Marxista

...al menos es lo que piensa mi profesor de inglés. Lo que me pregunto es como uno puede ser Marxista en un ensayo sobre la naturaleza? Jajaj.. por eso NO me gusta escribir! Aquí va el texto, el comentario, y mis garabatos... que letra de arquitecto tengo dios mioooo! Jajaj

Arianne Ponce
Professor Stavast
English 100
1 November 2007

Seduced By the Wild
There she is, majestic, insufferably overbearing, elegant, untameable but defenseless, with a sinister beauty, and a taste of scandalous freedom. Do you dare to conquer her or be conquered? Do you have the courage to be dazzled by the Wild? The exotic setting takes place in Alaska, the 49th state of the United States of America, celebrated by its superlatives. On one hand, it shelters a massive wilderness, the highest mountain, the largest area, and the most lakes, wetlands, and shoreline of any state. On the other hand, it has the lowest population density in North America. This depiction makes Alaska extremely attractive for adventurers seeking the Wild as an exit door to a contaminating society, expiration to human regulations. Seductions to the landscape itself, infatuation to elude humanity and its ideology, or the pursuit of pure spirituality are intertwining motivations shared by those driven individuals who imperil their lives at the enigmas of the Wild. Allusions to mystical uninhabited areas, such Alaska, are recurrent in literature. But what happens when fiction meets reality and readers become protagonists of their own journey to the glorified setting? Sufficient evidence of real characters that have encountered the wilderness corroborates with the argument that attraction between men and nature, between souls and solitude, is absolutely genuine. To penetrate the heart of the Wild is not merely a novelistic or fictional odyssey, but a prevalent adventure performed by mortals in a desperate last attempt to escape from normality, the lack of significant deviation from society’s rules.

The Alaskan wilderness: landscape where beauty evolves into savageness, natural resources translate to isolation, nature becomes friend and archenemy, flora and fauna incite exoticism, and white, freezing winters rule the environment with a warm feeling of impotence. How can a place of contradicting characteristics attract the masses? The answer may be as simple as abstract, as obvious as shocking. Nature and its magical sex appeal are found guilty of seducing individuals to cross its boundaries. Literature may venerate or scorn the Wild with the use of figurative language, elaborate, descriptive narratives, or any other techniques employed to entertain the readers, not thinking on the possibility of readers taking action and living the pages of a book. An American writer, journalist, mountaineer, and author of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer, alludes several prestigious writers who have depicted the Wild as scum or as magnificence. Jack London, prolific American writer and journalist, who is quoted by Krakauer from the book White Fang, articulates “The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness… It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild” (Krakauer 9). Perhaps London’s perspective is accurate, but the esthetics behind the crude and dreadful reality of the Wild is inspiring enough to captivate ordinary men and even writers. Beauty might be defined by mysterious, unattainable, colossal, and dangerous entities, and not primordially by the stereotyped tall, blue-eyed, voluptuous blonde. The reality is that a human can be attracted and seduced by other physical bodies, not necessarily from the same species. For instance, Krakauer himself confesses his infatuation with Alaska that started from a book he had on the subject. He remembers a particular photograph of the Devils Thumb in that book, taken by veteran glaciologist MaynardMiller. Krakauer declares, “The picture held an almost pornographic fascination for me” (135). Inspired by literature and in love with an attractive image, this man was driven, as many others, to immerse himself into the Wild.

Beauty and its magnetism are not the only motivation among those who decide to trade security, human relationships, and civilization for the unknown. Avoidance of society and its norms, lack of following an induced, prefabricated doctrine, isolation from humanity, and the ecstasy of being free are valid explanations for escaping to the Wild. In one of the allusions Jon Krakauer accustoms his readers at the preambles of each chapter in his book Into the Wild; he cites Roderick Nash and his peculiar point of view about the wilderness. Nash’s excerpt from Wilderness and the American Mind affirms: "Wilderness appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works. It not only offered an escape from society but also was an ideal stage for the Romantic individual to exercise the cult that he frequently made of his own soul. The solitude and total freedom of the wilderness created a perfect setting for either melancholy or exultation." (Krakauer 157) In other words, Roderick Nash infers that escaping would benefit any person who tired of being a slave of a suffocating society can emerge into an expressionist and emancipated being. The same eloquent words are strongly appealing to Christopher Johnson McCandless, protagonist and muse of Krakauer’s non-fictional literary work, Into the Wild. McCandless, a twenty-three year-old, middle class, well educated opts for an odd seclusion from society. He completely breaks contact with all that he knew, gives away everything he owns, and disappears to the Alaskan wilderness as a homeless, an ignorant yet erudite of the Wild. Throughout his short life, Chris McCandless disobeys every single rule it is imposed to him, and tries to find an alternative, an unconventional way to solve his problems. Furthermore, he is an activist in social conflicts around the world, and has a distinctive perception of life. Finally, when captured by the Alaskan wilderness, he proudly presents us with a motivating, straightforward declaration of independence: “No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the Wild” (Krakauer 163). McCandless’s physical body officially expired of starvation, but had died long before by a different cause. He was infected with a severe virus spread out around the world, society and its manifesto—an infinite inventory of Do’s and Don’ts elaborated by the elite at one point of history. Chris, as well as other individuals who have seen segregation from civilization as an only remedy, have found in the Wild the essential answers. For instance, they have discovered the principles for a better, utopian society, an enhanced quality of life, a purpose that differentiates homo sapiens sapiens from other species, the art of pondering.

