#1: Into The Wild
Chris McCandless, otherwise known as Alexander Supertramp, idolized the Romantic notion of living a minimalistic lifestyle among nature, famously theorized by Thoreau and Emerson. The film Into the Wild reenacting Jon Krakauer’s story of Chris McCandless, encourages viewers to consider human existence with and in nature, and to differentiate between a respectful relationship with nature and a reckless, ignorant, and borderline self-absorbed imposition on nature.
Because Chris McCandless’s decision to start a new life in the wild was a brave one requiring exceptional determination and commitment, it’s easy to admire his efforts as Alexander Supertramp. McCandless demonstrated a bright mind through high performance in school prior to breaking from society leading many to deem him in his new identity, Alex Supertramp, a hero. While many dream of breaking from social constructs and impositions of society, especially when feeling underqualified to meet society’s demands, few take the gamble in pursuit of spiritual fulfillment. Alex Supertramp took this gamble by choice even with qualifications to fare well in society further glorifying his character. Although McCandless earned credentials academically and his faith in a dream carried him a long way, realistically, he was inadequately prepared for his journey into the wild. It is important to be cautious of romanticized perceptions as efforts like McCandless’s promote an extremely dangerous life for dreaming travelers who also idolize the work of Thoreau and Emerson.
I understand the Into the Wild film reenacting John Krakauer’s story of Chris McCandless as a cautionary tale to travelers considering adventures similar to that of Alex Supertramp. The extensive research conducted on his case and life confirms the dangers of overly romanticizing a break into the wilderness from society. Every person is familiar to stress, but only a few will resolve it with extremist solutions. At the same time, the film was also made to evoke an emotional response from audiences by sharing the tragedy. His story makes an interesting documentary with the compliment of surrounding personal life drama that influenced his decisions. As a young character with a lot going for him but choosing to make it on his own, audiences adopt an underdog mentality for him and clasp to a thrilling hope that he makes it through his endeavors while watching the film.
In the film, Chris McCandless tells Ronald Franz: “No thing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a person than a secure future. The very basic core of a person’s living spirit is his passion for adventure”. With this statement, Chris explains how his decision to disappear into the wild was not an act of running in fear of a future career after college, but felt that this would tie his hands from living a life he was meant to live. As a clever boy, his decision to leave his life behind was the opposite of what one would expect for a high achieving student. This quote also imparts that it fuels curiosity to not have a plan because you aren’t limited by your expectations of how something might play out, or by a perceived finish line. In the movie, Chris tells the old man who lost his wife and child in a drunk driver accident to start living and dare to adventure when he feels that his reason to live has passed.
I am in firm agreement with the author of Into the Wild that risk taking is a rite of passage. While it is good to be calculated in the risks that you undertake, each risk has one of two outcomes. Either there is a successful outcome that propels you beyond your position prior to taking the risk, or the risk taker experiences failure from with they learn. Either way, the act of taking a risk develops character and grants a rite of passage to a new level of maturity.
Frequently in the film, McCandless expresses his aversion to material things and money. His parents offer him a new car after graduation that he refuses, and he ultimately abandons the car he already had, embarking into the wilderness by foot. He also gave away all of his saved money to charity and destroyed all forms of identification. Chris resonates with Henry David Thoreau’s passage, “rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth”. He understood truth as raw human existence without the influence and control of higher authority. In order to achieve an understanding of what romanticized life would be without corruption, he returns to nature as a place untouched by development and progression. Truth to him that he was aiming to unveil was ultimate freedom, just existing as a living, breathing, soul.
#2: The Modern “Flâneur”
In Christopher Kozjar’s lecture about the modern day flaneur, he opens with an introduction of the mid-nineteenth century flaneur archetype. Typically, these were white men whose role as an observer in society was professionally recognized. In an effort to confront stereotypes and construct a new 21st century identity for black males, Kozjar performs as a flaneur, surveying capitalist social order. He idles in high operating public spaces using methods of subversion- drawing, photographing, and recording. With a goal of seeing how the act of observation is distorted, he contradicts fast paced life by inserting himself among it and artistically documenting interactions. He notes the suspicion of others in public that ensues from his observational gaze, and expresses his yearn for all people to be treated with the same level of trust regardless of class, age, race, or gender identity. When performing as a modern day flaneur, Kozjar dresses in formal attire as a “safe haven” from judgement or action of authority. He follows the idea that people will be less skeptical of him and his work if he looks appropriately dressed. Kozjar acknowledges how we are entrenched in a system of surveillance, and to sit and observe is a breach of our unspoken social contract. Especially in America where we are run by capitalist culture, it is bizarre to not be moving or doing without an objective. Kozjar positions himself in more comfortable, safer settings by dressing according to attire deemed appropriate.
