Reading/listening to (on my runs) "Into the Wild." Like is the case so often, the book is far better than the movie (though the movie was good). The reason the book is so much better is because whereas the movie is purely about Chris McCandless, the book is more about a personality type, of which the author uses Chris McCandless to explore.
But Chris is only one example of this personality type. The author fills the book with other interesting stories of like persons.
What is the personality type? Well, a sort of hyper energetic, morally brooding, wanderlust inflicted idealist. A personality type that may not be that uncommon at varying degrees of infliction, with Chris McCandless representing, if not an extreme, a near extreme example.
I am engrossed by the book because of my own (perceived?) personality types. At one level, I am the ultra conformist, who believes one must learn to adapt to the demands of society, rather than to expect accommodation from society for ones own idiosyncrasies. It is this component of my personality that makes me so well suited to succeeding in a rat race existence.
Yet at another level, I also am a hyper energy, morally brooding, wanderlust inflicted idealist. I suppose I deal with the two (conflicting?) components of my personality by compartmentalizing my life. I am now primarily the responsible conformist, dedicated to career and the responsibilities of family, with the periodic wanderous adventure mixed in, as well as the occasional moral experiment (thus my current vegetarianism).
Yet I feel confident that, once those greatest virtues of conformity are gained - foremost of which are the raising of my children and provisonment of my family, I think I might swap my life's focus, to one of flighty, idealistic explorations, with a periodic mixing of responsibility.
