On the 119th anniversary of the birth of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, we remember why The little Prince and other works of literature have fallen in love with children and adults alike, appealing to the imagination of some and to the reflection of others
Strangely enough, we do not pay enough attention to the wisdom of boys and girls. We leave his words in the hands of the "already grow", and we take with a certain humor and mocks his comments. "Look, they come up with things …", a phrase that is never followed by "and why do not they occur to me?"
Childhood reminds us that we must never stop discovering and wondering. We always put the same excuse: reality hits us and destroys the magic bubble of childhood. And life accelerates like a Trans-Siberian. Luckily, there have been authors who have put on the mask of the child they were, or have been able to build a fantasy world where they can ask questions from the naivete and simplicity. A fantasy that is, after all, reality. The books have a strange nature: they contain so many things that they can be entertaining and allow them to learn to children and adults.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry He found himself in the middle of the desert The little Prince, from there he took a lesson in life that entertained the little ones and disenchanted us with the wisdom of the elderly. Based on lambs, foxes and roses. The inhabitant of the asteroid B-612 is a blond boy who reflects on topics such as love or time in a lucid but innocent way. Go, like a child. His journey through space has made him coincide with characters that reformulate his way of seeing the world. From the king without subjects to the geographer who has not traveled the universe.
The book The little Prince he has left us phrases as remembered as "the essential is invisible to the eyes." Even so, we should not forget other passages where this alien discovers, through a fox, that "it was the time he spent with his rose that made it so important." As our reality, that, after all, we make it up. The important things are because, in some way, we are tied to them. Today, in the anniversary of the birth of the author, is a perfect time to rediscover with more books that have helped grow our little inner 'I'.
We start with Peter Pan, the child created by James Matthew Barrie who decided never to grow From his Neverland, he brought the world of imagination to adults who had forgotten his address, "The second star on the right, and direct towards the dawn!". The imaginary around this world was deployed with power to leave us great lessons. From the shrewd bell to the beloved lost children. The oldest of the non-adults, Peter Pan, reminded us of such important phrases as: "Older stars have glazed eyes and rarely speak. But the little ones are still curious. "And I suppose more than one and one feels interpellated in it. Time passes, we have to find our rhythm and our place in the world. Is not it nice to think what can be beyond the sky and stars?
But if we refer to time and the world of unbridled sanity, the great classic is Alice in Wonderland. The girl who gets lost in the country dominated by the Queen of Spades (following a rabbit!), Has the courage to consider why reason gives us patterns of behavior every second. You have to go quickly to avoid losing time, and you have to behave at the table so as not to give a bad social image. The rules, in a certain way, create dependency. The best way to illustrate this, according to Lewis Carroll, It is through the eyes of a girl who lands in a world of 'crazy'. If not, we can remember the words with which the Cheshire Cat receives the girl, "we are all crazy here. I'm crazy. You're crazy. "Or how she befriends the beloved Hatter:" If you knew the time as well as I did, you would not talk about losing it. "
Another interesting proposal is Good night stories for rebellious girls 2. For children, adults and adults who want to know the personality and life of great female characters in history. That face that history books have often forgotten. Yes, there are women that the official texts have left a little aside without much mercy. It's time to remember Rigoberta Menchú, Madonna or Nefertiti. Illustrations of illustrators and entertaining stories to give a lesson to the elderly, and allow them to better teach the little ones and the little ones.
Finally, a proposal aimed more at the young and adult public. The Alchemist, of Paulo Coelho. Although the vision in this case disobeys the infantile norm, the world of Coelho also transmits the sensation of overcoming and disuse of pure reason, following a little our instincts, and seeing that not everything is what it seems. Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd, will have to go to the pyramids of Egypt to investigate a great secret. But, what if the big secret is him?
Readings that try to discover the most fantastic part of reality. And they try, after all, to change our gaze.