The role of clothing that Kozjar speaks about resonated with me because females are always under particularly high surveillance in terms of clothing due to how overly sexualized the female image is in media. Clothing is a visible, tangible object where stereotypes are expressed through accessibility or lack thereof according to gender, location, and time of day. Invisible social contracts maintain order in society, but are extremely imposing and often infringe on individual rights to self-expression. As a female, I am always conscious of how I dress out of fear of an outfit being sexualized where formality is expected. I find it problematic how many schools have implemented uniforms and dress codes, however to not follow the code of the institution or the understood code in broader society is to feel anxious and as a subject of judgement. Performing as a female flaneur is to experience the same heightened surveillance that Kozjar speaks about, and I also notice restricted accessibility not only in the clothes I wear while performing, but also in the places I can go and when. When I stroll alone, others wonder why I am not in company, and especially to wander alone at night is jeopardizing my safety.
#3: The London Perambulator
In this response, I will discuss the different methodologies of walkers- from Deambulations of the Surrealists, to the Derivé and Psychogeographic methods of the Situationists, to Deep Topography, a method of walking entirely removed from the first two methodologies mentioned.
Although Dada was received well by Parisian Avant Garde’s, it didn’t survive long and there was soon a transition to Surrealism. Surrealism probed the boundaries between dream life and real life and enabled walkers to meet a dwelling place of the modern subconscious. Walking the city was a tool used to adopt a receptive, responsive posture to chance. Following the Surrealist movement came a transition to Situationist methodologies of walking which carried political weight, and made brought a recognizable impact. The city became a site of liberating practices and transformed human life into a spectacle. Following the Vietnam War, the first to be televised which introduced the role of the media to draw fear from populations, Detournement became a practice of “subversion”. This was an act of reclaiming something lost through rebellious tactics. With this came Psychogeography, consisting of Situationist psychological experiences of a city in combination with the Derivé, a mode of experimental behavior linked to conditions of urban society. This was a combination of chance and planning that produce organized spontaneity. Because the Derivé was more critical of modernity, it was distinguished from the practices of a Flaneur, and obvious tourist areas were avoided.
The London Perambulator documentary explained how Psychogeography had been given a nasty brand name that once was considered authentic in the 1950s as Situationism as a way of aggressively dealing with the city. Thankfully the brand of the psychogeography was rescued by London’s Psycho-Geographical Association when it was made moderately comical. Psychogeography was activated into present concerns and the popular mind to describe cities and modern-day walking. Like Naturalist British tradition, it was about a liminal figure that edges the city, not conceptual in practice. Nick Papadimitreau was obsessed with liminal landscapes because they grant access to common consciousness through a relationship with that in the physical world and Topography. He notes how difficult it is to define Psychogeography in an effort to balance the practice as appreciating things often overlooked, without placing overlooked moments under scrutiny. Part of the allure of psychogeography is the ability to appreciate memories as tangible objects. In perambulation, the walker is not a flaneur, because the walker is not intending to escape the “machine man matrix” that dominates perception of place. The perambulator is also not a historian, so in a way this role becomes a combination of their parts as portals embedded in the landscape are found.
In the documentary, the construction of the Municipal Building was discussed in the context of its role in systematically breaking up the landscape in the name of municipality. Everything following its construction flows towards it and terminates here. It was noted how liminal spaces were created as places existing between urban and rural environments. They were deemed special in this documentary because to walk them is to gain special access. Most people do not experience them because they are skipped over by car transporting from point A to B. The development of cities around efficient transportation increases the number of liminal spaces. A few liminal spaces I can relate to in my own experience are highways with federally owned land off of the shoulders. This territory isn’t meant to be explored but nonetheless consists of history as land once inhabited and belonging to our ancestors. This land can be gazed at in a reverie from a car, yet only walking grants the most extreme way of lifting consciousness relative to a location. Airports and parking garages are two other examples of liminal spaces that aren’t meant to be occupied permanently, but serves as an empty shell for temporary occupation in transit from one permanent establishment to another.
The Art of Walking by Riley Fulmer 