First and foremost I must confess that I have a profound love and respect for Christopher McCandless. Whatever his faults or eccentricities, the man is like a deity to me.
Saying this, I give "INTO THE WILD" two stars.
Jon Krakauer is a fantastic story-teller. "UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN" and "INTO THIN AIR" are exquisite works of heartbreaking research; however "INTO THE WILD" (moving as it may be) was tweaked far too much for my liking.
Of course, INTO THE WILD worked on me, pulled my heartstrings. I read the book and fell in love with a dead man and his ideals, but I cannot forgive Krakuer for his untruths.
For this book, Krakauer romanticized Chris -- either for numbers or to ease the painful wounds of Chris's family, I cannot say. While the main portrait of the man is true (which creates the feral Love and/or Hate reaction readers will have to him), there are three untruths in the book which taint the Christopher McCandless story.
(My source for the following is the Terra Incognita website devoted to Ron Lamothe's Christopher McCandless documentary "THE CALL OF THE WILD" -- which I highly recommend as a thoroughly researched piece on McCandless and the effect or non-effect created by his death. Whatever quotes I include also come from this site, located here: http://tifilms.com/wild/call_debunked.htm)
I. Chris McCandless walked into the wild with his birth certificate, driver's license, health card, social security card, voter identification, and three library cards. He also brought $300 tucked in his wallet AND A MAP.
These items were all found in Chris McCandless's wallet, which was safely housed in a secret compartment in his backpack. This backpack, somehow overlooked by the police, was found in the fall of 1992 by one Will Forsberg. Bear in mind, INTO THE WILD was published in 1996 -- four years since the finding of that backpack.
So, then, the depictions of Chris burning his identification beside his drowned yellow Datsun (as depicted in the Sean Penn film, which followed closely the book) or leaving, among other things, eighty-five cents in the truck which drove him to the Stampede Trail are completely fictitious.
As for the map Krakauer waffles less than gracefully.
"In the original [OUTSIDE MAGAZINE] story, Krakauer writes that 'he left the map in Gallien's truck, along with his watch, his comb, and all his money, which amounted to 85 cents.' However, when the book was published, these lines were changed to the following: 'Alex insisted on giving Gallien his watch, his comb, and what he said was all his money: eighty-five cents in loose change' (p. 7). What happened to the map? Why the nuance of 'what he said' was all his money? Was the reason for the latter that Krakauer suspected Chris had more than eighty-five cents on him, which would make sense considering he writes in another chapter that Chris had left Carthage twelve days earlier with 'approximately one thousand dollars tucked in his boot' (p. 68).
Perhaps mention of the map mysteriously disappeared is because the map is listed in the list of possessions drafted by the coroner.
Yet Krakuer (who had access to the list, ergo the road map as well) still makes no mention of the map -- in the original article or the book, and subsequently the movie.
From INTO THE WILD: "At the coroner's office they were given the handful of possessions recovered with the body: Chris's rifle, a pair of binoculars, the fishing rod Ronald Franz had given him, one of the Swiss Army knives Jan Burres had given him, the book of plant lore in which his journal was written, a Minolta camera, and five rolls of filmânot much else" (p. 131).
On one page alone: "Because he had no topographic map"; and in the next paragraph, "He simply got rid of the map. In his own mind, if nowhere else, the terra would thereby remain incognita"; and then followed by the line, "Because he lacked a good map..." (p. 174)."
Why not mention the map that Chris did have? Why keep up the charade?
"... he continues to let others believe that Chris didn't have any map at all, and his pat answer to questions on the subject deflects the truth by talking about what other people say rather than correcting the interviewer (excerpts below from The Oprah Winfrey Show, 9/20/07; and Sundance Channel's 2007 season premiere of Iconoclasts):
OPRAH WINFREY: So eating the seed was the fatalâ-was the fatal blow?
JON KRAKAUER: That's what finally pushed him over the edge.
OPRAH WINFREY: But not having a map?
