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Don Maxwell - Aug 08,2008 Viewers | Reply


	I read this just now and it stopped me completely: <br /><br />'The pilots' lives were simple and orderly, like those of all men of action.' <br /><br />(Consuelo de Saint-ExupUry, THE TALE OF THE ROSE [1945], Random House Trade Paperback Edition, 2003, 88)

Dan Nickens - Aug 08,2008 Viewers | Reply


	What else could they be for pilots tenanciously clinging to life as their machines and the weather conspired to kill them?<br /><br />Saint-Exupery certainly had a way of packing a lot into a few words. I'm headed to Amazon to order this book right now!

Don Maxwell - Aug 08,2008 Viewers | Reply


	Apparently Consuelo (St.-Ex's widow) wrote that sentence--and the book--shortly after he disappeared over the Mediterranean in a P-38. But she never published it. It was found in her effects long after she died.<br /><br />Several questions occurred to me all at once when I got to that sentence: ARE pilots men (and women) of action? If so, is that necessary for flying? And are ALL pilots men (or women) of action? Is is possible to be a pilot and also be contemplative? (St.-Ex, himself, certainly seemed to be both.) Do ALL men and women of action have simple and orderly lives?<br /><br />I couldn't read further just then, partly because I'm not completely sure she got it right--although it seems likely that pilots whose lives are complicated and messy may not last long. <br /><br />(Thanks to Cathy Batterman and Carol Maxwell for the book.)


	You two always give me such a chuckle!


	John, I agree but it takes me hours to figure it out, lol


	I think this was written as a description, in particular, of an air force pilot. If you look at the depictions of air force life pilot's lives they are mostly wait around in dispersal, scramble, fly and fight, return and wait around some more and all this within the structure of military life where billet and meals are provided, dress is regulated and 'choice' and off duty time are limited. It was also written after several years of war and before people returned to civilian and more complicated lives. As such it would be a fair description.<br /><br />

Don Maxwell - Aug 10,2008 Viewers | Reply


	You're probably right, Chris. The sentence is in a section about when St.-Ex went back to flying the mail--after Argentina and before WW II--and after he and Consuelo had married. They were living in North Africa most of the time then and were being moved around a lot, along with the other airmail pilots. But I think she probably wrote it much later, probably after he had died.<br /><br />It's an odd sentence--seems to stick out, somehow, almost as if she had inserted it later, although I suppose there's no way of telling about that. It fits into the place logically, but feels funny stylistically. Anyway, it went off in my face when I read it--sort of a literary IED, sending shrapnel everywhere--and I still don't quite know what to make of it.


	Don<br />Now I am really intrigued. Even just quoted without context, it is something that stays in the mind and is turned over and over. Something, maybe, you want to be true, it is such a simple and absolute statement and yet so all encompassing.<br /><br />Of course the lives of 'men of action' are not always simple, especially in our world but . . . . <br /><br />

Rick Oreair - Aug 10,2008 Viewers | Reply


	Jesus pesus! Enjoy the moment, and leave it alone.....<br /><br />That is unless you want to be accused of not being simple, men of action.

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