Virtual Book Club Post #1 - "Life of Pi"

Here is the posting I had initially decided to use as my second entry:

To kick things off, I have three posts in mind: One regarding the movie Inception, one a copy and paste version of the PRK surgery experience from my Facebook note, and one on the book “Life of Pi”. I received Inception in December for Christmas, had the PRK surgery January 18^th  2011, and ‘read’ Life of Pi while recovering from said surgery. However, as I am most passionately engrossed with Life of Pi right now, I will begin with it.

As mentioned above, I experienced Life of Pi while recovering from my laser eye surgery earlier this year. I say experienced, because, though it is a book, I was unable to read it due to very reason I needed to. So, I bought the audiobook, and listened to it as often as I could. I have bittersweet memories of the book – it was a fascinating story, but there were parts of it that I listened through a sort of delirium from the pain from the surgery, and a drug induced fog.

As with most pieces of art, at least for me, Life of Pi left me thinking, and thinking and thinking some more. I craved the chance to discuss it with others, find out what they thought of it, what their interpretation of it was, and debate the many themes and motifs in the book. Of course, this sort of thing is well suited to a book club. However, there are quite a few problems with book clubs. The largest being the fact that it requires a major time commitment by all involved. Which just isn’t realistic. And so, the idea of this blog began to form in my mind. I could have a sort of bookclub myself – just have it online! I will post my own thoughts from the book, and perhaps be lucky enough to have others read both the comments and the book itself, and maybe even offer thoughts of their own! Additionally, as I often find trips to the library, bookstore, or even my virtual bookstore through my KoBo overwhelming, perhaps I will receive suggestions for other books to read and/or comment on!

With this came the onslaught of other things I could post on – movies, plays, other books, newsworthy stories… the list goes on… Obviously, I am not the only one who has thought about this, thus the existence of blogs in general, but was sure excited to come across it!

Anyhow, onwards. I wanted to address Life of Pi. If you have NOT read it, I would really strongly recommend not reading to the end of this post. I will be commenting on the book as though you have, and may both spoil the book, and confuse things, so it would probably be best for you to read it first.

After I ‘read’ the book, I went online and did some research on the internet to find out what others thought. I was thrilled to find essay after essay, forum after forum, blog post after blog post just riddled with comments. Brilliant!!! I wanted to post on every single one of them! Call everyone and discuss the book at length! 

What did YOU think?

Of course, one of the major issues that came up over and over (at least for me because I did narrow the search to the subject of the ending) was which story is the true one? Pi tells his Japanese interviewers two stories about his time on the Pacific. One is the story we readers spend 100+ pages living with him through every moment. The second only takes (I am told) approximately 7 pages, and a few minutes to tell. In the end, one is fantasmical, with animals, carnivorous islands, and another blind survivor on the Pacific Ocean. The other is brutal, gruesome, and involves only people – 4 survivors of the shipwreck which all die off save for Pi himself. The interviewers are only actually interested in how/why the boat sank, so it doesn’t make much difference to them what happened to Pi. When Pi realizes this, he asks the all important question at the climax of the book, defining the ultimate theme of the story: “If it makes no difference which story is true, then tell me, which one did you prefer?”

Throughout the blogs, forums, and essays, everyone was willing to agree that the point of the book was really to present the idea of faith – that a story with faith is better than one without. I read so many comments, but it was only when I hit the forum on Amazon.com that I became feverish with the idea of actually participating. This is the comment I wanted to post:

There are few things I would like to add to this forum.

First, thank you all for your comments. I love that not only was the book thought provoking, but there are others out there who wish to discuss these thoughts and provide different points of view thus enabling more depth to the story.

I would then  like to say that, being a very logical, and reason-loving person, I deduced that the second (more gruesome) story is the one that actually happened merely due to the following facts:

- the second story happened in a total time span of approximately 2 weeks to maybe a month. Which left Pi 6 months to come up with the second story and create the parallels to all the animals.

- the second story is told to the interviewers mere minutes after the first, which does not allow Pi to come up with such intricate animal parallels that quickly.

- and finally, why would Pi, given the chance to make up a story that is more plausible than the one with the animals, make it THAT gruesome? Would a 16 year old who just endured that journey with the tiger for 221 days really turn around afterwards and talk about the beheading of his own mother? Why???

For those reasons, I fully understand that the second story is the “true” fictional story. Haha! However, I am not without faith, and I understand the weight behind Pi's question "which is the better story?"

Finally, I would also like to comment on Doug's post where he was concerned that the message was a negative one. I think it was less about believing things we know cannot be true, and more having faith in things we haven't and can't DISprove because it makes the better story. Wouldn't it be nicer to live life with the faith there is something more, than to live in the stark existence of only what you see, hear, smell and feel?... After all, wasn't that the point of the Meerkats??? While I explained the plausibility of the second story, there was the banter where Pi insisted that there were meerkat bones on the boat which adds credence to the FIRST story... Again, I come back to the fact that there were 6 months NOT accounted for in his second story which could allow time for Pi to find meerkats somewhere... possibly even on a carnivorous island :D

I know I am contradicting myself, but I truly believe that is the point. We want to believe the first story. I truly did all the way through. I believed the french cast away. I believed the island. I believed it all even after he had told the second story. I had fully expected the second story to have parallels and was therefore still willing to believe the first story. But when the parallels were so detailed, and the story so gruesome, I fell back to my logic and figured it out. But the meerkats bugged me. And I love that they do. That little bit of faith is all that is needed.

Again, I really appreciate all of these posts, and only wish to discuss it more with people who care enough to discuss it ;D Thanks everyone!!!

Apparently, you have to have bought something on Amazon.com to post on their forum. Go figure. Anyhow, it has worked out because now, I can post for you!!!

I would truly love to hear any thoughts from people who have read Life of Pi, and would welcome other recommendations for other books that offer as much, if not more, thought provocation. Thanks for reading!!!