JON KRAKAUER: Not having a map. Heâ-well, I mean, it's easy to criticize Chris. He didn't have a map. He didn't have an axe. He had a very small-caliber rifle. But, this was not--this was by design.
From Iconoclasts:
Jon Krakauer: People don't get it. âHe didn't even have a fucking map! What kind of idiot.â That was the point. There's no blank spots on the map anymore, anywhere on earth. You want a blank spot on the map, you've got to leave the map behind."
But again, Chris did have a map. This proves beyond reasonable doubt that Chris was not a loon hell-bent on death by nature. He had indeed planned to come back to civilization and write his book, perhaps reconcile with his father.
Is it possible that Chris's possession of a map diminishes his great Alaskan Odyssey? Of course not. Yet it is not mentioned by Krakuer, who must insist that Chris walked blindly to his tragically romantic death.
II. Chris McCandless did not die as the result of eating toxic mold, poisonous plants or any combination of the two (as pushed by Krakauer since the 1996 release of INTO THE WILD -- despite the lack of any scientific evidence proving the toxicity of the wild potato plant or the wild sweet pea, which Chris had been able to distinguish without trouble for three weeks). Chris's death can be answered simply and tragically enough: it was a mere act of irony, that this man who donated his life's savings to OXFAM would starve to death.
"As far back as 1997, Dr. Thomas Clausenâ-the biochemist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who examined the wild potato plant (Hedysarum alpinum) for Jon Krakauerâ-concluded after exhaustive testing that no part of H. alpinum is toxic. Neither the roots nor the seeds. Accordingly, McCandless could not have poisoned himself in the way suggested by Krakauer in his 1996 book INTO THE WILD, and in every subsequent reprinting of the book over the next decade."
Nor could Chris have mistaken the wild potato plant with the wild sweet pea and died that way (as suggested in the movie). There are no toxic compounds in the wild sweet pea and there is not one case in modern medical literature which might infer otherwise.
But wait! The seeds were moldy! Chris had stored them in a repeatedly washed Ziploc bag and so mold grew on the seeds, a deadly mold, which prevented Chris from absorbing any nutrition and so he died that way!
Krakuer pushed forth this new theory after a September 2007 Men's Journal article entitled âTHE CULT OF CHRIS MCCANDLESSâ. This article revealed for the first time in the Lower 48 the falsehood of the H. alpinum (wild potato plant) theory.
But "He provides no evidence in support of the idea that this particular mold (Rhizoctonia leguminicola) has been found in Alaska on Hedysarum alpinum plants and linked with swainsonine. Nor can he provide a single case where a human has ever, anywhere, been poisoned in this way. And yet, Krakauer speaks of it in public as if this were a proven fact: 'It turned outâ-I've learned, since writing the book, those seeds were moldy. And this mold created a poison that doesn't actually kill you outright, it keeps you from digesting food. So even though he was still eating food, he couldn't make use of it. And thatâ-so he starved to death because he ate these moldy seeds' (The Oprah Winfrey Show, 9/20/07). The same day he repeated this claim on National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered,' describing to Melissa Block how he 'puzzled' over this for years, but was now 'pretty convinced' that Chris McCandless died from eating moldy potato seeds."
He gathered this from a single photograph of a Ziplog bag and a quantity of seeds. Miraculously Krakauer deduced from this one photograph the exact breed of mold (Rhizoctonia leguminicola) which grew on the moldering seeds in the moist plastic bag and the exact toxic alkoloid (swainsonine) which then grew on the mold.
Granted, he could have done that. However this is an "untested theory, and one based entirely on veterinary literatureâ-an obscure case where some horses in North Carolina ate large quantities of moldy red clover hay. He provides no evidence in support of the idea that this particular mold (Rhizoctonia leguminicola) has been found in Alaska on Hedysarum alpinum plants and linked with swainsonine. Nor can he provide a single case where a human has ever, anywhere, been poisoned in this way."
No. The simple fact of the matter is that Christopher McCandless (a sinewy cross county runner with a 30-inch waist) starved to death. For all his time in Alaska, he could only acquire small game (squirrels and the like). The one moose he did kill (and tried to cure incorrectly for the environment he was in) quickly rotted in the rife, moist atmosphere.
