The Little Prince - Best Dedication

I had a very nice comment last time from a visitor on the blog (you know who you are :)) and automatically I was curious to check out her profile and that's when I discovered that one of her favorite books was "The little prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Now a lot of us must have read it or seen the movie adaptations. I first read the book when I was very very young and I can't even remember the last time I've seen it on TV. 

 

I had forgotten a lot of details of the story until a couple of years ago when I stumbled upon the book again and that is when I made great amount of discoveries regarding the plot, the author and many other things. This is not technically a review of this book because I believe I need to re read it once again if I ever want to give it justice (which I doubt anyone really could). But for now, I just wanted to share with you the thing which struck me like lightning when I stumbled upon the book the second time in my life and that was awkwadely the author's dedication. Maybe I never read the dedication the first time, maybe I was too young to remember it or to understand it but one thing is sure: I have never liked a dedication before in my life and I'll never ever forget this one. I hope that you'll enjoy discovering/rediscovering it as much as I did so here it goes in both French and English versions:

 

A Léon Werth. Je demande pardon aux enfants d'avoir dédié ce livre à une grande personne. J'ai une excuse sérieuse : cette grande personne est le meilleur ami que j'ai au monde. J'ai une autre excuse : cette grande personne peut tout comprendre, même les livres pour enfants. J'ai une troisième excuse : cette grande personne habite la France où elle a faim et froid. Elle a besoin d'être consolée. Si toutes ces excuses ne suffisent pas, je veux bien dédier ce livre à l'enfant qu'a été autrefois cette grande personne. Toutes les grandes personnes ont d'abord été des enfants. (Mais peu d'entre elles s'en souviennent.) Je corrige donc ma dédicace :

A Léon Werth quand il était petit garçon

 

 

TO LEON WERTH. I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up. I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children--although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication:

TO LEON WERTH
WHEN HE WAS A LITTLE BOY

Now I really hope you felt the same as I did (maybe not as emotional though :D) upon reading the dedication. I also hope that if you haven't read this magical and one of a kind story full of imagination that you do it. After all, the author, and especially this book did not only mark me but rather marked the world entirely. France had even a 50 francs banknote and a very lovely one designed in their honor where you could see the portrait of Saint Exupéry, the little prince, the snake and the elephant and many other elements from the story in addition to the plane in which the hero author/pilot died in 1944. What a shame the Euro banknotes aren't dedicated to influential artists/ scientists like the Franc bills were! I just think it would be amazing if countries everywhere designed at least one banknote honoring an author/ or a book. It would just be heavenly for me, after all, look for yourselves and you'll see how pretty that 50 francs bill was. Oh and one last thing: Which authors would you think are worthy to be on a banknote? Doesn't have to be a writer from you country, choose any country. I know who mine would be but I'll only share if you do it first ;)  

 

 

 

  

Life of Pi - The movie

Sometimes, I watch the movie without reading the book. And then I regret it! This is defenitely one of those moments.

 

Life of Pi is one of the most amazing stories ever! What a brilliant author Mr Yann Martel! and I doubt anyone could have directed the movie any better than Mr Ang Lee. I haven't read any books by the former and I have to say that the only movie I watched by the latter was "Brockeback Mountain" which I am not so fond of. "Life of Pi" the movie however, is a one of a kind piece of work! Below you'll find my review which is like most of my previous ones a spoiler so you have been warned.

The story starts with a reporter trying to interview a man who supposedly has a story that will make him believe in God. It is not clear whether the reporter is in quest for God or whether he is looking for a catchy story or whether he was just intrigued by this man for being known in his society for some story. The reason driving this reporter to meet the man remains mysterious all during the movie and I believe it was left unexplained for a purpose. By doing so, the writer or director (I don't know who exactly) guarantees that everybody will listen to the story. Everyone for a different reason. It personally worked on me, I directly felt involved. What the protagonist had to offer was very intriguing and my reaction was like: A story to make one believe in God??!!! Bring it on!

