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December 31, 2011
Into The Wild
I saw the movie some time ago. Now I've read the book, or at least listened to the unabridged audiobook which you can borrow from the Desert Hot Springs public library. The main differences are these:
- The book is non-chronological, so you know right at the start that Chris McCandless died in that bus in Alaska.
- The book spends a lot more time talking about the McCandless family. I recall a public radio interview with Jon Krakauer, the author, when the movie came out in 2007. During the time that the story went from an article in Outside magazine, to a book, to a movie he ran into some resistance from the family. Very little of that is in the movie, but you get a lot more of the story in the book. They're no more monsters than 99% of American families, but who wants the details of their family life laid out in a bestseller?
- The book spent more time theorizing as to what actually killed Chris McCandless (AKA Alexander Supertramp); a theorizing that continued on to the making of the movie and still today.
- And, finally, a big part of the book that simply vanished from the movie were histories of other lone individuals who have walked into the wild and died or just disappeared. This includes Krakauer's attempts to challenge the Alaskan wilderness himself when he was 23.
One of the things that drew me to the movie in the first place was that part of McCandless's journey included time spent at Slab City and around the Salton Sea. Here's a clip from the movie where he's out in the desert with "Ron" - the book tells us this is not his real name - who lived in Salton City. That sure looks like it was shot on location, and they were shooting at Slab City, so it seems likely they would shoot the Anza Borrego scenes in the area, too.
Here is a Google satellite view with Bus 142, the Magic Bus, at the center. Zoom in and you can see the bus. Zoom out and you can see how close to civilization it is. That's a subject that gets covered extensively in the book. McCandless couldn't cross over the Teklanika River in midsummer due to flooding, but within a few miles of him were cabins where he could have gotten food. It appears that he never hiked far from the bus after he got there. The cabins were badly vandalized that summer, and some people theorize that it was McCandless who did that, but Krakauer believes otherwise.
In the book Krakauer seems to suggest that McCandless had no map by choice. Here's an article by Ron Lamothe that says he did have a map. He had his ID with him too, but the Alaska state troopers who recovered his body overlooked it, so it took a few weeks to identify him. The map he had was not a good topo map, but the Ron Lamothe says the map was good enough to show a Denali park service road that would have gotten him across the river. A good topo map would have shown a gauging station on the river not far from the bus. The gauging station had a basket on a zip line that McCandless could have used to cross the river. Krakauer points out, too, that if McCandless had hiked only about a mile upstream he would have seen that the river broadens out and becomes potentially crossable on foot even in flood.
Why did he die? No clear answer is known. In the original magazine article Krakauer offered the theory that he confused wild potatoes (he was eating the tubers) with wild sweet pea, which was thought to be poisonous. Turns out the wild sweet pea is not poisonous. When the book was published, he theorized that McCandless had gone from eating the potato tubers to eating its above-ground seeds, not knowing that there are many plants with edible roots and poisonous seeds. The tests on the potato seeds were not complete at the time of publication, but Krakauer thought there were preliminary indications of swainsonine, an alkaloid, the primary toxin in locoweed. Turns out, according to Ron Lamothe, that there is no swainsonine in wild potato seeds. Krakauer then theorized that the potato seeds were moldy and the mold contained a hallucinogen.
McCandless's body, BTW, was cremated in Alaska before his parents got there (but presumably with their consent). There was no autopsy probably because it seemed obvious that he had starved to death. There's nothing to exhume.
Ron Lamothe thinks there is no need to develop a theory of a satisfactorily dramatic cause of death that would support a bestselling magazine article, book and movie. He simply starved. Unable to consume sufficient calories to support his level of activity, his body weight would have dropped to about 90 pounds giving him a BMI of less than 14 in early August 1992, according to Lamothe's estimates. A BMI of less than 15 is an indication of starvation and a BMI of only 14 means death is near. His death is believed to have come on August 18.
The last self-portrait of Chris McCandless. He is holding his SOS note`.
Lamothe puts forth the idea that rather than simply sitting there, ignorant of his options, and starving to death, McCandless had injured his right shoulder, making it more difficult for him to hunt or swim the river.
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In the iconic photos above, Lamothe points out that McCandless's right shoulder appears to slump, and possibly isn't even in the sleeve of his shirt.
Lamothe has made a documentary entitled The Call Of The Wild (IMDB).
Here's a theory from a non-expert that McCandless was schizophrenic.
McCandless's parents have published a book called Back To The Wild.
Going out to visit Bus 142 seems to have become almost a cottage industry. Here's a ten-minute video showing a trip via ATV down the Stampede Trail to the bus. If you want to do it yourself, here's a website that tells you how.
Plenty of photos on Flickr:
Photo by Anthony Vargo.
Photo from a set by Jenna 1/2acre.
Photo from a set by DuckShepherd.
Photo from a set by ErikHalfacre.
Photo from a set by RichardWagnerAU.
Photo by mannieb.
Photo from a set by Heather Horton.
There's also a Flickr group for the Stampede Trail, which is more than just Bus 142 and Chris McCandless.
Here's a web page with a lot of photos of Chris McCandless from throughout his life.
Filed under Books,Film/Movies | permalink | December 31, 2011 at 10:48 AM
Comments
Jeanne, you should read the book. The subject of whether it was suicide or not is discussed at length.
Posted by: Ron's Log at Jan 3, 2012 8:37:56 AM
I lived in Fairbanks (15 years) when he went into the wild. We all knew how it would end - it was suicide on his part and he knew it. Many people told him before he left about how bad the winter would be.
Posted by: Jeanne Jussila at Jan 3, 2012 7:17:56 AM
well written, Ron.
Posted by: b at Dec 31, 2011 11:21:06 AM
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