It is stated in Chris's own journals that he went days without food.
A small man, hunting and foraging in the wild, expending more energy than he could consume...
"Using peer-reviewed scientific literature, relying on calculations developed by the World Health Organization, and informed by McCandless's own food journals, we tested this hypothesis. The result was that, despite some success hunting and gathering, McCandless was not able to secure enough food on a daily basis. He slowly lost weight until he reached a Body Mass Index (BMI) that was fatal. To test this hypothesis, we calculated his energy expenditure and compared this to his caloric intake. To assess his energy expenditure, we predicted the basal metabolic rate (BMR) of McCandless using a regression equation developed by the World Health Organization for young adult humans, age18-29. His BMR was adjusted to reflect his physical activity levelâhunting and gatheringâas defined by WHO criteria. McCandless's caloric intake was estimated from his detailed 113-day food journal. In the end, a day-by-day comparison of his energy expenditure (BMR) and his caloric intake showed a consistent caloric deficit, i.e. weight loss. By Day 113, his Body Mass Index (BMI) had dropped into the range of 13 kg/m2, a level considered incompatible with life. It is believed he died on that same day."
Chris does mention that he gets ill toward the end of July (07.30.92: "Extremely weak. Fault of pot. seed,"), but this was not the cause of his death.
It is possible, like any severely emaciated person, that his withered and dying organs simply could not handle what little sustenance those seeds provided. But he would not have died from his inability to digest this food.
Christopher McCandless died after 113 days in the wild, not because of toxic seeds/mold/what have you as Krakauer adamantly states, but because he could not meet his caloric needs.
When his body was found, Chrisopher McCandless weight 67 pounds.
Again, I cannot express my severe love and admiration toward McCandless. I cannot look at a picture of him without feeling as if my soul has been torn away, and because of this hero worship (which he would not have wanted, which he never wanted) I have to mention the lies of the Krakuer book.
It still is a moving tale, but to warp the facts about what happened is inexcusable.
Saying this, I give "INTO THE WILD" two stars.
Jon Krakauer is a fantastic story-teller. "UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN" and "INTO THIN AIR" are exquisite works of heartbreaking research; however "INTO THE WILD" (moving as it may be) was tweaked far too much for my liking.
Of course, INTO THE WILD worked on me, pulled my heartstrings. I read the book and fell in love with a dead man and his ideals, but I cannot forgive Krakuer for his untruths.
For this book, Krakauer romanticized Chris -- either for numbers or to ease the painful wounds of Chris's family, I cannot say. While the main portrait of the man is true (which creates the feral Love and/or Hate reaction readers will have to him), there are three untruths in the book which taint the Christopher McCandless story.
(My source for the following is the Terra Incognita website devoted to Ron Lamothe's Christopher McCandless documentary "THE CALL OF THE WILD" -- which I highly recommend as a thoroughly researched piece on McCandless and the effect or non-effect created by his death. Whatever quotes I include also come from this site, located here: http://tifilms.com/wild/call_debunked.htm)
I. Chris McCandless walked into the wild with his birth certificate, driver's license, health card, social security card, voter identification, and three library cards. He also brought $300 tucked in his wallet AND A MAP.
These items were all found in Chris McCandless's wallet, which was safely housed in a secret compartment in his backpack. This backpack, somehow overlooked by the police, was found in the fall of 1992 by one Will Forsberg. Bear in mind, INTO THE WILD was published in 1996 -- four years since the finding of that backpack.
So, then, the depictions of Chris burning his identification beside his drowned yellow Datsun (as depicted in the Sean Penn film, which followed closely the book) or leaving, among other things, eighty-five cents in the truck which drove him to the Stampede Trail are completely fictitious.
As for the map Krakauer waffles less than gracefully.
