Over the semester our ASTU class has studied many life narratives, including blogs as a form of online narrative. Another type of blog that interests me that we have not talked about is the videolog, or vlog. Youtube has allowed many “vloggers” to post videos about their daily lives and (sometimes) attract a huge viewership. There are also many sub-genres of vlogging, such as video game vlogs and makeup vlogs. Overall the vlog is another way to write a life narrative, except it is in video form instead of written form.

One of the most popular early vloggers is Shane Dawson of ShaneDawsonTV, who has amassed 5.2 million subscribers since his start in March 2008, continue to share parts of their daily lives with their audiences. His 254 videos have a combined total of almost 1 billion views.

One of the most famous video bloggers today is Jenna Mourey, more commonly known as Jenna Marbles, who makes weekly videos about all sorts of different topics. Many of these videos are simply about things that have happened in her life that she wants to share, and she also has a “What Guys and Girls Do” series. Since starting her YouTube channel in February 2010, Jenna Marbles has reached 11.4 million subscribers and has a combined total of almost 1.3 billion views on her videos. She has “more Facebook fans than Jennifer Lawrence, more Twitter followers than Fox News and more Instagram friends than Oprah.”

These sheer numbers give attention to a vlogger, and as they gain a following it becomes easier for them to make these videos because they become partners with YouTube and get money for the views they get. To become a partner with YouTube, one must have at least 1,000 subscribers, at least 1,000 views on each of their videos, and at least 10,000 page views. The more views they get, the more money they get with which they are able to buy new camera equipment, take trips to YouTube conventions such as Playlist Live, and, in the case of Jack and Finn Harries (and many other YouTubers), rent out an office space from which to run their vlogging business. As one of the newest up-and-coming YouTubers, JacksGap has over 3 million subscribers after having been on YouTube for only two years.

What I find interesting about the YouTube vlogging community is that, with enough recognition, one is able to make a life out of it. The Harries twins, for example, have taken multiple trips to different parts of the world and then vlog about them. Jenna Marbles began making her videos in her $800/mo apartment and now lives in a $1.1 million dollar rented townhouse. What begins for some vloggers as a way to share parts of their lives or simply as a hobby essentially becomes a lifestyle. One day when it is all over they will be able to look back at their YouTube videos and see a part of their lives. Vloggers are essentially creating a narrative on their lives in that moment, yet the videos they make are permanent. By putting their narrative on the YouTube, they allow their audience into their lives in the same way a blogger does by posting a new blog or a writer does by publishing his autobiography.

This past week I began re-reading one of my favorite books Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer. The novel is based on the story of Christopher McCandless, a man from a well-off East Coast family who, after graduating from Emory University in 1990, disappeared. He changed his name to Alexander Supertramp, gave away all of his savings to charity, and hitchhiked to Alaska, where he walked alone into the Northern wilderness in April 1992. Four months later his partially decomposed body was found by moose hunters.

For years now this has been one of my favorite books, and I never considered the fact that it had to be reconstructed by the author because little was known about Chris McCandless’ journey to Alaska and how he died. His story has nonetheless been an inspiration for many nature-lovers who admire what he did, despite his death. The coroner’s report said that he probably died from starvation, but in Into The Wild Krakauer hypothesizes that he passed away from mistakenly eating seeds of the wild pea plant rather than potato plant, the latter of which was nontoxic. Recent findings, however, found this to be untrue: McCandless’ death was caused by a neurotoxin in the sweet pea plant which affects different people differently but “those who will be hit the hardest are always young men between the ages of 15 and 25 and who are essentially starving or ingesting very limited calories,” which definitely describes the state Christopher McCandless was in before he died.

Krakauer’s mission to write the book began after he was asked to write an article for Outside magazine about the death of Chris McCandless. It was after writing this article that Krakauer began retracing McCandless’ two-year path from Atlanta to Alaska, reading his intricate diaries and examining the photographs and self-portraits he took. Though much of it is backed up by evidence provided by McCandless’ personal affairs, we will never know exactly what happened to him in his final days, as he was so weak he was barely able to write.

