Life of Pi- what it means to be human
I would suggest that every human read this novel. Taking the authors words that’s its well researched, Life of Pi opens the doors to the truth about being a human in a way no human creation might have the power to. It isn’t just the story of survival, every page is a daunting discovery of the realization of the apathy of life, miracle of the universe, crucification of the now well twisted human ideologies and celebration of being born a human. It isn’t so much about the literary beauty and the ever persistent humor as it is about life and its factuality. There is something honest and animal about Life of Pi that I would find so starkly missing from any other forms of human creation. Imagination is mans ally in a bigger way than he would admit. That true. But our imagery and fears, blending together, have created a world full of useless ideologies and even more useless rebellions that they face.
Life of Pi, is a fresh breath of pure air in such a circumstance. On the outside, it’s a story of survival of a castaway. A sixteen year old boy, a lone survivor of a ship that drowned with the rest of his family, finds himself on a life boat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger. This fantastic tale, of an unlikely survival, isn’t just about hope and faith though. Actually, it undresses faith off its glittering and fantastic robes made by mans fear and depravity, removes the accessories of power purchased at the market of dreams, and presents it in a stark naked form. There are no miracles and lightning at just the right time. The plot is actually primitive in its setting. Man and animals on a lifeboat. All animals perish according to their place in the food chain. Result, the tiger and the man are the lone survivors on the boat. The tiger survives on his sheer physical strength and the man on his sheer mental strength. It’s the documentation of how nature dominates as they take their place in the food chain, man miraculously at the apex.
Yet, this tale leaves one with more hope and faith than any sap saga or contrived story of a human miracle. In its rawness, it lacks deceit and in its directness it lacks the verbal dysentery ( excessive use of words where none would be required). Life of Pi, in every page is a majestic celebration of life and everything about it. you learn as you turn pages, and you connect with what was lost behind through years of taming in the rigid society and classrooms and house.
I would tell everyone, who has the capacity to understand and put meaning to alphabets, to read this book. Not for some school project or with the intent of catching on to a new found trend of reading intellectual Booker fodder. Just read it, as you would do any other activity that we humans do to keep ourselves busy. For this one has a mighty reward. Life of Pi is the kind of book that you read in your childhood that makes an impact on you for the rest of your lives. It teaches, which is more than what we can say for most books around. It incites thought, instead of plying and satisfying the human vanity or providing 2 days worth of hope for 4 $. It is an amazingly realistic account of a character that can only exist in our imagination.
It is about the transformation of a three religions practicing, vegetarian Indian boy into a survivor that feeds on live turtles and manages to tame a Bengal tiger that’s always hanging like a bane on his existence. And no lighting strikes this boy to arise the beast in him. The transformation is so believable that you actually fall for the writers ploy of writing this book as a real life account. Yet, with every transformation in Pi, you will find a part of your naked flesh revealed to you.
In the structured, and protected world that we grow up in, we not only take our existence for granted, but proceed to occupy ourselves with something trivial to hide the glaring purposelessness of life. What must we do? We have food, security, shelter. Now we must busy ourselves by over reacting to unimportant details and filling the cavity that survival left with existence. Not all of us will ship wreck or find themselves in a jungle. Neither of us should. All we have our accounts and books. All we have are words. Words of one man, a manifestation of his experience, that will dribble and fall into the ears of million others, and get stuck only where they find a commonality of purpose. And for this very reason, I suggest you read Life of Pi.
Read it and see what it has to teach you. I came across this book when I thought I was going through a tough patch of pure delirium. You know the details, too much thought leads to lack of any eventually. Somehow, hope isn’t a good companion of delirium. True, when you are a wee bit down, a nice motivational tale will make you feel great. But these tales are usually too simplistic and generalized for you to draw any true motivation or idea from. They are just their to satisfy your overwrought nerves, and give you a calming alpha human feeling. I would say that a motivational tale is a teetotalers liquor. Its cheap, you remember it, and you don’t reveal the true ass in you in front of other camouflaged asses.
But Life of Pi actually gave me inspiration. In that slow, sedate, way life an ivy piercing your skin, transfusing little amounts of glucose, but doing no good for the pain and the suffering. I would rather have that, as its at least real. And not just a cheap high for my weak emotions. It made me somehow see above the delirium. Like any other good Booker worthy book, it arises emotion in all the right places and quantities. Laughter, tears, hope, suspense. Ah! Show business is the only business man seems good at. It is a perfect tale of the victory of hope and faith and God against all apparent odds. But these effects are temporary. They are imitable by any other nice writer trained in manipulation of emotions as opposed to transferring of knowledge and realization. They are the reason, why we read so many amazing books and cry buckets over them, but don’t remember what they were all about, for the life within us.
Life of Pi is different. It is a book I will remember for the rest of my life. Because I cannot afford to forget it. it answers questions and raises some new ones. What better way to make yourself unforgettable than to put that cantankerous mind in action for forever!
If all the verbal influx is too much for the non readers cum feelers, just read it once. Even if it’s the only book you ever read. You might find it worth the effort and it will resurrect the faith in the power of written word, and the opportunity this medium holds, back into you.
