Coming+into+AH

26 . "A Reporter at Large: Coming into the Country - II." //The New Yorker// 53 (27 June 1977), 58
This is an article in line with what seems to be the "Into The Wild" trend. A great article written in 1977 about the people living along the Yukon River in Alaska and their desire to live as deeply in the wild and as far away from the urban life as possible.

Calling it the Into The Wild trend is probably unfair. As this article clearly states, there has been a desire to have the freedom that can now only be found in remote locations for a very long time. In fact, I think the argument may be able to be made that America was founded on that desire. These extreme Republican types want all the hardship that comes along with a truly free life, and are completely convinced that they are much better off because of it.

McPhee again provides us with some historical facts, like the story of a plane crash survivor who owes his survival to a stocked up abandoned camp. He also educates us on some of the political turmoil of the area. The government claims ownership to the untended land and the people who dread the nuisance of a government have already been pushed as far up as Alaska and don't really have any other options.

I credit the tendency to "Into The Wild" because it's the current pop culture symbol of this common desire. I meet more and more people who admire and dream of that way of life, and I feel it myself. It may not be a desire for that harsh of a way of life (although natural law does seem to have more of an allure than the hundreds of -isms that our political scientist try to convince us of) as much as an escape from the insanity of the seemingly inescapable cities. Quoting "Nessmuk" (who wrote "woodcraft," a seemingly indispensable back-country survival book from the 1800's that McPhee mentions), Dick Cook tells McPhee that "we're not out here to rough it. We're here to smooth it. Things are rough enough in town."

But, the country is rough, McPhee is in no way guilty of deluding his readers into thinking otherwise. All the people he writes about lead very busy lives. They are constantly on the look out for meat, always preparing for the oncoming cold, and always aware of the accidental disasters that really do strike at anytime. I, personally, cannot shake the romanticized dream, but it's articles like these that remind me that I'll only ever be a weekend warrior, probably better suited to reading about these people than actually being one.

-Adam