It is only with the heart that one can see rightly

April 7, 2004 2:24 PM

'Little Prince' author's plane found at last - "In France, the discovery is akin to solving the mystery of where Amelia Earhart's plane went down."
posted by soyjoy (23 comments total)

Wow.
posted by agregoli at 2:42 PM on April 7, 2004

I'm just suprised it wasn't found in a badly draw box.
posted by seanyboy at 2:46 PM on April 7, 2004

That'd be the first place I'd have looked.

I love that Saint-Exupery purists didn't want them to dig up the plane because the mystery would be destroyed. Sorry, kids. Santa's dead.

No, wait, they didn't find the body, just the plane. Maybe he's on an island with Earhart, Glenn Miller and Elvis!

There you go. Happy ending.
posted by chicobangs at 2:59 PM on April 7, 2004

Not to derail, but it says some interesting things about humanity, that we often love an ongoing mystery more than we actually want it to be solved.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 3:17 PM on April 7, 2004

Not to derail, but it says some interesting things about humanity, that we often love an ongoing mystery more than we actually want it to be solved.

Not all of us. My life has been better since I found out that Deckard was a replicant
posted by thirteen at 3:22 PM on April 7, 2004

No! Deckard was looking for Replicants....


oh.
posted by seanyboy at 3:34 PM on April 7, 2004

My sister (of the AP Paris bureau) wrote the story you linked to!
posted by pjdoland at 5:36 PM on April 7, 2004

was just in a bookstore last night looking at the little prince.

Wow indeed.
posted by th3ph17 at 5:49 PM on April 7, 2004

J'aime le petit prince. Beaucoup.
posted by grrarrgh00 at 7:56 PM on April 7, 2004

First book I ever read in French. Had a profound effect on my outlook on life. Couldn't they have just let sleeping planes lie. It's kinda sad how the modern world's insatiable appetite for "the answers" is ruining the romance of unsolved mysteries. Was recovering a heap of rusting metal worth the damage to a national treasure? It seems so pointless.
posted by shoepal at 8:11 PM on April 7, 2004

shoepal, how does this affect a national treasure? He's still dead, and presumably people were generally aware that his plane probably crashed, so this is only confirmation. He's also still a famous author and war hero. He won't be less famous just because people know how and where he died.

Also, this would make his surviving family, if there is any, happy. That makes it worthwhile.

Maybe I've seen too much CSI; I like seeing a mystery solved. :)
posted by tracicle at 8:21 PM on April 7, 2004

This is a trivial detail.
posted by troutfishing at 8:30 PM on April 7, 2004

My sister (of the AP Paris bureau) wrote the story you linked to!

cool beans...!

yah, i don't see how this discovery ruins anything, he's still the same action type hero and famous author... did his grown up fans actually like to think he flew away to the stars...? yikes. i'm glad they found his plane, and i hope one day amelia earhart's is also found. i guess i don't like unsolved mysteries that much. not the sort where a human being disappears into thin air at any rate.
posted by t r a c y at 8:55 PM on April 7, 2004

No, he wouldn't be on an island with Earhart and Elvis, but rather on a very small planet with a drawing of a boa constrictor.
posted by ilsa at 8:57 PM on April 7, 2004

As hard and cynical and ambivalently capitalistic as as I am, I was profoundly touched to find St. Ex. on the 50 franc note. To this day I keep one next to my bed. I must admit that the discovery of the plane makes me wistful. It doesn't take away from the mystery, but it's a door I didn't really want closed.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 9:29 PM on April 7, 2004

For the wistfully demystified: Remember that it's also still a mystery exactly why the plane crashed. So...

Maybe the reason it crashed was that Saint-Exupery was no longer in it, huh?
posted by soyjoy at 9:42 PM on April 7, 2004

Thanks soyjoy. I like that sentiment.

I suppose I am over-romanticizing the mystery, but that doesn't change the fact that sometimes we are so obsessed with finding the Truth that we don't realize that some things are better left unsolved (especially for kids). sigh.
posted by shoepal at 10:15 PM on April 7, 2004

"Until the euro currency was introduced in 2002, the novelist's image appeared on the nation's 50-franc note."

I find that to be very cool.
posted by kayjay at 12:13 AM on April 8, 2004

I find that to be very cool.

yeah. that would be cool, show of hands to vote Mark Twain onto the 50 dollar bill?
posted by th3ph17 at 12:22 AM on April 8, 2004

Oooh, 'tis exciting news! I revere "the Little Prince".

Has anyone read anything by him other than that most well-known book?

And yeah, Twain on the $20, and Dr. Seuss on the single!
posted by yoz420 at 3:29 AM on April 8, 2004

Not to derail, but it says some interesting things about humanity, that we often love an ongoing mystery more than we actually want it to be solved.

I disagree - the time that Spaulding Gray was missing was gutwrenching for me. I was sadly relieved when that mystery was solved...
posted by grateful at 5:36 AM on April 8, 2004

grateful, maybe it has to do with the icon in question. I consider both of these reactions to be consistent with their subjects. For St. Ex, it was perfect that he would disappear into a realm of ambiguity and leave us to sort through our own heartbreak and mythmaking. But for Spalding Gray, whose monologues were always grounded in everyday details and his attempts to keep his feet on the ground when reality seemed to be conspiring against him, we wanted him to win, and come back and tell us about it, not just leave us wondering what was going on.
posted by soyjoy at 6:49 AM on April 8, 2004

Dr. Seuss on the single!
/cringes
posted by thirteen at 8:51 AM on April 8, 2004