Addendum: found this Amazon link where Martell talks a bit about the Richard Parker coincidences. Quite interesting.
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Posted by on 08/08 at 02:34 PM
Love this book! It is one of my five favorite books ever.
Posted by wayfarer on 08/08 at 05:27 PM
In a way, the experiment of whether we would come to God if we grew up on a desert island has already been conducted. When mountain ranges and oceans separated the peoples of the world, they came to God in different ways.
Posted by Paul M. Martin on 08/08 at 05:29 PM
Paul - that’s true but when someone says the word ‘God’ to another person then it inevitably evokes some form of subjective understanding. In Tufayl at least (and to an extent also in Martell’s book as Pi is surprised that the representatives of the different religions see any contradiction) the protagonist, Hayy, arrives at a pure understanding that is beyond words, naming or conventions - in many ways these things are a barrier to knowledge of god as much as they conduct to understanding.
Look at all the wars and trouble caused by religion - all this is due to different conceptions of God (through words and formulae) and not in any way from real knowledge of that being.
Posted by on 08/08 at 06:46 PM
same as wayfarer… my mother gave me this book, she is in no way a “spiritual” person and yet… Thanks for this very nice post.
Posted by cahincaha on 08/09 at 04:08 PM
Yes, I agree with you cahincaha (and Wayfarer) - this has got to be in the top 10 for me. It had the same effect as Fowles’s ‘Magus’ and I can imagine I will read it many times (which is rare).
Has anyone read any of Martell’s other work? I’m kind of loathe to seek it out - it’s sometimes a disappointment when one book is a masterpiece.
I understand he is working on a new novel which will have something to do with the Nazi concentration camps. Also Pi is to be made into a film but I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.
Posted by on 08/09 at 04:31 PM
a film starring tom cruise ? just kidding 
masalama
Posted by cahincaha on 08/09 at 07:29 PM
You shouldn’t laugh - it’s all too horribly likely!
Posted by on 08/09 at 08:33 PM
ok.. get the novel… read it… love it!
Posted by on 03/22 at 04:59 AM
I am 12 years old, I loved this book, I didn’t cmpletly understand it but, I felt a followd enough to understand though. I would like to here your opinions on the moral of the book if there is one.
thanks
Posted by on 02/06 at 01:58 AM
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Life of Pi
A while back, some guy on AppleInsider (there’s really nowhere better if you’re looking for a good old-fashioned bar-room brawl) recommended in a thread there that had (de)evolved into the usual religious rant/bashfest that people read Yann Martell’s Life of Pi
.
I didn’t take it too seriously at first because I have been a bit disillusioned with modern fiction for some time but recently I was in a bookshop here in Barcelona and I saw it so I picked it up for the beach. All I can say is Wow! A life changing book (for me) and so I feel duty bound to credit Midwinter and AI as the source of my revelation.
I don’t really intend to post a review here (there’s plenty at the Amazon link above) but rather explore what I see as the esoteric themes of Martell’s book. I will focus on the Islamic/Sufi/Fortean aspects as this is what I am most familiar with but I’m sure those knowledgeable about Hinduism and Buddhism could find equally interesting parallels.