Jonathan Livingston Seagull

This article is about the book. For the film adaptation, see Jonathan Livingston Seagull (film). For the Neil Diamond soundtrack album, see Jonathan Livingston Seagull (album).
Jonathan Livingston Seagull a story

Book cover for Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Author Richard Bach
Illustrator Russel Munson
Language English
Subject The life of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull.
Genre Spiritual, self-help, novella
Publisher Macmillan
Publication date
 1970
Media type Print (paperback)
Pages 144 (The Complete Edition)
ISBN 9781476793313 (2014 paperback edition)
OCLC 6158608

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach, is a fable in novella form about a seagull learning about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection. It was first published in 1970 as "Jonathan Livingston Seagull — a story." By the end of 1972, over a million copies were in print, Reader's Digest had published a condensed version, and the book had reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, where it remained for 38 weeks. In 1972 and 1973, the book topped the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States. In 2014 the book was reissued as Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition, which added a 17-page fourth part to the story.

Plot

The book tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is bored with daily squabbles over food. Seized by a passion for flight, he pushes himself, learning everything he can about flying, until finally his unwillingness to conform results in his expulsion. An outcast, he continues to learn, becoming increasingly pleased with his abilities as he leads a peaceful and happy life.

One day, Jonathan is met by two gulls who take him to a "higher plane of existence" in which there is no heaven but a better world found through perfection of knowledge. There he meets other gulls who love to fly. He discovers that his sheer tenacity and desire to learn make him "pretty well a one-in-a-million bird." In this new place, Jonathan befriends the wisest gull, Chiang, who takes him beyond his previous learning, teaching him how to move instantaneously to anywhere else in the Universe. The secret, Chiang says, is to "begin by knowing that you have already arrived." Not satisfied with his new life, Jonathan returns to Earth to find others like him, to bring them his learning and to spread his love for flight. His mission is successful, gathering around him others who have been outlawed for not conforming. Ultimately, the very first of his students, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, becomes a teacher in his own right, and Jonathan leaves to teach other flocks.

Part one

Part One of the book finds young Jonathan Livingston frustrated with the meaningless materialism, conformity, and limitation of the seagull life. He is seized with a passion for flight of all kinds, and his soul soars as he experiments with exhilarating challenges of daring aerial feats. Eventually, his lack of conformity to the limited seagull life leads him into conflict with his flock, and they turn their backs on him, casting him out of their society and exiling him. Not deterred by this, Jonathan continues his efforts to reach higher and higher flight goals, finding he is often successful but eventually he can fly no higher. He is then met by two radiant, loving seagulls who explain to him that he has learned much, and that they are there now to teach him more.

Part two

Jonathan transcends into a society where all the gulls enjoy flying. He is only capable of this after practicing hard alone for a long time and the first learning process of linking the highly experienced teacher and the diligent student is raised into almost sacred levels. They, regardless of the all immense difference, are sharing something of great importance that can bind them together: "You've got to understand that a seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull." He realizes that you have to be true to yourself: "You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way."

Part three

In the third part of the book are the last words of Jonathan's teacher: "Keep working on love." Through his teachings, Jonathan understands that the spirit cannot be really free without the ability to forgive, and that the way to progress leads—for him, at least—through becoming a teacher, not just through working hard as a student. Jonathan returns to the Breakfast Flock to share his newly discovered ideals and the recent tremendous experience, ready for the difficult fight against the current rules of that society. The ability to forgive seems to be a mandatory "passing condition."

"Do you want to fly so much that you will forgive the Flock, and learn, and go back to them one day and work to help them know?" Jonathan asks his first student, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, before getting into any further talks. The idea that the stronger can reach more by leaving the weaker friends behind seems totally rejected.

Hence, love, deserved respect, and forgiveness all seem to be equally important to the freedom from the pressure to obey the rules just because they are commonly accepted.

Part four

In 2013 Richard Bach took up a non-published fourth part of the book which he had written contemporaneously with the original. He edited and polished it and then sent the result to a publisher. Bach reported that it was a near-death experience which had occurred in relation to a nearly fatal plane crash in August 2012, that had inspired him to finish the fourth part of his novella.[1] In February 2014, the 138-page Bach work Illusions II was published as a booklet by Kindle Direct Publishing. It also contains allusions to and insights regarding the same near-death experience. In October 2014, Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition, was reissued and includes part four of the story.