There are times when the esthetics of nature and desire of social seclusion merge into one, leading to a frenzied impulse for escaping. There are times when a single individual is driven and seduced enough by nature to make history, and then there are the times of Timothy Treadwell. The life and death of Timothy Treadwell, environmentalist and bear enthusiast, is chronicled in Grizzly Man, a 2005 documentary film by German director Werner Herzog. Based on Treadwell’s own video footage made during his last five annual escapes to Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Reserve, the film not only documents his almost religious love for Grizzly bears but his furious irritation at society and his quixotic journey in Alaska where he struggled with romantic passion against both the human and natural worlds. Werner Herzog says of Treadwell’s footage during the film’s narration, “I discovered a film of human ecstasies and darkest inner turmoil. As if there was a desire in him to leave the confinements of his humanness and bond with the bears” (Herzog). The director attempts to uncover Treadwell’s reasoning to exhibit the world a man whose obsessions eventually cost him his life. But what about the real intentions of the man consumed by his need to retreat from human society? Timothy Treadwell’s life testifies the concept of human seclusion to uncivilized areas such as Alaska. Evidence does not show an insane man trying to attract the attention of the masses. On the contrary, it presents a complex portrait of a focus individual, with a plan of attack against society’s idealism in one hand, and a kind and hungry-for-love heart on the other.

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Beauty and freedom are subjective, and can effectively substantivize the qualities of the Wild, but the quest for spiritual purpose can overthrow any prior doubts on taking refuge in the wilderness. Harsh, desolated, and abandoned areas, where pure nature seems to embrace the whole core of existence, are extremely popular among those who seek spiritual relief. Paul Shepard, author of Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of the Esthetics of Nature is also quoted by Krakauer. In this case, the scenery is distinct, the intolerable cold of Alaska is replaced by an arid desert setting; meanwhile, the objective stays intact. Shepard describes, “To the desert go prophets and hermits; through deserts go pilgrims and exiles. Here the leaders of the great religions have sought the therapeutic and spiritual values of retreat, not to escape but to find reality” (Krakauer 25). Reasonable enough, loneliness, particularly in secluded environments, may substantially mitigate society’s spiritual obscurantism and certainly revolutionize a whole new movement of spiritual dogma. The friendly state of solitude and the deafening noise of silence can evoke a person to breathe, without being an involuntary movement of the body, and ponder about him or her, others, and as a whole, in terms of worthiness. In addition, Krakauer describes the secluded Papar monks of Ireland. These monks migrated to Iceland in the 5th century until Norwegians arrived and they headed off for Greenland They sought isolation so passionately, that many of them lost their lives in the harsh conditions of Greenland. Krakauer point out, “They were drawn across the storm-racked ocean, drawn past the edge of the known world, by nothing more than a hunger of the spirit, a yearning of such queer intensity that it beggars the modern imagination” (Krakauer 97). The author compares the lives and ideals of the Irish monks to Christopher McCandless, seeking some sort of spiritual seclusion. Authentic stories have demonstrated that spiritual needs at some point in the life of an individual could, and will be, more important than any material need. But finding pure spirituality is not a simple task, and cannot be performed in places contaminated by society’s assets—money, politics, the media, people, urbanization, and rock and roll. Therefore, the only open door available, escape from civilization, and cradle for spirituality is nature. Alaska is just an optional excursion on the spiritual itinerary.

Seduction, attraction, infatuation, or even obsession to the Wild have become more than the poetic and fictional plot of a book, but a realistic dilemma faced by the more adventurous and courageous of our society. Individuals like Christopher McCandless, Timothy Treadwell, Jon Krakauer, the Irish monks, and others—heroes or madmen, depending on personal perception—have pursued their dreams, intuition, or heart, and have discovered the Wild. Some of their stories have been remembered, some forgotten. Remember that history is written by men, but made by those who imperil their lives in extraordinary journeys that have transcended expectations. Admiration to those who differ from the rest of us, because they have taken action, and not remained strangulated by society and it’s bureaucracy, oppressed by strict, conservative, and imposed spiritual beliefs, and tortured by the unattractiveness of a civilized landscape, is valid. These individuals should be applauded, instead of criticized, but the fact is that their critics are their own incentives for escaping. Clear enough, the examples presented earlier do not offer just the exploits of a few unusual, motivated, ambitious, hungry-for-freedom people. The moral of these real fables is to act your principles and never abstain from your own philosophy. We can learn from other’s experiences, as they may infer some insights of ourselves, our nature.It is now time to reconsider your life and take action. The Wild is calling you… are you going to answer her?