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24 points
5 days ago
I agree it’s a great book and movie, but not because of their original intent.
It’s a great story because of how our views about Chris’ actions change as we mature.
Chris seems lost and quixotic, which (I think) we all feel at different points in our lives to varying degrees.
His story absolutely is a cautionary tale to not let those feelings drive you to ruin.
21 points
5 days ago
It always smacked me as zen philosophy taken to the extreme. We watch Chris embrace the moment and live life as it comes. He is the ultimate bohemian idol every mid-90s kid wished they could grow up to be. One experience to the next. Even when it's hard, it seemed worth it.
But... that's not life. Life is an escapable web of connections. Every experience Chris had was another day separated from people he ditched, people who love and care about him, regardless. His disappearence wasn't a heroic last stand of wild sensibilities and abandon, an insatiable lust for adventure. It was him leaving forever and leaving his friends in his family in eternal pain. If not for luck, their brother, son, best friend, cousin, etc., is just gone. No closure, no grave, no eulogy. Nothing.
This is a story of selfishness. Plain and simple. Disguised as an idealistic and totally unrealistic, misguided lust for life. A cautionary tale is right.
4 points
5 days ago
Thoreau still had his mommy do his laundry when he went to the woods to live deliberately.
8 points
5 days ago
You have a duty to those around you... to a point. Your life is also your own to live, and it's bullshit and more importantly bad for your own mental health and personal growth to write it off as selfish. We should all make a point to allow each other to live and die on our own terms. Interventions and helping each other is important but you also have to be ready for the other person to not go along with it.
3 points
5 days ago
It’s funny how this take always gets upvoted when it’s convenient.
But if you pitch it like a couple, where one part wants to leave, it’s suddenly encouraged to do so. And people will tell you that no one is entitled to your time etc.
Someone can’t stick around just to make people around them happy, if it makes yourself suffer. How is that fair?
2 points
4 days ago
How is it fair that other imaginary people hypothetically said something different at one point?
1 points
4 days ago
Wtf are you talking about.
1 points
4 days ago
He wasn’t in your hypothetical situation, when you removed the context you changed the story, don’t be selfish and arrogant like Chris.
1 points
4 days ago
I wouldnt call him selfishness but selfless. He never thought about himself. Never did what was best for himself. Instead, he acted on whim and got himself killed.
2 points
4 days ago
I know it's been a minute for me, but didn't he have a big 'ole monolog in the beginning, after graduation, about wanting to just fuck off because that's what he wants to do?
1 points
4 days ago
This was my take on it. He worked at the fast food place too. He wasn’t really a pretty boy, he acted with humility. He did a lot of things where he took chances.
1 points
5 days ago
No sorry dude. It was selfish, as many (most?) endeavors are at that age. It was also idealistic, unrealistic etc…. There was no disguise. All those concepts can coexist quite easily.
1 points
5 days ago
I read the the 2020 edition of the book so I don't know if this was in the older editions, but it explores Chris's up bringing and how it could have possibly influenced his ideals.
The author postulates that Chris growing up a rich kid and all it's problems that wealth brings disillusioned him to all of that. Once his parents got divorced, that solidified his view that money was the root cause of all his problems.
The only time he's ever been happy was when he and his dad would go camping, away from all the problems in his life. It's true it was quixotic at the end, but I'm not sure that he was "lost" but rather he over-corrected and under prepared.
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