Just an add-on to (c)all's writeup on the Pearl Jam song "Alive". The song mostly stems from Eddie Vedder's personal experiences. Pearl Jam was originally brought together by guitarist Stone Gossard. The band's centerpiece on their demo tape was "Dollar Short". When Jack Irons passed the demo tape to the struggling Eddie Vedder, Vedder was struck by inspiration. After surfing for a few hours, he came back and recorded his voice over the demo tape with a new version of the song - this would become "Alive". It would lead to Vedder moving to Seattle to join the band and it would be the first single off their debut album, Ten.

The song is partly based on Vedder's own childhood experiences. When he was 2, his parents divorced and his mother remarried. She never told him that his stepfather wasn't his biological father until he was 19. By that time, Vedder's real father was long dead and the already-tortured Vedder was left to deal with the mixed emotions he had of a man he thought was a distant family friend.

Many regard the song as one of the so-called "grunge" movement's finest pieces, a bold and defying look at Vedder's own peers - Generation X. In a Rolling Stone article ("Five Against the World" by Cameron Crowe, 10/28/93), Vedder describes the song's meaning in greater detail. I have transcribed the relevant sections here for the benefit of the reader:


"Everybody writes about it like it's a life-affirmation, thing - I'm really glad about that,' he says with a rueful laugh "It's a great interpretation. But 'Alive' is... it's torture. Which is why it's fucked up for me. Why I should probably learn how to sing another way. It would be easier. It's... it's too much."

Vedder continues: "The story of the song is that a mother is with a father and the father dies. It's an intense thing because the son looks just like the father. The son grows up to be the father, the person that she lost. His father's dead, and now this confusion, his mother, his love, how does he love her, how does she love him? In fact, the mother, even though she marries somebody else, there's no one she's ever loved more than the father. You know how it is, first loves and stuff. And the guy dies. How could you ever get him back? But the son. He looks exactly like him. It's uncanny. So she wants him. The son is oblivious to it all. He doesn't know what the fuck is going on. He's still dealing, he's still growing up. He's still dealing with love, he's still dealing with the death of his father. All he knows is 'I'm still alive' - those three words, that's totally out of burden."

Elvis' "Suspicious Minds" blasts on the jukebox as Vedder continues. "Now the second verse is 'Oh she walks slowly into a young man's room... I can remember to this very day... the look... the look.' And I don't say anything else. And because I'm saying, 'The look, the look' everyone thinks it goes with 'on her face.' It's not on her face. The look is between her legs. Where do you go with that? That's where you came from.

"But I'm still alive. I'm the lover that's still alive. And the whole conversation about 'You're still alive, she said' And his doubts: 'Do I deserve to be? Is that the question?' Because he's fucked up forever! So now he doesn't know how to deal with it, so what does he do, he goes out killing people - that was the song 'Once.' He becomes a serial killer. And 'Footsteps,' the final song of the trilogy ', that's when he gets executed That's what happens. The Green River killer... and in San Diego, there was another prostitute killer down there. Somehow I related to that. I think that happens more than we know. It's a modern way of dealing with a bad life."

Then he smiles as he says, "I'm just glad I became a songwriter."

Miracle of the Andes

On October 12, 1972 an amateur rugby team from the suburb Carrasco, Uruguay, and some friends and supporters boarded a charter plane in Montevideo, bound for Santiago, Chile for a game. Forty passengers and five crew were on the plane that day; only 16 would ultimately survive the trip.

The small plane could only fly to 22,500 feet, not high enough to clear the impressive Andes mountains, so the flight involved navigation through designated passes between the peaks. Bad weather could be a real hazard, and after a stop in Buenos Aires, the pilots stopped one night in Mendoza, Argentina, before tackling the mountain range. By mid-afternoon the next day the weather finally cleared enough for the flight to proceed, and the 45 took off once again. It was Friday, October 13.

Unfortunately, the pilot made a fatal error while in flight: he radioed ahead that he had crossed the mountains into Chile, while in fact they had not yet cleared the range. Following instructions from the Chilean control tower, they descended into the clouds, only to hit severe turbulence. The pilot and co-pilot realized that they had miscalculated and tried desperately to pull the plane up, but were unsuccessful: the right wing clipped a peak, flipped over the fuselage, and tore the tail off the plane. Seconds later the left wing was severed; people in the rear of the plane fell out of the gaping hole. The remains of the plane hurtled like a missile into the snow and slid forward; the impact tore the seats loose and they piled towards the front. The remnants of the plane came to a stop.

The team's doctor was dead, but two young medical students, Roberto Canessa and Gustavo Zerbino, did what they could to organize the chaos, instructing their fellow teammates to drag out the dead (three of those still in the plane), and trying to comfort those with injuries, mostly broken legs sustained when the seats piled forward on impact. The pilot had been killed instantly and the co-pilot soon died of his injuries; the only surviving crew member, a mechanic, was little help, and the radio was not working. As night fell the cold became unbearable, and the team captain, Marcelo Perez, aided by two teammates, plugged the gaping rear of the fuselage as best they could with seats and suitcases. Graziela Mariani, pinned under the seats with two broken legs and internal injuries, moaned constantly; by morning she was dead.