 

Pi (whose name made me remember Paris :( ) met God by discovering Hinduism, Christ and then Allah. It was a very creative way to convey the message that religions have a lot in common. However, what I hated is that on this one hand you have the religions/religious represented by the nice boy and on the other you have the severe scientist atheist father. Now this bothered me a lot because niceness is not related to religion. Everybody should be aware of this by now!
 

To cut the story short: on the way to Canada, the ship sinks and Pi survives only to find himself trapped on a boat with a bunch of animals from the Zoo. Then everyone dies except for the Tiger and Pi who's trying to avoid himself getting eaten. The sotry focused on the turmoils of this journey which ends by survival of both the kid and the tiger. What marked me most was the originality and the suspense in this story. At one point the movie was like Noah's Ark because the family and the animals board together on a ship. But then again it was a ship wreck story so in a way an Ark revisited tail and hence the originality.

If the boy had been stuck with people I would have defenitely left the movie theater. But he was stuck with animals and some dangerous ones too. This was so unpredictable and very exciting. But come to think of it, humans and animals are alike and I often have the feeling that we live in a Zoo. At the end, when the boy is in the hospital being interrogated by insurance company staff, we will learn that surviving with animals may not be that different or any worse from surviving with humans. In fact, we will get to decide or choose whether the boy survived with animals or whether his other story about the cook, the sailor, and his mom surviving with him is true. I chose the second story, the realistic one. I was caught off guards when the alternative story was introduced. It was very unexpected and yet so obvious! The father even says it at the beginning of the movie "when you look at the animal you are seing your own reflection" meaning that there was no tiger, Pi was seing his own reflection! The father was a wise man and a practical man, he represents science critical thinking and without his teachings, Pi would have never survived.

Finally, from this whole movie I thought the island part or the ideas behind it were the best. At this one point after both the boy and the Tiger have reached the bottom and nearly died, they stumble upon a mysterious island. The island is peaceful, magnificent and full of food for both. However, it later turns out to be carnivorous but one can survive for as much as wanted on this heaven-like island. Pi comes to the conclusion that the island or if you want, this sort of life will consume him and he decides to leave and take unknown risks rather than stay alone in his happy space. I personally understand Pi: there's a big difference between surviving and living. If one only lives for his comfort he will be consumed. Also, one can never live alone: The other must be present or heaven isn't worth much. My interpretation of this island was that it represented a depression phase that Pi went through before really getting over this whole journey. He had to leave it to heal, just like sometimes overwhelmed people plunge into depression before coming out of it to live a better life.

 

Was this really a story that can make one believe in God? I don't think so. God had nothing to do in  it. I just found this link to be so far fetched. I mean, who can really  claim such thing???
Nevertheless, this remains one of the most amazing stories that I will never ever forget.

In the Mood for Quotes

Every now and then one finds an incredible quote that is just breathtaking. The ones that cross my mind today are all except the last written in French. If you're a Frenchie like me then this is the right post for you, if not don't despair, I'll be posting new quotes, well, only every now and then ...

Tout enfant, j'ai senti dans mon cœur deux sentiments contradictoires : l'horreur de la vie et l'extase de la vie.

Baudelaire - Mon coeur mis à nu

On ne sait rien de soi. On croit s'habituer a être soi, c'est le contraire. Plus les années passent et moins on comprend qui est cette personne au nom de laquelle on dit et fait les choses.

Amélie Nothomb - les catilinaires

Je suis de ceux qui aiment et non de ceux qui haissent.

Antigone - Jean Anouilh

Si tu ne deviens pas hypocrite, lui disait-il, peut être tu seras un homme.

Stendhal - La chartreuse de Parme

Change of self is loss of self, according to the traditional Greek attitude. Categorized as madness, it is held to be an unquestionable evil. Sokrates does not agree: I must say this story is not true, the story that a nonlover should be gratified in preference to a lover on the grounds that the latter is mad while the former is sane. Now, if it were a simple fact that madness is evil, the story would be fine. But the fact is, the greatest of good things come to us through madness when it is conferred as a gift of the gods.

Anne Carson - Eros the bittersweet