Monday, March 31, 2008

Inspired

Go here, click "video", and watch the trailer first. www.intothewild.com/

Tonight I finally rented and sat down and watched Into the Wild. Into the Wild is the second movie I fell in love with after only seeing the trailer, the first being Garden State. I really wanted to go see it when it was still in theaters in the fall with someone (particularly Andy) so we could talk about it like usual. But in a way I guess its good I saw it alone because its been a long time since I’ve had to fight so hard to keep from crying. And no one wants to see that. Even now its still coming back and I finished the movie thirty minutes ago. It may not have the same affect on you if you see it, but I think it really got to me because I identify with the main character so much. The film is based on a book which is based on the real life and death of Chris McCandless. Its about change. Its about experience. Its about truth. Just after graduating from college Chris abandons his life and sets out to trek across on the country with no money, no car, and no one with him. He’s heading for Alaska, to get away from the material world and society, to get in touch with nature, to find out what it really means to be at peace and to be free. Its one of those stories that’s truly inspiring. It really makes me want to leave everything behind and go experience all that the real world has to offer. I’ve thought about it before. What would it be like to get away, to reject the material world and live a simple and content life. In the book version, which plays more like a documentary with interviews, the author mentions other young men who vanished into the wilderness, like Everett Ruess who ventured into the Utah desert at age twenty. Chris was twenty two when he left home and twenty four when he died in Alaska. These guys got to a point in there lives when they needed a radical change. Maybe I need a change… maybe I have changed. My biggest problem is that I’m conflicted about what I really want. I don’t mean whether I want to go school and get a job, its bigger than that. I’m not certain that anything I want is really what I want. Like, why do I like green and not pink? Why am I attracted to women and not fish? Its all genetic to me. I’m predetermined to be attracted to human women. No matter how much I will myself otherwise, I cannot force myself to like N’Sync the same way that I like Blink182. How can I really be certain that seeking out the experience that comes from losing oneself in the beauty of nature isn’t just my physical self fulfilling its need to feel good which it derives from that kind of stimulation? Sometimes I feel like that robot that’s faced with a logical paradox and then his head explodes. Is it really me that is wanting? Then what is me? Am I really me? What is me?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This "journey into nature" and abandonment of the "real world" is something I have long considered too. Landscapes in Alaska look really cool. Nothing like a journey into nature to find yourself.

in fact, a bit scary to me how from the trailer...this movie has a few close similarities to mine...

anyway, i wanted to see it, but want to more now after watching the trailer.

maybe sean penn isn't as bad as team america makes him out to be, haha. (that doesn't go for matt damon).

J - Beezie said...

next time include a spoiler warning >:|

it did look like a good movie. I remember you wanting to go see that over break.

you like women and not fish due to natural instinct, like you said (genetics). srry you can't change that (there's a difference between attraction and reproduction, and sexual pleasure for those into beastiality who are reading this).

hmm the green and not pink is a good question. to me pink represents brainless high maintenence bitches that I desperately try to avoid interacting with. but why is that? it's the effect society has had on me I guess.

as for you being you. isn't being you just what you think you are? as things change so does your opinion about yourself, therefore you change.

for example, I am me. I enjoy watching tv and playing games. I always have. but now as I have gotten older I also now enjoy talking politcs and learning how things work. I'm still me, but I have changed.

remember, no one can be certain about all the decisions they make (whether it's deciding their favorite color, or choosing to leave the civalized world). if they could, what would be the point of choice to begin with. Whatever YOU choose to do is YOU. that's who you are. if you later regret the choice, then that is you too.

Anonymous said...

Hello,
Please don't hot link.
It's not big, and it's not clever.
Thank you,

Garvan

J - Beezie said...

say what????