[pct-l] Into the Wild

[Mary Kwart]

I promised myself I wouldn't comment on this thread--but I just have to. As someone who has lived in the interior of Alaska (Tok) and worked on a wildlife refuge next to the Yukon border, I can tell you that Chris McCandless was not in anyplace that would be considered true wilderness. A bus?? Really....most Alaskans think he was an idiot from the lower 48 who was so enamored of his own abilities that he foolishly didn't carry a map, didn't consult with people who knew the area. Any kid from one of the villages in the interior Alaska would have known how to process the moose he killed and wasted through his ignorance. Three words--Traditional Ecological Knowledge--are what Chris and others like him have no respect for. It's just the lone dude against the wilderness, when in reality, people in villages all over Alaska survive with no problem because they have knowledge passed down from others on how to survive. The romance of the "lone dude against the wilderness" is just balo
ney--an artifact of our over civilized society, where the land and the ability to survive is a matter of how "pure" you can be, not down to earth knowledge appropriate to the place. it is nothing to be proud of. I am sorry that Sean Penn glorified him in a movie. He should glorify all of the young guys who live in the villages in Interior Alaska and survive just fine, thank you.

Also--if McCandless would have had a map he would have seen that there was a way to cross the river on a funicular device that has since gone defunct.
--Fireweed