[pct-l] Into the Wild
Bill Burge
bill at burge.com
Fri Feb 12 00:37:09 CST 2010
Ooooooooh! I was thinking of the wrong guy!
I was thinking of the climber who cut off his own arm:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston
HE had a chance of making it into Google Earth (though I suppose this
guy would have too!)
Yeah, this guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless
sounds like he was short on "his meds". Amazing how someone who has
trouble working within society and reads a little Thoreau, thinks they
can just "strike out into the woods!" Then it turns into "striking
out in the woods". I agree with you Mary - he never heard that it
takes a village - to make a village!
Don't get me started on this guy! (lived with the grizzly and got
eaten by them)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell
BillB
On Feb 11, 2010, at 9:10 PM, Mary Kwart wrote:
> 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
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