Talk:Christopher McCandless
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[edit] Theories on McCandless' Death
The article seems to make no mention of what previous posters have mentioned - that it is suspected that Chris was killed by the Indian Potato seeds, not lack of skill in hunting or incompetence. The theories regarding Chris' death were sort of tenuous but Krakauer mentioned them in his book - I wonder why the author of this article didn't include these theories? It seems to me they're important to establishing Chris as not totally incompetent and reckless. - Vyxx 23 May 2006
[edit] Mistakes
Cheers to Christopher McCandless and modern nomads. It was a tragedy how he died and I think it was not foolish to go into the wilderness. What he did that was foolish was to not bring a map or a guide of all the plants in the area. This way he would have known that there was a park ranger station not far away and also a crossway close to him. He would also have known the legumes he had eaten were not edible. But other than that he died the way that he would have wanted.-6,21
[edit] No mistakes
Chris did not make any mistakes. The plant that he ate was Indian potato. He ate the roots. Never once did he mix it up with its more poisonous cousin. However, he started to harvest its seeds also, which are poisonous. He did have a guide to edible plants in Alaska. Never once, in published biotical lit, did anything mention what Chris was doing was poisonis. The ranger station could not have helped him, because someone had completely trashed it. (Not Chris). Chris was tapping into something primordial, something huge, and something deep down, everyone longs for. Chris was touching our history when he backpacked into the wilderness, something that will never be satisfied by our thin hallow existence today. Chris was no bumbler, he was a supertramp.-Theairsoftdude 04:07, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Maybe, but Reckless
Perhaps he did not make any mistakes, but certainly he was reckless. He went into an unknown (to him) wilderness region without a map, something which would have very likely saved his life. Now he may have done that willingly and therefore it was not a 'mistake' or oversight, but certainly something unwise to do. Even the frontier explorers would get what assistance, both gerographical and material, from the local peoples when ever possible because of the extreme risk of entering the wilderness blind and without aid. McCandless may been a capable outsdoorsman seaching for something spiritual, but entering the wilds without a map was extremely risky behaviour.
This page is very poorly written. I believe it needs to be completely rewritten (at least the Childhood and Education/Travels sections).
Grammar and spelling errors abound. This page is truly a mess.
[edit] Rewrite
I hope this rewrite will be OK with readers. /s/ Bigturtle aka 12.147.59.132. Bigturtle 16:31, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
Chris did not have anything about freinds. He just wished to leave the suburbs and Live on his own and by his own for a while. He did contact them several times, and arrenged meetings even. He had no problems hunting: the lack of sugar killed him. The reason no one knew that the seeds of the potatoe are toxic is because they are just flushed out of your system with sugar, but chris had been living on mostly meat. No sugar.
[edit] Pre-Alaskan travels?
There is a very large portion of time missing from this article. It makes no mention whatsoever of Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, or anywhere else he visited.
[edit] film
There is a movie being currently filmed about this guy. Sean Penn is directing it, and I'm an extra. Someone should include that in the article. The part about there being a film, not the part about me being an extra.
