With my book about done, I figured I'd post a couple more blogs with some interesting details. Originally I figured the book would only have been banned because of it's religious views as I had explained previously, but I've actually found another reason why people may want to rid this book from school libraries and all.
With Pi stuck on a lifeboat after the ship taking him to Canada sank, many interesting events begin to occur. For starters, the Zebra gets eaten alive by the Hyena and the level of detail the author goes into could definitely off put some people. Such things happen like the organs getting ripped out and devoured, but the Zebra stays alive for 2 days and Pi must watch it be dismembered piece by piece.
Violence is another no no for some think it'll actually breed the want for violent actions in a person. It really doesn't seem like something as nit picky like the whole religious debate that goes on in the book, but the detail is pretty brutal and could contribute to the banning of it.
As for some other things that I've found really fascinating is the power struggle that goes on between Pi and Richard Parker (the tiger). Previously the book talked a lot about alpha creatures in herds and Pi uses some clever tactics to make himself the Alpha creature of the life boat. Now, this isn't to say that Richard Parker is afraid of him, but it's enough so that the two can coexist. Pi provides food and water for Richard Parker and in return, he's able to live. It may seem like Pi isn't the dominant one, but being able to live with a 450 lb tiger is pretty damn good.
Watching the character deteriorate over the period of being on the lifeboat is really interesting. Why? Well for one thing, it's a lot similar to The Lord of the Flies. At first, there's hope of rescue, then there's just the thought of survival, soon Pi begins to enjoy things that are incredibly savage. For about 4 pages, Pi explains how turtles give him a huge smile on his face, enough that his lips crack and bleed. He talks about drinking the fresh blood of the turtle and scrapping fat from the shell, even going so far as to eat the food inside the turtles stomach. What's really bad though is when he's so hungry, that he actually tries to eat the feces of Richard Parker, the things on will do to survive...
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
A bizarre relationship
Well after thinking it through, it's very obvious why this book is banned in some locations. With Pi practicing 3 religions and getting approval of it, people could be upset with this decision. I doubt a Christian community would want people reading about a young boy who is Christian while also being Muslim and Hindi. The same could be said for the other religions, or any religion at all. As soon as you bring religion to the table all hell breaks loose.
The story that is being written in the book was first brought up to the other when someone asked him if he wanted to hear something that would make him believe in God. I just don't get why people are so offended with something like religion, it's for personal redemption, not something like a sports team you need to support. Oh well, people aren't smart enough to be able to just get along with one another, it's always been like that and it always will be.
As for the rest of the story, Pi's family decided to move to Canada but in the process of traveling on the Pacific Ocean the ship sank for no apparent reason. Pi was able to get onto a life boat, but a life boat currently occupied by an adult tiger, a zebra with a broken leg, a lone hyena and an orangutan. Surprisingly none of the animals killed one another...yet.
I'm not sure where this story will go, but in the end Pi lives, we know this because the author actually got the story from Pi, so who knows how it'll all unfold. I'm just wondering if there are going to be any other obvious reasons for the banning of such an interesting story.
The story that is being written in the book was first brought up to the other when someone asked him if he wanted to hear something that would make him believe in God. I just don't get why people are so offended with something like religion, it's for personal redemption, not something like a sports team you need to support. Oh well, people aren't smart enough to be able to just get along with one another, it's always been like that and it always will be.
As for the rest of the story, Pi's family decided to move to Canada but in the process of traveling on the Pacific Ocean the ship sank for no apparent reason. Pi was able to get onto a life boat, but a life boat currently occupied by an adult tiger, a zebra with a broken leg, a lone hyena and an orangutan. Surprisingly none of the animals killed one another...yet.
I'm not sure where this story will go, but in the end Pi lives, we know this because the author actually got the story from Pi, so who knows how it'll all unfold. I'm just wondering if there are going to be any other obvious reasons for the banning of such an interesting story.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Who's right is it to decide?
So I've been reading more of Life of Pi and something very interesting has occurred. After Pi discovered Christianity, he became Christian while still practicing the Hindu faith. When he's 16, he discovers Muslim and decides to practice that too. So now Pi practices Hinduism, Christianity and Muslim all at once. He tries keeping it a secret, but soon his parents find out and get 3 people who've been teaching Pi the separate religions, to all meet one another.
Obviously chaos erupts. Everyone is furious at how Pi is practicing all of these religions, they feel that a person can only have one religion and stick with it. It's interesting because the characters are usually calm and collected, but as soon as a rivaling religion is mentioned all hell breaks loose.
