What do you think about this book? What about Chris?

What do you think about this book? What about Chris?

Excellent book, leaves me sad knowing what happened to Chris. The book leaves me conflicted because I identified with wanting to maybe enter nature and test my mettle for a couple years alone like he did, but ultimately he died doing that, and, you know..
>Happiness is only real when shared with others.
It's a book I return to every couple years.

It's become the fucking bible for middle-class disenchanted flower children who have romanticised ideas of travelling without direction or identity, only to realise that it's fucking lonely and difficult and not at all how they imagined it in the movies; so instead they buy a copy of this book, get a flight to Alaska and trek out with a tour guide to the bus that Christopher McCandless fucking died in and leave it there is some perverse act of pilgrimage, before taking a selfie, posting it on instagram, and returning home to tell all of their friends how they now understand the human condition.

Pretty much.
What's self-discovery apart from a way to garner retweets?

good book with a message that i feel is lost on a lot of the people who pick it up

I feel so sorry for you and whatever happened that made you so cynical.

>Don’t be an idiot
Wow, profound message. The prose is terrible. Read Golden Spruce

Compelling example of what not to do. While I respect his spirit and even some of what he accomplished, the guy was undeniably naive to the point of incompetence and danger. Better writings on America, nature, and solitude

- The Stranger in the Woods
- Thomas Merton's collected works
- Walden
- John Muir
- Harvard and the Unabomber

Haven't read it, but he died the same day I was born, AND my name is Christopher. Not /x/, but still pretty cool, I think.

Never read it but just read the cover you posted. His decomposed body was found after only four months? He must have been totally incompetent and had no business being out there. I'm fat and lazy but could easily last much longer than that provided 1) it wasn't winter; 2) I had some basic supplies; and 3) I had a gun.

>Never read it
This is where your post should've stopped.
If you don't know anything about him, or what he was attempting, don't even try to assume that you could do better.

Don't need to read it to know that if he died in less than 4 months he shouldn't have been out there. I'm judging his intelligence and judgment, not the quality of Krakauer's book.

Hilarious seeing Veeky Forumss reaction to this book VS /out/s reaction to this novel. go ahead. post this same exact thread up on /out/ it will change your perspective of him completely.

Oh damn, thank you for reminding me of those threads. Legit some of the funniest shit

Who are you to determine that he made the wrong judgement? If you asked him that, I'm sure he'd say you're making an error by continuing your "life" in a city, surrounded by unneeded luxury.
To some people, such as Chris, it was better to die in the wilderness after living for 4 months truly free than to die after 80 years trapped in society.
His goal wasn't to live as a hermit until he was 60 years old. His goal was to live. To live truly.

He failed pretty badly at his one goal then. I'm not saying he should have lived a boring city life forever. But if he wanted to live out in the wild to "live truly," he should have developed the skills to do it without dying a slow and miserable death.

>his goal was to live

user, I've got news for you . . .

I understand what you're saying. But you should take into account that a big inspiration for him was Thoreau, and he also has heaps of anger towards his parents. I don't know if he was particularly suicidal and didn't care if he died in the wild, but I think he certainly hated the idea of waiting around and becoming an adult in search of wisdom and experience. I think in his mind, the best way is to simply get out there and live it.
I always see people mentioning the fact that he was under-experienced, which I don't doubt. However, understanding his motivations, inspirations and psychology should take precedence.

>and he also has heaps of anger towards his parents
As well as this, Chris had lots of anger towards his parents

Just thought I should clarify what I meant.

Read it. If I was some city-slicker that knew nothing about living in the woods, I might have found his actions inspiring, but I was born and raised in the sticks and knew the woods like the back of my hand so I just thought he was stupid as fuck the whole way through. So many goddamn errors and so much naivete and inexperience. I have to give him props for donating all of his money to charity though, but again I don't know if it's because he had balls or if he was just stupid as fuck.

Living on your own in the wilderness always has been a pipe dream. ESPECIALLY if you're not even fucking farming, and if you want to live the hunter-gatherer lifestyle like Chris. Even the most isolated hermits need help from civilization regularly at some point. Without the safety net of society, one bad season of crops, one failed hunt, one bad storm, and you starve to death in no time at all. It's a stupid move. I know it's not the point of the book but fuck you it's too glaring of an oversight on my part to just ignore.

If you want to read about a moron dying because of lack of preparation so his death can be a banal reminder of how life ultimately does not care about one's dreams or motivations, then yeah, great book, go team retard. If you want to actually read about people living in the woods and knowing what the fuck they're doing, read Calvin Rutstrum or some of the Foxfire books. Super comfy reads, with lots of practical knowledge and philosophy on nature and simple living.

Fuck Chris. I fucking can't stand that poser. Haven't read the book, tried watching the movie but really that lost generation between X and Millennials (of which I am one) have proved to be some terribly unprepared people.

This user is entirely, entirely correct.

>I fucking can't stand that poser
>dies doing what he believes in
Sick coping there, champ.

If he really thought his cause was worth backing he would have done his research, like the good student he was. Ironically, it was Chris’ inability to cope which lead to his fatal choices.
Also sage

You could say that about 90% of people who read.

yeah the message if ur a rich kid don't run away into the woods cuz you'll probably kill yourself by accident

>Die doing what you believe in
>Instantly validates whatever you did

I've done plenty in my lifetime. Hard shit most of you soft handed nancies couldn't hack even if you tried. I also learned to prepare for those hardships, not only mentally and physically but also by knowing the terrain and having reasonable expectations going in.

McCandless was a fucking retard who couldn't make it in life in the first world, much less on hardcore mode in the fucking wilderness. Why are you even defending him, unless you too are similarly brain damaged and believe you can survive off hope and sunshine.

You don't even have to grow up in the woods to come to the conclusion that this guy doesn't know what he's doing. I was talking about this with a friend of mine who was a boy scout and the book made him rage. It's more just like, anyone who understands that preparation and caution are necessary for living in those conditions.

Jon Krakauer fucked up because he fell in love with his subject. Into Thin Air is a much better story about man's hubris because he clearly isn't as infatuated with the people who got themselves killed. Also, the numerous side stories about how Krakauer smoked weed on top of a mountain etc. were not too interesting, with the exception of the one Alaskan dude who tried for like 3 years and then came to the conclusion he couldn't do it.

I think of it as the Kurt Cobain generation. Although based on the time period I think he was late Gen-X

i saw a thing calling them Xennials or something, i guess that's what i am, i'm a "digital native" but only because i'm autistic and was ahead of the curve on the internet

Chris was just a person who had a terrible upbringing with abusive parents and hated his life so he tried to escape. No, of course he was not some survival fetishist like a million unoriginal critics can't wait to point out. If he had been nobody would care about his story. He was a classically tragic, misguided figure, that is what makes it an affecting story in the first place.

A complete loser born into privilege and money most of us will never even get a whiff at that threw it all away to become a hippie asshole that died a stupid, worthless death that proved nothing and is now worshipped by even dumber hippie assholes that don't have the guts to try the retarded shit he did.

There's no reason to get so virulently bitter over the death of an individual unless you envy them.

I think that anger, more than anything else, is what vindicates McCandless.

>do something retarded
>"lol what a retard"
>y-you guise are just bitter and jealous!

Chris have a fear for water and a flood came in when he want to go back that's what the book said, do you think having a fear is to be unprepared? do you have a fear? could that feel kill you?