are you all serious?
Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 2:46 pm
ya, i used to think the some way the 20 somethings here think. nonconformists. pssht. let me post what sherry simspon posted:
Sherry Simpson, writing in the Anchorage Press, described her trip to the bus with a friend, and their reaction upon reading the comments that tourists had left lauding McCandless as an insightful, Thoreau-like figure:
Astounded by page after page of such writings, we counted the number of people identified in the notebooks. More than 200 had trekked to the bus since McCandless’s death, and that didn’t account for those who passed by without comment. Think of that: More than 200 people, many as inexperienced as McCandless, had hiked or bicycled along the Stampede Trail to the bus — and every one of them had somehow managed to return safely... Among my friends and acquaintances, the story of Christopher McCandless makes great after-dinner conversation. Much of the time I agree with the "he had a death wish" camp because I don’t know how else to reconcile what we know of his ordeal. Now and then I venture into the "what a dumbshit" territory, tempered by brief alliances with the "he was just another romantic boy on an all-American quest" partisans. Mostly I’m puzzled by the way he’s emerged as a hero, a kind of privileged-yet-strangely-dissatisfied-with-his-existence hero.... For many Alaskans, the problem is not necessarily that Christopher McCandless attempted what he did – most of us came here in search of something, didn’t we? Haven’t we made our own embarrassing mistakes? But we can’t afford to take his story seriously because it doesn’t say much a careful person doesn’t already know about desire and survival. The lessons are so obvious as to be laughable: Look at a map. Take some food. Know where you are. Listen to people who are smarter than you. Be humble. Go on out there – but it won’t mean much unless you come back. This is what bothers me – that Christopher McCandless failed so badly, so harshly, and yet so famously that his death has come to symbolize something admirable, that his unwillingness to see Alaska for what it really is has somehow become the story so many people associate with this place, a story so hollow you can almost hear the wind blowing through it. His death was not a brilliant fuck-up. It was not even a terribly original fuck-up. It was just one of the more recent and pointless fuck-ups.[16]
im afraid i would have to agree with her. chris may have been trying to follow a dream, but people do that every day with reasonable success. the reason you dont hear about them is because they dont fuck up as bad as cm did. he wasnt very smart to say the least. he had a caliber weapon in the alaska wilderness which at best is used for killing game no bigger than a squirrel. 10 lbs of rice? how far did that go. i see an arrogant man here, who challenged god, and lost. period. some day, you will all grow up, and agree. or go live in the woods and have a solitary life, dont reproduce, dont be happy, and die there, just like this man did. forget the book and movie, learn the truth. they found a 67 pound corpse of what was once a human being. how is that being a role model? he couldnt even feed himself. pssht. i wish you all luck, but i doubt thats going to help you. god help the human race with moronic thoughts like those that are found on this board. he wasnt jesus, not even close, he WASNT EVEN A MAN. he committed suicide without even knowing it. if you have any integrity you'll leave this post up as a reflection of what many people believe, but dont reply to it, i wont be back here.
Sherry Simpson, writing in the Anchorage Press, described her trip to the bus with a friend, and their reaction upon reading the comments that tourists had left lauding McCandless as an insightful, Thoreau-like figure:
Astounded by page after page of such writings, we counted the number of people identified in the notebooks. More than 200 had trekked to the bus since McCandless’s death, and that didn’t account for those who passed by without comment. Think of that: More than 200 people, many as inexperienced as McCandless, had hiked or bicycled along the Stampede Trail to the bus — and every one of them had somehow managed to return safely... Among my friends and acquaintances, the story of Christopher McCandless makes great after-dinner conversation. Much of the time I agree with the "he had a death wish" camp because I don’t know how else to reconcile what we know of his ordeal. Now and then I venture into the "what a dumbshit" territory, tempered by brief alliances with the "he was just another romantic boy on an all-American quest" partisans. Mostly I’m puzzled by the way he’s emerged as a hero, a kind of privileged-yet-strangely-dissatisfied-with-his-existence hero.... For many Alaskans, the problem is not necessarily that Christopher McCandless attempted what he did – most of us came here in search of something, didn’t we? Haven’t we made our own embarrassing mistakes? But we can’t afford to take his story seriously because it doesn’t say much a careful person doesn’t already know about desire and survival. The lessons are so obvious as to be laughable: Look at a map. Take some food. Know where you are. Listen to people who are smarter than you. Be humble. Go on out there – but it won’t mean much unless you come back. This is what bothers me – that Christopher McCandless failed so badly, so harshly, and yet so famously that his death has come to symbolize something admirable, that his unwillingness to see Alaska for what it really is has somehow become the story so many people associate with this place, a story so hollow you can almost hear the wind blowing through it. His death was not a brilliant fuck-up. It was not even a terribly original fuck-up. It was just one of the more recent and pointless fuck-ups.[16]
im afraid i would have to agree with her. chris may have been trying to follow a dream, but people do that every day with reasonable success. the reason you dont hear about them is because they dont fuck up as bad as cm did. he wasnt very smart to say the least. he had a caliber weapon in the alaska wilderness which at best is used for killing game no bigger than a squirrel. 10 lbs of rice? how far did that go. i see an arrogant man here, who challenged god, and lost. period. some day, you will all grow up, and agree. or go live in the woods and have a solitary life, dont reproduce, dont be happy, and die there, just like this man did. forget the book and movie, learn the truth. they found a 67 pound corpse of what was once a human being. how is that being a role model? he couldnt even feed himself. pssht. i wish you all luck, but i doubt thats going to help you. god help the human race with moronic thoughts like those that are found on this board. he wasnt jesus, not even close, he WASNT EVEN A MAN. he committed suicide without even knowing it. if you have any integrity you'll leave this post up as a reflection of what many people believe, but dont reply to it, i wont be back here.