Publication

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was rejected by several publishers before coming to the attention of Eleanor Friede at Macmillan in 1969. She convinced Macmillan to buy it and Bach received a $2,000 advance.[2]

Reception

Several early commentators, emphasizing the first part of the book, see it as part of the US self-help and positive thinking culture, epitomised by Norman Vincent Peale and by the New Thought movement. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote[3] that the book was "banal" and shallow in comparison to a children's book.

The book is listed as one of 50 "timeless spiritual classics" in a book by Tom Butler-Bowdon,[4] who noted that "it is easy now, 35 years on, to overlook the originality of the book's concept, and though some find it rather naïve, in fact it expresses timeless ideas about human potential."

John Clute, for The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, wrote: "an animal fantasy about a philosophical gull who is profoundly affected by flying, but who demands too much of his community and is cast out by it. He becomes an extremely well behaved accursed wanderer, then dies, and in posthumous FANTASY sequences — though he is too wise really to question the fact of death, and too calmly confident to have doubts about his continuing upward mobility — he learns greater wisdom. Back on Earth, he continues to preach and heal and finally returns to heaven, where he belongs."[5]

In popular culture

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is named after Johnny Livingston,[6] a Waco test pilot who died of a heart attack at 76 while test flying an acrobatic home-built Pitts Special.

Adaptations

The novella inspired the production of a motion picture of the same title, with a soundtrack by Neil Diamond. The film was made by Hall Bartlett many years before computer-generated effects were available. In order to make seagulls act on cue and perform aerobatics, Mark Smith of Escondido, California built radio-controlled gliders that looked remarkably like real seagulls from a few feet away. Bach was so unimpressed with the treatment of the film that he sued the film company for negligence. Critics blasted the film, calling it "for the birds."

One major bright spot surrounding the motion picture was the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack album, composed by Neil Diamond and produced by Tom Catalano. It won the 1974 Grammy Award as Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special. The album apparently also made more money than the film. The album sold two million copies in the United States,[9] 400,000 in France,[10] 250,000 in Germany,[11] 200,000 in Canada [12] and 100,000 in the United Kingdom.[13]

The Irish actor Richard Harris won a Grammy in 1973 for the Audiobook LP Jonathan Livingston Seagull.[14] To date Harris's reading has not been released on any other format.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Sullivan, Jennifer (17 January 2013). "Author Richard Bach, recovering from plane crash, returns to inspirational tale". Seattle Times. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
  2. ↑ Grimes, William (2008-07-25). "Eleanor Friede, 87, Is Dead; Edited 1970 Fable 'Seagull'". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  3. ↑ Ebert Roger, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, November 1973, Chicago Suntimes. Retrieved July 2011
  4. ↑ Butler-Bowdon, T., 2003, 50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom From 50 Great Books of Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose, Nicholas Brealey: London.
  5. ↑ Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1993). "Bach, Richard (David)". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St Martin’s Griffin. p. 79. ISBN 0-312-13486-X.
  6. ↑ "Our History". LivingstonAviation.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2016. John Livingston was an inspiration for the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull — 'to Johnny Livingston who has known all along what this book is all about.' — Richard Bach 1970
  7. ↑ Meehan, Thomas (November 18, 1972). "Marvin Stanley Pigeon". The New Yorker. New York City: Condé Nast: 53. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  8. ↑ "About Us". TheFlyingSeagulProject.com. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ "American album certifications – Diamond, Neil – Jonathan Livingston Seagull (Soundtrack)". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
  10. ↑ "French album certifications – Neil Diamond – Jonathan Livingston Seagull (B.O.F.)" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
  11. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Neil Diamond; Jonathan Livingston Seagull)" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  12. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – Neil Diamond – Jonathan Livingston Seagull". Music Canada.
  13. ↑ "British album certifications – Neil Diamond – Jonathan Livingston Seagull". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Jonathan Livingston Seagull in the field Search. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Click Go
  14. ↑ "Private Tutor". Factmonster.com. Retrieved 2011-07-26.

External links

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