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Comments 7

silberzauber August 31 2005, 19:52:37 UTC
I quite liked "Life of Pi." I read after a college friend gave it to me as a birthday gift a couple of years ago.

I enjoyed the style. For me, it was not one of those read-it-all-at-one-sitting, all-about-the-plot books, but rather more of a read-a-couple-chapters-a-night, cogitate-about-what's-happening kind of book. I was sorry when it ended.

I find your interpretation of the "real" story....revealing. And I would venture to say that's a large part of why you didn't enjoy the majority of the book.

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virtu August 31 2005, 20:29:53 UTC
the only thing that kept me slogging through the book and not dropping it was that it got rave reviews and arbit liked it a lot.

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thechicagoan August 31 2005, 20:27:23 UTC
but if you hadn't read the first 90%, the last 10% wouldn't have been as meaningful.

WOOT I FOUND A CATCH-22!

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virtu August 31 2005, 20:35:08 UTC
true, but he could've at least condensed the bit inbetween all the animals dying and his rescue! it was like "blah blah, i'm hungry, blah blah, tiger scary, blah." it's like a boring lecture with lots of filler -- afterwards you're thinking "hell, i could've just left and came back 5 minutes before it was over to get the point." aghhh.

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eashaanand August 31 2005, 20:49:36 UTC
Jessica:

Hey, I actually wanted to comment because I remember you putting a Diane Arbus quote on one of your old entries, and I wanted to tell you that our whole room is obSESSed with her--we went in to NYC to see Revelations at the Met for Kath's birthday last spring, and our room last year had Diane Arbus quotes all over the walls, and this year we're starting a "coffee table books" collection (you know...like the huge, beautiful books that nobody READS per se but puts them around for decoration and to give people beautiful things to flip through) and the first one we're getting is the Revelations book and it's going to be amazing! She's my favorite photographer of all time, and I'm so excited that you like her quotes, too!

- Easha

P.S. I didn't like "Life of Pi" either. Only I liked the first 1/3 and not the ending...I thought it suddenly became poorly written then, especially when the Japanese men spell out the metaphor ("Ohhh Okamoto-san, you see a lot. So that would make the hyena the cook, the sailor the zebra and the

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virtu August 31 2005, 22:01:53 UTC
well I've only seen a little bit of Diane Arbus' stuff when we were studying texts from other documentary photographers around her time -- I think a lot of the appeal of the photography of her time was the starkness of it all. The unsmiling faces and straight-on and posed subjects, and how heavily contrasted the black/white is. I think it had to do with the type of flash they used then...

i can't believe you guys are going to have coffee table books. that's mad hardcore :p (plus those things are ex-pen-sive!)

yeah i agree the effect was kinda lost when okamoto san figures it out -- but i'm assuming that was part of the original interview so yann martel couldn't exclude it.

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darkveggie September 6 2005, 06:29:51 UTC
why you gotta hate on 'the life of pi'? i agree that the beginning and end was more interesting than the middle, but I got drawn into the whole animal as character thing. I liked Richard Parker a little more than I liked Pi, because Pi started getting whiny, but how Richard Parker acted in response was cooler. On a side note, is this story based on true events? I know Martel introduces it as such in the preface, but I don't think it is...

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