This leads me to question author construction of a story, which my group talked about in our presentation on Dave Eggers’ What Is The What. The two stories differ in that Krakauer had to use information he found about McCandless, whereas Eggers’ interviewed and talked to Valentino Achak Deng for hours and hours in order to get his story right. Deng also had the ability to view the book and agree with the way his story was portrayed, while McCandless’ death was really the reason the book was written. In the case of narratives being written and portrayed by outside sources, it is always important to consider who the author is writing it for. For example, although the film God Grew Tired Of Us is about the Lost Boys and Sudan, how they grew up during a civil war, and all of the atrocities they saw, it is also about how Americans saved them and the ways they helped them once the Lost Boys got to America. Many people see this as a way to appeal to a Western audience and shows the perceived superiority of Western culture. While Into The Wild is the story of a young American adult male, its reason for being written is still questioned by the public. In a recent article written by Krakauer, he tells what his readers have sent him about the book.

“I’ve received thousands of letters from people who admire McCandless for his rejection of conformity and materialism in order to discover what was authentic and what was not, to test himself, to experience the raw throb of life without a safety net. But I’ve also received plenty of mail from people who think he was an idiot who came to grief because he was arrogant, woefully unprepared, mentally unbalanced, and possibly suicidal. Most of these detractors believe my book glorifies a senseless death.”

One detractor, Craig Medred, believes that Krakauer puts too much emphasis on the “what” that killed McCandless instead of the “who;’ McCandless was, after all, an inexperienced man who took to the wilderness with inadequate equipment. He also believes that Krakauer took his story and made him a celebrity and that he “wanted to write a story that would sell.”

So, as I read this book again for the tenth time or so, I wonder who is right. I know that the story of Christopher McCandless would never be so popular and well-known had Jon Krakauer not made it into a novel, yet I now question his reasons for writing it the way he did. Was McCandless the valiant hero who rejected societal ideals and simply made a fatal mistake or was the unprepared, suicidal character that detractors of the book believe he was? The truth is, we may never know.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a screening of Bhopali, a documentary based on the Union Carbide gas leak of 1984 and the ways in which it still affects residents of Bhopal, India today. Before attending this showing, I knew nothing of what happened in Bhopal, in fact, I did not know it had happened at all. On the night of December 2, 1984, the Union Carbide plant leaked 27 tons of a lethal gas called metho isocyantate (MIC). None of the six security measures were in operation because Union Carbide had ceased them in order to save money and maximize profit. They knowingly put people’s lives in danger, and because of this, thousands of people died.

It is estimated that seven to ten thousand people died immediately on the 2nd or 3rd of December, but the gas has continued to affect the region. Now, over 25,000 people have died because of the gas leak. Over 120,000 people, especially children, are affected with diseases such as cerebral palsy or mental and physical disorders. In addition, the factory was abandoned by Union Carbide when the company was bought by Dow Chemicals, and although Dow acquired UC’s assets and liabilities (one of which being the factory) they have not cleaned it up. There are still hundreds of metric tons of chemicals inside and around the factory, which contaminate the soil and the water of the region. This means that the people living in Bhopal are drinking contaminated water. They do not have access to clean water. All of this information is available in the documentary and also on the Bhopal website.

For 29 years since the gas leak happened, the people of Bhopal have been fighting for clean water, money to pay for their medical treatments, and simply for justice. Union Carbide and Dow have never paid for the damage they caused. Sanjay Verma, one of the victims of the disaster and a lead in the documentary, hosted a question and answer session last night after the film. He told us of the time in 2006 people from Bhopal walked to Delhi, a trek of over 500 miles, to speak with the Prime Minister of India and ask for clean water. He promised them he would, yet two years later nothing had happened. They trekked back to Delhi in 2008, and this time the PM began installing pipelines in Bhopal. Since 2010, a small section of Bhopal has been able to have clean water for one hour a day. This is not enough.

Humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International have been working with the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), “a coalition of people’s organizations, non-profit groups, and individuals,” to pressure Dow Chemicals and the US and Indian governments to give the people of Bhopal healthcare, clean water, and proper rehabilitation for the survivors and their children. However, as Sanjay Verma told us, it is important that Dow Chemicals be the one who pays for all of this. If the Indian government pays, it will come out of taxpayer dollars. In essence, the people of Bhopal will be paying for their own health care. The question is under which country’s laws is Dow responsible. Must they follow Indian laws because the factory is in India, or American ones because they are an American corporation? Verma also stated that a few years ago when Barack Obama visited India, one of his advisors had a conversation with an Bhopali activist (which was released on Wikileaks) in which the Obama advisor said in not-so-nice words that Bhopal was not a topic to talk about. This could be because Dow Chemicals is a huge corporation, and as world-renowned environmentalist David Suzuki stated in his introduction of Sanjay Verma last night, corporations are treated as people in the United States and are allowed to contribute huge amounts of money to political campaigns. Dow was a corporate contributor in the Obama campaign. In 2008, Obama praised banks for giving “critical” loans to Dow. Giving money to politicians is a way that huge corporations protect themselves from backlash for wrongful actions. Aquene Freechild, a volunteer and former staff member at the ICJB stated, ““The only reason Dow hasn’t had to show up in court is because of collusion with elites in India and even more, because of the protection of the U.S. government.” This is a national political problem that is unfortunately affecting thousands of people in Bhopal.

