Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Chapter 21*
"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . ."
The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.
 "Please--tame me!" he said.
"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."
"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."
The next day the little prince came back.
"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you... One must observe the proper rites..."
"What is a rite?" asked the little prince.
"Those also are actions too often neglected," said the fox. "They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all."
---
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added:
"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."
---
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.
"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."
And the roses were very much embarrassed.
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.
---
And he went back to meet the fox.
"Goodbye," he said.
"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . ."
"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
---
They say one should read the Little Prince at least four times in one's life - once in childhood, once in adolescence, once in maturity and once in old age. Because they say that each time you read it, you read it in a different way and you learn different things. And this is what the beauty of this book is. There are books that are just about phylosophy, there are those just about stories, there are children's books and grown-ups' books, but this book is for everyone. It is a children's book when you read it at early age, it is more philosophical when you read it in youth, it is filled with more truths when you read it later (for the last two times I cannot vouch, as I have yet to get there in age).
I have read it as a child. It was one of the first books I owned. But it was not very clear to me, though interesting. I didn't really get the story, the point of it - and how could I? But later on, it taught me. It taught me about friendship and love, about the importance of the little things. As the little prince says - "And no grown-up will ever understand how such a thing could be so important!". Throughout the whole book, the author emphasizes on the difference in the perspectives of children and adults, demonstrating that being a grown-up is a state of mind, not a fact of life. The adults don't see the elephant having eaten the boa not because they were older in age, they were blind to the important ("Anything essential is invisible to the eyes"). And the narrator had kept his childhood perspective even as an adult, giving him the chance to look at the world in a way a little different, seeing how sometimes the love and fear for a rose could be more important than a broken plane leaving his pilot die of thirst. It is nostalgia that is sensed in the book. Nostalgia that we can all feel if we take the time to look back on our lives. I even sense it now - to see that child, so naive and unhappy, rebelling against the world, believing in all things small and true. Something like Stephen's Fry nostalgia in his letter to his 16-year-old self**. And this is why the Little Prince should be read as we grow - to look back upon ourselves, to self-explore, to get a different perspective on our current lives, to learn more about ourselves... and to regret. To regret at least a little bit for leaving that innocent and arrogant self behind, rebelling against the world, where everything seems so wrong and unjust, but is in fact so truthful and facile, (as Fry says) "where feeling has primacy and pain is beautiful."
*http://www.angelfire.com/hi/littleprince/frames.html
**http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/30/stephen-fry-letter-gay-rights
***images from http://home.hk.super.net
The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian AndersenThe little mermaid kissed his hand, and felt as if her heart were already broken. His wedding morning would bring death to her, and she would change into the foam of the sea. All the church bells rung, and the heralds rode about the town proclaiming the betrothal. Perfumed oil was burning in costly silver lamps on every altar. The priests waved the censers, while the bride and bridegroom joined their hands and received the blessing of the bishop. The little mermaid, dressed in silk and gold, held up the bride’s train; but her ears heard nothing of the festive music, and her eyes saw not the holy ceremony; she thought of the night of death which was coming to her, and of all she had lost in the world. On the same evening the bride and bridegroom went on board ship; cannons were roaring, flags waving, and in the center of the ship a costly tent of purple and gold had been erected. It contained elegant couches, for the reception of the bridal pair during the night. The ship, with swelling sails and a favorable wind, glided away smoothly and lightly over the calm sea. When it grew dark a number of colored lamps were lit, and the sailors danced merrily on the deck. The little mermaid could not help thinking of her first rising out of the sea, when she had seen similar festivities and joys; and she joined in the dance, poised herself in the air as a swallow when he pursues his prey, and all present cheered her with wonder. She had never danced so elegantly before. Her tender feet felt as if cut with sharp knives, but she cared not for it; a sharper pang had pierced through her heart. She knew this was the last evening she should ever see the prince, for whom she had forsaken her kindred and her home; she had given up her beautiful voice, and suffered unheard-of pain daily for him, while he knew nothing of it. This was the last evening that she would breathe the same air with him, or gaze on the starry sky and the deep sea; an eternal night, without a thought or a dream, awaited her: she had no soul and now she could never win one.  