Antoine De St Exupery

10-11-23 00 / episode: 298

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Was he really such a great guy? I question whether he is so great or not.

The Little Prince

I was going through some of the books that I've shared with my children.

I came across the Little Prince.

I was interested in The Little Prince a long time ago for a variety of reasons.

It is philosophical.

It is kind of a parable.

It is hopeful.

It is sad.

All these things reflect its author.

I'll be honest, his name is hard to pronounce.

I did a search on YouTube to find his pronunciation.

Let me try it.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

He was Complex

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a complex figure.

He was an aristocrat, yet he wasn't rich.

He was a writer yet he had very few concrete academic credentials.

He was an Aviator, yet he crashed his plane more than once.

He wrote books that were quite philosophical yet he wrote this children's book.

His book called The Little Prince is very difficult to put into a category.

Is it a children's book?

If so, I'm not sure that children really like it.

My children didn't like it.

They thought it was very sad.

Indeed when I read it a second time I thought so too.

Sad

The Little Prince is also such a sad figure.

In fact sadness comes out a lot as a strong theme in Antoine's works.

Maybe this is because Antoine himself was very sad.

They say that he went through various bouts of depression throughout his life.

He was married once but almost got married once earlier.

He was unfaithful to his wife.

This seems to me one of the Hallmarks of an unstable person.

In fact the more I read about Antoine, the less I like him.

His book is indeed somewhat disturbing.

I like that.

It's good to be disturbed because it stimulates you to think and reassess things but at the same time I'm also reassessing my opinions about Antoine and his books.

As I grow, I like his books less and less to be honest.

He tried hard and he was searching, but I think ultimately he went down a blind alley.

It was a very enticing alley because it looks so fresh at the beginning but at the end it's like the ending of his book.

It's rather bleak and sad. Although it's pointing to a hopeful new story, that hopeful new story seems to remain in doubt.

And we're just left with a sad event.

Disturbing

Having said all that, I think his disturbing story is the Saving Grace for Antoine and his works.

What I mean by this is his Works were popular and still are popular, so they reach out to people.. and they disturb them.

That's important in our lives.

We need some disturbing, we need some provocation so that we don't fall into our gentle lulling routines of comfort.

And I think that's what Anton felt too, which is why he wrote the books that he did.

So now I find myself assessing myself again and coming to the conclusion that Antoine was actually a pretty good guy.

Legacy

He left a great legacy in spite of the heaviness and sadness that mark his works.

I would love to go to Morocco and check out some of the monuments that are still there to him and his Little Prince book.

I'd also love to check out the desert and see what kind of magic it can weave on me just like the magic it wove on antoine.

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