I finished Life of Pi several weeks ago and am just now getting around to responding to popular demand and posting my thoughts about it.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was glad I read it. The basic setup is that the main character, Pi, and his family are moving from India to Canada and are taking their zoo animals with them; Pi's father is a zookeeper. The ship they travel on sinks in the Pacific, and Pi is left on a lifeboat with zoo animals as his only companions. The book gets a lot of mileage out of the sheer novelty of this. It surprised me how many times it can be funny to see nautical terms and zoo animals in the same sentence, like, "That was a cramped space; between the broad back of the zebra and the sides of the buoyancy tanks that went all around the boat beneath the benches, there wasn't much room left for a hyena."
Martel also tries to get some comic mileage out of having Pi be (or claim to be) Christian, Hindu, and Muslim at the same time. This is occasionally, but only occasionally very funny, and unlike the zoo animals, it doesn't have any real relation to the plot itself. While having a hyena on a lifeboat actually influences the events that take place, having a Hindu aboard apparently does not.
My only complaint is about the ending, which was very disappointing, in that some of the magic of the rest of the book disappears.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Monday, June 07, 2004
Textual explication
Here is the document I mentioned last week, published for the first time ever, at your very own Crawdad Hole:
Textual explication of "The Lion" by Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl's "The Lion" is a short lyric poem in iambic pentameter couplets. The length of the poem, four lines longer than a sonnet, expresses Dahl's theme of overturning tradition, subverting the conventional, and escaping quotidian norms.
The poem is addressed to the reader, an unconventional device in adult literature but a perfectly acceptable one to the child reader. This is heavily ironic, since the child to whom the reader expects the poem to speak will be the type of reader most likely to be deeply disturbed by the grim and crushing end.
To overturn or subvert tradition, a writer must first establish the tradition which he or she expects to undermine, and this is glibly done in the modest, unthreatening first couplet. In fact, the conciseness and precision of expression are perfectly worthy of the 17th century's notion of wit. The idea expressed is not new, and is put simply in keeping with its import.
Repetition of the word "tender" in lines 2 and 4 is the first subversive element of the text, hardly noticeable upon a first reading yet influencing the entire mood of the poem. The reader is put in a vulnerable, innocent state of mind, aided as well by the conventional and unassuming couplet noted above.
Lines 5-9 amass culinary references, evoking [change of writer]what are most likely pleasant dining experiences in the mind of the impressionable young child, and setting up the reader to expect a pleasant ending, most likely ending with lion and speaker joining one another in pleasant repast. The fact that the lion refuses the first four scrumptious suggestions is no major impediment; four more suggestions await in lines 11-15. [change of writer] In these lines, though, the character of the inquiry changes. Less food items are proposed in a line, and eliciting information from the lion about its favorite meal becomes more difficult. Also at this point, the speaker is becoming nervous; there are the first direct hints of the shattering ending. Flattery like "lion dear," "lovely steak," and "entice" conjure a mental image of the speaker, in belated recognition, backing away from the lion.
[change of writer] The ominous change from present to past tense in line 15 comes as a bitter shock to the innocent reader. The backing away came too late; the trap is set. Line 14 is the last we hear from the child; it is significant that "rabbit" and "hare," two small, quiet, gentle animals, are offered as the lion's choice of cuisine: Dahl obviously associates the child with the rabbit.
In the final lines, the lion speaks, and we find that we have been subtly prepared for his pronouncement by the depth of imagery which has gone before. Tragic, yet, as all true tragedy, inevitable.
Textual explication of "The Lion" by Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl's "The Lion" is a short lyric poem in iambic pentameter couplets. The length of the poem, four lines longer than a sonnet, expresses Dahl's theme of overturning tradition, subverting the conventional, and escaping quotidian norms.
The poem is addressed to the reader, an unconventional device in adult literature but a perfectly acceptable one to the child reader. This is heavily ironic, since the child to whom the reader expects the poem to speak will be the type of reader most likely to be deeply disturbed by the grim and crushing end.
To overturn or subvert tradition, a writer must first establish the tradition which he or she expects to undermine, and this is glibly done in the modest, unthreatening first couplet. In fact, the conciseness and precision of expression are perfectly worthy of the 17th century's notion of wit. The idea expressed is not new, and is put simply in keeping with its import.
