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Krakauer: Good or Bad?


Rodchester

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From what I can deduce, MATT is a stalker and should NOT be given any personal information. At least according to Matt Anderson....

So DRU, near as I can tell, you don't like Jon Krakauer because you perceive him as "egotistical"? So I take it you will not be reading his next book, simply titled:

ME.(Jon Krakauer.)

"A moving novella, disguised as a tome, about the inner-life of an egotistical climber."

By the way, Moondancing IS the glue that holds the universe together. Moondancing is the GUT. Stephen Hawkins, your search has come to an end!

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I guess I assumed sexual chocolate was a man...

I actually think Jon is pretty attractive. I saw him when I was getting ready to climb Bo Derek and he was trying some sick route to the left with 2 buddies. I didn't know it was him when I noticed that he was at a minimum easier on the eyes then his buddies, but after he left my friends filled me in.

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Did Bo play "Beck's Bolero" when JK mounted her?

quote:

Originally posted by hollyclimber:

I guess I assumed sexual chocolate was a man...

I actually think Jon is pretty attractive. I saw him when I was getting ready to climb Bo Derek and he was trying some sick route to the left with 2 buddies. I didn't know it was him when I noticed that he was at a minimum easier on the eyes then his buddies, but after he left my friends filled me in.

 

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Hey sexy cocoa- Even though you're a oddball headcase, you still write better than dru, who seems to think he's some kind of a high fuckin authority on prose. Go ahead dru, spray me with some of your killer wit, but whydoncha try being a bit less holier than thou; ya might even get an invite to the pub for a change. Spray on genious.

quote:

Originally posted by sexual chocolate:

From what I can deduce, MATT is a stalker and should NOT be given any personal information. At least according to Matt Anderson....

So DRU, near as I can tell, you don't like Jon Krakauer because you perceive him as "egotistical"? So I take it you will not be reading his next book, simply titled:

ME.(Jon Krakauer.)

"A moving novella, disguised as a tome, about the inner-life of an egotistical climber."

By the way, Moondancing IS the glue that holds the universe together. Moondancing is the GUT. Stephen Hawkins, your search has come to an end!

 

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Trask, so venomous, wow, must be tough getting through your day!

As for Krak, he's a good writer, Eiger Dreams is a fine example of his earlier works, his later stuff, well, he's good enough the big boy publisher houses love em', same with Morman Nailer, Tom Wolfe, Stephen King and whoever else has been writing best sellers lately-

And, although never having met the man Dru has my respect and commendation for his erudition and prose, seems like a bright bulb amongst the rest of the Tikkas out here!

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Shut up Beck. I wasn't talkin to you.

quote:

Originally posted by Beck:

Trask, so venomous, wow, must be tough getting through your day!

As for Krak, he's a good writer, Eiger Dreams is a fine example of his earlier works, his later stuff, well, he's good enough the big boy publisher houses love em', same with Morman Nailer, Tom Wolfe, Stephen King and whoever else has been writing best sellers lately-

And, although never having met the man Dru has my respect and commendation for his erudition and prose, seems like a bright bulb amongst the rest of the Tikkas out here!

 

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Wow, leave the computer for a while and there are 56 posts on this! I met Jon Krakauer at a book signing for into thin air, he seemed humble, and I think he was using a portion of the profits from the book to help people in Nepal with schools. I liked Eiger Dreams the most out of all his books. When Thin Air came out it hit the public, with this I always told people to read Anatoli's book to get a balanced perception. He is no Abbey, but Abbey didn't write about climbing.

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Abbey did write about climbing - descending and then climbing up slot canyons, in Desert Solitaire. Also there is a climbing scene in Monkey Wrench Gang where they climb a cliff to escape from the Mormon search and rescue team...

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I didn't think Krakauer came across as arrogant in "Into Thin Air." He talks about when he was younger, how he and his buddies joked about the S. route on Everest being the Yak route, and how they were "real climbers" who wouldn't sully themselves on it. The reality, as he reports, is that you can't imagine how brutally hard it really is. That doesn't sound to me like arrogance.

Sure his view of things is different than Boukriev's (sp?) and reading the two books together gives a real Rashomon-like effect. Boukriev has his own axe to grind, and is pretty defensive about lots of stuff (people joking about him, calling him "sneakers".)

A bigger theme in ITA is how much different it is to be on a guided climb. K talks about getting back to his tent after the summit day, as all the shit was happening, and just climbing into his tent, leaving the rescuing to the guides. He's aware that he would never have done that if there weren't guides. That's part of the destructive effect of guided climbs; they encourage even strong, experienced climbers to abandon their ethic to the guides. I don't see how you could come away from ITA thinking that guiding on a place like Everest is a good idea.

I liked Eiger Dreams quite a bit, and liked the New Yorker article that turned into Into the Wild (which I never read.)

I wonder if what bothers climbers about K is that he wrote a best-seller. I knew dancers who really resented seeing women walking around in leg-warmers, back in the 80's when they were the fashion. And climbers who've done their thing is obscurity, even around here, suddenly hear couch-potatoes on the bus discussing "what went wrong" on Everest as though if THEY were there, they'd have done things differently.

If Into Thin Air had been a niche book, like Touching the Void (still the most riveting climbing book I've ever read, still I can't put on crampons without thinking about the crampon on his broken leg catching on the fabric of his pants and grinding the bone!) I doubt people would have the strong feelings about it that they did.

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dru's alright-

his subtle wit and answer for everything gets old sometimes though; sorry dru. I know you're a talented climber and author. I'm just curious though dru, you say you work for the can. govt. yet you've posted at c.c. in the thousands, during working hrs. What the hell do you do? Watch security monitors or something? Must be nice to have a job that allows you to extrapolate online all day. Whatever- Yep, I'm online at work too, difference is I'm self-employed.

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