Bhopali has brought more attention to the problems facing Bhopali citizens, as it has closely shown the lives and struggles that are prominent in Bhopal. It was filmed by director Van Maximilian Carlson, who did not seek help from any outside organizations. It is different from the Lost Boys documentary God Grew Tired Of Us because it was not spearheaded by a large organization like National Geographic or backed by famous people with lots of money. Bhopali seeks to inform its audience and encourages them to become active in the fight for the rights that should be given to the people in Bhopal. Many of my classmates raised concerns about the portrayal of the West in GGTU and how it seemed that the focus of the film was not the struggle the Lost Boys faced, but rather the way Americans helped and saved them. I found this the contrary to Bhopali, perhaps because they have not gotten help yet. The film was more of a report on the current state of damage caused by the Union Carbide disaster than an attempt to Westernize it to the humanitarian aspect. Perhaps this is because it was not backed by lots of money and big names but simply made by a documentary maker. No matter what, I strongly suggest watching this documentary and getting informed on this issue, the largest industrial disaster in the world.

As we studied the websites Postsecret and Six-Word Memoir, in which people shared parts of their lives digitally, I thought of another online profile which I have been following for a few years: Humans of New York. What started as a facebook page where creator Brandon Stanton posted portraits he took of interesting people around New York City has become a movement, with the original page having over 1.6 million ‘likes’ and many branches around the globe. Recently, Stanton published the Humans of New York book, which showcased over 400 color portraits along with stories of the personalities photographed. Much like Postsecret and Six-Word Memoir, Humans of New York has quickly increased in popularity and attracted a large audience.

The difference between Postsecret, Six-Word Memoir, and Humans of New York is that HONY puts faces to the confessions. While Six-Word Memoir gives the option of making a profile and sharing your memoirs, Postsecret is completely anonymous. Oh HONY, one’s photo is posted on the Internet with a personal confession. When Stanton takes a photo of someone, he also asks them about their lives, about what they’re about to do or how they’re feeling. Common questions include “If you could give one piece of advice to a large group of people, what would it be?” and “What was the saddest moment of your life?” What is surprising, however, is the confession-like answers he so often receives. One man confesses to having been in prison for killing a man, another talks of how happy he is with his girlfriend, and many mention the injustices of the world. The people photographed by Stanton know that their photo and their story is going to be put on his website, yet they share deeply personal things.

There are certain portraits and captions that are also relatable to “God Grew Tired of Us” and What Is The What, such as this photo of a man who immigrated to the United States and compares it to “being born all over again. You are just like a baby. You can’t speak, you can’t move around, and you don’t know the culture.” This man explains immigration in a way that Daniel, Panther, and John would most likely agree with. Having to move to America with no knowledge of the culture or how things work must create a lapse in knowledge that makes one feel lost. As an immigrant from Canada to the United States, I skipped over this feeling because the cultures of Canada and the US are quite similar. Not speaking English, however, made it difficult to meet people at school and communicate my feelings to peers and teachers. The lack of common language also became a fueling force to learn and eventually improve my English, which then helped me assimilate to certain aspects of American culture.

In three years, Humans of New York has told the stories of hundreds of strangers living in New York City. Though the primary goal was to take their portraits and plot their photos on a map, along the way the man behind the lens found the personalities and confessions of these strangers much more appealing to those viewing his blog. HONY allows people from all over the world to connect with strangers and feel with them. Certain photos elicit “likes” because of their confessions, others because of their outlandishness (it is New York City, after all), and others simply because people can relate to them. Much like Postsecret and Six-Word Memoir, HONY allows people to share and connect over the Internet, something that is becoming more and more common as our lives and interactions change from face-to-face to phone-to-phone.