I would suggest that every human read this novel. Taking the authors words that’s its well researched, Life of Pi opens the doors to the truth about being a human in a way no human creation might have the power to. It isn’t just the story of survival, every page is a daunting discovery of the realization of the apathy of life, miracle of the universe, crucification of the now well twisted human ideologies and celebration of being born a human. It isn’t so much about the literary beauty and the ever persistent humor as it is about life and its factuality. There is something honest and animal about Life of Pi that I would find so starkly missing from any other forms of human creation. Imagination is mans ally in a bigger way than he would admit. That true. But our imagery and fears, blending together, have created a world full of useless ideologies and even more useless rebellions that they face.
Life of Pi, is a fresh breath of pure air in such a circumstance. On the outside, it’s a story of survival of a castaway. A sixteen year old boy, a lone survivor of a ship that drowned with the rest of his family, finds himself on a life boat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal tiger. This fantastic tale, of an unlikely survival, isn’t just about hope and faith though. Actually, it undresses faith off its glittering and fantastic robes made by mans fear and depravity, removes the accessories of power purchased at the market of dreams, and presents it in a stark naked form. There are no miracles and lightning at just the right time. The plot is actually primitive in its setting. Man and animals on a lifeboat. All animals perish according to their place in the food chain. Result, the tiger and the man are the lone survivors on the boat. The tiger survives on his sheer physical strength and the man on his sheer mental strength. It’s the documentation of how nature dominates as they take their place in the food chain, man miraculously at the apex.
Yet, this tale leaves one with more hope and faith than any sap saga or contrived story of a human miracle. In its rawness, it lacks deceit and in its directness it lacks the verbal dysentery ( excessive use of words where none would be required). Life of Pi, in every page is a majestic celebration of life and everything about it. you learn as you turn pages, and you connect with what was lost behind through years of taming in the rigid society and classrooms and house.
I would tell everyone, who has the capacity to understand and put meaning to alphabets, to read this book. Not for some school project or with the intent of catching on to a new found trend of reading intellectual Booker fodder. Just read it, as you would do any other activity that we humans do to keep ourselves busy. For this one has a mighty reward. Life of Pi is the kind of book that you read in your childhood that makes an impact on you for the rest of your lives. It teaches, which is more than what we can say for most books around. It incites thought, instead of plying and satisfying the human vanity or providing 2 days worth of hope for 4 $. It is an amazingly realistic account of a character that can only exist in our imagination.
It is about the transformation of a three religions practicing, vegetarian Indian boy into a survivor that feeds on live turtles and manages to tame a Bengal tiger that’s always hanging like a bane on his existence. And no lighting strikes this boy to arise the beast in him. The transformation is so believable that you actually fall for the writers ploy of writing this book as a real life account. Yet, with every transformation in Pi, you will find a part of your naked flesh revealed to you.
In the structured, and protected world that we grow up in, we not only take our existence for granted, but proceed to occupy ourselves with something trivial to hide the glaring purposelessness of life. What must we do? We have food, security, shelter. Now we must busy ourselves by over reacting to unimportant details and filling the cavity that survival left with existence. Not all of us will ship wreck or find themselves in a jungle. Neither of us should. All we have our accounts and books. All we have are words. Words of one man, a manifestation of his experience, that will dribble and fall into the ears of million others, and get stuck only where they find a commonality of purpose. And for this very reason, I suggest you read Life of Pi.
Read it and see what it has to teach you. I came across this book when I thought I was going through a tough patch of pure delirium. You know the details, too much thought leads to lack of any eventually. Somehow, hope isn’t a good companion of delirium. True, when you are a wee bit down, a nice motivational tale will make you feel great. But these tales are usually too simplistic and generalized for you to draw any true motivation or idea from. They are just their to satisfy your overwrought nerves, and give you a calming alpha human feeling. I would say that a motivational tale is a teetotalers liquor. Its cheap, you remember it, and you don’t reveal the true ass in you in front of other camouflaged asses.
But Life of Pi actually gave me inspiration. In that slow, sedate, way life an ivy piercing your skin, transfusing little amounts of glucose, but doing no good for the pain and the suffering. I would rather have that, as its at least real. And not just a cheap high for my weak emotions. It made me somehow see above the delirium. Like any other good Booker worthy book, it arises emotion in all the right places and quantities. Laughter, tears, hope, suspense. Ah! Show business is the only business man seems good at. It is a perfect tale of the victory of hope and faith and God against all apparent odds. But these effects are temporary. They are imitable by any other nice writer trained in manipulation of emotions as opposed to transferring of knowledge and realization. They are the reason, why we read so many amazing books and cry buckets over them, but don’t remember what they were all about, for the life within us.
Life of Pi is different. It is a book I will remember for the rest of my life. Because I cannot afford to forget it. it answers questions and raises some new ones. What better way to make yourself unforgettable than to put that cantankerous mind in action for forever!
If all the verbal influx is too much for the non readers cum feelers, just read it once. Even if it’s the only book you ever read. You might find it worth the effort and it will resurrect the faith in the power of written word, and the opportunity this medium holds, back into you.
Labels: life of Pi
posted by Shruti at
1:26 AM
1 Comments:
Pretty neat. Read it long back, but reading your article makes me recollect that probably i felt the same way. You from Nagpur?
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