• Rem [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I remember reading that book in high school and not getting why we were supposed to care about this guy. Dumbass rich kid drives around, tours with actual poor people like an enrichment experience, does extreme camping because he thinks he's some sort of shaman, eats poisoned berries and dies. Like it could be interesting if it weren't framed as some "tragic but noble journey of enlightenment by a romantic soul who never truly fit in this world" or some shit.

      • star_wraith [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        He was a dumbass but McCandless at least gave away his entire trust fund to Oxfam or something like that, so I'll take him over Kerouac.

        • KantNeverCould [any]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Kerouac grew up in a poor, immigrant family. He was just a contrarian, misanthropic asshole. The original "post-Leftist" as someone on Twitter called him.

      • Rem [she/her]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Fuck, wait for real I thought that was the name of the into the wild guy

        • muirc [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Jon Krakauer wrote the book. The kid was Chris McCandless. I used to hate that movie 10 years ago, but actually really like it now. Into Thin Air is a good book by Krakauer.

          • Spinoza [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            into thin air is such a fucked book, i haven't read it in a decade and it still sticks out distinctly in my memory

    • T_Doug [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      I had a similar reaction initially but I now have a lot more sympathy for Chris McCandless after his sister revealed that their parents were extremely abusive , and letters from him reveal his desire to escape an awful environment at home was the driving cause for going "into the wild".

      • Rem [she/her]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Nooo, not the contextual information that makes it hard to just shit on someone