Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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**Title** **Jonathan Livingston Seagull**
Book cover for Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Author	Richard Bach
Illustrator	Russel Munson
Language	English
Subject(s)	life of Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Genre(s)	Spiritual Self-Help Novella
Publisher	Avon Books
Released	1970
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	127 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-380-01286-3 (paperback edition)

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (ISBN 0-380-01286-3), written by Richard Bach, is a fable in novella form about a seagull learning about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection and self-sacrifice. First published in 1970 as “Jonathan Livingston Seagull — a story”, it became a favourite on American university campuses. By the end of 1972, over a million copies were in print, Reader’s Digest had published a condensed version, and the book reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list where it remained for 38 weeks. It is still in print as of 2006.

Bach said the title of the book was inspired by John H. "Johnny" Livingston, a barnstorming pilot during the 1920s and 1930s.

1 Plot summary
2 Interpretation
3 Appearances in popular culture
4 Derivative and referencing works
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The novel tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is bored with the daily squabbles over food and 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 from his flock. An outcast, he continues to learn, becoming increasingly pleased with his abilities as he leads an idyllic life.

One day, Jonathan is met by two seagulls who take him to a “higher plane of existence”, where he meets other gulls who love to fly. He discovers that his sheer tenacity and desire to learn make him “a gull in a million”. Jonathan befriends the wisest gull in this new place, named 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, one of his students, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, becomes a teacher in his own right and Jonathan leaves to continue his learning.

[edit] Interpretation

[edit] Part One

Several early commentators, focusing mainly on the first part of the book, see it as part of the American self-help and positive thinking culture, epitomised by Norman Vincent Peale and by the New Thought movement. Some have described it as having Christian-anarchist characteristics. It has also been compared to the children's tale The Little Engine That Could. But while Jonathan Livingston Seagull may take the form of a traditional animal fable, and can be enjoyed by young children at that level, its attraction has extended beyond this group. In 1972, before "postmodernism" had evolved from an architectural term into a cultural buzzword, Beverley Byrne noted,

No matter what metaphysical minority the reader may find seductive, there is something for him in Jonathan Livingston Seagull. [...] the dialogue is a mishmash of Boy Scout/Kahlil Gibran. The narrative is poor man's Hermann Hesse; the plot is Horatio Alger doing Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The meanings, metaphysical and other, are a linty overlay of folk tale, old movies, Christian tradition, Protestantism, Christian Science, Greek and Chinese philosophies, and the spirits of Sports Illustrated and Outward Bound [...] This seagull is an athletic Siddharta tripping on Similac, spouting the Qur’an as translated by Bob Dylan [...] One hopes this is not the parable for our time, popular as it is — the swift image, all-meaning metaphor that opens up into almost nothing. (Byrne, B., 1972. “Seagullibility and the American ethos.” Pilgrimage. 1:1, pp 59–60.).

An illustration for the main theme of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

[edit] Part Two

In the second part, Jonathan transcends into another society where all the gulls enjoy flying. He is only capable of this after practicing hard alone for a long time (described in the first part). In this other society, real respect emerges as a contrast of the coercive force that was keeping the former “Breakfast Flock” together. The learning process, linking the highly experienced teacher and the diligent student, is raised into almost sacred level, suggesting that this may be the true relation between human and God. The author surely thinks that human and God, 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. the source of happiness comes from perservering to achieve your own dreams.

[edit] Part Three

The introduction to the third part of the book are the last words of Jonathan’s teacher: “keep working on love.” In this part Jonathan understands that the spirit cannot be really free without the ability to forgive, and the way to progress leads 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 before getting into any further talks. The idea that the stronger can reach more by leaving the weaker friends behind seems totally rejected. According to some, this contradicts interpretations aligned with the New Age ideology [1] which were later supported by Bach.

Hence, love, deserved respect, and forgiveness seem to be equally important to the freedom from the pressure to obey the rules just because they are commonly accepted. The general idea of this book may be not very far from Christian anarchism ideology.

[edit] Appearances in popular culture

In an episode of The Simpsons, Captain McCallister is heard uttering the name, as a type of exclamation.
In an episode of The Brady Bunch the book is seen on Mike Brady's nightstand.
- Also featured in the 1995 film The Brady Bunch Movie.
In the surf movie Free as a dog by Jack McCoy, Johnathan Livingston Seagull in person has a short appearance.
In the novel "Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction" Adrians father claims that once you read the book, no other book can ever compare. His father has yet to read a book since and gets emotional talking about the seagull.

[edit] Derivative and referencing works

Film: Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull 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. [2]
Ballet: There is also a ballet based on Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Spoken Word: The Irish actor Richard Harris won a Grammy in 1973 for the spoken-word album Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Parody novels:
- Jonathan Segal Chicken (1973, Pinnacle Books, New York) written by Sol Weinstein and Howard Albrechi revolves around a cocky Jewish-American super chicken who flies the coop to New York City.
- David Lines' Jonathan Livingston Trafalgar Square Pigeon (1998) features a cynical pigeon looking to the London Underground for inspiration.
Other:
- Shui On Group, a large property group based in Hong Kong, uses Jonathan the Seagull as their company motto and logo [3] because the Group's Founder Vincent Lo was inspired by the story.
- Jonathan Seagull is mentioned in the James Gang song “Ride the Wind.”
- MC Paul Barman includes a nod to the seagull in his lyrics from "Excuse You" ("I keep it more gully than Jonathan Livingston")
- It has been said that Swedish pop group ABBA's 1977 song "Eagle" was partially inspired by Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
- Canadian singer-songwriter Danny Michel wrote a song about Jonathan Livingston Seagull called “Jonathan Gull” on his 2001 album, In the Belly of A Whale.