In the days that followed the survivors persevered in their sorry situation, ripping the seat covers off for blankets, organizing what food there was - a little chocolate and candy, some wine - and tending the injured as best they could, without medicine or painkillers. On the second day a plane flew by overhead, and though they screamed and waved, they were not seen. Several of the passengers were suffering from altitude sickness and one boy, Nando Parrado, was unconscious for three days; when he finally came to, he learned that his mother had died in the crash and his sister was gravely injured, and though he did what he could to tend to her, she died on the eighth day in his arms. Meanwhile, the boys heard on a small transistor radio they had found that the search for them had been called off. The authorities believed they had died.

In spite of severe rationing, it was clear that if they were not rescued, they would die, and they came to the grim realization that, to survive, they would have to eat the flesh of the dead. Of the ten bodies in the makeshift morgue - basically just corpses stretched out in the snow, preserved by the bitter cold - they agreed to leave three untouched (relatives of those still living); from the rest, the survivors cut bits of flesh and choked it down. Those who at first refused to eat this nasty fare eventually succumbed, for there was really no other option. The protein helped strengthen the survivors, who began to plan how to get out of their unbearable situation.

From the beginning, parties went out to try to locate the tail of the plane, in order to get a battery that the surviving crew member had told them they could use to activate the radio and call for help. The first expedition failed, as the members were weak and malnourished; but subsequent forays located the bodies of six passengers and crew who had fallen out of the tail, as well as the tail and the battery, which was too heavy to lift. They then tried bringing the radio to the battery, but couldn't make it work.

After 17 days on the mountain, as everyone was huddled together to sleep, an avalanche swept down the mountain, crashed through the barrier of suitcases and seats, and buried all but four of them alive. Two of those unburied had broken legs and were in hammocks that others had rigged up to allow them to sleep easier; the other two were able bodied and frantically dug the snow from around the faces of their friends. Eight more people died that night; now only nineteen remained. A second avalanche swept over them later that night, burying the fuselage but otherwise leaving them unharmed. When they tunneled out the next morning they found they were in the midst of a raging storm, and they remained trapped for another three days before the storm passed and they could dig themselves out, pulling out the bodies of their dead friends.

Finally, after two months had passed, as the weather was warming, three of the survivors - Parrado, Canessa, and Antonio Vizintin - set out to the west, where they thought Chile was, bringing with them a sleeping bag they had made from the plane's insulation and some of their grisly rations. They were not well prepared for the long climb through the mountains, but they suspected that if they did not find their way out, they would all die there. Already they were running out of corpses to eat. After three days they realized that they were still a long way from passing the mountains; they sent Vizintin back and Parrado and Canessa pressed on. Seven days later the two young men (Parrado was only 19) saw green fields; it seemed like a whole other world. They saw a rancher, Sergio Catalan, across the river tending his cattle, and they screamed and cried for help. He promised to return the next day, and when they woke the next morning, there he was on the opposite bank. He wrote a note and tied it to a rock, asking them what they needed; they wrote about their plight and threw it back. He tossed them some bread, rode off, and soon another rancher that Catalan had alerted approached them and took them on horseback to a small cabin. Catalan had gone to let the authorities know about the young men. It was 70 days since the crash.

Back at the crash site, the young men heard via the radio that Parrado and Canessa had succeeded. They cleaned themselves up as best they could and laughed hysterically when two helicopters came. Eight of the survivors were airlifted out that day, but weather conditions postponed the rescue of the rest until the next day. Finally, however, and just in time for Christmas, 16 survivors were reunited with their families after a harrowing ordeal. They had survived.

They had survived, but 29 had died. Because not all their bodies were intact, it was decided to leave them on the mountain, burying them on a peak near the crash site. The grave was covered with rocks and topped with an iron cross. The remains of the fuselage were burned.

This amazing story was a sensation at the time and was eventually made into a best-selling book by Piers Paul Read, which formed the basis for a 1993 movie starring Ethan Hawke as Nando. The real Nando and two other survivors visited the location in the Canadian Rockies and were amazed - and a little horrified - with the realism of the set. Though the story as related in the movie is somewhat fictionalized, the drama and horror of their plight is well captured, which deals sensitively with the gruesome aspects of the story. The film has a strong spiritual tone, which might strike more cynical viewers as hokey, but a documentary made 20 years later, which was included in the DVD of the movie which I saw recently, confirmed that for these young impressionable Catholic men, there was something deeply spiritual about going through such an intense and frightening experience and living. For some, eating the bodies of the dead was like a communion.

The documentary also reveals that they all still live in the same wealthy suburb of Carrasco where they grew up, and see each other, as well as the families of their deceased friends, very often. Interviews reveal that some of them were strengthened by their ordeal, others deeply scarred. Though several of them speak frankly to the camera, they reveal that in their hometown no one asks about the cannibalism, no one speaks of that: it is a deep bond they share with each other, no one else.

