Jonathan Livingston Seagull was a very popular novella of the 70’s. It stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for 38 weeks and remains a classic psycho-spiritual standard to this day. A brief overview of the novella is to be found in our weblog entry entitled Jonathan.
The Nonconformist
It is a simple story of a gull that cares more about the technique of flying than in joining in with the flock in search of the necessities of daily life – fish heads and guts.
“…you can’t eat a glide.”
Jonathan who is no more than “bone and feathers” desires no more in life than the ability to out-fly another gull. Jonathan’s father, somewhat sympathetic to his son’s passion for flight, warns him of the difficulties of life and points out with worldly wisdom “you can’t eat a glide”. Jonathan agrees temporarily and joins the daily battle for food. But the point of it all eluded him and soon he is out on how own “hungry, happy, learning”.
He keeps practising high speed dives but fails to pull out properly because of his long wings. Floating in the moonlight on the surface of the ocean, his wings “ragged bars of lead”, Jonathan vows to stop this “flying business”.
“I am a seagull. I am limited by my nature…If I were meant to fly at speed, I’d have a falcon’s short wings.”
What an idea! Jonathan gets around to thinking that he can acquire a falcon’s short wings by modification: folding most of his wings and flying on just the tips alone. The next day he shatters all records, reaching the terminal velocity of two hundred and fourteen miles per hour in a daredevil dive from five thousand feet. Fortunately no one was injured.
The Outcast
Jonathan has only his ever improving flying skills to comfort him against a shattering loneliness.
Unfortunately for Jonathan he achieved this remarkable speed in a dive through the very centre of the flock. Summoned before the Assembly of Gulls Jonathan finds no admiration for his incredible feat. Jonathan is shamed and banished to a solitary life on the Far Cliffs.He is reminded of the meaning of life:
“…one day you shall learn that irresponsibility does not pay. Life is the unknown and the unknowable, except we are put into this world to eat, to stay alive as long as we possibly can.”
Exiled, Jonathan lives his vision and feels no self-pity. But he cannot understand the blindness of the flock. And for the rest of his long life Jonathan has only his ever improving flying skills to comfort him against a shattering loneliness. Of course the issue of sustenance had to be addressed. But he learned that a ‘streamlined high-speed dive could bring him to find the rare and tasty fish that schooled ten feet below the surface’. He no longer needed fishing boats and stale bread for survival.
Here the narrative breaks, for ten pages of Russell Munson photographs of gulls in flight. And when it resumes we encounter the first in a series of incidents which make this book such gripping reading.
Transformation
Jonathan soon discovers that there is no Heaven
“They came in the evening then and found Jonathan gliding peacefully and alone through his beloved sky. The two gulls that appeared at his wings were pure as starlight and the glow from them was gentle and friendly in the high night air. But most lovely of all was the skill with which they flew…”
The two gulls take Jonathan to what he at first believes is Heaven. But Jonathan soon discovers that there is no Heaven. He has arrived at just another place, at just another level of existence and there is just as much to learn in this world as the last. His love of speed makes him a particularly apt pupil and soon he flies faster than his instructor: learning from the eldest gull how to fly at the speed of thought.
The Sage
…word spreads that Jonathan is “special and gifted and divine”.
Despite the fact that he is now in a world that matches his vision of what life should be, Jonathan thoughts are with his fellow gulls on Earth. He returns to his old level of existence and befriends outcast birds whom he instructs in defiance of the “Law of the Flock”. He performs miracles. Maynard Gull was born with a crippled wing but wants to fly.
Jonathan: You have the freedom to be yourself, her and now and nothing can stand in your way. It is the Law of the Great Gull.
Maynard Gull: Are you saying I can fly?
Jonathan: I say you are free.
Maynard flies and soon word spreads that Jonathan is “special and gifted and divine”. Jonathan is distressed and insists that it is only the thought of perfection that has healed Maynard. Soon there were thousands who came to hear the message; some coming to question others to idolize and still others to scorn.
But no sage is here forever and soon it is time for Jonathan to shimmer out of this world. He reminds his chief disciple Fletcher, to love the Flock: to practice to see the good in everyone and to help them see it in themselves.
Reassessment 2013
Reacquaintance with the text in 2013 yanks out of my ‘70’s memory banks some lines from Leonard Cohen’s – Suzanne:
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you may trust him
For he touched your perfect body with his mind
Illustration: Garelito
