Yann Martel
was born in Spain in 1963 to Canadian parents. He travelled a great deal internationally
while he was growing up, because his parents worked for the Canadian Foreign
Service. He has continued travelling, with his most notable visit so far being
to India, which helped inspire his Booker winning novel “Life of Pi”. Yann
Martel was awarded a degree in Philosophy from Trent University in Ontario.
Like many successful writers, a series of odd jobs followed – security guard,
tree planter, and dishwasher being amongst the most notable. He started writing
full time at the age of 27. His collection of short stories, “The Facts behind
the Helsinki Roccamatios”, was published in 1993, and won the Journey Prize in
the same year. His debut novel, “Self”, was published in 1996, and was
dismissed by critics. “Life of Pi” was published in 2001, and this novel won
Yann Martel a great many more admirers. “Life of Pi” won the following literary
awards: the
Hugh MacLennan Prize for
Fiction (2001), the Man Booker Prize (2002), and the Boeke Prize (2003).
Another collection of short stories, “We ate the Children Last”, was published
in 2004. “Life of Pi” is set to become a film directed by
French director Jean-Pierre
Jeunet. However, “Manners of Dying”, a movie based on a Yann Martel short
story, has beaten “Life of Pi” to the screen. “Manners of Dying” is directed by
Jeremy Peter Allen. The working title for Yann Martel’s next novel is “The
Twentieth Century Shirt”.
When he is not
travelling, Yann Martel lives in Montreal. He has recently been appointed a
visiting scholar at the University of Saskatchewan for a year, during which he
will be researching for and writing his next novel.
Kevin
Patrick Mahoney takes a look at the work of the author of
the 2002 Booker Prize winning novel, Life of Pi
"In the Spring of 1996, my second book, a novel,
came out in Canada. It didn't fare well. Reviewers were puzzled, or
damned it with faint praise. Despite my best efforts at playing the clown
or the trapeze artist, the media circus made no difference. The book did
not move" - Author's Note page vii - probably a reference to Martel's
first novel, “Self”, which was nominated for the Canada First Novel Award
Bamboozle - Author's Note page vii - gypsy
word or nautical
term?
Matheran
- Author's Note page vii - how
to get there
Pondicherry -
Author's Note page ix - find
out more about them and Prince Edward
Island
The
Indian Coffee House in Pondicherry - Author's Note page x - inspired
Carey Blyton to write a tango
Francis Adirubasamy - Author's Note page x - "I have
a story that will make you believe in God" - how the author comes across
Pi's story. He is Pi's 'Mamaji' - Chapter 3 page 8
Pondicherry
Botanical Garden - Author's Note page xi - is a real place
Moacyr
Scliar - Author's Note page xii - is a well-known Brazilian Jewish
writer
Isaac
Luria - Chapter 1 page 3 - find out more about Isaac Luria's
cosmogony
The Sloth -
Chapter 1 page 3 - hang around and
find out some more about these creatures
William
Beebe - Chapter 1 page 4 - more about this slothful writer. The
following webpage has quotes from Beebe on the Sloth
Governor
General's Academic Medal - Chapter 1 page 5 - find out more about this
academic award
memento
mori - Chapter 1 page 5 - this webpage has more about this European
tradition of art
Rhodes
Scholarship - Chapter 1 page 6 - I take it that a "beef-eating
pinking boy with a neck like a tree trunk" would be seen as being a fit
candidate for Rubgy, if not any other sport
Varanasi
