A Ramble About Life of Pi

October 4, 2006 - Kotor, Montenegro. (My fourth and final night here!)

I stayed on here because I found it to be a nice place to be. The town is a labyrinth of beautiful little gems and surprises. But it is all so crammed that it is quite impossible for me to do it any justice in a photo. It’s is reclusive but rewards respectful curiosity. I hope to have a personality like Kotor when I am old. Reclusive, hospitable... convoluted. Don’t let my romanticized and self-indulgent tales of the town (or any my travels) fool you. I spent most of time with my nose buried in a book, my journal or working on some project on the laptop.

Be warned, what follows is not in any way about Kotor but thoughts and ignorances related to recent readings.

I began the Koran today. The second Sura felt quite long. Starting in on any new style of prose is tough. Whenever I get discouraged I think back to my slough through Macbeth in the 8^th grade. This gives me the resolve to read anything. I am not sure how much to write about attitudes towards it. The Koran lies pretty clearly outside of my intellectual framework and most anything I say will most certainly be ignorant. But I think that is exactly why I am reading it and if I don’t share my thoughts, no body can help me to better understand. Too bad none of my friends are Islamic.

The first impressions of the Koran are that it is a book written very deliberately. It gives very specific directions regarding society and religion. The acceptable terms for divorce are exactly listed as are when one make skip fasting and how to make up for it and, most of all, defense of the up-and-coming religion against conversion (back?) to Judaism or Christianity. Clearly I am no expert (Imam’s spend years studying the text and among most Muslim cultures only they are considered fit to make any public interpretations of the word of God) but God basically says that it’s okay to be Jewish or Christian. They are a little befuddled but they mean well on the whole. Anyone that has heard the truest newest word of God, however, is obliged to take up the Islamic faith or be a non-believer (infidel is such a politically charged word these days). And that is bad. The Koran does a good job of walking a fairly fine line between distinguishing Muslims from other Judeo-Christian faiths without hyperbole. It did have some controversial statements about women (II: 222-8).

Digesting some of the Koran got me thinking about Life of Pi. The narrator claims the book “will make you believe in God again.” The following will make more sense if you have read this book. I don’t think it will be incoherent if you have not, however, and the book cannot be ruined as there is no climax and the ending is revealed from the outset. At least that is just my impression. Forgive the quotation marks. The book questions the nature of belief structures so in this case it seems appropriate to use them. I gave the book away to an enthused couple so forgive me if I present some inaccuracies. Final disclaimer, I am a bit self-conscious about the length of these posts but with no other way to gain different perspectives on the work, I just have to bite the bullet.

Pi jumbles religions in the first part of the book. Pi is drawn to Hinduism, Christianity and Islam by motivations that are at once united (a sense of purpose, guidance and peace) and distinctly articulated. According to Pi, Christianity offers love, Islam sublime unity with God among all things, and Hinduism grandeur and dynamism. If one takes his less-interesting but more “believable” version free of zoo animal then the retelling of Pi’s tale of survival along metaphorical and comfortable lines, his story suggests that all religions are grasping for us to come to terms ourselves as well as the external world. Pi has similarly invented a “story” (his animalist account is quite factual, only the name and species of the character differs), a religion, to help him explain and come to terms with the events.

Atheism is celebrated by pious Pi. Atheism too is a consistent and coherent set or world beliefs. It is scientific creation mythology. Pi views Agnosticism with far less enthusiasm as it waffles. Uncommiting Agnosticism does not organize the universe or seek to explain it, throwing up its hands, frustrated by a difficult but worth while task.

The analogy of the zoo left me somewhat complex. In exploring it I digressed for quite a while into the misguided efforts to erect a wall in the desert southwest. Another day. But I have been building up a strong conviction that the barriers people erect are almost universally psychological. Let us assume that the zoo animals represent humans as they may in Pi’s account of his survival. Pi contends that animals in the wild are not happy or prosperous. Rather his portrayal is one of constant struggle to establish territory and find food, exactly what is provided in their zoo habitat. So animals actually crave the stability and security of a zoo. To back up his argument Pi relates numerous anecdotes about escapees happily returning to their enclosures. People are also quite able to break out of the security provided by place in society and make a go for it beyond its margins.

But we do not. We remain within our imaginary spaces (our homes, our work and our pre-established social networks). We may run off for a moment or two but we always basically come back, largely content to exchange one imaginary enclosure for another.

This analogy may be taking things too far. Any choice excludes possibilities that once could have been. That’s what a choice is. This may only rearticulate the analogy, however. Following this idea, the very act of living inherently creates spaces (temporal, special and social). While it would be unrealistic to expect anyone to be all places and pursue all impulses at once, it is undeniable that most people generally lead fairly well-defined lives. Anytime someone remarks “I’ve always wanted to ______” I am reminded of these imaginary boundaries that help us define the possible from the impossible.

If the idea that our social habits define existence as much as space-time holds any water, that would beg some interesting questions.

If anyone has any thoughts on the crazy island Pi found, I would love to hear ‘em cuz I got nothing.