Lonely Places

[Harryasaboy]

I've got an idea for a story involving a guy living in a lighthouse far from civilization. I just realized that now lighthouses are automated and are not manned. Are there similar jobs that require a single lonely attendant?

 

[TidakSense]

I've got an idea for a story involving a guy living in a lighthouse far from civilization. I just realized that now lighthouses are automated and are not manned. Are there similar jobs that require a single lonely attendant?

You mean like a forestry/park ranger, someone on fire-watch, someone doing a biological survey, botanical researcher, geologist on a survey, a wildcat working his/her claim, anthropologist observing a tribe/group/people, a marine researcher on an island, security guard for an eccentric rich person or company, ect...

Or you could contrive a reason why this particular lighthouse needs to have a human present.

 

[Handley_Page]

I've got an idea for a story involving a guy living in a lighthouse far from civilization. I just realized that now lighthouses are automated and are not manned. Are there similar jobs that require a single lonely attendant?

Unmanned ? Perhaps now, but a few years ago ? Very Manned. (I remember the delivery of Christmas parcels to the Edison Rock in the 50s)

There are quite a few 'military' places where the lonely are posted for a while.

 

[Kantarii]

I was thinking the bird man of Alcatraz. Though he didn't have a job, he spent a lot of time alone. Bet he beat his meat 24 fuckin' 7

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Oooorrrrrr you could place the story back in time...say 20-50 years, when lighthouses were still manned. Just a suggestion.

 

[GoldenCojones]

Just write the story. Lighthouses are romantic and beautiful. If the story is good and you don't make a big deal of lighthouses being automated today then 99% of your readers won't care. The other 1% won't have actually read your story before they posted their hate anyway so it doesn't matter.

 

[FantasyXY]

Wyoming sheep herder comes to mind.

No. Wait. That story is against Lit rules.

 

[Carnevil9]

Maytag repair man?

 

[NoJo]

Lit author

 

[PennLady]

In 2002, there was a movie called "Phone Booth," starring Colin Farrell and Forrest Whittaker. Farrell played a guy who answers the phone in an old-fashioned, glassed-in telephone booth, complete with door. Superman would have been pleased to find it. Farrell is then trapped there by the caller.

As I understand it, the movie had been floating around in development for quite a while, since phone booths were more common. When it was finally made, phone booths like that were few and far between, to say the least. At any rate, in the movie it was explained that this was the last such phone booth in NYC.

Ta da.

I see no reason why you can't have a manned lighthouse and come up with a plausible reason: planned but hasn't happened yet; lighthouse is privately owned by reclusive person; town insists on keeping tradition of manned lighthouse; etc. Or, set it in the recent past when it wasn't an issue.

Does the lighthouse have to actually work as such? Could it just be a neat, isolated place that a reclusive person has found?

The great thing about writing like this is you can make things up and you probably won't be too far off reality (if that's what you want). There are little islands of the past out there. Little movie theaters that have midnight shows and one person at the ticket window, stuff like that. I don't think I'd blink if presented with someone working at a lighthouse.

 

[Jay321]

Just write the story. Lighthouses are romantic and beautiful. If the story is good and you don't make a big deal of lighthouses being automated today then 99% of your readers won't care. The other 1% won't have actually read your story before they posted their hate anyway so it doesn't matter.

seconded.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Just write the story. Lighthouses are romantic and beautiful. If the story is good and you don't make a big deal of lighthouses being automated today then 99% of your readers won't care. The other 1% won't have actually read your story before they posted their hate anyway so it doesn't matter.

Thirded, but if you insist... 6 of the loneliest jobs in the world

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just write the story. Lighthouses are romantic and beautiful.

Also, if it's a really old lighthouse, you can have the lantern rotating on a bed of mercury; there madness lies.

The old stories of deserted lighthouses are likely based on this - the mercury madness of a solitary keeper throwing himself into the sea.

 

[Harryasaboy]

All very good ideas

You mean like a forestry/park ranger, someone on fire-watch, someone doing a biological survey, botanical researcher, geologist on a survey, a wildcat working his/her claim, anthropologist observing a tribe/group/people, a marine researcher on an island, security guard for an eccentric rich person or company, ect...

Or you could contrive a reason why this particular lighthouse needs to have a human present.

What he needs is an internet connection.

 

[beachbum1958]

Why not have a manned lighthouse? It's your world, surely things happen there the way you want them to? Unless your story veers into the bizarre or fantastical, having a manned lighthouse doesn't really step beyond the bounds of reality and into the impossible/improbable, does it?

 

[CharlieB4]

How about a repairman of automated lighthouses?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Off-season caretaker for something that closes for part of the year, a la "The Shining".

 

[Ezrollin]

Oooorrrrrr you could place the story back in time...say 20-50 years, when lighthouses were still manned. Just a suggestion.

I second the above......I think there are a few manned lighthouses left in remote places, seems like I read a magazine article saying it was one of few left.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Desert Island a la DOUBLE ENDEMNITY. Couple jumps overboard to elude Mexican cops, and wash ashore on an uncharted island.