- Chapter 1 page 6 - is second on the list of cities that Pi would like to
visit
Aurobindo Ashram - Chapter 3 page 8 - this webpage
contains a
picture of the swimming pool that Mamaji uses in Pondicherry. Find out more
about Sri Aurobindo
Piscine
Deligny - Chapter 3 page 10 - this painting by Foune gives you some
idea of what this swimming pool looked like. Metropole
also has details of what it was like. Helmut
Newton's photograph gives you some idea of how few clothes were worn
here
1900
Olympics - Chapter 3 page 10 – (interesting to see that Harold Mahoney
was the losing finalist in the tennis, and that he won Wimbledon in 1896 –
ed). India's
Past tells of India's participation in the Games, specifically
swimming. D D Mulji could be Martel's model for Mamji
Piscine
Rouvet - Chapter 3 page 11 - a picture
Piscine des
Tourelles - Chapter 3 page 11 - see what this swimming pool looks
like
Piscine
Molitor - Chapter 3 page 11 - is the swimming pool that Pi is named
after ("Piscine Molitor Patel"). This
website presents a series of photographs, from its prime, to its
current state of abandonment
"Pondicherry entered the Union of India on
November 1, 1954" - Chapter 4 page 12 - this webpage has more
details on this
The
Zoo Inquiry - Chapter 4 page 15 onwards - has information about the
zoo debate. Zoocheck is a Project of the Born Free ("Free as a
bird" tra la la) Foundation - so is opposed to the pro-zoo arguments
put forward by Pi. Other sites are also
Pro-Zoo
Conservation -
Chapter 4 page 19 - this webpage debates the role of zoos
"I couldn't bear to have yet another Frech speaker
guffawing at my name, so when the man on the phone asked, 'Can I 'ave your
name?' I said, 'I am who I am.' Half an hour later two pizzas arrived for
'Ian Hoolihan'." - Chapter 5 page 20 - "I
that I am" or "I am who I am" is how God answered
Moses' questions about who he was. Pi is not saying that he's God here,
he's just answering in the same manner as God. Although
"Piscine" sounds obscene in English, Piscine Molitor Patel does sound
more idiotic in French
Simon who
is called Peter -
Matthew also known as Levi -
Nathaniel who is also Bartholomew -
Judas, not Iscariot, who took
the name Thaddeus -
Simeon who went by Niger -
Saul who became Paul - chapter 5 page 20 -
various links about these famous name changers - they were a tad more serious
than
Austin Mitchell
The
Thar desert - Chapter 5 page 21 - see how desolate this is
Petit Seminaire -
Chapter 5 page 21 - visit the webpage of Pi's school
Kapil
Dev - Chapter 5 page 21 - more about him
Pi - Chapter 5 page 23 -
find out more about the turbulent history of the name that Piscine adopts
"Repetition is important in the training not only of
animals but also of humans" - Chapter 5 page 23 - so that's what
Mr Blair's trying
to do to us!
Siege of Leningrad -
Chapter 6 page 25
Satish
Kumar - Chapter 7 page 25 - one of Pi's most influential teachers at Petit
Seminaire shares his name with the editor of Resurgence, a fascinating man
Elections
'99 in Tamil Nadu - Chapter 7 page 25 - the art of voting in movie
stars seems tto have declined
The
Politics of Socialism from Below: The case of Kerala, India - Chapter 7
page 25 - more about communism in Kerala
Gregor
Mendel - Chapter 7 page 26 - has a habit of cropping up in the modern
novel, witness his appearance in
Zadie Smith's White Teeth
Charles
Darwin - Chapter 7 page 26 - a natural selection for Yann Martel
"Rhinos are social animals"
- Chapter 7 page 26
Mrs
Gandhi - Chapter 7 page 27 - a biography
Atheists and
Agnostics - Chapter 7 pp. 27-28 - find out more about them here.
