Should Jon Krakauer update Into the Wild

[projectaero]

With Back to the Wild coming out and the DVD and also The Call of the Wild documentary out there, do you think Jon should update his book.
Maybe not to mention the shoulder theory, but more so the hidden wallet and also any new things mentioned in Back to the Wild?

[solovoyager]

I was kind of surprised to see Krakauer putting forth the idea on Oprah (when the movie Into The Wild was released theatrically) that Chris died because a mold was on the seeds Chris had been eating. People on this forum know much more than me on this topic, but I thought Ron Lamothe's documentary The Call of the Wild rather convincingly disproved the idea that poisonous wild potato seeds caused Chris's death. And then I see Krakauer (who I do have a lot of respect for) coming out with the mold theory.

[erikhalfacre]

At one point I would have agreed with you. I think it's only fair to point out though, that UAF did not have access to the actual bag of seeds Chris had been ingesting. At least, that is, to the best of my understanding. I had read that UAF went out to the same location and retrieved the same plant, but it wasn't in the same year. So while any test results they could come up with can be considered 'evidence' they can't really be considered 'proof' because the exact circumstances were not (and cannot be) replicated.

And while we're on the subject of debunking, anyone who's looked through 'Back to the Wild' can see evidence that Chris was using his supposedly broken right arm after the self portrait was taken. That was a very compelling theory though. I certainly was willing to give it merit at one point but I think it can pretty safely be shelved now.

[projectaero]

Thats great to know Erik.
I read 20 pages of the book, watched the movie, then later on watched the doco, now just finished the book.
Most of the book covers certain things in the doco to rule out but its good to know that with the new book out that it debunks some stuff.
It would be good if Jon done an updated version though.
Maybe an extra chapter or 2 would be good.