Life of Pi
2 journalers for this copy...
Copy 2. This one was given to me by my mother for bookcrossing. Funny how people keep comparing it with other books. She said it compares with Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. I see what she means. She also described it as "a great story, well told."
I read it last year -- really liked it too. Click here for the journal of the one I read
I read it last year -- really liked it too. Click here for the journal of the one I read
Journal Entry 2 by gnissorckoob at Miami International Book Fair in Miami, Florida USA on Friday, November 17, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (11/17/2006 UTC) at Miami International Book Fair in Miami, Florida USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTE: To be released somewhere at the Book Fair on Saturday 11/18/06 
I was at the Miami Dade College book fair in 2006 when two people ambushed me with the offer of a free book. I couldn't pass it up! The woman who handed it to me said it was given to her, but that she had already read it, so she passed the good will on.
I finished it tonight and I couldn't wait to get on this tracking journal to compare reviews of what other people thought of it. I enjoy reading much more than writing, since it takes me a lot longer to write something due to my need to edit and revise just about everything.
I loved this book, but I am at somewhat of a low point in my life when I completed this. There's a lot to be said of it, but I guess I will go over what is most notable of it in my mind right now.
****** WARNING: SPOILERS **************
This is going to be a bit of a free form writing, stream of consciousness, which is my style of writing when it is late at night and I want to make a quick post that tries to cover all the bases or as many as possible. Please excuse me. Many of these things are probably very obvious, especially if you read the Readers' Guide, but I didn't really need that to see it for myself (I'm not being pretentious, I promise you :) ).
I think understand what the author Yann Martel says through the character Pi when Pi says (in Ch. 21 or 22) that an aethiest may yet find God when he dies while an agnostic will merely coldy diagnose what is happening to his body.
I admit that I peeked at the Reading Group Guide at the end of the book, but I tried to put the "real story" out of my mind - that the orangutan, hyena, zebra, and tiger were actual humans rather than animals.
The analogy takes on so many levels.
Pi either subconsciously or consciously change these human to take on animal forms, but probably a little of both.
Native Americans believed that each person has a spirit animal.
Animals are primal forms that people take on as masks when they are doing terrible deeds. Indeed animals are fiercesome as well as admirable, but some can be loathsome, or the deeds of some are loathesome. Killing is a gruelling but sometimes necessary act of life. Maybe people are less admirable than animals so because they need something to hide behind. Maybe there are less redeeming qualities in humans than there are in animals.
Consider the floating island with the many meerkats. When Pi and the tiger landed, they took from the island but did not contribute anything. The algae plants took from the sea, but provided a clean place for the meerkats to live and the meerkats cleaned up what was left of the algae's "killings". It was a pretty awesome, symbiotic relationship. Pi and the tiger just killed right and left and provided only excretment. Other animals/human beings have been on the island and left only dead remains, sort of symbolizing they have no place on the island. The island is a neat, easy, little scale representation of larger land. This could be one way to look at it.
Pi needs to impose animal characters on the humans in his mind because of the necessity for what he's been through (or else go insane with the violent reality of the situation). Consider his imposing of animals, stories, and the element of fantasy/fantasticalism to our own surivival in this world alone. There's the common saying that everyone is born alone and everyone will die alone. We are each in our own lifeboats/rafts drifting in an ocean of nothingness unless on closer inspection. We find lifeforms (Pi finds fish), but we cannot communicate with it, although they are amusing and are a source of food. I believe that we as humans cannot fully communicate ourselves to each other because we can barely figure out who we are for ourselves sometimes, if not ever (and I try not to speak for everybody). We must create our own religion, something to believe in. It may be true and it may be not... also take into consideration what Pi says about "missing the story".
Pi develops this story out of necessity to pass the time, out of boredom, to find a purpose, to mask harsh reality, but also to bring hope. That is what religion is. Religion should also not be tied to being one absolute truth, as Buddhism teaches us, as was presented by Pi's love of three religions.
