Life of Pi
Premise - A 16-year-old Indian boy named Piscine "Pi" Patel becomes stranded on a lifeboat with nothing but a few biscuits, a few cans of water, a few supplies, and a group of stranded zoo animals. Among the animals is Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger, who accompanies Pi in his journey of survival for 227 days.
Review - This has become my new favorite book of all time. I do not say that lightly. I have lots of "favorites" but an incredibly few amount that have ever held the title of "favorite," and I only change my answer once every few years at the most. I believe this to be the best novel I have ever read and highly doubt that anything will top it for years to come.
While I also have a physical copy, I had the pleasure of listening to Life of Pi as an audiobook, and this also became the best audiobook I have ever heard. In hindsight I realize that Jeff Woodman, the reader, is known as one of the "best modern voices" and can transform into any character. He does not even have a real Indian accent, but he could have fooled me! I will actually purchase a CD version of the audiobook to keep because I am that enchanted by it.
As a follow-up to this, my love for the movie is minimal in comparison. I believe the film to be fantastic. It won more Oscars in 2012 than any other film that year, including Best Director. However, my love of the novel is so extraordinarily high that even though the film was over 2 hours long, it felt too short for me. I wanted everything, and every piece of Pi's internal commentary that was left out was a irreplaceable loss. I of course appreciated the phenomenal visuals of this film, but the gains of visual media did not compare to the losses of the written tale, in my opinion. In addition, I have mentioned my love for the audiobook. I became so attached to Jeff Woodman's performance of all of the characters that no actor could have surpassed them. I would listen to the lines and they would just sound... wrong after already hearing them a certain way. I wonder how well the story comes across for individuals who have only seen the film. My guess is it would still be mind-blowing, especially considering all of the critical praise the film has received. I have an intense love for the trailers of this film because I can appreciate the visuals without thinking of the details lost. And I love the film for allowing me to re-read this book with a stronger imagination. Also, I cried at the scene when Pi reaches the sand.
But what is this book even about? I would say Life of Pi is about the relationship between God, man, animals, and the elements, and every permutation thereof. Examples? The relationship between God and man is explored through Pi. The relationship between man and animals is explored through Richard Parker and Pi. The relationship between God and the elements is expressed through moments of extreme, awe-inspiring weather. And so on. You could combine any of those four factors and write a whole essay about it. There is this fascinating juxtaposition between religion and spirituality, and science and evolution. Pi is in love with both, and has no trouble reconciling the two. In college, he studies both zoology and religious studies. His understanding of animals does not just come from his own projecting of a human soul onto the creatures, but also his ability to meet the animals as they are. After all, on a lifeboat dying of hunger and thirst, animals and humans don't act much differently.
I would say my God/man/animals/elements theory does a good job analyzing Pi's most well-known story. However, Pi actually tells two stories in this novel. The second does not involve animals, or miracles of any kind. Though in essence his second story lines up with the original story (i.e., his mom stands for the orangutan, and he sailor stands for the zebra), it is a much less enchanting story, and therefore far more believable. The novel ends with the question of which story do you believe, or better yet, which story do you want to believe?
This opens up a whole new meta-analysis, exploring the meaning of fiction, storytelling, art, truth, fact, literature... at the end of the novel, Pi goes into a philosophical debate about whether all storytelling has an element of fiction to it. There is no such thing as a straight fact because everything in our world is not experienced directly, but through our own perception. The blurred lines between fiction and reality begin with the Author's note, but I was not aware of this at the time. I was just confused. The Author's note speaks of the events in Life of Pi as if they were actually true, and he interviewed some Indian guy for the story. He does not speak as some fictional author in this note, but brings up real experiences that I knew to be true. Still, of course, I found this incredibly difficult to believe, but had to check Wikipedia anyways. It was pure fiction, and I felt stupid. The author had made himself a fictional character within his own story. Is that what Pi did?
For several reasons, I believe in Pi's first story, the one with Richard Parker. This is not just for the obvious reason that the "realistic" story is far more uncomfortable. For one, this is thankfully a work of fiction, so I really do get to choose what I believe. There's no truth to unveil here. Secondly, though the premise of the first story may seem more unbelievable than the premise of the second, the first story becomes more believable through the creation of details. The author spends hundreds of pages developing the first story, and what? 1/10th of the novel on the second? Or less? Through the writing, this story has become more real to us because we can experience it more deeply.
