 First edition | |
| Author | Richard Bach |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Russel Munson |
| Language | English |
| Subject | The life of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull. |
| Genre | Spiritual, self-help, novella |
| Publisher | Macmillan Publishers (United States) |
Publication date | 1970, 2014 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 144 (The Complete Edition) |
| ISBN | 978-1-4767-9331-3 (2014 paperback edition) |
| OCLC | 6158608 |
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by American author Richard Bach and illustrated by Russell Munson, is a fable in novella form about a seagull who is trying to learn about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection. Bach wrote it as a series of short stories that were published in Flying magazine in the late 1960s. It was first published in book form in 1970, and by the end of 1972 over a million copies were in print. Reader's Digest published a condensed version, and the book reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list, where it remained for 37 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 and learns everything he can about flying. His increasing unwillingness to conform finally results in his expulsion from the flock. Now an outcast, he continues to learn, becoming increasingly pleased with his abilities while leading a peaceful and happy life.
One day Jonathan meets 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 another seagull who loves 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 self-education, and teaches 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."
But, unsatisfied with his new life, Jonathan returns to Earth to find others like himself to tell them what he'd learned and to spread his love for flight. His mission is successful, and Jonathan gathers around himself a flock of other gulls who have been outlawed for not conforming. The first of his students, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, ultimately 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 to 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
These 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."
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 he was inspired to finish the fourth part of the novella by a near-death experience which had occurred in relation to a nearly fatal plane crash in August 2012.[1] In February 2014, the 138-page Bach work Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student, published as a booklet by Kindle Direct Publishing in February 2014, also contains allusions to and insights regarding the same near-death experience. In October 2014, Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition, was published, and includes part four of the story.
Part four focuses on the period several hundred years after Jonathan and his students have left the Flock and their teachings become venerated rather than practiced. The birds spend all their time extolling the virtues of Jonathan and his students and spend no time flying for flying's sake. The seagulls practice strange rituals and use demonstrations of their respect for Jonathan and his students as status symbols. Eventually some birds reject the ceremony and rituals and just start flying. Eventually one bird named Anthony Gull questions the value of living since "...life is pointless and since pointless is by definition meaningless then the only proper act is to dive into the ocean and drown. Better not to exist at all than to exist like a seaweed, without meaning or joy [...] He had to die sooner or later anyway, and he saw no reason to prolong the painful boredom of living." As Anthony makes a dive-bomb to the sea (at a speed and from an altitude which would kill him) a white blur flashed alongside him. Anthony catches up to the blur which turns out to be a seagull and asks what the bird was doing:
"I'm sorry if I startled you," the stranger said in a voice as clear and friendly as the wind. "I had you in sight all the time. Just playing...I wouldn't have hit you."
"No! No, that's not it." Anthony was awake and alive for the first time in his life, inspired. "What was that?"
"Oh, some fun-flying, I guess. A dive and pullup to a slow roll with a rolling loop off the top. Just messing around. If you really want to do it well it takes a bit of practice, but it's a nice-looking thing, don't you think?"
"It's, it's...beautiful, is what it is! But you haven't been around the Flock at all. Who are you, anyway?"
"You can call me Jon."
Development
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is named after John H. Livingston, a Waco Aircraft Company test pilot who died of a heart attack at 76 just after test flying an acrobatic home-built Pitts Special.
The book 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.
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 that the book was "so banal that it had to be sold to adults; kids would have seen through it."
The book is listed as one of 50 "timeless spiritual classics" in a book by Tom Butler-Bowdon, 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 (1997), 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."
In popular culture
- A 1972 parody, Marvin Stanley Pigeon, was published by Thomas Meehan in The New Yorker: "Marvin Stanley Pigeon was no ordinary pigeon. While other pigeons spent their time grubbing for food, Marvin Stanley Pigeon worked away on his book on the window ledge outside the Manuscript Room of the Public Library in Bryant Park. He wanted to get his novel done in time for Macmillan's spring list."