'Agnosticism' was a term first used by T H Huxley
India-Pakistan
partition - Chapter 7 page 28 - a brief overview of this traumatic
event
1971
India-Pakistan war - Chapter 7 page 28
Polio
eradication under threat - Chapter 7 page 28 - more about polio
"the means of production" - Chapter 7 page 28 - find
out more about Karl Marx's ideas here, as espoused by the atheist Mr Kumar
The
Golden Deer - Chapter 8 page 30 - find out more about Ravana's
abduction of Sita
Sloth
bears - Chapter 8 pp. 30-31 - find out more about these beasts, and
why they were first confused with sloths
Do
Not Feed! - Chapter 8 - this webpage reinforces this message
Richard
Parker - Chapter 8 page 31 - how did
Richard Parker the tiger get his
name? Check the passenger list for any sea voyage to make sure Richard
Parker is not included. If he is, you may get a little wet, and you'll
have to use your wok as a liferaft. There was a
Clifford Richard Parker on
the Titanic - ominously, his body was never found
Mahisha -
Chapter 8 page 33 - is the name of the evil demon defeated by Durga, who
sometimes rode on a tiger
The
Royal Bengal Tiger - Chapter 8 page 33 - more about Richard Parker's
species
"Normally the big cats were not given food one
day a week, to simulate conditions in the wild"
- Chapter 8 page 35 - this webpage confirmss this practice
"Once there was a madman in Australia who was a
black belt in karate. He wanted to prove himself against the lions.
He lost. Badly" - Chapter 8 page 36 - this sounds like a recent news
story, only I can find no reference to it on the net - maybe it's an urban
myth, although there are plenty of true stories of such attacks
hyenas -
Chapter 8 pp. 36-37 - do they indeed have the strongest jaws in nature?
orang-utans -
Chapter 8 page 37 - really are that much stronger than humans
"The most dangerous animal
of all" - Chapter 8 page 38 - elephants truly are the
most dangerous zoo animals
"flight
distance" - Chapter 9 page 39 - Heini Hediger, mentioned later in Life
of Pi, came up with this term
"there
will always be some animals that seek to escape from zoos" - Chapter
10 page 40 - Ken
Allen was one Houdini. Reminds me of that great domestic pet
escapologist, Lynne Reid Banks' excellent "I, Houdini"
Animal
emanicipation - Chapter 13 page 43 – a negative view of the processes
used in circus
training. However, there are other perspectives on the web - Dave
Hoover echoes some of what Yann Martel says about lion training. This article mentions
that Hoover was inspired by Clyde Beatty
The semiotics
of animal freedom: A zoologist's attempt to perceive the semiotic aim of H.
Hediger - Chapter 14 page 44 - Aleksei Turovski's essay gives an
excellent overview of Hediger's
work. I believe that Hediger
could be viewed as the second author of Life of Pi, especially the sense that
the theory of evolution does not explain everything. This webpage has
more about Hediger
and Lorenz
The
omega animal - Chapter 14 page 45 - more on this
Lord
Ganesha - Chapter 15 page 45 - Here is how
transportation by rat should
not be ridiculed
simpatico -
Chapter 15 page 45 - a definition
The Virgin Mary of
Guadalupe - Chapter 15 page 45 - how her worship came about
The
History of Kaaba as a place of worship - Chapter 15 page 45 - built by
Abraham
Shiva
as Nataraja - Chapter 15 page 45 - shakes his funky thang
Krishna
playing the flute - Chapter 15 page 46 - an image
Murtis -
Chapter 15 page 46 - this webpage has various examples of the murtis
mentioned in Life of Pi
Shiva yoni
linga - Chapter 15 page 46 - a representation
"the word God in Arabic" - Chapter 15 page 46 -
a representation of
“Allah”
The
Meenakshi Temple in Madurai - Chapter 16 page 47 - various images from
the temple Pi is taken around by his mother and Auntie Rohini
kumkum
powder - Chapter 16 page 47 - this webpage describes its use in Hindu
culture
Tumeric -
Chapter 16 page 47 - how this "inexpensive saffron" is commonly used
nadaswaram -
Chapter 16 page 47 - see what one of these instruments looks like
Arati lamp
- Chapter 16 page 47 – more abouut them
Bhajans - Chapter
16 page 47 - a definition
"because of foreheads carrying, variously
signified, the same word - faith"
- Chapter 16 page 47 - probably, like kumkuum powder, a reference to the
employment of the bindi
Prasad -
Chapter 16 page 48 - this webpage discusses this form of offering
Brahman -
Chapter 16 page 48 - this webpage discusses "the world soul",
Brahman Nirguna,
Braham Saguna - Is Brahman Nirguna or
Saguna? - this debate has been going on for centuries
Atman -
Chapter 16 page 48 - more about the 'deathless self' or soul
The Bank of Karma -
Chapter 16 page 49 - this venerable institution does not seem to have been
originally "coined" by Yann Martel
Hare Krishnas -
Chapter 16 page 49 - more about these "hairless Christians"
Munnar -
Chapter 17 page 50 - once the summer resort of the British Empire in South
India. Things you didn't know number 9190771: "The British introduced tea to India"
Tata
tea factory - Chapter 17 page 50 - this webpage gives you some idea of
what this looks like
The Nilgiri
Tahr - Chapter 17 page 50 -
what the Duke of Wellington's army did to these goats and how they were
tamed again by offerings of salt. This webpage explains
why they are being fed
salt
Rama and
the Ramayana - Chapter 17 page 54 - more about Rama's bad day
Krishna's foster
mother, Yashoda - Chapter 17 pp. 54-55 - where Lord Krishna is accused
of eating dirt
Bali
and Vamana - Chapter 17 page 55 - the full story
The
Fig Tree Enigma - Chapter 17 pp. 56-57 - when Jesus just couldn't give
a fig.