Repetition of the word "tender" in lines 2 and 4 is the first subversive element of the text, hardly noticeable upon a first reading yet influencing the entire mood of the poem. The reader is put in a vulnerable, innocent state of mind, aided as well by the conventional and unassuming couplet noted above.
Lines 5-9 amass culinary references, evoking [change of writer]what are most likely pleasant dining experiences in the mind of the impressionable young child, and setting up the reader to expect a pleasant ending, most likely ending with lion and speaker joining one another in pleasant repast. The fact that the lion refuses the first four scrumptious suggestions is no major impediment; four more suggestions await in lines 11-15. [change of writer] In these lines, though, the character of the inquiry changes. Less food items are proposed in a line, and eliciting information from the lion about its favorite meal becomes more difficult. Also at this point, the speaker is becoming nervous; there are the first direct hints of the shattering ending. Flattery like "lion dear," "lovely steak," and "entice" conjure a mental image of the speaker, in belated recognition, backing away from the lion.
[change of writer] The ominous change from present to past tense in line 15 comes as a bitter shock to the innocent reader. The backing away came too late; the trap is set. Line 14 is the last we hear from the child; it is significant that "rabbit" and "hare," two small, quiet, gentle animals, are offered as the lion's choice of cuisine: Dahl obviously associates the child with the rabbit.
In the final lines, the lion speaks, and we find that we have been subtly prepared for his pronouncement by the depth of imagery which has gone before. Tragic, yet, as all true tragedy, inevitable.
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Azkaban
I've never been to a movie before where the audience clapped when the previews ended and it started playing. The audience was really into it. It was quite a pleasure to watch.
The main thing that struck me about the movie was that everything - both characters and cinematography (I hate people who use the word "cinematography," but it really seems to fit here, and I must admit it is pleasurable to join the masses in using the word without any qualifications to speak on the subject) had seemed to take a great leap in maturity. Each little witch or wizard who showed up was fascinatingly different. It reminded me of those 7/11 documentaries or whatever they're called (what are they called?), where they go back and interview the same people every seven years and show what's happened to them. I was annoyed with how stick-thin Hermione was. The kids weren't wearing their school uniforms as much, more of a eurogrunge attire, and some of the scenes were altered in color to produce an artistic effect. It wasn't just the kids who had changed but the whole aesthetic of the movies. I would have to watch the previous ones again, but it seemed to me like there was much more focus on the landscape, the changing seasons. There were visual comments about time everywhere you looked. Of course it's an important element of the plot, but it goes beyond that. Draco Malfoy and the goons had drastically reduced roles; Harry was usually around adults doing very serious things. Hogwarts seemed different from the previous movies. I find myself less worried about all the magic and wizardry that the characters must master, and more worried about the states of their souls as they start becoming adults.
The main thing that struck me about the movie was that everything - both characters and cinematography (I hate people who use the word "cinematography," but it really seems to fit here, and I must admit it is pleasurable to join the masses in using the word without any qualifications to speak on the subject) had seemed to take a great leap in maturity. Each little witch or wizard who showed up was fascinatingly different. It reminded me of those 7/11 documentaries or whatever they're called (what are they called?), where they go back and interview the same people every seven years and show what's happened to them. I was annoyed with how stick-thin Hermione was. The kids weren't wearing their school uniforms as much, more of a eurogrunge attire, and some of the scenes were altered in color to produce an artistic effect. It wasn't just the kids who had changed but the whole aesthetic of the movies. I would have to watch the previous ones again, but it seemed to me like there was much more focus on the landscape, the changing seasons. There were visual comments about time everywhere you looked. Of course it's an important element of the plot, but it goes beyond that. Draco Malfoy and the goons had drastically reduced roles; Harry was usually around adults doing very serious things. Hogwarts seemed different from the previous movies. I find myself less worried about all the magic and wizardry that the characters must master, and more worried about the states of their souls as they start becoming adults.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Light reading?
I love it, Snap - "nothing worth mentioning" and then you calmly publish 46 fascinating critiques, including comparisons to authors' other works as well as any relevant writings on the same subjects. Clearly the Dragon is in her element here. I want to hear more about Confessions of a Slacker Mom. Does it lead to greater understanding of the transmogrified mom? What makes her a "slacker"?
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