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Great article on Chris M (Into the wild)

stickfig13stickfig13 Posts: 1,532
edited May 2008 in All Encompassing Trip
http://www.mensjournal.com/feature/M162/M162_TheCultofChrisMcCandless.html
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  • eyedclaareyedclaar Posts: 6,980
    Good read. I find it interesting that people accuse Chris of being naive and ill prepared. Chris knew full well that he was naive and ill prepared. That was the point. Anyone can survive with the right gear and food. He wanted to test his limits by either learning to survive or accepting defeat. Of course, ultimately the mistakes built up and boiled over, but I think Chris would have been the first to admit that mistakes were not only made, but unavoidable in his partiular quest to see what he was made of.

    My brother lives in Fairbanks and I have visited the area. In fact, I read the book long before there were any plans for a movie. I am a reclusive person who feels at home in the mountains and I always felt a kindred spirit with Chris and always will despite the naysayers.
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  • stickfig13stickfig13 Posts: 1,532
    eyedclaar wrote:
    Good read. I find it interesting that people accuse Chris of being naive and ill prepared. Chris knew full well that he was naive and ill prepared. That was the point. Anyone can survive with the right gear and food. He wanted to test his limits by either learning to survive or accepting defeat. Of course, ultimately the mistakes built up and boiled over, but I think Chris would have been the first to admit that mistakes were not only made, but unavoidable in his partiular quest to see what he was made of.

    My brother lives in Fairbanks and I have visited the area. In fact, I read the book long before there were any plans for a movie. I am a reclusive person who feels at home in the mountains and I always felt a kindred spirit with Chris and always will despite the naysayers.


    Having traveled Alaska, I think that Alaskans are more annoyed by the fact that people do this type of adventure with success every year. However, only the ones who die are celebrated.

    Chris was naive and ill prepared to a fatal fault. He didn't seems to respect the wild he was so passionate about. If he would have respected the wild he would still be alive.

    I really think the story is metaphor to live your life by. These critics look at the literal events and say he was stupid. A lot of people who have seen the movie don't get the metaphor for life.
    Sacramento 10-30-00, Bridge School 10-20 and 10-21-01, Bridge School 10-25 and 10-26-01, Irvine 06-02-03, Irvine 06-03-03, San Diego 06-05-03, San Diego 07-07-06, Los Angeles 07-09-06, Santa Barbara 07-13-06, London UK 06-18-07, San Diego 10-9-09, San Diego 2013, LA 1 2013
  • WildsWilds Posts: 4,329
    I simply do not respect how he treated his family. I understand his wanderlust and rejection of society, many of us feel this growing up. But to be so irresponsible to not even say goodbye to his family, is totally foreign to how I feel about those who I love/love me.
  • stickfig13stickfig13 Posts: 1,532
    Wilds wrote:
    I simply do not respect how he treated his family. I understand his wanderlust and rejection of society, many of us feel this growing up. But to be so irresponsible to not even say goodbye to his family, is totally foreign to how I feel about those who I love/love me.

    Yeah I found that odd as well....

    However, part of running away was to get away from his home life.
    Sacramento 10-30-00, Bridge School 10-20 and 10-21-01, Bridge School 10-25 and 10-26-01, Irvine 06-02-03, Irvine 06-03-03, San Diego 06-05-03, San Diego 07-07-06, Los Angeles 07-09-06, Santa Barbara 07-13-06, London UK 06-18-07, San Diego 10-9-09, San Diego 2013, LA 1 2013
  • eyedclaareyedclaar Posts: 6,980
    Wilds wrote:
    I simply do not respect how he treated his family. I understand his wanderlust and rejection of society, many of us feel this growing up. But to be so irresponsible to not even say goodbye to his family, is totally foreign to how I feel about those who I love/love me.

    That's just it. You can't apply the paradigm of your family relationship to another person's relationship with their family. That doesn't make any sense. There will always be vast differences. And I'm sure he would have said goodbye if he had known it was going to be the last time he ever saw them.

    Some of us have had bad parents or parents we didn't relate to at all.
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  • wolfbearwolfbear Posts: 3,965
    Thanks for posting. That is a great article. :)
    "I'd rather be with an animal." "Those that can be trusted can change their mind." "The in between is mine." "If I don't lose control, explore and not explode, a preternatural other plane with the power to maintain." "Yeh this is living." "Life is what you make it."
  • WildsWilds Posts: 4,329
    eyedclaar wrote:
    That's just it. You can't apply the paradigm of your family relationship to another person's relationship with their family. That doesn't make any sense. There will always be vast differences. And I'm sure he would have said goodbye if he had known it was going to be the last time he ever saw them.

