This book has its own kind of magic and allure.
The Life of Pi
Yes, I kind of watched the movie adaptation first before reading the whole book and of course it is not the same the discipline of written literature is different from the discipline of visual arts like film. I am more of a book person, I love reading the pages, smelling the pages, feeling the pages of the book. I love feeling the book between my hands.
Okay enough about why I like the physical book, let's talk about the content of the book. The written story is in itself a kind of love-letter to the cruelty of the circle of life. It is about the impossible epic experience of Pi in the face of losing his family, surviving a shipwreck with a predator sharing your lifeboat, and eventually to learn to live with the predator in your lifeboat and to let go of all you have learned in learning to live with the predator as the predator will abandon you once you have reached the land.
It is surprisingly an optimistic book. Filled with the tales of how to live with animals in the zoo. How to train them and how to feel them especially when they show signs of distress.
I realised I want to read books about animal behaviors and their place in the ever evolving circle of life. How to tame the beast and how to live with them harmoniously. It is not that I am giving up on learning how to live with people, it is just I am tired of people sometimes. I would like to learn more about animal behaviors and their strength and weaknesses, maybe find my self in these stories.
Maybe I am just so tired and disappointed with the human behavior that I want to just find good stories about man and beast and how man managed to live in harmony with the beast.
I just want to finish reading the book The Life of Pi and maybe I will start with reading more about these kinds of books someday.
More than animal behavior
Of course, the book is more than animal behaviors, it is about faith, struggles, firmness, adaptation and the glory of human spirit during the darkest bleakest hour. When Pi found himself alone and abandoned in a lifeboat also occupied by a predator, it is so easy to just lose faith and just end all struggles. But instead, he found the light inside him, the strength within to keep on living and to keep believing that he will survive this epic seemingly insurmountable challenges thrown at him.
The lifeboat came with a manual on how to survive aimlessly floating on the sea/ocean alone, that was a kind of jewel that makes his adversity in the middle of the huge ocean a little more survive-able. Of course, life is more difficult in this confined small vehicle because he has a tiger in his lifeboat, which makes it more deadly and more bitter. The mysterious part is, this tiger makes Pi want to survive more, want to dominate more. It is a tale of complex levels of emotions and survival.
The man and the beast abandoned in a lifeboat, floating in the middle of the infinite waters of the ocean.
The book is written delightfully.
I should really finish reading it.
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