ava on Nostr: The same intrigue—a similar romance, perhaps. Chris and Glenn had two very ...

The same intrigue—a similar romance, perhaps. Chris and Glenn had two very different lived realities. Chris was opting out of society to live a life of freedom, non-conformity, and self-reliance.

Not all, but many of the stories in "The Idea of North" have to do with the importance of reliance on community as a result of the solitude. I feel Chris came around to this understanding shortly before his death.

"On July 2, McCandless finished reading Tolstoy's "Family Happiness", having marked several passages that moved him:
"He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others..."

— Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer

According to his notes, he finished the book "Dr. Zhivago" around three weeks before he left the body, and had underlined this passage (*):

"And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an *unshared happiness is not happiness*…and this was most vexing of all.”

— Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak

Next to the passage, Chris scrawled in the margin, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED.”

Thank you for mentioning "The Idea of North"; it was a pleasure rewatching it.