    Some of us have had bad parents or parents we didn't relate to at all.

    Agree on these points, but from my understanding he adored his sister. He perhaps hated his father, but I thought it was quite clear that he liked his sister.

    To be gone for months like a missing person does not sit well with me. I realize everyone is different.

    I can only relate to his story and how I feel.
  • stickfig13stickfig13 Posts: 1,532
    Wilds wrote:
    Agree on these points, but from my understanding he adored his sister. He perhaps hated his father, but I thought it was quite clear that he liked his sister.

    To be gone for months like a missing person does not sit well with me. I realize everyone is different.

    I can only relate to his story and how I feel.

    Like I said, you can't take his story and break the facts down. He made mistakes....no question!

    All you can do is take the spirit he had and apply it to your own life.

    For me it's inspirational because I would love to walk away from my job and my bills to live free and happy in the wild. However, I deal in reality and that just won't satisfy me for the next 60 years.

    I will just take his spirit and apply it where I can.
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  • celebrationcelebration Posts: 318
    stickfig13 wrote:
    http://www.mensjournal.com/feature/M162/M162_TheCultofChrisMcCandless.html

    Thanks!!!

    I thought this note was an interesting tidbit...how tragic.



    "There's additional evidence McCandless needn't have wasted away. In July, a month before his death, he attempted to hike out of the bush, only to be turned away trying to cross the Teklanika. He failed to anticipate the change in water levels as the summer progressed and snowmelt increased. But as Krakauer noted -- and a 9,000-word piece by Chip Brown in a February 1993 New Yorker made clear -- had McCandless searched a bit farther downstream he would have discovered a manual tram over the river less than a mile from where he tried to cross, a detail missing from the film"
    ########################
    Celebration, the ball's in play
  • stickfig13stickfig13 Posts: 1,532
    Just read the book!

    The book is a way more balanced account of his travels.

    The movie seems to gloss over his mistakes a bit more.
    Sacramento 10-30-00, Bridge School 10-20 and 10-21-01, Bridge School 10-25 and 10-26-01, Irvine 06-02-03, Irvine 06-03-03, San Diego 06-05-03, San Diego 07-07-06, Los Angeles 07-09-06, Santa Barbara 07-13-06, London UK 06-18-07, San Diego 10-9-09, San Diego 2013, LA 1 2013
  • LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    Wilds wrote:
    I simply do not respect how he treated his family. I understand his wanderlust and rejection of society, many of us feel this growing up. But to be so irresponsible to not even say goodbye to his family, is totally foreign to how I feel about those who I love/love me.
    I saw the movie for the first time last week. I thought his parents deserved it.
  • eyedclaareyedclaar Posts: 6,980
    LikeAnOcean wrote:
    I saw the movie for the first time last week. I thought his parents deserved it.


    Interesting. I have never second guessed Chris' decision to do what he did but I don't know that I would say his "parents" deserved the horrible feelngs they must still be stuck with. They probably should have made a better effort to understand their son and he should have made a better effort to understand them. I believe the whole family would have worked things out eventually had he not died.

    I don't really think blame serves any purpose in a scenario like this...
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  • kh65kh65 Posts: 946
    LikeAnOcean wrote:
    I saw the movie for the first time last week. I thought his parents deserved it.
    It's also a movie. You (or I for that matter) don't really know what their relationship was.
    "If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much room."

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  • sweet adelinesweet adeline Posts: 2,191
    Wilds wrote:
    I simply do not respect how he treated his family. I understand his wanderlust and rejection of society, many of us feel this growing up. But to be so irresponsible to not even say goodbye to his family, is totally foreign to how I feel about those who I love/love me.

    he probably didnt think he was going to die.
  • stickfig13stickfig13 Posts: 1,532
    kh65 wrote:
    It's also a movie. You (or I for that matter) don't really know what their relationship was.


    Exactly my point....

    The movie cast him in a light that the book never did. The book recogonized his faults. The movie glorified his heroism
    Sacramento 10-30-00, Bridge School 10-20 and 10-21-01, Bridge School 10-25 and 10-26-01, Irvine 06-02-03, Irvine 06-03-03, San Diego 06-05-03, San Diego 07-07-06, Los Angeles 07-09-06, Santa Barbara 07-13-06, London UK 06-18-07, San Diego 10-9-09, San Diego 2013, LA 1 2013
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