Coming back to truly reading novels after some eight months has been harsh. I've lost some of my perspective and most of my ability to read between the lines and understand subtext. I make no excuses for myself, however.

I finished up on Life of Pi a few hours back and it weighs heavily on the mind. There are many questions to be asked and many themes to be understood, something I'll do once again at leisure. For now, the act was purely carnal, born out the sudden surge of happiness at reading a new book after so long.

There happens to be a fair amount of religious and spiritual text within the book, which is balanced well with the help of zoological and psychological insights. Both into humans and other species. At the end of the book, one realizes that a sixteen year old boy lost at sea has every reason to reinvent his perceived dark side as a Royal Bengal Tiger. Fierce enough that it demands your attention without you having to feel too guilty, yet can be tamed to salve the wounds carved out by depravity. God loves all his creatures, even if they are fictionalized apologies to salvage a soul. However, I'd prefer to believe that Pi Patel did spend 227 days at sea with a Tiger in his boat. It's more plausible, somehow. More plausible than knowing for sure that given the circumstances, not even the best of us would hesitate to violate every one of their principles and moral codes.

Pi loves the Tiger, for it is the sole reason for him to remove him from despair and urge him to move on. I would suppose the same goes for many of us, loving our vices and secrets for making us do better each day. Pi reflects the universal truth, that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Pi is just another person lost at sea, just like the rest of us.

Comments

  1. Tangled up in blue...December 14, 2010 at 2:14 AM

    For some reason, this book did not leave much of an aftertaste. I think I read this soon after it reached bestseller status and I admired Yann Martel's gifts as a storyteller, encouraging one to read at a near breakneck speed, instead of lingering over words. After all these years, I find I cant really remember how it all panned out so much as how it felt like, reading it. But you just made it sound incredibly profound, you know. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. A.December 19, 2010 at 2:03 AM

    I myself didn't realize how beautifully it was written till a few hours after. It just came as an afterthought and it was only then did it become so profound.

    ReplyDelete

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