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A new Little Prince museum has opened its doors in Switzerland
- dudeinjapan 1y agoThere was one in Hakone, Japan which opened in 1999 and closed in 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_The_Little_Prince_in_Hakone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_The_Little_Prince_in...
- danaris 1y agoOh, it closed? That's too bad! We visited it when we were in Hakone in 2017—it was a remarkable experience finding it in Japan!
- Foobar8568 1y agoIt was one of my fondest memory of my first travel in Japan, we had no clue that such site was there, so when we took the bus from whatever train station to the onsen hotel, and we passed in front of it, as a French, it was jaw dropping to see such place. Even crazier was when we actually visited it, they really captured my home region. Unbelievable experience.
- KPGv2 1y agoI recently bought this book for my kids. Somehow I've never read it in forty years. What's the big deal? It's gotta be the most famous book I've never read.
- kijin 1y agoIt's one of those books that strike you with a completely different meaning when you read it as an adult, than when you read it as a child. Which probably contributes to its enduring charm across the generations. I think everyone should read it twice, but with at least 20 years between readings.
- scarecrowbob 1y agoIt's not a hard read, and probably would take most adults an hour or two. Maybe just go read it if you're curious, and if you don't like it then quit after a chapter or two. I like it. I got a lot out of the encounter with the fox, specifically, and that helped me in how I relate to a lot of my friends and lovers.
- ggm 1y agoThis is a sub plot in "Changing Places" by David Lodge. Hyper competitive professor of English wins dinner party game admitting major Canon work he hasn't read: gets terminated by head of department.
- ahartmetz 1y agoI don't get it neither. I have learned French in school, I have read it in French and all... it just seems quite banal. A content-personality mismatch I guess, and if that wasn't so, I might still prefer something that feels more weighty than that book.
- hs586 1y agoRead it with or to your kids. It is an adult book just as much as it is a children’s book. Something there for all stages of life.
- andrepd 1y agoIt takes less than 2 hours to read, why don't you find out yourself lol
- karlgkk 1y ago[flagged]
- teraflop 1y agoProfound thoughts about the human condition don't become less profound when the next generation comes along. The Little Prince is no more "boomer" than, say, Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.
- derwiki 1y agoVery well written and will be relevant for all ages for another 100 years. Very unsnoopy. (Although I’ve heard that pre-Snoopy Peanuts is excellent and deep)
- thaumasiotes 1y agoAs I mentioned in the thread on Peanuts two days ago, "pre-Snoopy Peanuts" consists of two total comic strips, which are neither excellent nor deep. There's not enough material for either to be possible. There's a lot of Peanuts. Whatever you like or don't like about it, you can find examples of at any point in its history.
- jhbadger 1y agoWhen people say "pre-Snoopy Peanuts" they don"t mean before the character existed at all but before the strip became focused on Snoopy and his wacky adventures in the mid 1970s and later. Early Peanuts was more focused on the melancholy aspects of childhood and was truly brilliant. This was lost later on.
- thaumasiotes 11mo ago> When people say "pre-Snoopy Peanuts" they don"t mean before the character existed at all but before the strip became focused on Snoopy and his wacky adventures in the mid 1970s and later. There are several problems here. Is this something you personally believe, or something that you've read other people believe? In either case, it makes about as much sense as believing that Captain Kirk is characterized by sleeping with the alien women he encounters. It's easy to find people saying that it's true. It's very difficult, often impossible, to find an example of the phenomenon. I just read through the years 1983-1984 for Peanuts. Snoopy appears frequently. You know who pulls more focus than Snoopy? Spike. But also, Peppermint Patty and Marcie, who both have an ongoing theme of unrequited love for Charlie Brown. (The little red-haired girl is not mentioned in either year, but Charlie Brown is sad to receive no valentines in 1984. In 1983, it's Sally who is sad to receive no valentines - she had convinced herself that Linus was going to give her one, despite his repeated warnings ahead of the date that he would do no such thing. In the followup to that storyline, Charlie Brown doesn't think Linus has done anything wrong, but nevertheless feels obligated to do something about Linus hurting his sister, so he compromises on standing still with his fist out and asking Linus to walk into it.)
- charcircuit 1y agoI've never heard of Little Prince before. I don't think it's as popular as the article claims.
- teraflop 1y agoBased on approximate sales figures, it's one of the top-selling books of all time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books
- froh 1y ago> I've never heard of Little Prince before. interesting. may I ask which region of the world you live in? > I don't think it's as popular as the article claims. that may be telling more about the region you live or yourself. I suggest go to it's Wikipedia article and check the books impact. ps: and to get a physical copy and to read it...
- charcircuit 1y agoAmerica, could this be a European thing?
- rkomorn 1y agoI lived in America (NJ and CA) for 25 years and plenty of people knew about The Little Prince. I've even seen people wearing shirts with the drawing of the snake that ate the elephant.
- jvdvegt 1y agoI live in the Netherlands for almost 50 years and never heard of it either.
