“Gerçekte her birimiz, Yüce Martı düşüncesinin, sınırsız özgürlüğün ta kendisiyiz. Uçuş yetkinliği, özümüzü dile getirmeye doğru bir adımdır. Bizi sınırlayan her şeye karşı çıkmalıyız. Yüksek hız denemeleri, yavaş uçuşlar, hava akrobasisi, bunların tümünün amacı sınırları yıkmaktadır.”
(Richard Bach’ın “Martı Jonathan Livingston” adlı Romanından)
I've read that book many many times since I was little and every time that book amazes me and makes me feel so hopeful and beautiful. I think this book has many things to give each and every time you read it, just like the little prince. It is literally the first book that I decided to read after I was done with uni, and I finished it in one sitting. I highly recommend you read the book. I give it a solid 5/5 stars.
⚠️ Spoilers ahead ⚠️ (not so much but anyways)
This book is about a seagull who decides he wants more in life, other than fly just so he can eat; he was to truly learn how to fly. This whole book is about overcoming yourself and your boundaries, learning about yourself and what you can do, and embracing your differences. It is about never giving up and never fearing failure.
The way the seagull society is portrayed in the books, is the most beautiful allegory I've read in a while. It combines the society's 'norms' with what society deems as a god or a devil. The constant fight to show greatness to others while fearing for your life because you will either be idolised or be exiled.
This is not like my other reviews, it's a shorter one, mostly because I don't have many things to say about the book, because, as a book, it is so simple and yet so deep. This is why I love it so much.
The trick, according to Chiang, was for Jonathan to stop seeing himself as trapped inside a limited body that had a forty-two-inch wingspan and performance that could be plotted on a chart.
The trick was to know that his true nature lived, as perfect as an unwritten number, everywhere at once across space and time.
—Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
As the days went past, Jonathan found himself thinking time and again of the earth from which he had come. If he had known there just a tenth, just a hundredth, of what he knew here, how much more life would have meant! He stood on the sand and fell to wondering if there was a gull back there who might be struggling to break out of his limits, to see the meaning of flight beyond a way of travel to get a breadcrumb from a rowboat. Perhaps there might even have been one made Outcast for speaking his truth in the face of the Flock. And the more Jonathan practiced his kindness lessons, and the more he worked to know the nature of love, the more he wanted to go back to Earth. For in spite of his lonely past, Jonathan Seagull was born to be an instructor, and his own way of demonstrating love was to give something of the truth that he had seen to a gull who asked only to see truth for himself.
- Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A Story, page 58)
It is my deeply rooted belief that Jonathan the seagull (Karl/Olivia) was named for Jonathan Livingston Seagull of the story by Richard Bach. I will not be taking questions at this time.
A seagull goes the beyond the hierarchical rules of his clan to become the fastest and best flying gull in the sky. His achievements see him ostracised but he uses his skills to teach other seagulls how to break free and dream big.
What rates it.
I couldn’t tell if I was being indoctrinated into the idea of Christianity or anarchism. Not sure why everyone froths this. Seems like someone took mushrooms and told other people to read it and become awakened.