Oh yeah, and the tiger, if we haven't all figured this out already, belongs to both Pi and the cook. The tiger is the primal urge in every human, it is the urge to kill and it will be there when civilization and structure is present, but it will quickly come to surface in the face of life and death.
Here are some quotes that I highlighted because I liked them at the time. They do not impress me so much individually and I stopped highlighting some because I was so enthralled with the whole book... oh, and some parts, especially in the beginning were VERY BORING (please excuse some of my spelling mistakes). Other parts were WONDERFULLY INFORMATIVE about the psychological aspects and the scientific aspects of animals, if I can take these words to be for the truth. If I cared more or had more energy to, I would definitely put some research into it... but as you can see, I am doing a slapdash job of trying to finish up this review here. Please bear with me. :)
Quotes:
"It is interesting to note that the lion that is the most amendable to the circus trainer's tricks is the one with the lowest social standing in the pride, the omega animal. It has the most to gain from a close relationship with the super-alpha trainer. It is not only a matter of extra meats. A close relationship will also mean protection from the other members of the pride. It is this compliant animal, to the public no different from the others members of the pride. It is this compliant animal, to the public no different from the others in size and apperant ferocity, that will be the star of the show, while the trainer leaves the beta and gamma lions, more cantakerous subordinates, sitting on their colourful barrels on the edge of the ring (45)."
"But we should not cling! A plague upon fundamentalists and literalists! I am reminded of a story of Lord Krishna when he was a cowherd. Every night he invites the milkmaids to dance with him in the forest. They come and they dance. The night is dark, the fire in their midst roars and crackles, the beat of the music gets ever faster - the girls dance and dance and dance with their sweet lord, who has made himself so abundant as to be in the arms of each and every girl. But the moment the girls become possessive, the moment each one imagines that Krishna is her partner alone, he vanishes. So it is that we should not be jealous with God (49)."
Finally, I have not decided the final status of this book yet. I plan to have one of my friends read it, a loved one, but he is far away in med school now and who knows what his plans are, if he even has time for it. I hope so. I will not see him in a while, but maybe I may ambush someone else with it. It's all up in the air. Good night, good reader, if you have finished my review. I hope you have a chance to pick up this book at the library and read it if it hasn't gotten to you yet.
Sincerely,
C.
CAUGHT IN MIAMI FLORIDA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
I finished it tonight and I couldn't wait to get on this tracking journal to compare reviews of what other people thought of it. I enjoy reading much more than writing, since it takes me a lot longer to write something due to my need to edit and revise just about everything.
I loved this book, but I am at somewhat of a low point in my life when I completed this. There's a lot to be said of it, but I guess I will go over what is most notable of it in my mind right now.
****** WARNING: SPOILERS **************
This is going to be a bit of a free form writing, stream of consciousness, which is my style of writing when it is late at night and I want to make a quick post that tries to cover all the bases or as many as possible. Please excuse me. Many of these things are probably very obvious, especially if you read the Readers' Guide, but I didn't really need that to see it for myself (I'm not being pretentious, I promise you :) ).
I think understand what the author Yann Martel says through the character Pi when Pi says (in Ch. 21 or 22) that an aethiest may yet find God when he dies while an agnostic will merely coldy diagnose what is happening to his body.
I admit that I peeked at the Reading Group Guide at the end of the book, but I tried to put the "real story" out of my mind - that the orangutan, hyena, zebra, and tiger were actual humans rather than animals.
The analogy takes on so many levels.
Pi either subconsciously or consciously change these human to take on animal forms, but probably a little of both.
Native Americans believed that each person has a spirit animal.
Animals are primal forms that people take on as masks when they are doing terrible deeds. Indeed animals are fiercesome as well as admirable, but some can be loathsome, or the deeds of some are loathesome. Killing is a gruelling but sometimes necessary act of life. Maybe people are less admirable than animals so because they need something to hide behind. Maybe there are less redeeming qualities in humans than there are in animals.
