<P> When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate . First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild . He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area . If he (had) had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament (...) Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide . </P> <P> Sherry Simpson, writing in the Anchorage Press, described her trip to the bus with a friend, and their reaction upon reading the comments that tourists had left lauding McCandless as an insightful, Thoreau - like figure: </P> <P> Among my friends and acquaintances, the story of Christopher McCandless makes great after - dinner conversation . Much of the time I agree with the "he had a death wish" camp because I don't know how else to reconcile what we know of his ordeal . Now and then I venture into the "what a dumbshit" territory, tempered by brief alliances with the "he was just another romantic boy on an all - American quest" partisans . Mostly I'm puzzled by the way he's emerged as a hero . </P> <P> Krakauer defends McCandless, claiming that what critics point to as arrogance was merely McCandless' desire for "being the first to explore a blank spot on the map ." Krakauer continues: "In 1992, however, there were no more blank spots on the map--not in Alaska, not anywhere . But Chris, with his idiosyncratic logic, came up with an elegant solution to this dilemma: He simply got rid of the map . In his own mind, if nowhere else, the terra would thereby remain incognita ." </P>

Where did christopher find the book he had been writing