Personally I'm with Pi, it doesn't really matter which one you practice, if you feel love for god then he won't mind. He talks to his mother who says that all these religions are like passports to heaven. Pi responds with "Well shouldn't all these passports be valid for the same place?" Very interesting. It's become very clear why a book like this would be taken off the shelves of any religious area. The thought of practicing more than one religion is frowned upon by devout people, they would never want the thought that any other religion is right. Sad really, so much blood has been shed over religion, yet in the end it really doesn't matter. The battle one must fight isn't on the outside, but on the inside, where god truly matters.
At least, that's how I feel...
Obviously chaos erupts. Everyone is furious at how Pi is practicing all of these religions, they feel that a person can only have one religion and stick with it. It's interesting because the characters are usually calm and collected, but as soon as a rivaling religion is mentioned all hell breaks loose.
Personally I'm with Pi, it doesn't really matter which one you practice, if you feel love for god then he won't mind. He talks to his mother who says that all these religions are like passports to heaven. Pi responds with "Well shouldn't all these passports be valid for the same place?" Very interesting. It's become very clear why a book like this would be taken off the shelves of any religious area. The thought of practicing more than one religion is frowned upon by devout people, they would never want the thought that any other religion is right. Sad really, so much blood has been shed over religion, yet in the end it really doesn't matter. The battle one must fight isn't on the outside, but on the inside, where god truly matters.
At least, that's how I feel...
Thursday, October 11, 2007
What is Religion?
The Life of Pi is written as a first person setting through the eyes of Pi and based off stories told by a real person. What's interesting though is during the book, the author will break the fourth wall and write as the author, talking about his experience of learning about the events that took place. We get learn about what the current Pi is like, what his house is like, how he acts and what he does, it's very cool. The author goes into detail about the religious aspects of his house, with bibles and various gods are placed around the house. It shows just how religious Pi is once he's older and I'm guessing it foreshadows what's coming.
I really love the little bits of animal knowledge that I'm learning, for instance. The reason animals kill one another and people isn't usually because they're blood thirsty savages, rather that they're scared of the unknown and don't want their area to change. An animals flight zone varies depending on how and where it was raised. Oh and he also explained something like the circus animals, when the lion tamer does something like get the lions to jump through rings. It's all about hierarchy. As long as one enters a zone first and maintains the alpha status within that zone, the animals introduced to it will remain subordinate until they feel they can obtain dominance.
It's just little things like that which I find are fun to learn about. I can tell that ideas like this are being introduced so they can be compared to how humans act. It's all the same really, we all have our little zones which are ours and once something unknown steps into said zone, we begin to panic and figure out how to get things to go back to normal. Of course, this could refer to anything and doesn't just pertain to people interacting with one another.
Further on, Pi finds himself in a Christian church and learns of god, lemme write what I found to be hilarious. Pi thinks of it as if this is what his Father would do after the lions in the zoo did something bad.
"The situation had become intolerable. Something must be done. I have decided that the only way the lions can atone for their sins is if I feed you to them."
"Yes, Father, that would be the right and logical thing to do. Give me a moment to wash up."
"Hallelujah, my son."
"Hallelujah, Father."
What a downright weird story. What a peculiar psychology.
This is how a 14 year old boy interpreted the conversation between Jesus and God, and it's downright true, the reason for Jesus taking the sins of man is a weird thing.
70 pages down, 286 pages to go.
I really love the little bits of animal knowledge that I'm learning, for instance. The reason animals kill one another and people isn't usually because they're blood thirsty savages, rather that they're scared of the unknown and don't want their area to change. An animals flight zone varies depending on how and where it was raised. Oh and he also explained something like the circus animals, when the lion tamer does something like get the lions to jump through rings. It's all about hierarchy. As long as one enters a zone first and maintains the alpha status within that zone, the animals introduced to it will remain subordinate until they feel they can obtain dominance.
It's just little things like that which I find are fun to learn about. I can tell that ideas like this are being introduced so they can be compared to how humans act. It's all the same really, we all have our little zones which are ours and once something unknown steps into said zone, we begin to panic and figure out how to get things to go back to normal. Of course, this could refer to anything and doesn't just pertain to people interacting with one another.
Further on, Pi finds himself in a Christian church and learns of god, lemme write what I found to be hilarious. Pi thinks of it as if this is what his Father would do after the lions in the zoo did something bad.
"The situation had become intolerable. Something must be done. I have decided that the only way the lions can atone for their sins is if I feed you to them."
"Yes, Father, that would be the right and logical thing to do. Give me a moment to wash up."
"Hallelujah, my son."
"Hallelujah, Father."
What a downright weird story. What a peculiar psychology.
This is how a 14 year old boy interpreted the conversation between Jesus and God, and it's downright true, the reason for Jesus taking the sins of man is a weird thing.
70 pages down, 286 pages to go.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
The life of Pi
I just want to say now that many of my blog posts will most likely contain spoilers in them, so if you don't want to know what happens, don't read these!
