i've become obsessed with the story of chris mccandless, as documented in jon krakauer's book "into the wild" and the upcoming movie directed by sean penn and starring the tasty emile hirsh. krakauer writes in the forward, that he was "haunted by..... vague, unsettling parallels between events in his life and those in my own." my own parallels are more specific and equally unsettling.
two years younger than me, chris and i both grew up in northern virginia. his high school, a huge rival, was less than five miles away from mine. we both came from upper-middle class dysfunctional families, our fathers had previous marriages with children.
after graduation we both escaped virginia (and i do mean escaped) to attend college at emory, where we were both on the editorial staff for the newspaper. i barely remember chris as assistant editorial page editor, but it's not surprising that he was upstaged by the scenery-chewing editor marty dekom. we graduated from emory, and our parents expected us to go to law school. did our paths diverge at that point?
i had interned for 96rock and was thrilled when they offered me a full time job before i graduated. by accepting that job, i horrified my parents and pretty much discarded my university degree, and followed my heart and my passion, music. chris rejected graduate school, pretty much discarded his university degree, donated his money to charity, sold his car, and followed his heart by hitchhiking across the u.s.
i worked for very little money, made my coworkers my family, and enjoyed the rock and roll lifestyle. i called myself lisa henley for a while. chris worked for very little money, made the folks he met on his travels his family, and enjoyed the vagabond lifestyle. he called himself alexander supertramp.
but then the parallels faded. i planted roots in atlanta, got a dog, filled a house with stuff. some might argue, but i'd like to think i learned how to manage my demons. chris remained without material possessions, hitchhiked to alaska, had the adventure of a lifetime, and starved to death at 24.
two years younger than me, chris and i both grew up in northern virginia. his high school, a huge rival, was less than five miles away from mine. we both came from upper-middle class dysfunctional families, our fathers had previous marriages with children.
after graduation we both escaped virginia (and i do mean escaped) to attend college at emory, where we were both on the editorial staff for the newspaper. i barely remember chris as assistant editorial page editor, but it's not surprising that he was upstaged by the scenery-chewing editor marty dekom. we graduated from emory, and our parents expected us to go to law school. did our paths diverge at that point?
i had interned for 96rock and was thrilled when they offered me a full time job before i graduated. by accepting that job, i horrified my parents and pretty much discarded my university degree, and followed my heart and my passion, music. chris rejected graduate school, pretty much discarded his university degree, donated his money to charity, sold his car, and followed his heart by hitchhiking across the u.s.
i worked for very little money, made my coworkers my family, and enjoyed the rock and roll lifestyle. i called myself lisa henley for a while. chris worked for very little money, made the folks he met on his travels his family, and enjoyed the vagabond lifestyle. he called himself alexander supertramp.
but then the parallels faded. i planted roots in atlanta, got a dog, filled a house with stuff. some might argue, but i'd like to think i learned how to manage my demons. chris remained without material possessions, hitchhiked to alaska, had the adventure of a lifetime, and starved to death at 24.
i read the book when it was first released, and basically thought wtf. what an idiot. must be a guy thing. i'm going to read it again before i see the movie, maybe i'll think differently about chris' fate.
the parallels are still pretty unsettling. is it better to burn out than fade away? i'm ok with the fading.
3 comments:
I had no idea. I could never read that book because just walking away is such a temptation. Of course, I'd be walking with the Boom and a big bag of premium dog food (and a credit card to buy him more food), so it isn't exactly the same thing. As for burning out versus fading away, I don't think you get to choose.
I saw the movie first, but was moved much more by the book - both because of the content and also because of Krackauer's ability to spin. I share some similarities to both you and Chris, including my roots in NoVa (Fairfax Co., Chantilly grad '83), but my feeling of deep connection is more between the ears - I'm equal parts adventurer and idiot and idealist and isolationist. I just need to come up with an alterego...
just turned another friend onto the whole story, and I watched the movie again last night. Thought of you as we watched so I wanted to say hi...
I gotta read the book again. Did you read krackauer's 'Into Thin Air? Great book'.
Congrats on your job!
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