The only essay I wrote during my lit undergrad that I didn't think was pure bunk was a post-war Canadian fiction piece on Life of Pi. Like myself at the time, the paper was bloated and rambling and never quite figured out what it meant to say. Whatever point there was had something to do with the significance of pi as a mathematical concept within Yann Martel's story about a story. Here's the gist: pi is a number that prattles into infinity, seemingly without pattern, on account of it attempts to describe a perfect circle which, because of molecular stubble, does not exist in nature. Pi, then, describes a desire for perfection and order in a rough and unwieldy reality. And in the same twelve-or-so pages I tried to argue the relevance of animal fable and polytheistic religions as they relate to that mathematical concept, and how the lot of these concepts explain the text of Life of Pi.
I take a bit of heart in seeing these ideas reflected in Ang Lee's film. It's almost as though my education wasn't analogous to turning a pile of money into a pyre.
If you're among the few who didn't read Martel's book back in the early oughts, here's a survey of the story: we have young Pi Patel, short for Piscine. He's a kid "keen on God." In each religion he finds some relevance, though his interest in all religions confuses the adults in his life, who believe he should find one God and settle. "All religions are true," he quotes. "I just want to love God." His family owns a zoo in Pondicherry, but is selling it to move to Canada. En route, the cargo ship carrying them and their menagerie goes down. Pi, along with a few of his aforementioned animals--a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a tiger--are seemingly the sole survivors. Pi's story purports to be one that will make a person believe in God.
In Lee's film, the imperfect scenario of tragedy resides within the perfect world of its Oscar-winning cinematography. There was some controversy over whether or not such digitally-crafted visuals deserve a cinematography recognition--and I somewhat side with these concerns--but what are, effectively, the paintings of Pi adrift are stunning, and rich, and lonely. There's no assurance that Pi's story will make you believe in God, but it goes a long way to explain the want or need to believe, to glean order and intention in the world, to smooth out that stubbly circle.
- Andrew
There is a stark and I'd say rather significant difference between the telling of stories as a means of weaving our lives into a personal and/or shared narrative to give meaning to what might otherwise be nothing but a quick go-round on a tiny ball of moisture hurtling through space, and the telling of stories as a means of deception, self or otherwise. One is constructive and the other is, if not outright destructive, then at least counter-productive. I guess what bugged me about The Life Of Pi (the book) is that it seemed to fall so squarely into the latter category. Martel did little but reinforce the idea, already too well buttressed if you ask me, that regardless of how tough things get, one can always retreat into a magic cave of sticks where everything will be okay as long as you don't open your eyes. It's not so surprising then that it sold so well in the wake of 9/11, a tragedy that didn't so much as shake our North American reality as it did our unreality, driving us not out of our caves, as it should have done, but into better caves, ones we've now fashioned out of brick.
ReplyDeleteGreat acting by Pi. Felt it was real!! I would recommend it to everyone. I felt I was on this adventure with them.
ReplyDeleteregards,
russel of Renton Auto Body