My coworker has been reading Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild these past two weeks or so, and in preparation for the book club discussion she'll be leading tonight, we've been engaging in a mini discussion of our own. Without getting into all that I feel and think about Chris McCandless---I've been doing more than enough of that lately---part of me can't help but ponder the role his own words have played in our understanding of his character.

What would people think of me, I wonder, if the only evidence of my self was to be found in journal entries, short stories, school essays, emails and letters? I love the challenge of presenting myself in words, and I'm very good at it, but so much of my writing is tied to a moment, an emotion or a thought that for all its power is nonetheless fleeting. How would anyone know which moments to emphasize? Which ones are representative of the truth of my essential self? And would anyone read those writings and believe they mask that truth rather than reveal it, written perhaps to reassure myself that I'm worthy of my own good opinion?

I highly doubt I'll ever be the subject of such intense study---and considering how Chris McCandless came to be so, I can only be grateful for that---but it's rather entertaining to project myself into a future biographer's shoes and try to see myself between the lines of the words I've left behind.

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