All was joy and gaiety on board ship till long after midnight; she laughed and danced with the rest, while the thoughts of death were in her heart. The prince kissed his beautiful bride, while she played with his raven hair, till they went arm-in-arm to rest in the splendid tent. Then all became still on board the ship; the helmsman, alone awake, stood at the helm. The little mermaid leaned her white arms on the edge of the vessel, and looked towards the east for the first blush of morning, for that first ray of dawn that would bring her death. She saw her sisters rising out of the flood: they were as pale as herself; but their long beautiful hair waved no more in the wind, and had been cut off. "We have given our hair to the witch,” said they, “to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife: here it is, see it is very sharp. Before the sun rises you must plunge it into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon your feet they will grow together again, and form into a fish’s tail, and you will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out your three hundred years before you die and change into the salt sea foam. Haste, then; he or you must die before sunrise. Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling off from sorrow, as ours fell under the witch’s scissors. Kill the prince and come back; hasten: do you not see the first red streaks in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and you must die.” And then they sighed deeply and mournfully, and sank down beneath the waves.
The little mermaid drew back the crimson curtain of the tent, and beheld the fair bride with her head resting on the prince’s breast. She bent down and kissed his fair brow, then looked at the sky on which the rosy dawn grew brighter and brighter; then she glanced at the sharp knife, and again fixed her eyes on the prince, who whispered the name of his bride in his dreams. She was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid: then she flung it far away from her into the waves; the water turned red where it fell, and the drops that spurted up looked like blood. She cast one more lingering, half-fainting glance at the prince, and then threw herself from the ship into the sea, and thought her body was dissolving into foam.
---
First of all, this is how the story ends in my children's book. I had never read the alternative ending, presenting the idea of Christian values and encouraging good morals and behavior in children. This is not why this story was told to me, not to make me act better to grant the "daughters of air" their souls. It is the fundamental deepest explanation of love and self-sacrifice I've ever stumbled upon. It is the idea that love is stronger than death and it is all worth it, even if all you get is just a little time with the one you love, before he ends up with his new bride.
Andersen wrote the Little Mermaid only three years before his death which explains the focus on death and the quest for immortality in the story. It is a sad, melancholy story without a happy ending. The quest of the mermaid is to obtain an immortal soul. Andersen presents a story in which there is a very obvious need to seek death and glamorize it. The mermaid story shows death as a better place than life although for non-humans, immortality must be earned through costly self-sacrifice.
As I was looking through some book reviews, I stumbled upon some people disliking the story because all the sacrifice - her lost voice, the pain in her feet, her death - it was all worthless. But I guess this is an angle of looking at it by a person who has never felt the excrutiating need and readiness to sacrifise everything in the world just for a moment, just for a glimpse, just for the idea of undying hope and immortality of soul. And even despite the quite tangible Christian values in the story, implying that life of God is stronger than romantic love and throughout good deeds, one is promised the gift of immortality, it is rather universally true in its interpretation of life, death, self-sacrifice, love and happiness.
And it is not just a fairy-tale. It is not just a love story, simple and meaningless. Because fairy-tales, as well as fables, carry hidden wisdom, masked as a children's story, that apparently elludes some people. This is a story with meaning, designed to inspire and teach children, when growing up. And you don't even realize and understand the Little Mermaid completely, until you grow up and you feel it, and you know it and then you understand. It is a wisdom and knowledge you've carried ever since in your heart and one day you understand what it has been all along.
Sources:
http://www.onlinedatingbook.co.uk/blog/relationships-and-dating/why-the-story-of-the-little-mermaid-should-be-taught-to-every-single-child
http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html
http://artpassions.files.wordpress.com
The Little Match-Seller - Hans Christian Andersen
 In the dawn of morning there lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall; she had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year; and the New-year’s sun rose and shone upon a little corpse! The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. “She tried to warm herself,” said some. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother, on New-year’s day.