The Juniper Bushes scene
from Monty Python's Life of Brian is probably based on this
Asanas
- Chapter 18 page 60 - more about this yogaa
Sufi: The
Mystical - Chapter 20 page 61 - an excellent page on Sufism.
This Sufi is also called Satish Kumar
The 99 beautiful
names of Allah - Chapter 20 page 61 - see the list of names recited in
the dhikr
"Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his
reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try
to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, 'Possibly a f-f-failing
oxygenation of the b-b-brain,' and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss
the better story" - Chapter 22 page 64 - sheer b-b-brilliance!
Yeastless bread is mentioned several
times in the Bible
Goubert
Salai - Chapter 23 page 64 - this webpage contains a small picture of
the now less gloriously named 'Beach Road'. It also has a picture of the statue
of Gandhi mentioned on page 69
Hanuman: Simian
Symbol of Strength! - Chapter 23 page 65 - more about this monkey god,
also mentioned on page 196, Chapter 66
The
Mahabharata - Chapter 23 page 66 - a brief overview of the epic
Darshan -
Chapter 23 page 66 - a definition
Puja - Chapter 23 page 66 -
more about this act of worship
Life of
Muhammad - Chapter 23 page 67 - "p.b.u.h" is an abbreviation
of "Peace be upon him"
"All religions are true" - Chapter 23 page 69 -
more from the writings of Gandhi that Pi quotes - "Jesus was, to my mind,
a supreme artist because he saw and expressed Truth; and so was Muhammad, the
Koran being the most perfect composition in all Arabic literature—at any rate,
that is what scholars say. It is because both of them strove first for Truth
that the grace of expression naturally came in and yet neither Jesus nor
Muhammad wrote on Art. That is the Truth and Beauty I crave for, live for, and
would die for" - "Man as animal is violent, but as Spirit is
non-violent. The moment he awakes to the Spirit within, he cannot remain
violent. Either he progresses towards ahimsâ or rushes to his doom"
- you could summarise the plot of Life of PPi in these 2 sentences alone
The Hajj -
Chapter 24 page 70 - more about this journey of a lifetime
"'At the rate you're going, if you go to temple on
Thursday, mosque on Friday, synagogue on Saturday and church on Sunday, you
need only convert to three more religions to be on holiday for the rest of your
life'" - Chapter 24 page 70 - Ravi's wit is sublime
Our
Lady of Immaculate Conception - Chapter 25 page 71 - see a photo of this
Pondicherry church that Pi is forced to leave
Our
Lady of Angels - Chapter 25 page 71 - is the church in which Pi finds
refuge
Heroes
of Faith - Chapter 26 page 72 - mentions David, Moses, and Jesus as
prophets of Islam
Isa
(Jesus) and Kashmir - Chapter 26 page 72 - as Pi says, "Some
people say Jesus is buried in Kashmir"
R.