"In the original [OUTSIDE MAGAZINE] story, Krakauer writes that 'he left the map in Gallien's truck, along with his watch, his comb, and all his money, which amounted to 85 cents.' However, when the book was published, these lines were changed to the following: 'Alex insisted on giving Gallien his watch, his comb, and what he said was all his money: eighty-five cents in loose change' (p. 7). What happened to the map? Why the nuance of 'what he said' was all his money? Was the reason for the latter that Krakauer suspected Chris had more than eighty-five cents on him, which would make sense considering he writes in another chapter that Chris had left Carthage twelve days earlier with 'approximately one thousand dollars tucked in his boot' (p. 68).
Perhaps mention of the map mysteriously disappeared is because the map is listed in the list of possessions drafted by the coroner.
Yet Krakuer (who had access to the list, ergo the road map as well) still makes no mention of the map -- in the original article or the book, and subsequently the movie.
From INTO THE WILD: "At the coroner's office they were given the handful of possessions recovered with the body: Chris's rifle, a pair of binoculars, the fishing rod Ronald Franz had given him, one of the Swiss Army knives Jan Burres had given him, the book of plant lore in which his journal was written, a Minolta camera, and five rolls of filmânot much else" (p. 131).
On one page alone: "Because he had no topographic map"; and in the next paragraph, "He simply got rid of the map. In his own mind, if nowhere else, the terra would thereby remain incognita"; and then followed by the line, "Because he lacked a good map..." (p. 174)."
Why not mention the map that Chris did have? Why keep up the charade?
"... he continues to let others believe that Chris didn't have any map at all, and his pat answer to questions on the subject deflects the truth by talking about what other people say rather than correcting the interviewer (excerpts below from The Oprah Winfrey Show, 9/20/07; and Sundance Channel's 2007 season premiere of Iconoclasts):
OPRAH WINFREY: So eating the seed was the fatalâ-was the fatal blow?
JON KRAKAUER: That's what finally pushed him over the edge.
OPRAH WINFREY: But not having a map?
JON KRAKAUER: Not having a map. Heâ-well, I mean, it's easy to criticize Chris. He didn't have a map. He didn't have an axe. He had a very small-caliber rifle. But, this was not--this was by design.
From Iconoclasts:
Jon Krakauer: People don't get it. âHe didn't even have a fucking map! What kind of idiot.â That was the point. There's no blank spots on the map anymore, anywhere on earth. You want a blank spot on the map, you've got to leave the map behind."
But again, Chris did have a map. This proves beyond reasonable doubt that Chris was not a loon hell-bent on death by nature. He had indeed planned to come back to civilization and write his book, perhaps reconcile with his father.
Is it possible that Chris's possession of a map diminishes his great Alaskan Odyssey? Of course not. Yet it is not mentioned by Krakuer, who must insist that Chris walked blindly to his tragically romantic death.
II. Chris McCandless did not die as the result of eating toxic mold, poisonous plants or any combination of the two (as pushed by Krakauer since the 1996 release of INTO THE WILD -- despite the lack of any scientific evidence proving the toxicity of the wild potato plant or the wild sweet pea, which Chris had been able to distinguish without trouble for three weeks). Chris's death can be answered simply and tragically enough: it was a mere act of irony, that this man who donated his life's savings to OXFAM would starve to death.
"As far back as 1997, Dr. Thomas Clausenâ-the biochemist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who examined the wild potato plant (Hedysarum alpinum) for Jon Krakauerâ-concluded after exhaustive testing that no part of H. alpinum is toxic. Neither the roots nor the seeds. Accordingly, McCandless could not have poisoned himself in the way suggested by Krakauer in his 1996 book INTO THE WILD, and in every subsequent reprinting of the book over the next decade."
Nor could Chris have mistaken the wild potato plant with the wild sweet pea and died that way (as suggested in the movie). There are no toxic compounds in the wild sweet pea and there is not one case in modern medical literature which might infer otherwise.
But wait! The seeds were moldy! Chris had stored them in a repeatedly washed Ziploc bag and so mold grew on the seeds, a deadly mold, which prevented Chris from absorbing any nutrition and so he died that way!
