To Build a Fire
A man travels across the Yukon with only a dog as his companion. He believes he has all the skill and preparations ready to survive it.
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What Hacker News says
- Most of these tips are not truly about survival, and reasonably so given the lack of any practical experience in most people, but surviving just long enough to be rescued. The unstated implication being death is not far off.
This always reminds me of Jack London's timeless short story "To Build a Fire":
- Was it "To Build a Fire"? It's story about a man and his dog who venture out at the onset of a storm. A very good read.
- This topic makes me think of the Jack London story "To Build a Fire", which is one of my favorites. http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html
Also timely, one of our power users at Referly just made a preparedness kit list for winter driving. I probably should have had some of this when driving alone in the Sierra Nevadas last month. http://refer.ly/winter_driving_preparedness_kit/c/789d5ae050...
- Ok, so it's fascination. And a heavy dose of romanticization.
Yet McCandless was essentially reckless rather than heroic. It's not that hard to die if you put yourself in an extreme situation, without preparing yourself or having any safeguards. It's a form of Russian roulette rather than "rejecting society"; though, I suppose, suicide is the ultimate form of rejecting society.
I see that he liked Jack London. So do I! However, I must wonder how thoroughly he read London's work, especially his Klondike gold rush stories, because very often in the stories the main character ends up dead, defeated by bad luck and an unsympathetic wilderness which is hostile to clueless men. I mean, did he read "To Build a Fire"?
- Last December, Nevada County Ca, where I live, had a massive snow storm that knocked out power and snowed people in for 1-3 weeks. I wound up huddled in my apartment with 45 degree heat for five days or so. With enough sweaters, I was a comfortable temperature.
Aside from what you mention, since basically you providing your own heat for yourself, you have to put or take off layers depending on physical activity. And so naturally this process involves too-hot and too-cold periods that are less than pleasant. Still, I survived to tell the tale.
I mean, we could all live like the hero of To Build A Fire, at least until we died.
- The hero of To Build A Fire was obviously the sled dog, the human was too much whiny and needy - which is what caused the hero to abandon him in the end.