K. Narayan - Chapter 26 page 73 - possibly the model for the writer
that Magid hangs out with in
Zadie Smith's White Teeth, Saraswati
Sri
Ramakrishna - Chapter 27 page 74 - and the Harmony of Religions
Saint Francis
Xavier - Chapter 27 page 75 - more about this Jesuit missionary
The Myth of Saint Thomas and
the Mylapore Shiva Temple - Chapter 27 page 75 - some are so not
believing of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas
Islam and the
sub-continent: appraising its impact - Chapter 27 page 75 - an
intelligent essay concerning Islam's impact on India
The Imitation of
Christ - Chapter 27 page 76 - more about this spiritual book by Thomas
a Kempis
The Qibla -
Chapter 28 page 76 - it seems that there is a debate about the early direction
of prayer
Rosy
Pastor - Chapter 28 page 77 - see what these birds looks like -
sunbirds are also on this page
Tamil
Nadu - Chapter 29 page 78 – more details about the region
Morarji
Desai - Chapter 29 page 78 - would no doubt have taken a healthy
interest in Piscine's name
Government
Park - Chapter 31 page 81 - see a picture of this Pondicherry park
"Salaam
alaykum" and "Wa alaykum as-salaam" - Chapter 31 page
82 - translations of these Arabic greetings
"In all this there are messages indeed for a
people who use their reason" - Chapter 31 page 82 -
this passage from the Qu'ran is about Knowledge - most apt for a zoo, as
directly before this, the Qu'ran says: "causing all manner of living
creatures to multiply thereon"
Equus
burchelli boehmi - Chapter 31 page 84 - is the scientific name of Grant's
Zebra. There are several good reasons for having those stripes, the most
important being the avoidance of cars
"Allahu akbar" - Chapter 31 page 84 - means
"God is Great"
Zoomorphism - Chapter
32 page 84 - This webpage offers a brief overview of
domestication
Dolphins -
Chapter 32 page 84 - a boon for drowning sailors>
Methuselah -
Chapter 32 page 85 - was the longest living man, mentioned in the Book of
Genesis - apparently, he died in the Flood
St.
Mike's - Chapter 33 page 86 - find out about this part of the
University of Toronto
Nil magnum nisi bonum - Chapter 33 page 87 - Petit
Seminaire translate this as "nothing is great unless good"
The
Voyage to India and those who influenced it - Chapter 34 page 88 - the
Portuguese were more successful at finding India than Columbus
CITES:
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - Chapter
34 page 88 - did indeed come into effect in 1975
"Japanese Cargo ship
Tsimtsum" - Chapter 35 page 90 - "The concept of
Tsimtsum is a
16th century kabbalistic explanation of how God, if infinite and omnipresent,
could form a material world. God contracted Itself into Itself -
Tsimtsum -
bringing into being a vacuum in which to create something OTHER than
Itself" - Yann Martel's naming of the ship in which Pi loses his family
seems to be another nod at the cosmogony of the Book of Genesis. If
you're looking to read another novel alongside Life of Pi, might I suggest
Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man?
I read this back to back with Life of Pi. Alex-Li Tandem's best friend,
Adam, is obsessed by the Zohar and the Hebrew alphabet. Just as God had
to withdraw to create the cosmos, so the
Tsimtsum
sinks. By using this name of
Tsimtsum, does
Yann Martel mean to suggest that God has effectively absented himself from Pi's
struggle, and that this is the ultimate test of Pi's faith? "This paradox of Tsimtsum -- as Jacob
Emden said -- is the only serious attempt ever made to give substance to the
idea of Creation out of Nothing. Incidentally, the fact that an idea which as
first sight appears so reasonable as "Creation out of Nothing" should
turn out upon inspection to lead to a theosophical mystery shows us how
illusory the apparent simplicity of religious fundamentals really is.
Scholem, Major Trends, Schocken 1995, p.253".
