http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:42:22 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-712823 archanom, you're a genius and a Godsend. Its funny how both religious people and atheists dislike Martel's dismissal of objective truth in favour of a good, a "better", story. His is a truly intellectually lazy standpoint. 712823@blogcritics.org Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:42:22 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-696747 archanom ... I rather like your take on Richard Parker being Pi, and this also gives me an interpretation of the island that doesn't leave me cold. 696747@blogcritics.org Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:03:32 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-693335 My memory's a bit shaky as I read this book about a year ago but I still wanted to comment from this perspective since no one else seemed to have done so. Being agnostic, I find all of this attack a little over critical. Grnated, religion is a major part of the book and belive me I loved the book, but I believe that as an agnostic my mind is more open to others beliefs and I'm not tied down to, and hindered by, a strict religion. I see God when I see him and feel like he's not there at all a lot as well. But, by no means do I believe that this is akin to someone choosing immobility as a means of transportation. It's more like picking a vanilla cupcake over chocolate or strawberry and that's to say it doesn't matter much. i believe that's the point of this book, just to tell people to be happy with what they believe or don't and just have fun and accept things. 693335@blogcritics.org Tue, 5 Feb 2008 18:43:34 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-688683 i thought the story was pretty good but it only gets better to the second part of the story. 688683@blogcritics.org Fri, 18 Jan 2008 12:12:10 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-682806 I'd like to add a couple more insights to my entry above. A previous blogger brought up the conversation on page 87 (of the paper back). The conversation takes place between the author and Pi as a grown man. Pi is showing the author four photographs from his childhood in India: -On the same page there's another group shot, mostly of schoolchildren. He taps the photo. "That's Richard Parker," he says. I'm amazed. I look closely, trying to extract personality from appearance. Unfortunately, it black and white and a little out of focus. A photo taken in better days, casually. Richard Parker is looking away. He doesn't even realize his picture is being taken.- This is all told before the author knows Richard Parker is a tiger. The author is describing the photo of Richard Parker as a human and not someone looking at the photo of a tiger. The photo of Richard Parker is most likely a photo of Pi. The other point I'd like to make is that it was thought the tiger was not on the life boat in the beginning. Richard Parker does not appear to Pi until after Orange Juice (Pi's mother) is killed. Pi's alter ego - a 450 bengel tiger - emerges from beneath him. His tiger, his fight, was there all the time. Most of the story is the struggle for Pi to tame the tiger - tame the animal inside him. 682806@blogcritics.org Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:17:53 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-682752 I just finished this book and read the above comments. I have to believe that the second story is the true story. Pi is Richard Parker. His mother is the orang-utang (think of the loving comments Pi has for this orang-utang mother of two). The sailor is the zebra. The chef is the hyena (ugly and a born killer). Pi had to create a story for himself to take him away from the reality of the situation and give him hope during his ordeal. The made-up story is what helped him survive. As for the island: When Pi is blind and meets a french cook who is blind, this is the french chef who is actually on the boat with him (the hyena). Richard Parker (Pi) kills the chef. Pi's eye sight comes back because he was able to feast on the chef and gain nutrients. I believe that his feasting on the chef (cannibalism) represents the island where he gains strength and then finds the cannibal tree with teeth. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The one fault I have with it is that it hints that facts do not matter, what matters is a good story. For an atheist, that doesn't cut it. Here's a good story: the creator of the universe is a flying spaghetti monster. I could come up with other, more fanciful and endearing stories. Should the best story be the one believed or the story which is factual? In The Life of Pi, the author seems to hint that the true story is not important. I strongly disagree. Truth and facts are something we can all agree on. Made up stories create uncertainty and disagreement. This book did not make me believe in God, but it is a good story. 682752@blogcritics.org Wed, 26 Dec 2007 01:27:13 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-679434 the book was fkn gay. 679434@blogcritics.org Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:00:07 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-679314 this book suckes i had to read it for english class i dont get it 679314@blogcritics.org Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:49:11 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-636431 I read this article, everything except the spoiler. then read some blogs on this page. I have never read this book in my life, but how many times have I read this book? 636431@blogcritics.org Fri, 28 Sep 2007 01:45:53 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-632453 okay, I sought out this blog because I'm deep into the book, but have a problem no one seems to have addressed yet: does anyone else feel that Martel has pegged agnostics wrongly? The agnostics I know of believe wholeheartedly in God, but with a humility that God is too immense for humans to describe, and especially for the major religions to try and monopolize. Martel seems to think agnostics would explain away "the white light" as a chemical imbalance, and posits them much more like atheists. Margaret Atwood, a declared agnostic, would likely have a conniption if her belief were painted this way. 632453@blogcritics.org Sat, 15 Sep 2007 19:37:03 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-625638 number 36 needs a life. 625638@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:04:55 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-625636 this book sucked, i had to read it for a summer project and i dont even remember half of what i read. boringggg! 625636@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 21:40:07 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-581790 This story has nothing to do with making the reader believe in God. Yes, it is stated that the story will in fact, do just that, but we forget. That is also part of the story. 581790@blogcritics.org Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:26:36 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-580793 it was a delicious read 580793@blogcritics.org Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:30:14 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-569096 I am surprised that the majority seems to give credence to Pi's second version as being the factual account. I'm not so sure. The only thing that leads me to truly believe that the animals were purely metaphorical was Pi's insistence of how you could turn Tokyo upside down with the result of dozen's of wild animals falling out. This story has definitely left me with a lot to think about. 569096@blogcritics.org Sat, 31 Mar 2007 13:14:46 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/06/101141.php#comment-559093 A story that will make you believe in God... Whether or not it does this is debateable but Martel's protagonist makes you believe in Richard Parker and the hope that he represents and Pi's survival echo of a power greater than Pi or yeastless factuality. It has been said that God does not need to exist in order to save us and whether he does or not, Pi's survival hinges on the hope intrinsic to religion; whether fact, fiction or somewhere in between, even as an idea, God is one powerful enough to carry a boy over the ocean. Martel's greatest gift is perhaps not a story that will MAKE you believe in God, but one that at its climax can make you believe that an idea can save those who keep faith and believe in it. 559093@blogcritics.org Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:33:43 EDT