The people have spoken! Last Saturday’s post went quite well, so I will keep this format going.
Idea of the Week: The Wilderness
“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new, and different sun.”
— Christopher McCandless
A heartbreaking moment in the 2007 film Into the Wild has haunted me since I watched it in 2011. It’s the saddest scene I’ve ever seen in a movie.
The film tells the true story of Chris McCandless (aka Alex Supertramp), a charismatic, intelligent, athletic Emory graduate from a wealthy middle-class American family (caution - spoilers follow).
Early in the film, Chris grows tired of modern society's empty materialism and moral decay. He yearns for a truly meaningful life, a life of quiet transcendence. He decides that this lies in the wilderness.
Chris cuts up his credit cards, anonymously donates all his money to charity, and drives into the wild. In an act of shockingly casual cruelty, he does not tell his family where he is going.
Chris’ journey is punctuated by a series of lengthy interactions with kind-hearted strangers. He has an easy charisma and comfortably slots into and enriches the lives of his various companions. Despite numerous opportunities to turn these relationships into something more permanent, he continues to move, remaining ruthlessly focused on his search for meaning.
To Chris, the wilderness is the embodiment of meaning. It’s not until he is there that he will achieve transcendence. Everything else is a distraction.
The last of his encounters is with Ron Franz, an elderly widower who lost his family in a car accident. Chris spends two months with Ron, and the two of them form a close bond. Eventually, Chris decides to continue his journey to Alaska, whose barren and unforgiving expanses embody Chris’ ideal of self-sufficient freedom.
In their final exchange (the scene I refer to above), Ron offers to adopt Chris as his grandson. Chris demurs, suggesting they discuss it when he returns from Alaska.
Chris exits, leaving a tearful Ron alone in the car. The wilderness awaits.
Within a few months, Chris dies alone.
The final words he writes in his journal are as follows:
“Happiness is only real when shared”
There is a romanticism to Chris’ search for meaning. His rejection of the materialist trappings of society and yearning for connection with the transcendent eternality of nature holds a certain resonance in our post-pandemic paradigm.
It’s possible to recast Chris as a precursor to today's pathless pathers and digital nomads - a brave adventurer seeking to escape from the gilded cage of societal expectation.
As someone who has recently commenced my own search for meaning, Chris’ story represents a far more cautionary tale.
Chris believes that the metaphorical wilderness is an end state, an ultimate objective that holds all the meaning he will ever need. It is the only thing that matters.
The brutal irony underpinning this is that his single-minded, uncompromising obsession with reaching the wilderness leads to him disregarding every opportunity for meaning on the way. His casual dismissal of Ron’s offer represents the final severing of his ties with humanity.
The wilderness is not the home of meaning. Instead, it is a purgatorial land of lost souls who have abstracted their way out of the present.
By remaining brutally focused on the future at the expense of the present, by deferring meaning today for the possibility of meaning tomorrow, and by rejecting those with whom we can share our journey, we become increasingly detached from what really matters.
The risk is that, if we defer for too long, we may wake up one day and realise that what matters is gone, and all that remains is the wilderness.
The Enchantment Diaries
Heron in Rain
Here’s another cool piece of Japanese art I came across this week:
Google tells me that this is an example of ‘kacho-e’ (bird and flower pictures).
Kacho-e appears to have a long history in Japanese art, dating back to (at least?) the 17th century. As far as I can tell, the above artwork is a merging of this traditional style with the Western-influenced shin-hanga movement I discussed last week (a bit of research suggests this is right. Quite proud of myself for working that out!)
Flow State
I’m really enjoying the
Substack.It’s a ridiculously simple premise: each weekday you receive a recommendation for 2 hours of music that are “perfect for working.” In other words, 2 hours of music that are optimised to get you into a flow state.
Since I subscribed a week or two ago, the recommendations have been largely excellent.
My favourite discovery so far has been Strategy’s new album Graffiti in Space, which is the most interesting dub techno I’ve heard in a while:
Rick Rubin
Unsurprisingly, Tyler Cowen’s podcast with Rick Rubin was outstanding. Rubin brings a sort of mystic energy to his understanding of creativity that’s quite delightful to listen to. I have just started reading his new book and am loving it so far.
A couple of my favourite bits from the interview:
“COWEN: What have you learned from Sherlock Holmes stories?
RUBIN: To look closely at things, to look deeper, to pay attention, to notice what maybe others aren’t noticing.
COWEN: How exactly do you characterize his special skill? Because to the outside reader, it seems like he’s making things up. Are those acts of creativity on Holmes’s part, or are they acts of noticing?
RUBIN: I think they’re the same thing. I think creativity is acts of noticing. Nothing comes from us. The creator isn’t making the thing. The creator is recognizing the thing, noticing the thing, and then sharing it in a way where the audience can hopefully get a glimpse of what we’ve noticed.”
And:
“COWEN: Why do you believe pro wrestling is the most accurate representation of life, as you once said?
RUBIN: Yes.
[laughter]
COWEN: You’re free to repudiate your own words, but—
RUBIN: No, no, I’ll stand by that. [laughs] That sounds solid. Pro wrestling is art made up. It’s made up and rooted in real life, and real life is made up and rooted in real life. Wrestling is a more honest depiction of the world than everything else that acts like it’s not made up.”
Lisbon
Nothing profound to say here - just an awesome sunset from a couple of days ago.
Have a happy weekend!