---
Hans Christian Andersen's books and stories always have a deep concept, a universal truth, masked as a children's story. This is one of my favourite tales as it is based mainly on the understanding of hope and overcoming death through hope - a concept that is present in most things in my cabinet.
The story of the little match-seller is short and sweet, telling us about the life of a little orphan girl who is alone on New Year's Eve and lights up her boxes of matches, imagining beautiful things and getting warm just by believing in what she imagines. I especially like the implications of how one experiences death and, more subtly, life as well. It is a particularly close and sensitive subject for me, as I am convinced having faith and hope does have that effect on people's lives and, consequently, everything after.
Very powerful story, close to the concept of The Little Mermaid, although it is hope and faith and dreams that "save" the little match-seller, rather than love in the mermaid tale. Still, for someone who witnessed the death of a relative when I was too young to understand it, it brought thoughts and insights into the circle of life, my little child's mind trying to cope with the truths of life and to find meaning. This is why that particular story is in my cabinet.
Sources:
http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_match.html
http://www.denmark.net
The Ugly Duckling - Hans Christian Andersen
 “I will fly to those royal birds,” he exclaimed, “and they will kill me, because I am so ugly, and dare to approach them; but it does not matter: better be killed by them than pecked by the ducks, beaten by the hens, pushed about by the maiden who feeds the poultry, or starved with hunger in the winter.”
Then he flew to the water, and swam towards the beautiful swans. The moment they espied the stranger, they rushed to meet him with outstretched wings.
“Kill me,” said the poor bird; and he bent his head down to the surface of the water, and awaited death.
But what did he see in the clear stream below? His own image; no longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan. To be born in a duck’s nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan’s egg. He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam round the new-comer, and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome.
Into the garden presently came some little children, and threw bread and cake into the water.
“See,” cried the youngest, “there is a new one;” and the rest were delighted, and ran to their father and mother, dancing and clapping their hands, and shouting joyously, “There is another swan come; a new one has arrived.”
Then they threw more bread and cake into the water, and said, “The new one is the most beautiful of all; he is so young and pretty.” And the old swans bowed their heads before him.
Then he felt quite ashamed, and hid his head under his wing; for he did not know what to do, he was so happy, and yet not at all proud. He had been persecuted and despised for his ugliness, and now he heard them say he was the most beautiful of all the birds. Even the elder-tree bent down its bows into the water before him, and the sun shone warm and bright. Then he rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, “I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling.”
---Yet another one of Hans Christian's stories here, again with a deep concept, masked as a children's book. The Ugly Duckling is probably the easiest of his tales, though, to be understood by younger people, as the concepts of hope and love and death in the other two stories I've picked are a lot more complicated. But the lesson in the duckling is quite easy to capture, although it is again deep and universally true.
Perhaps this is a touching story as people who are ignored or marginalised could easily identify with the poor ugly bird and have hope that one day they will "turn into swans", figuratively speaking. Which is exactly the reason this story has influenced me personally. Not to get into descriptive details about my childhood or early life, it was a story that kept me believing in the "bright future". Or something in the vicinity of that.
There isn't really much more to say about this story, as it is quite simple and there is little chance there are people out there who haven't read it or haven't understood it. But, personally, I love the idea of hope and the strength of the human spirit (although it's supposedly a story of a duck), although in this particular story it is not the strength in the face of death and the experiencing of death (as it was in the previous two), but in the face of life and the reality of human existence.
Sources:
http://hca.gilead.org.il/ugly_duc.html
http://www.yesicankids.gov/images/bedtime/uglyduckling.jpg
The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
 The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose ..... The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
Time is a wheel with seven spokes, each spoke as Age. As the Wheel turns, the Ages come and go, each leaving memories that fade to legend, then to myth, and are forgotten by the time that Age comes again. The Pattern of an Age is slightly different each time an Age comes, and each time it is subject to greater change, but each time it is the same Age.