This book is amazing. I'm not sure exactly what it is, the style of writing, the topics, the harsh reality of it, I can't be certain, but it's a really good read. It's now focusing more on the main character of the story, Piscine Molitor Patel, aka Pi. That's right, Pi, 3.14. The reason he's called this? Torment, people would call him Pissing and he hated it, so when he finally changed schools he immediately told people that he was known as Pi. This reminded me very much of Piggy and shows just what Piggy could have done instead of telling Ralph what he hated to be called. As Pi states, the cruelty of children comes as news to no one, I wonder why that is.
The real interesting parts of what I read had to do with both religion and the zoo. Pi meets his biology professor Mr.Kumar in the Zoo his father works at and starts to talk to him. The conversation leads the religion and Kumar says that he's an atheist and that religion is darkness. Pi couldn't respond, not because he was mad (Pi is very religious) but because he was afraid that Kumar would shoot down something so precious to Pi.
I think the book's straight forward approach to things is what really gets me. I love how there are such black and white situations that really make you go "Oh...huh I never thought of it that way before." I myself am not confident in religion, but am not an atheist. I'm fine living life in the here and now, not relaying on science or god for the proof of my existence, I'm curious to see how this plays out later on in the book.
The final thing that was very, well, shocking to say the least would be what Pi's father did. He had Pi and his brother come with him to the Tiger zoo, where he then had them watch a starved 550 lb tiger kill and eat a goat. I'm sure people reading this immediately thought that his father is deprived and heartless, but the reason he did it was for the kids to learn. To learn the reality of what animals, just that, animals. Creatures who will kill anything to keep themselves alive. He then goes on and talks about many animals, describing just what they'd do in desperate situations. It's a weird blend, religion and zoology, but I like it. You get the deep, philosophical aspects of religion and the cool facts about animals you wouldn't normally know about. Take those ideas and use them to look at society and you've got one unique book.
42 pages down, 314 pages to go.
This book is amazing. I'm not sure exactly what it is, the style of writing, the topics, the harsh reality of it, I can't be certain, but it's a really good read. It's now focusing more on the main character of the story, Piscine Molitor Patel, aka Pi. That's right, Pi, 3.14. The reason he's called this? Torment, people would call him Pissing and he hated it, so when he finally changed schools he immediately told people that he was known as Pi. This reminded me very much of Piggy and shows just what Piggy could have done instead of telling Ralph what he hated to be called. As Pi states, the cruelty of children comes as news to no one, I wonder why that is.
The real interesting parts of what I read had to do with both religion and the zoo. Pi meets his biology professor Mr.Kumar in the Zoo his father works at and starts to talk to him. The conversation leads the religion and Kumar says that he's an atheist and that religion is darkness. Pi couldn't respond, not because he was mad (Pi is very religious) but because he was afraid that Kumar would shoot down something so precious to Pi.
I think the book's straight forward approach to things is what really gets me. I love how there are such black and white situations that really make you go "Oh...huh I never thought of it that way before." I myself am not confident in religion, but am not an atheist. I'm fine living life in the here and now, not relaying on science or god for the proof of my existence, I'm curious to see how this plays out later on in the book.
The final thing that was very, well, shocking to say the least would be what Pi's father did. He had Pi and his brother come with him to the Tiger zoo, where he then had them watch a starved 550 lb tiger kill and eat a goat. I'm sure people reading this immediately thought that his father is deprived and heartless, but the reason he did it was for the kids to learn. To learn the reality of what animals, just that, animals. Creatures who will kill anything to keep themselves alive. He then goes on and talks about many animals, describing just what they'd do in desperate situations. It's a weird blend, religion and zoology, but I like it. You get the deep, philosophical aspects of religion and the cool facts about animals you wouldn't normally know about. Take those ideas and use them to look at society and you've got one unique book.
42 pages down, 314 pages to go.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The Life of Pi
The Life of Pi is the book I decided to read. So far, I've just read the author's notes and the first 20 or so pages and I'm already very interested in it. I won't delve to deep into what's happening right now, just that I can already see how this book was banned. From the very beginning it talks about two major ideas, zoology and religion. Obviously religion is a very touchy subject for many people, one that usually sparks debate which then results in conflict. I'm sure later on in the book, more religious views will be brought up, considering that the author started on this book when someone told him "I have a story that will make you believe in God." Powerful words those are.I'm a fan when it comes to religion, more so the history of it and people opinions, so I'm very excited to keep reading this. I particularly like how the character talks about people not understanding animals in zoos, then comparing it to how people react to religion, all very interesting. I don't have a whole lot of impressions right now, but expect some more detailed opinions later one.
20 pages down, 336 pages to go.
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