{"id":77,"date":"2006-04-20T00:53:37","date_gmt":"2006-04-20T05:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/04\/20\/response-4-into-the-wild-flickr\/"},"modified":"2008-02-13T20:58:34","modified_gmt":"2008-02-14T01:58:34","slug":"response-4-into-the-wild-flickr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/04\/20\/response-4-into-the-wild-flickr\/","title":{"rendered":"Response 4 “Into the Wild” FLICKR"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lesec\/124673194\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A year ago down in Mexico,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he told Gallien, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was out on the ocean in a canoe, and I almost drowned when a storm came up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
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This picture of the canoe with two paddles inside reminds me of the abstractness of Chris McCandless\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey down the Colorado River.\u00c2\u00a0 In his mind, this was a beautiful idea, and just like everything else Chris has done up until this point, this too was an impulsive move.\u00c2\u00a0 We do not know what Chris could\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been thinking about when he decided that he was going to buy an aluminum thing and paddle it down a course which he was unfamiliar with.\u00c2\u00a0 If you look at the picture, you will see that the water is calm, unmoving, and unrealistic.\u00c2\u00a0 It is as though someone had painted this false picture, maybe this is what Chris did, painted a false picture.\u00c2\u00a0 We know that the journey wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easy.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a color-divide in the picture, a line stretching across the waters shifting colors, almost looking as though a volcano had erupted and split over onto the water, it is anything but safe.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes Chris had managed to come out of this little adventure alive, but he ran into some obstacles that he was not prepared to undertake.\u00c2\u00a0 He ran into dead ends, he pushed his canoe through trees and mud, and experienced powerful currents (almost died he said), yet Chris still held onto the idea that he would find the sea; what was the grand purpose of it all? If it was not for an incredible amount of luck, and finding duck hunters who dropped him and his canoe in the Golfo de Santa Clara, Chris might not have made it as far as he did.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe nature was already warning him that the path he is headed for was one he should not take.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Chris finally abandons the canoe at the southeast of El Golfo de Santa Clara; yet Chris learned nothing from this calamity.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, Chris just cleaned the slate and started heading back North; maybe he was testing fate, and fate eventually pushed back.<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/chrismoody1111\/126585653\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chris\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Billie, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153thought we were idiots for worrying about him.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
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I would think that if I was in Chris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shoes, stranded out in the middle of nowhere, where there is not a single person in sight, I would write more than a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disquieting note\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that reads \u00e2\u20ac\u0153S.O.S I need your help.\u00c2\u00a0 I am injured, near death\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the parents weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t idiots after all.\u00c2\u00a0 Their reasoning was justified and in the end, it is Chris whose motives we question ourselves about.\u00c2\u00a0 He is a person so full of self contradictory that even with all the information that we are given, a lot of things remain inconclusive.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manage to not see that in a disquieting way, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been asking for help all along, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s received it from so many kind strangers; in the end, being alone killed him. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I choose this picture.\u00c2\u00a0 The irony is: everyone saw that Chris needed help, except for Chris.\u00c2\u00a0 People tried to give him better equipment, food, shelter, friendship, and a home, which he refused.\u00c2\u00a0 In the letters he wrote to friends before his Alaskan journey, Chris hinted at the notion that that he might not make it out alive, giving his new friends closure if he should not make it back, but he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t provide the same courtesy for his family who was sickly worried about him. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If this adventure proves fatal and you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever hear from me again\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I now walk out to live amongst the wild\u00e2\u20ac\u009d some people speculate that this was a suicide trip, but if it was a suicide trip, than why write an S.O.S letter? \u00c2\u00a0Why not brave his death like great men of the wild usually do in fictional writing, why leave behind such a desperate plea for help.<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wildcountry\/119976303\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a watch, but in what seemed like a very short time, I was on the distinctive final ice field.\u00c2\u00a0 By now the entire sky was smeared with clouds.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