Book One - Eye of the World
And the Shadow fell upon the Land, and the World was riven stone from stone. The oceans fled, and the mountains were swallowed up, and the nations were scattered to the eight corners of the World. The moon was as blood, and the sun was as ashes. The seas boiled, and the living envied the dead. All was shattered, and all but memory lost, and one memory above all others, of him who brought the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon.
Book Six - Lord of Chaos
The unstained tower breaks and bends knee to the forgotten sign.
The seas rage, and stormclouds gather unseen.
Beyond the horizon, hidden fifes swell, and serpents nestle in the
bosom.
What was exalted is cast down; what was cast down is raised up. Order burns to clear his path.
Book Eight - Path of Daggers
Across the nations the stories spread like spiderweb laid upon spiderweb, and men and women planned the future, believing they knew truth. They planned, and the Pattern absorbed their plans, weaving toward the future foretold.
Book Nine - Winter's Heart
The seals that hold back the night shall weaken,
and in the heart of winter shall winter's heart be born
amid the wailing of lamentation and the gnashing of teeth,
for winter's heart shall ride a black horse,
and the name of it is Death.
---
This is my favourite fantasy reading and it's quite a handful. Jordan managed to write 12 volumes before his death and his last 13th book was published posthumously, split into three books, as the writing was finished by Brandon Sanderson. The whole saga now consists of 15 volumes of between 500-700 pages.
The story of Wheel of Time is quite complicated at first, as Jordan introduces so many characters at once and doesn't give the reader any time to get familiar with them, as he switches between what happens to different people in the different chapters, so much as one might lose the connection from 10 chapters before. In time, there has been an endless war between the Light and the Shadow and one man has been the only one able to fight the Shadow and he was called the Dragon. There is a prophecy that tells about the Dragon's rebirth and when it is believed to have happened, the servants of the Light try to find him, before those of the Dark do. Throughout the whole saga, we meet all kinds of different people from different places, while the main character, Rand Al'Thor (who is the Dragon Reborn) encounters difficulties from both his friends and enemies, as there are those who believe he should be controlled (because he is about to go mad and the last Dragon Reborn burnt the world to the ground, but there is a more complicated bit there, which I don't want to get into). At first, reading those books was a kind of escape from the boring and monotonous reality of my life. But there are many things to be learned, even though most people ignore them for being fantasy books. The main idea is about the search of one's identity, when there has been a path set for them that they do not feel they are ready to walk, and responsibilities that have been given to them, when they are not capable of fulfilling them. How does one go about fulfilling a prophecy that says he is the only one able to fight the darkness and save the world, but go insane in the meantime and probably destroy everything in the process, as well as himself? There are also many other important things, such as deep friendships (all the main characters from the small village where the Dragon lives support each other till the end, sometimes even thousands of kilometres apart), love and bonding (there is a bond between people that allows them to feel what the others feel, something like the recent Na'vi connection through their pony tails), sacrifice, etc. Moreover, the main theme of the books, the main angle - about how the wheel of time turns and lives repeat, even if we don't realise that, is a quite profound concept, which I strongly believe in. Jordan touches upon the idea of rebirth and repetition of time since the existence of the world, as well as the idea of fate and destiny (the pattern in this case, which commands people's lives, regardless of their decisions). And, of course, the idea of the eternal battle between light and darkness, between good or bad and the manipulations of each single person to achieve their own personal agenda, even if they are working towards a common goal. Overall, an amazing set of books to be read, even for a non-fantasy fan. This is not the type of reading such as Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" or "Harry Potter" books, it is (to me, personally) much more grounded and realistic, even though Jordan has used his imagination a lot and has come up with some quite sophisticated processes. Image source: http://moderateinthemiddle.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/pic_robert_jordan_books.jpg Labels: cabinet of curiousities |
