the totality of his own loneliness; he is the only one who continues
to relive it each time he reads from or discusses the book. But by
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