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The picture is a picture of ice stretched over land, almost like what I envision Krakauer was describing in his mesmerizing state while still attempting to climb the Devils Thumb.\u00c2\u00a0 It is interesting how Krakauer relates himself to Chris McCandless.\u00c2\u00a0 He even states that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a watch.\u00c2\u00a0 In between the many years since his climb, he still recalls that he did not have a watch on him; neither did Chris.\u00c2\u00a0 Was this something that all men who seek to conquer the wild must do before they walk forth into what is often called a dark abyss?\u00c2\u00a0 A point where time does not exist, therefore why should one have a watch? Maybe this was why Krakauer felt so connected to this kid; he sensed in Chris the same passion that drove him to risk his own life (once upon a time).\u00c2\u00a0 But in all actuality, Krakauer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s climb involved a lot of planning on his part.\u00c2\u00a0 He had a lot of resources that he had already planned on using, he even had a plane drop off food; there was no disillusionment. It was a temporary high for Krakauer, his intentions were pretty clear, he had a focus.\u00c2\u00a0 If we were to ask Chris what he planned to achieve out there, would there be a concise answer?\u00c2\u00a0 The way Krakauer described his adventure, and his continued passion for the wild, we sense that Krakauer supports the motivation behind Chris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempt.\u00c2\u00a0 By telling us his own story, Krakauer is coming to the defense of Chris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions, saying that he could\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve easily died, just as Chris had.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, the only thing his story showed me was that planning and experience has a lot to do with survival.\u00c2\u00a0
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\u00c2\u00a0http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/21855797@N00\/128565077\/<\/a>
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153His struggle was to mold me in his image had been successful after all.\u00c2\u00a0 The old walrus in fact managed to instill in me a great and burning ambition; it had simply found expression in an unintended pursuit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
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I choose this picture because Krakauer had compared his climbing of The Devils Thumb to medical school without further explaining the similarities \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He never understood that the Devil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Thumb was the same as medical school, only different\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 He instead leaves it up to the readers to make a connection.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like medical school, climbing the devil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thumb was an extremely difficult task which almost cost him his life. Kraukauer seem to believe that he and Chris was ironically molded into the person they are by their fathers.\u00c2\u00a0 Both fathers: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153built a bridge of privilege for me (them), a hand-paved trestle to the good life, and I repaid him by chopping it down and crapping on the wreckage.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The only difference is Kraukauer had come to accept and be thankful for who he has become because of his father; Chris McCandless never forgave or moved pass the human flaws of his parents.\u00c2\u00a0 I wonder if Chris ever stopped for moments of self deflection and uncovered any hypocrisy in the way he lived and acted.\u00c2\u00a0
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My findings have so far been assumptions and questions; which has really lead me to uncover how I feel about this story and towards Chris McCandless.\u00c2\u00a0 Seeing the captions with a picture tagged to it, often cultivates an idea.\u00c2\u00a0 The picture allows you to summon thoughts that you can then link to the caption that are given.\u00c2\u00a0 If I just saw a picture of a doctor performing surgery, and it had no caption on it, I would not know where to start in deconstructing the picture.\u00c2\u00a0 Words can often form a picture in a readers mind; pictures on the other hand can influence and distort the words.\u00c2\u00a0 We see them and we automatically use them as a tool to decipher what we believe is really going on.\u00c2\u00a0 The captions serve as a clue to uncover what the picture is, or maybe it is the other way around.\u00c2\u00a0 The picture serves as a tool to uncover the meaning behind the words.\u00c2\u00a0 In either case, having both under the same roof is influential.\u00c2\u00a0 Take the picture of the canoe for example.\u00c2\u00a0 You read the caption and you look at the picture, and you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see an Ocean or a storm (maybe a river), so you look harder, try to summon a better idea at why this particular picture with this canoe was chosen, it is then that you see the subtle danger outlined by the abstractness of the photograph.\u00c2\u00a0 You wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t concentrate so hard to find a relationship unless there was a caption there; you just accept that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a picture of a canoe.\u00c2\u00a0 Same applies to things taken out of context; you search for the meaning, try to connect the picture and the caption, if you still can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find it\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6you dig deeper.\u00c2\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lesec\/124673194\/ \u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A year ago down in Mexico,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he told Gallien, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was out on the ocean in a canoe, and I almost drowned when a storm came up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 This picture of the canoe with two paddles inside reminds me of the abstractness of Chris McCandless\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey down the Colorado River.\u00c2\u00a0 In his … Continue reading Response 4 “Into the Wild” FLICKR<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2006\/325\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}