What is essential, is invisible to the eye.
March 22, 2019 8:21 PM Subscribe
metafilter: not insane for wanting things to be more kind.
posted by shoesfullofdust at 10:02 PM on March 22, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by shoesfullofdust at 10:02 PM on March 22, 2019 [11 favorites]
The Little Prince is my all-time hero and the first tattoo I ever got. Somehow I haven't heard of this film until now but it's on my list of things to do today. Great post!
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:17 AM on March 23, 2019
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:17 AM on March 23, 2019
There is a Little Prince pop-up book that is actually really well done, and I recommend it highly for kids and adults!!
posted by adzm at 11:52 AM on March 24, 2019
posted by adzm at 11:52 AM on March 24, 2019
There is a Stacy Schiff biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Amazon Link) (buy it from a local bookstore though, or borrow it from a library) that is one of my favorite books of all time. It was recommended to me by relatively frequent MeFi tag, Robin Sloan.
posted by DigDoug at 6:14 AM on March 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by DigDoug at 6:14 AM on March 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
When I was young, my mother told me a story from a mountaineer who'd climbed some terribly high mountain (almost certainly Everest). At some point on his way up, he met an old woman who would make sure he got to bed, and a young boy who would make sure he laced his boots properly before going out, and so on. These people vanished suddenly when he descended below the point of needing supplemental oxygen.
I always interpreted The Little Prince as a dying man in the desert, his mind fracturing into hallucinatory personas to keep his body alive. The adult rational mind needed all its energies to focus on "matters of consequence" and so the rest of him cut free to be expressed in princes and foxes and snakes. The death of the prince really does send him home, as that asteroid was a complete and integrated personality. The pilot can indulge in vanity once more, and lavish time on his rose. He fears, however, that who he became in that desert might destroy that opportunity.
Meanwhile, my wife and daughter both think of it as a straightforward fairy tale, and insist the rose is already choked by baobab trees by the time it's over, and surely the prince knows this the whole time.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:38 AM on March 26, 2019
I always interpreted The Little Prince as a dying man in the desert, his mind fracturing into hallucinatory personas to keep his body alive. The adult rational mind needed all its energies to focus on "matters of consequence" and so the rest of him cut free to be expressed in princes and foxes and snakes. The death of the prince really does send him home, as that asteroid was a complete and integrated personality. The pilot can indulge in vanity once more, and lavish time on his rose. He fears, however, that who he became in that desert might destroy that opportunity.
Meanwhile, my wife and daughter both think of it as a straightforward fairy tale, and insist the rose is already choked by baobab trees by the time it's over, and surely the prince knows this the whole time.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:38 AM on March 26, 2019
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My door into The Little Prince was Leo Buscaglia, who did an entire talk on What Is Essential Is Invisible To The Eye [1h30m, sounds long but it's a really excellent talk].
I think I first saw him deliver that on PBS back in the early 80s? So I was like 12-14? It affected my worldview deeply. I might say that Leo is the Fred Rogers for thinking grown-ups. I got to hug him once when he came to speak live in my hometown. I think in my soul I knew he was a gay man trying to make the world a more peaceful place, but at the time I just knew his words resonated with how I saw the world and affirmed that I was not insane for wanting things to be more kind.
posted by hippybear at 9:17 PM on March 22, 2019 [8 favorites]