These are the 45 people who boarded that plane, those who survived marked in italics:

Crew
Col. Julio César Ferradas (pilot)
Lt. Col. Dante Hector Lagurara (co-pilot)
Lt. Ramon Martínez (navigator)
Cpl. Carlos Roque (mechanic)
Cpl. Ovidio Joaquin Ramírez (steward)

Rugby team
Francisco Abal
Roberto Canessa
Gaston Costemalle
Roy Harley
Alexis Hounié
Guido Magri
Julio Martínez-Lamas
Daniel Maspons
Gustavo Nicolich
Arturo Nogueira
Fernando ("Nando) Parrado
Marcelo Perez
Enrique Platero
Daniel Shaw
Antonio ("Tintin") Vizintín
Gustavo Zerbino

Other passengers
Jose Pedro Algorta
Alfredo "Pancho" Delgado
Rafael Echavarren
Daniel Fernández
Roberto "Bobby" Francois
Jose Luis "Coche" Inciarte
Alvaro Mangino
Graziela Mariani
Felipe Maquirriain
Juan Carlos Menéndez
Javier Methol
Liliana Methol
Dr. Francisco Nicola
Esther Nicola
Carlos "Carlitos" Páez
Eugenia Parrado
Susana Parrado
Ramán "Moncho" Sabella
Adolfo "Fito" Strauch
Eduardo Strauch
Diego Storm
Numa Turcatti
Carlos Valeta
Fernando Vázquez

http://members.aol.com/porkinsr6/alive.html was a major source for this write-up, as was the movie, which I just saw.

Alive is a 2015 science fiction/mystery/drama novel by Scott Sigler. It's first person from start to finish, beginning with our protagonist waking up in a confined space and having to fight and scrape her way out. Escaping what appears to be a coffin in some dusty crypt, she discovers and frees five others from similar confinement. Conversing, they discover several things: none of them can remember their names though each of them has a first initial and last name on their coffin, they each believe today to be their twelfth birthday, and they are all in the bodies of very attractive young adults. There are also several coffins with child sized skeletons in them. Our point of view, M Savage, leaves with the small party to discover more skeletons (this time adult sized) of people who obviously died violently. Arming themselves with a few discarded melee weapons they proceed to explore a seemingly endless underground space. It's not long before conflict erupts to lethal effect, they meet another party, and they have to contend with the concern that monsters are real.

Through all of this M learns who she and the others are. Each of them has specific skills and knowledge. Some seem to understand the technology around them. Some seem unusually alert and coordinated, ready to fight, kill, or die. Some have other skills. What does M have? Not smarts or strength or even charm exactly. She has an overwhelming sense of responsibility. She will lead these people to safety. Her specifically. Pragmatism, ruthlessness, whatever it takes she'll hang on to leadership because if she lets this group of fully grown children do what they want they're going to get themselves killed. Underneath the rationalization and post-hoc justifications is the very real concern that she's right. These are psychological preteens with poor impulse control, conflicting personalities, and no food or water. Hour to hour survival could be dependent on politicking, resource management, and dumb luck with little room for error. Even as they find a bit of respite the questions remain: where are they? Who are they? What could possibly lead to this situation?

One review described this book as "a cross between Lord of the Flies and The Maze Runner" and while I haven't read The Maze Runner I got Lord of the Flies vibes throughout. Except that Lord of the Flies is a slow descent into savagery. Alive starts Savage and begins the narrative equivalent of free climbing to something sustainable. I would heavily recommend this book but I may be biased. It features several things that I really like, first person perspective, dubiously reliable narration, mystery, weird sci-fi concepts. I think the biggest reason I didn't love this to death was that I saw most of the twists coming so I could never fully inhabit the point of view without my own commentary seeping in and that's on me. If you want to listen to it it's available for free here.

IRON NODER: WE'LL RUST WHEN WE'RE DEAD

A*live" (#), a. [OE. on live, AS. on life in life; life being dat. of lif life. See Life, and cf. Live, a.]

1.

Having life, in opposition to dead; living; being in a state in which the organs perform their functions; as, an animal or a plant which is alive.

2.

In a state of action; in force or operation; unextinguished; unexpired; existent; as, to keep the fire alive; to keep the affections alive.

3.

Exhibiting the activity and motion of many living beings; swarming; thronged.

The Boyne, for a quarter of a mile, was alive with muskets and green boughs. Macaulay.

4.

Sprightly; lively; brisk.

Richardson.

5.

Having susceptibility; easily impressed; having lively feelings, as opposed to apathy; sensitive.

Tremblingly alive to nature's laws. Falconer.

6.

Of all living (by way of emphasis).

Northumberland was the proudest man alive. Clarendon.

Used colloquially as an intensive; as, man alive!

Alive always follows the noun which it qualifies.

 

© Webster 1913.

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