Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Ed. Bompiani
pp. 205
Of the works of Antoine Jean Baptiste Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry (pseudonym: Tonio), this book is perhaps among the least known but represents a text of great interest for at least two reasons.
First of all, it is written in a charming way, with a very modern style and an ideal rhythm; it is divided into many short chapters, which not only makes reading easier, but also creates that suspense and a kind of “vertical concentration” on each specific fact or topic, while also remaining very, very close to factual realities. And here comes the second point of merit of this great autobiographical and intimate account, closely linked to the war, the Second World War: in fact, the reader can follow the unfolding of the events that characterized the life of the military pilot (on reconnaissance and survey aircraft, of those times) and, together with the "things" that happened, often in a tumultuous or unpredictable way, the reader can follow the author's inner narrative, his reflections, his introspection, his mind wandering – or the emptiness of the mind, especially in crucial moments when a breath of wind is enough to determine the difference between living and dying.
Published in 1942, the text combines the classic war report and chronicle with profound reflections on the great questions of life such as loneliness, destiny, chance, the value of human life and belonging to the team, describing and at the same time experiencing those extreme situations in which the pilot lives on the wings of duty and the mission to be accomplished, necessarily oblivious to the danger that looms over him.
The book opens with a reflection on the isolation that characterizes the life of a pilot.
Flight, an act that by definition distances the pilot from the earth, becomes a metaphor for the existential solitude of the individual. Saint-Exupéry, through his experience in flight, explores the thin line between life and death, suggesting that the pilot, in each of his missions, finds himself in a condition of constant uncertainty, where every decision could be the last. This theme of solitude it is not only linked to war, but it is also a reflection of the internal challenges that the individual faces in his existential journey. Despite the presence of other pilots and the company of other men on a mission, solitude is the natural condition of the pilot, who is always suspended between heaven and earth, between life and death.
Saint-Exupéry expresses this loneliness through the description of desolate landscapes, such as the desert, where the pilot is completely surrounded by a void that seems to reflect the emotional and spiritual void that many, today, feel in their daily lives. This emptiness of the desert it is also a symbol of the detachment from the world that the pilot experiences, where every flight seems to be a search for meaning in a world that is experiencing the devastation of war. A theme that the author also explores through the dialogue he has with a fellow soldier, Captain de Faverie, with whom he confronts, bringing out the awareness of the responsibility of the role, the inevitability of fighting for a cause that is also ethical, social, human, against the barbarity of Nazism. It can be said that awareness and courage constantly emerge in these pages against the backdrop of a sense of duty, but also against the backdrop of that subtle feeling that leads one to put aside one's own safety, aiming to accomplish the task entrusted to him.
Far from glorifying war, Saint-Exupéry carefully examines the mental and existential processes that lead the human being to become a fighter, surrounded no longer by the usual reality of worldly things but by a network of alert and signals from which to draw indications on the progress of one's mission: a typical situation for someone who has to look down from the cockpit during his reconnaissance and detection mission
Another text by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is worth remembering, which could be read in sequence with “Pilote de guerre. Lettre à un otage”: It is “Night flight”, “Night Flight”, written after having lived the experience of being a pilot for the General Company of Aeronautical Enterprises Latécoère (subsequently referred to as Aéropostale) and after being hired as director of the Argentina-France airmail line. A text that, in the panorama of civil night flights, explores the relationship between humans and aeronautical technologies – a topic of pressing relevance considering the extremely high automation of today's cockpits!
Andrea Castiello d'Antonio
