Christopher J. "Alexander Supertramp" McCandless

Started by miser the wiser, March 07, 2017, 01:11:40 PM

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miser the wiser

Having just read the biographical novel, Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, for the first time, I believe Chris McCandless is most indefinitely a dude to the core. First off, he ditched his secure comfortable life to live by his own laws. He gave his entire bank savings, about $24000, away to charity, burnt all the money in his wallet, ditched his family, friends, and material possessions, to live an life of adventure and uncertainty. He fell in love with nature and the freedom of the outdoors, and though it eventually cost him his life, he endured by his beliefs and morality and grip on freedom till the bitter end. Secondly, one of his close friends, Wayne Westerberg, stated in the book Chris's favorite drink was, indubitably, the White Russian. In my opinion, Chris McCandless is a dude, and should be added to the Great Dudes of History page. If you don't agree with me, read the book. He was a pretty chill dude.

jgiffin

Phenomenal book, and I'm an even bigger fan of Krakauer in general, but I'm not entirely on-board with enshrining McCandless/Supertramp (or anyone, really). Don't get me wrong: I get it. But just going off the grid and letting yourself starve to death isn't necessarily emblematic of Dudeism. Sure, he embodied some of the central elements, particularly as played-up by Krakauer, but I can't look at that life and say "Yep, that's how a Dude should roll."

Interesting point about the White Russian, though. I had no idea he played that game.

Kanantus

I read the book many years ago and Chris was a chill dude. But he did have a darker side that isn't really dude but more UNdude. He was also more of a little Lebowski achiever than dude from time to time. But all in all yes, Supertramp was a pretty cool dude.

Krakauer is a good writer and i can also recommend Into Thin Air as a good book. Also Into The Wild was made into a pretty cool movie directed by Sean Penn.

BikerDude

I agree with the above.
Despite having encountered so much good will along the way he did remain pretty pessimistic.
And that's cool but I mean he kidnapped himself man.


Out here we are all his children


Jason Duncan

Definitely most undude. But that's just my opinion. Abide, and amen or some shit