And lastly, in a point that I think was far more developed in the novel than in the movie, while Pi's story of surviving on a lifeboat with a tiger seems unlikely, the writing never makes it feel impossible. When I first saw clips of this movie at the 2012 Oscars, I assumed there must have been an element of magical realism. Then when reading it, I thought "Oh, there's no fantasy at all. It's incredible, but it abides by the laws of nature." By the end of the novel, we're told that it may indeed be fantasy. However, Pi's story is raw, disgusting, and at times just as horrific as his version of the story without animals. Most importantly, I believe his story with Richard Parker lacks the satisfying sentiment we would have received in a story of pure imaginative invention. The word used to describe the animals several times, and Richard Parker twice, is "unceremonious." That is the key difference between humans and animals - the lack of sentiment, or assignment of meaning. The story with Richard Parker famously lacks closure, a fact which I believe makes Pi's story more truthful. I would imagine if Pi's story was intended to clearly be of his imagination, the narrative would have been more romanticized, epic, and sentimental. It wasn't. At least, not in the novel. In the film, I think we see more of this incredulously imaginative, surreal, and romanticized experience Pi might have had. It is rated PG and includes a lot of colorful magic animals, but not a lot of blood. A 1:1 adaptation would have been rated R, easily, for violence. Therefore in the film, I think disproportionately more people may have tended to leave the theater thinking Pi's second story was what really happened. That's yet another reason why I prefer the novel, so I can stick with the beloved first story. In both mediums, however, the choice is left up to the audience. In theory, this would also make me a believer in religion. For God, it comes down to the same question of "What do you want to believe?" especially when juxtaposing two versions of the world - one with miracles, and one without. That is why Pi insists that this is a story that would make one believe in God. I'm not religious, but I do believe in Life of Pi. (100/100)
Quote - Favorite quotes from this are endless. I could keep this as a bible. I'll choose a few.
“Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud...”
“I've never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart."
“If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?”
“The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?”
“What a terrible thing it is to botch a farewell. I am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape. For example - I wonder - could you tell my jumbled story in exactly one hundred chapters, not one more, not one less? I'll tell you, that's one thing I have about my nickname, the way the number runs on forever. It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse. That bungled goodbye hurts me to this day. I wish so much that I'd had one last look at him in the lifeboat, that I'd provoked him a little, so that I was on his mind. I wish I had said to him then - yes, I know, to a tiger, but still - I wish I had said, "Richard Parker, it's over. We have survived. Can you believe it? I owe you more gratitude than I can express I couldn't have done it without you. I would like to say it formally: Richard Parker, thank you. Thank you for saving my life. And now go where you must. You have known the confined freedom of a zoo most of your life; now you will know the free confinement of a jungle. I wish you all the best with it. Watch out for Man. He is not your friend. But I hope you will remember me as a friend. I will never forget you , that is certain. You will always be with me, in my heart. What is that hiss? Ah, our boat has touched sand. So farewell, Richard Parker, farewell. God be with you."
“That's what fiction is about, isn't it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out its essence?”
“Just beyond the ticket booth Father had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror. ”
"The first thing that drew me in was disbelief. What? Humanity sins but it's God's Son who pays the price? I tried to imagine Father saying to me, 'Piscine, a lion slipped into the llama pen today and killed two llamas. Yesterday another one killed a black buck. Last week two of them ate a camel. The situation has become intolerable. Something must be done. I have decided that the only way the lions can atone for their sins is if I feed them you.' ... 'Yes, Father, that would be the right and logical thing to do. Give me a moment to wash up'. What a downright weird story. What a peculiar psychology.”
Okay, I'm sorry, a few became a lot. But this book is magic.
If you liked this book or movie, I'd recommend Big Fish!
Written by Yann Martel
Published by Random House of Canada
Read by Jeff Woodman
Produced by High Bridge Audio
Directed by Ang Lee
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
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