Literary Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[sun surfer]

'Recipient of the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, Wind, Sand and Stars captures the grandeur, danger, and isolation of flight. Its exciting account of air adventure, combined with lyrical prose and the spirit of a philosopher, makes it one of the most popular works ever written about flying.'

Goodreads


There are two phases of discussion. The first begins immediately and may contain conversations about anything pre-completion of the selection including reading progress, section thoughts, outside info, etc. The second begins on the 1st and also includes anything post-completion. These are recommended to help us discuss things in a similar timeframe but anyone can discuss any part or aspect at any time.


This is the MR Literary Club selection for . Everyone is welcome so feel free to start or join in the conversation at any time; the more the merrier!

[Bookworm_Girl]

I started reading the book today. After I read the first chapter, I looked at the table of contents and got better insight to the themes of the book. Then I went back and reread the first chapter. I’m glad that I did. The writing is very good, and the imagery is creative. I never thought of flying as analogous to alchemy or navigating through tempests like the ruins of temples. I’m curious to keep reading and learn how the book unfolds.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I started reading the book today. After I read the first chapter, I looked at the table of contents and got better insight to the themes of the book. Then I went back and reread the first chapter. I’m glad that I did. The writing is very good, and the imagery is creative. I never thought of flying as analogous to alchemy or navigating through tempests like the ruins of temples. I’m curious to keep reading and learn how the book unfolds.

Excellent insight, Bookworm Gorl. The title of chapter one, “Craft” has all kinds of connotations. And the quality of the writing is indeed excellent.

[sun surfer]

I'm enjoying it and the writing is indeed really good. I liked this quote about what he perceived as people who'd closed their souls to dreaming, adventure, imagination and creativity:

I heard them talking to one another in murmurs and whispers. They talked about illness, money, shabby domestic cares. Their talk painted the walls of the dismal prison in which these men had locked themselves up. And suddenly I had a vision of the face of destiny.

Old bureaucrat, my comrade, it is not you who are to blame. No one ever helped you to escape. You, like a termite, built your peace by blocking up with cement every chink and cranny through which the light might pierce. You rolled yourself up into a ball in your genteel security, in routine, in the stifling conventions of provincial life, raising a modest rampart against the winds and the tides and the stars. You have chosen not to be perturbed by great problems, having trouble enough to forget your own fate as man. You are not the dweller upon an errant planet and do not ask yourself questions to which there are no answers. You are a petty bourgeois of Toulouse. Nobody grasped you by the shoulder while there was still time. Now the clay of which you were shaped has dried and hardened, and naught in you will ever awaken the sleeping musician, the poet, the astronomer that possibly inhabited you in the beginning.

[sun surfer]

So far I'm thinking this book is ridiculously good, and it's interesting that it's by an author known for writing a children's book.

I've actually been meaning to read The Little Prince forever. I've had a very specific purpose for it- I had wanted it to be the first book I read in French. But, as life goes, brushing up on the language and spending enough time learning more to then attempt that hasn't ever happened so far. Ah well. Maybe one day it will, or maybe I'll just read the English translation. I'm now definitely interested to see how an author who writes Wind, Sand and Stars would write something so famous for children.

[WillAdams]

A favourite of mine (I have an old, yellowed, brittle paperback) --- picked it up when it was on sale a while back and need to find time to re-read it.

I've always viewed it as rather the writer's notes and research on how _The Little Prince_ came to be written. Agree that it would be a worthy goal to read that in the original --- but there are other presentations --- did anyone get the nifty CD-ROM version? My kids really enjoyed it, and I thought it was a fitting rendition to bring the story forward for a new generation.

[fantasyfan]

I find myself amazed at the deeply meditative quality of the book. Many of these reveries are quit profound such as his comments on the machine and its relation to humankind.

“And thus, also, the realities of nature resume their pride of place. It is not with metal that the pilot is in contact, Contrary to the vulgar illusion, it is thanks to the metal, and by virtue of it, that the pilot rediscovers nature. As I have already said, the machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.”

And he goes further:

“The central struggle of men has ever been to understand one another, to join together for the common weal. And it is this very thing that the machine helps them to do! It begins by annihilating time and space.”

There are moments of great beauty in this book. But while it has been described as a great adventure story, it is not that. Rather it is a meditation by a man who reflects upon an adventurous life. And it is those reflections rather than the adventures which I found fascinating.