- Hubert Bermont wrote and published another parody, Jonathan Livingston Fliegle, with illustrations drawn by Harold Isen, in 1973. Its content contained many examples of Jewish humor.
- Another parody featuring Jewish humor, Jonathan Segal Chicken, was written by Sol Weinstein and Howard Albrecht. A self-proclaimed fable, it tells the story of a high-flying fabulous fowl who “dreamed of being more than soup.” It was published by Pinnacle Books in May 1973.
- Also in 1973, Price Stern Sloan published Ludwig von Wolfgang Vulture, a Satire by Dolph Sharp, a story about a vulture determined to push the limits on speed-reading.
- In 1998, a parody entitled Jonathan Livingston Trafalgar Square Pigeon, written by David K. Lines, was published by Random House.
- The book was mentioned frequently by Newfoundland businessman Geoff Stirling, who incorporated elements of the book into station graphics and overnight programming for his television channel CJON-DT.
- Jonathan Livingston's passion for flying is illustrated in the song "Martı" (Seagull) by Turkish singer Yaşar Kurt.
- Jonathan Seagull was the inspiration for the 1973 James Gang song "Ride the Wind".
- The novel inspired the Barclay James Harvest track, "Jonathan", written by Les Holroyd, from the band's 1975 album, Time Honoured Ghosts.
- ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus found his inspiration in Jonathan Seagull when writing the 1978 song "Eagle".
- "Jonathan's Dream", a song by Sid Sound, is inspired by this novel. The song is featured on the dance simulation game Pump It Up Fiesta Ex.
- Children's arts charity The Flying Seagull Project is named after the novella.
- Featured in the 2018 second season of the Showtime series I'm Dying Up Here.
- The character is referenced in a 1997 episode of The Simpsons. In "The Mysterious Voyage of Homer", the Sea Captain exclaims, "Jonathan Livingston Seagull! We're on a collision course!"
- The character Mike Brady in the 1995 parody Brady Bunch Movie, is reading the book while in bed.
- In the 1980 film The Nude Bomb, Bill Dana plays a character named Jonathan Levinson Seigle.
- In Nina Simone's performance of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" at the 1976 Montreaux Jazz Festival, just after the mid-point she sings, "Jonathan Livingston Seagull ain't got nothing on me!"
- The animated television series Puppy Dog Pals features as a recurring character a seagull named Jonathan.
- In Part of Your World A Twisted Tale By Liz Braswell Scuttle's Great-Grandgull Jona claims her Great-Grandfather gets confused sometimes and refers to her as "Jonathan. Jonathan Livingston"
- Referenced in the chapter "The Corsican Brothers" by the titular character in Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack
- Referenced in Key and Peele skit "Prepared for Terries," in which the events of the work are reconfigured as a loose allegory of the sketch's own questions of conformity in the face of personal discomfort
Adaptations
The novella inspired the production of a 1973 film 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 like real seagulls from a few feet away.
Bach had written the film's original screenplay, but he sued Paramount Pictures before the film's release because he felt that there were too many discrepancies between the film and the book. Director Bartlett had allegedly violated a term in his contract with Bach which stated that no changes could be made to the film's adaptation without Bach's consent. Bach took offense to scenes Bartlett had filmed which were not present in the book, most notably the sequence in which Jonathan is suddenly attacked by a wild hawk (voiced by Bartlett himself). Ultimately, the court ruled that Bach's name would be taken off the screenplay credits, and that the film would be released with a card indicating that Bach disapproved of the final cut. Bach's attorney claimed, "It took tremendous courage to say this motion picture had to come out of theaters unless it was changed. Paramount was stunned."
The Grammy Award-winning soundtrack album was 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, 400,000 in France, 250,000 in Germany, 200,000 in Canada and 100,000 in the United Kingdom.
The Irish actor Richard Harris won a Grammy in 1973 for the Audiobook LP Jonathan Livingston Seagull. To date Harris's reading has not been released on any other format. Versions read by the author, Richard Bach, have been released on LP, cassette, and CD.
