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The Legacy of Christopher McCandless
🕑 Added 2022-03-01 11:16:01 +0000 UTCIt can sometimes be difficult, when researching these stories, to pick apart fact from fiction - that was particularly tricky with this story. Not only are the many conflicting accounts of Christopher's life... but there has also been a fictionalised version of his story told in the film Into The Wild.
When you look for photographs of the bus where Christopher lived (often referred to as "Bus 142" or "The Magic Bus") about half the pictures you'll find aren't of the actual bus at all, but instead of the replica that was made for the film, which now resides outside a brewery in the town of Healy.
There are also thousands upon thousands of articles about Christopher's life and death that - while not intentionally fictionalised - tell a very selective or inaccurate version of the story. Here's one, for example, which recommends that we don't pass judgement on his actions until we've also, "dropped everything to hit the road"!
Comments
Fascinating Horror
Better planning would definitely have helped... but as you say, he followed his own path, and that's something not many people get to do.
Fascinating Horror
An oddly appropriate way of putting it. Everything I read while researching suggested to me that Alaska is one of the most difficult states to survive in the wilds of.
He did what he wanted to do. Not many people have that opportunity. Better preparation or planning could have saved his life. Perhaps being an “Air Conditioned Gypsy” would have been a more comfortable position to be in. Great video!
Jennifer Durham
I read an Alaskan author who refers fatalities caused by actions like this as “Death by Alaska”.