Consider the floating island with the many meerkats. When Pi and the tiger landed, they took from the island but did not contribute anything. The algae plants took from the sea, but provided a clean place for the meerkats to live and the meerkats cleaned up what was left of the algae's "killings". It was a pretty awesome, symbiotic relationship. Pi and the tiger just killed right and left and provided only excretment. Other animals/human beings have been on the island and left only dead remains, sort of symbolizing they have no place on the island. The island is a neat, easy, little scale representation of larger land. This could be one way to look at it.
Pi needs to impose animal characters on the humans in his mind because of the necessity for what he's been through (or else go insane with the violent reality of the situation). Consider his imposing of animals, stories, and the element of fantasy/fantasticalism to our own surivival in this world alone. There's the common saying that everyone is born alone and everyone will die alone. We are each in our own lifeboats/rafts drifting in an ocean of nothingness unless on closer inspection. We find lifeforms (Pi finds fish), but we cannot communicate with it, although they are amusing and are a source of food. I believe that we as humans cannot fully communicate ourselves to each other because we can barely figure out who we are for ourselves sometimes, if not ever (and I try not to speak for everybody). We must create our own religion, something to believe in. It may be true and it may be not... also take into consideration what Pi says about "missing the story".
Pi develops this story out of necessity to pass the time, out of boredom, to find a purpose, to mask harsh reality, but also to bring hope. That is what religion is. Religion should also not be tied to being one absolute truth, as Buddhism teaches us, as was presented by Pi's love of three religions.
Oh yeah, and the tiger, if we haven't all figured this out already, belongs to both Pi and the cook. The tiger is the primal urge in every human, it is the urge to kill and it will be there when civilization and structure is present, but it will quickly come to surface in the face of life and death.
Here are some quotes that I highlighted because I liked them at the time. They do not impress me so much individually and I stopped highlighting some because I was so enthralled with the whole book... oh, and some parts, especially in the beginning were VERY BORING (please excuse some of my spelling mistakes). Other parts were WONDERFULLY INFORMATIVE about the psychological aspects and the scientific aspects of animals, if I can take these words to be for the truth. If I cared more or had more energy to, I would definitely put some research into it... but as you can see, I am doing a slapdash job of trying to finish up this review here. Please bear with me. :)
Quotes:
"It is interesting to note that the lion that is the most amendable to the circus trainer's tricks is the one with the lowest social standing in the pride, the omega animal. It has the most to gain from a close relationship with the super-alpha trainer. It is not only a matter of extra meats. A close relationship will also mean protection from the other members of the pride. It is this compliant animal, to the public no different from the others members of the pride. It is this compliant animal, to the public no different from the others in size and apperant ferocity, that will be the star of the show, while the trainer leaves the beta and gamma lions, more cantakerous subordinates, sitting on their colourful barrels on the edge of the ring (45)."
"But we should not cling! A plague upon fundamentalists and literalists! I am reminded of a story of Lord Krishna when he was a cowherd. Every night he invites the milkmaids to dance with him in the forest. They come and they dance. The night is dark, the fire in their midst roars and crackles, the beat of the music gets ever faster - the girls dance and dance and dance with their sweet lord, who has made himself so abundant as to be in the arms of each and every girl. But the moment the girls become possessive, the moment each one imagines that Krishna is her partner alone, he vanishes. So it is that we should not be jealous with God (49)."
Finally, I have not decided the final status of this book yet. I plan to have one of my friends read it, a loved one, but he is far away in med school now and who knows what his plans are, if he even has time for it. I hope so. I will not see him in a while, but maybe I may ambush someone else with it. It's all up in the air. Good night, good reader, if you have finished my review. I hope you have a chance to pick up this book at the library and read it if it hasn't gotten to you yet.
Sincerely,
C.
CAUGHT IN MIAMI FLORIDA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