- gonzus 1y agoI am also American (born and raised in Chile). The Little Prince is extremely well-known over there. I am personally very fond of it.
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- aweb 1y agoVery surprised and sad to see so many dismissive comments of the book. It's a really popular one in France for a very good reason. It's so creative, poetic and touching that I doubt you can read it and stay indifferent. If you've never read it, do yourself a favor and do so! It's quite short, and I hope you'll like it.
- soulofmischief 1y agoThe book has been extremely transformative for me at multiple points in my life as I've aged. If I could only recommend a single piece of fiction, it would probably be The Little Prince. I also highly recommend the 2015 animated film adaptation. It has a rock-solid cast, and presents the classic story within entirely new layers of interpretation that speak to multiple generations at once. It's a real tearjerker that only gets more potent with age. I'm also not sure why so many commenters here seem confused or negative towards The Little Prince. It is a timeless, culture-invariant treatise on the most precious and important facets of human existence.
- zppln 1y agoI my case, it is precisly said animated film. I don't remember why, but I found it incredibly off-putting for some reason. I think back on it every time someone brings up The Little Prince.
- soulofmischief 1y agoI'm curious what you found off-putting about it, if you don't mind elaborating :)
- dvh 1y agoYou want each emotion with assigned numerical value from 0 to 10, I presume...
- soulofmischief 1y ago
- ares623 1y agoIt has one of my favorite quotes of all time. For those who haven’t read it yet, if the quote below resonates with you, the rest of the book surely will too. “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add. But when there is nothing left to take away.” It is relevant in so many contexts in life.
- kryptonomist 1y agoOne of the best pieces of advice about software engineering as well.
- trvz 1y agoPseudointellectuality. It sounds profound at first, but it's wrong. You may not be able to remove anything, but that doesn’t mean nothing needs to be added, ergo it’s not perfection.
- ares623 1y agoI disagree on it not being profound. The intended audience for the book are young children, and parents reading to their children. It is not unlikely that a decent number of the intended audience will have grown up that "perfection" is equated to having everything, with nothing left to want. New parents especially would have feelings of inadequacy when they are trying to be "perfect" for their kids.
- un-diletante 11mo agoI'm not sure how I feel about this quote. It seems to me like it only makes sense when talking about a tool or thing with scoped functionality that would be hindered by unnecessary accretions. In the state of "perfection" for something like this, there would be nothing left to add or remove. But even in this context, if it's unable to perform it's function due to insufficiency, perfection would be achieved by adding and not subtracting. If one were to apply it to life in general, it seems even less fitting. Although we can never achieve perfection, I think most people would agree that a meaningful life is lived through growth and gain towards a particular ideal or goal. The more we grow, the closer we come to that unattainable perfection. Removing what's harmful or a hindrance is a part of this, but if all you do is take away and not add, you just end up with nothing. Ultimately, I think it's lacking because while you can err both due to deficiency and excess, it only considers excess and denies deficiency. It serves more to assuage feelings of inadequacy in the face of unattainable perfection than to give an accurate representation of life. And even if you don't believe in perfection, this quote doesn't deny that it exists, it merely claims that it can be achieved solely by treating excess, while ignoring deficiency. I'm sorry if this is all very pedantic.
- aryonoco 1y agoI make sure I read the little prince once every 10 years. Every time I do so, I learn something new.
- NiloCK 1y agoAnd what do you do here? - I scroll Why do you scroll? - To forget To forget what? - That I am boring and bored Why are you boring and bored? - Because I scroll!
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- mactavish88 1y agoThere's something both beautiful/enchanting and deeply tragic about the story. If anyone's interested in an analysis of Saint-Exupéry's psychology via the symbolism of The Little Prince, the book "The Problem of the Puer Aeternus" by Marie-Louise von Franz [1] is absolutely fascinating. [1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1404609.The_Problem_of_the_Puer_Aeternus https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1404609.The_Problem_of_t...
- kkoncevicius 1y agoYes! I didn't understand why I always found the Little Prince story (and by extension "alchemist") so repulsive, until I read that book. Little prince is aimed at people who have lost their idealistic youth qualities and seek to get back in touch with that part of themselves. I had the opposite problem - I never fully left that place.
- kensai 1y agoThis book and its cartoon adaptations have been amazing. I am not French, still it touches amongst cultures.
- bane 1y agoAs an American, we grow up almost entirely without this gem of children's literature. I'm so thankful that PBS aired this story when I was a small child. The imagery was so strong that it has forever stuck in my head. When I see other stories like "The Fountain" or Super Mario Galaxy, I immediately think of the Little Prince. I've yet to revisit it as an adult, but I think maybe it's time?
- deeptishukla22 11mo agoIt’s interesting how The Little Prince keeps resurfacing across generations. Even if someone doesn’t connect with every part of it, the themes loss, imagination, responsibility, friendship feel universal. It’s rare for something that short to stay relevant for so long.