Cheryl Strayed as a "Wild Boy"?

When I stumbled upon this feature of Wild in Flavorwire on Friday, I knew I would have to share with the class given Luis’ frequent mentioning of Cheryl Strayed during the past couple weeks of class. It appears this book is much anticipated and is being welcomed into the literary community with positive reviews that stem from emotionally charged reading experiences. As the post on Flavorwire explains, “this book is so honest, so cracked wide open, that you can’t help but feel irreversibly connected to this fierce, funny woman from almost the very first page, and her despair — and her joy — become yours.” So here we finally have a female writer contending with the likes of the “wild boys” (if I borrow Luis’ term referring to adventurers like Chris McCandless, Jon Krakauer, and Timothy Treadwell) in her endeavors and her writing. However, what could potentially alienate her from full participation in the “wild boys” group is the emotion that seems to be wrought in her memoir (I’m not sure if I am one allowed to make such a claim considering I have not yet read the book, but from what I have heard and read about it, I find that most readers experience an extreme emotional journey bound by empathy). Unlike the motivations of the aforementioned men, Strayed hikes the Pacific Crest Trail as a means of cleansing herself of her devastating and destructive past and ultimately experiences the physical journey as a sort of spiritual healing process; her memoir is incredibly personal to the core in its attempt to self-learn, self-heal, and self-teach. The “wild boys,” however, are guided by a purpose to teach society something and promote an alternative way to “be.” They are seeking enlightenment in some ways, but in a manner that is condescending to the rest of society. We see their errors (particularly McCandless and Treadwell) marked by hubris, while Strayed recognizes her mistakes and invites us to participate in them with her.

Before I end this blog, I wanted to point out another cool feature of this Flavorwire post. Readers of Wild are invited to ask Strayed a question or provide an insight to be shared with her by leaving it as a comment to the post or e-mailing it to the provided address. Flavorwire will then e-mail her its favorite questions and do a post at the end of April that includes her responses and additional commentary shared by readers of Flavorwire So if any of you have a chance to read Strayed’s book by the end of the month, you should definitely participate!

http://flavorwire.com/277270/flavorpill-book-club-cheryl-strayeds-wild