Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How Chris McCandless Died

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 134 posts

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#21

Post by freerobby »

malloreon wrote: post #2

Obligatory quotes from McCandless' wikipedia page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless ): Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: "When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail…

Why are judgmental quotes like these "obligatory?" The whole thesis of the article is that regardless of the value judgments of what McCandless did, it was not in fact arrogance that killed him, nor was it possible to correct his ignorance until a scientific discovery was made two decades after his death.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#22

Post by ajarmst »

stevehawk wrote: post #18

holy hell.. "How Chris McCandless Died" is such a bad title considering at the very end it says - "there is ample reason to believe that McCandless contracted lathyrism from eating those seeds". So he /may/ have died that way. Jon Krakauer just really wants to believe that McCandless could have survived if he hadn't been a dumbass.

Well, "could have survived is [s]he hadn't been a dumbass" is a valid comment about an astonishing number of human deaths.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#23

Post by untog »

cpncrunch wrote: post #6
malloreon wrote: post #2

Obligatory quotes from McCandless' wikipedia page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless ): Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: "When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail…

I think the point is that he was an independent thinker, and thus was disillusioned by all the BS in modern society. Sure he made some mistakes and he had some back luck, but he chose to find meaning in his life instead of being another sheep. Can you say the same for your own life?

he chose to live a meaningful life instead of being another sheep. Can you say the same for your own life?

Yeah, I can. Most of us can. 'Sheep' is such an over-used term that covers so much. Getting a full time job for a company doesn't make your a 'sheep', you can still leave a happy and meaningful life. People say (though I have no personal experience) that having children is the most meaningful thing you can do in your life. If you do, maybe nothing else matters?

The point is, it's ironic to me that you're deriding all the "BS in modern society". To me, the biggest load of BS in modern society is this first world preoccupation with "meaning", "purpose" and all that other junk.

The vast majority of people out there don't even have the time to stop and think about these things. None of us can judge what McCandless did with his life because none of us are him and know how he felt as he was dying. But if I was him, I would have regrets.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#24

Post by jeltz »

freerobby wrote: post #21
malloreon wrote: post #2

Obligatory quotes from McCandless' wikipedia page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless ): Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: "When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail…

Why are judgmental quotes like these "obligatory?" The whole thesis of the article is that regardless of the value judgments of what McCandless did, it was not in fact arrogance that killed him, nor was it possible to correct his ignorance until a scientific discovery was made two decades after his death.

Additionally a scientific discovery made by people investigating his death. If he had not died we probably would still not know about this.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#25

Post by sliverstorm »

Zimahl wrote: post #20
lrm242 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give me a break. The guy was most certainly not an independent thinker. Nor was he a critical thinker. Nor did he have any respect for the challenge he was taking on. He was an angst ridden teenage boy captured in an twenty something's body that never learned the difference between fantasy and reality. Most importantly, he never learned that in the real world there are consequences for stupid actions.

This. The previous comment is the reason why McCandless is such a polarizing figure. Those who prepare and go on a quest without suffering negative consequences are somehow derided for not being independent thinkers, somehow cheapened for not risking enough. "Adventure is just bad planning." - Roald Amundsen

I like to think of adventure as good planning combined with inherently difficult circumstances. The first treks to the poles were quite the adventure, yet they were also highly methodical and carefully planned.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#26

Post by justinator »

mpyne wrote: post #5

The author posits that it wasn't stupidity that killed McCandless for eating a plant not known to be toxic, but rather ignorance. However the reason he (and the rest of us) were ignorant of the danger of the potato seed is that the potato seed isn't dangerous to anyone except those in a severe caloric deficit and still undergoing physical exertion. In other words he applied knowledge gained in one situation (normal p…

What the article didn't touch on, is that the problem he faced was crossing out of the river, after the river rose - he couldn't simply ford across it, as he had done getting there.

"Oh well", he said, "I'll just hang back here". His original plan was to travel through Alaska - which is a weird thing to want to do, by foot, in anything but the wintertime - Alaska turns into a giant swamp. It's one of the reasons why locals thought McCandles a little dim.

What could have saved him, was this: there was an old cable basket system a little ways up river that he could have used to cross. He never knew about it. It seems he didn't even wander that way, to stumble upon it.

"A basket-pulley system built and left by the U.S. Geological survey high above the River, the basket has been chained to a pole on McCandless’ side by locals to stop people from hunting in the area. Had McCandless found the basket and broken the chain, he would’ve been able to cross even with the river at its higest point. " (Into The Wild)

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#27

Post by jeltz »

It was interesting to learn that people still eat the grass pea, which was the plant containing ODAP used in the concentration camp.

Apparently what causes most deaths by ODAP poisoning is that it survives droughts better than most crops making starving people eat it. The very group most susceptible to the poisoning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathyrus_sativus

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#28

Post by [deleted] »

malloreon wrote: post #2

Obligatory quotes from McCandless' wikipedia page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless ): Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: "When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail…

[deleted]

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#29

Post by jlgreco »

mpyne wrote: post #5

The author posits that it wasn't stupidity that killed McCandless for eating a plant not known to be toxic, but rather ignorance. However the reason he (and the rest of us) were ignorant of the danger of the potato seed is that the potato seed isn't dangerous to anyone except those in a severe caloric deficit and still undergoing physical exertion. In other words he applied knowledge gained in one situation (normal p…

I'll go further and state that the only reason this ignorance was dangerous to him was because he stupidly put himself in a situation where it could be. Everyone should know that the wilderness can be dangerous for countless reasons, that isn't really something you can be ignorant of. Not making an effort to eliminate ignorance before putting yourself in the path of danger is stupid.

Put it this way, scuba diving is dangerous, everybody knows that. Furthermore, I am ignorant about diving gases and equipment; that stuff simply isn't something I know much about. This ignorance is not dangerous to me, because I have no intention of diving. If I did intend on diving, I would have to be stupid to not rectify my ignorance first.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#30

Post by base698 »

untog wrote: post #23
cpncrunch wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that he was an independent thinker, and thus was disillusioned by all the BS in modern society. Sure he made some mistakes and he had some back luck, but he chose to find meaning in his life instead of being another sheep. Can you say the same for your own life?

he chose to live a meaningful life instead of being another sheep. Can you say the same for your own life? Yeah, I can. Most of us can. 'Sheep' is such an over-used term that covers so much. Getting a full time job for a company doesn't make your a 'sheep', you can still leave a happy and meaningful life. People say (though I have no personal experience) that having children is the most meaningful thing you can do in…

I don't believe sheep is overused when a huge population of people are pursuing material gains for people who don't care. The short list of what this leads to: depression, hopelessness, addiction, dietary diseases, and other first world problems. All trying to keep up with the Joneses. There are more meaningful pursuits.
Post reply on HN