Krakuer pushed forth this new theory after a September 2007 Men's Journal article entitled âTHE CULT OF CHRIS MCCANDLESSâ. This article revealed for the first time in the Lower 48 the falsehood of the H. alpinum (wild potato plant) theory.
But "He provides no evidence in support of the idea that this particular mold (Rhizoctonia leguminicola) has been found in Alaska on Hedysarum alpinum plants and linked with swainsonine. Nor can he provide a single case where a human has ever, anywhere, been poisoned in this way. And yet, Krakauer speaks of it in public as if this were a proven fact: 'It turned outâ-I've learned, since writing the book, those seeds were moldy. And this mold created a poison that doesn't actually kill you outright, it keeps you from digesting food. So even though he was still eating food, he couldn't make use of it. And thatâ-so he starved to death because he ate these moldy seeds' (The Oprah Winfrey Show, 9/20/07). The same day he repeated this claim on National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered,' describing to Melissa Block how he 'puzzled' over this for years, but was now 'pretty convinced' that Chris McCandless died from eating moldy potato seeds."
He gathered this from a single photograph of a Ziplog bag and a quantity of seeds. Miraculously Krakauer deduced from this one photograph the exact breed of mold (Rhizoctonia leguminicola) which grew on the moldering seeds in the moist plastic bag and the exact toxic alkoloid (swainsonine) which then grew on the mold.
Granted, he could have done that. However this is an "untested theory, and one based entirely on veterinary literatureâ-an obscure case where some horses in North Carolina ate large quantities of moldy red clover hay. He provides no evidence in support of the idea that this particular mold (Rhizoctonia leguminicola) has been found in Alaska on Hedysarum alpinum plants and linked with swainsonine. Nor can he provide a single case where a human has ever, anywhere, been poisoned in this way."
No. The simple fact of the matter is that Christopher McCandless (a sinewy cross county runner with a 30-inch waist) starved to death. For all his time in Alaska, he could only acquire small game (squirrels and the like). The one moose he did kill (and tried to cure incorrectly for the environment he was in) quickly rotted in the rife, moist atmosphere.
It is stated in Chris's own journals that he went days without food.
A small man, hunting and foraging in the wild, expending more energy than he could consume...
"Using peer-reviewed scientific literature, relying on calculations developed by the World Health Organization, and informed by McCandless's own food journals, we tested this hypothesis. The result was that, despite some success hunting and gathering, McCandless was not able to secure enough food on a daily basis. He slowly lost weight until he reached a Body Mass Index (BMI) that was fatal. To test this hypothesis, we calculated his energy expenditure and compared this to his caloric intake. To assess his energy expenditure, we predicted the basal metabolic rate (BMR) of McCandless using a regression equation developed by the World Health Organization for young adult humans, age18-29. His BMR was adjusted to reflect his physical activity levelâhunting and gatheringâas defined by WHO criteria. McCandless's caloric intake was estimated from his detailed 113-day food journal. In the end, a day-by-day comparison of his energy expenditure (BMR) and his caloric intake showed a consistent caloric deficit, i.e. weight loss. By Day 113, his Body Mass Index (BMI) had dropped into the range of 13 kg/m2, a level considered incompatible with life. It is believed he died on that same day."
Chris does mention that he gets ill toward the end of July (07.30.92: "Extremely weak. Fault of pot. seed,"), but this was not the cause of his death.
It is possible, like any severely emaciated person, that his withered and dying organs simply could not handle what little sustenance those seeds provided. But he would not have died from his inability to digest this food.
Christopher McCandless died after 113 days in the wild, not because of toxic seeds/mold/what have you as Krakauer adamantly states, but because he could not meet his caloric needs.
When his body was found, Chrisopher McCandless weight 67 pounds.
Again, I cannot express my severe love and admiration toward McCandless. I cannot look at a picture of him without feeling as if my soul has been torn away, and because of this hero worship (which he would not have wanted, which he never wanted) I have to mention the lies of the Krakuer book.
It still is a moving tale, but to warp the facts about what happened is inexcusable.
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