"The
most recent book that conveys a distinctly Jewish anomie is The Far Euphrates,
a first novel by Aryeh Lev Stollman, which concretizes this dilemma in its
story of a perplexed boy who isolates himself from his rabbinical family by
locking himself in his room for an entire year. Avowedly, this mournful youth
is reenacting the Kabbalistic doctrine of tsimtsum or retreat, by means of
which God separates himself from the primordial universe, thereby making space
for flawed humanity" - so, it could very well be that Yann Martel is
aiming for the same effect as Stollman, with Pi playing the role of God
withdrawing. But does Pi separate from the 'primordial universe' or does
he, in fact, join with it? As Ephraim
Carmel writes, Yann Martel would not be the first author in English to
grasp the concept of tsimtsum in order to write of 'Paradise Lost' -
"One of the most daring of Cabalistic concepts
found it's way into Milton's 'Paradise Lost ': "...I uncircumscribed
myself retire, and put not forth my goodness, which is free to act or not
". The doctrine of 'Tsimtsum' is a highly mystical one, though it's
initial starting point is a gross and naive naturalism. With God's infirmity
being all and feeling all, there was no space for creation. God therefore
withdrew " Himself from Himself ", not concentrating at a point but
retreating away from His center to His circumference as it were. He now no
longer fills all, but leaves, in the middle of Himself, a vacuum in which
creation can take place. It should be noted that God does not construct or
concentrate, but rather retires sideways to the periphery. This retraction of
'Tsimtsum' is a dynamic act, the first step in the dynamic of creation. When
Milton in his 'Paradise Lost' discusses the place of individual being he had a
problem. From the absolute, nothing can proceed. As Milton says, he was neither
reason nor power to change into a less perfect state. How is it possible then
to derive
from the absolute, the only necessary cause of all that is, the existence
of limited individual being? This is the most important problem for all
philosophies of the absolute, for they recognise that here exists an
unexplainable, an irritational abyss, between God and his creatures, between
the absolute and nature.
At the foundation of the world there comes into play an illogical
power, which has no common measure with reason. Milton saw the problem. He
found no solution that could be drawn from the scripture of theology. So he
boldly took this concept from Lurianic Cabala and made it the very center of
his methaphisics. According to his plan, God withdraws his will from certain parts
of himself, and delivers them up, so to speak, to obscure latent impulsions
that remain in them. Through this "retraction", matter is created;
through this reaction, individual beings are created. The parts of God thus
freed from his will become people" -
I
believe that the concept of Tsimtsum also plays a major role in how Yann Martel
has structured Life of Pi. There is something very circular in telling
Pi's story in exactly 100 chapters. Also, when Pi uses pi to
work out the circumference of that strange anti-Eden he lands on, you
can't help but acknowledge that there is some great deal of thought in
Yann Martel's naming of Pi, since pi is synonymous with circles.
When God creates his vacuum, one can only imagine a circular shaped hole.
Galaxies certainly resolve around black holes.
The
following quotation from Karen
Armstrong seems to answer some of my questions from above, and seem to
fit Yann Martel's purpose here: -
Luria confronted the question
that had troubled monotheists for centuries: how could a perfect and infinite
God have created a finite world riddled with evil? Where had evil come from?
Luria found his answer by imagining what had happened before the emanation of
the
sefiroth, when
En Sof had been turned in upon itself in sublime introspection. In order to
make room for the world, Luria taught, En Sof had, as it were, vacated a region
within himself. In this act of "shrinking" or "withdrawal"
(tsimtsum), God had thus created a place where he was not, an empty space that
he could fill by the simultaneous process of self-revelation and creation. It
was a daring attempt to illustrate the difficult doctrine of creation out of
nothing: the very first act of En Sof was a self imposed exile from a part of
himself. He had, as it were, descended more deeply into his own being and put a
limit upon himself. It is an idea that is not dissimilar to the primordial
kenosis that
Christians have imagined in the Trinity, whereby God emptied himself into his
Son in an act of self expression. For sixteenth-century Kabbalists,
(tsimtsum) was primarily a symbol of exile, which underlay the structure
of all created existence and had been experienced by En Sof himself. (Armstrong,
267)
-
there is no evil in Pi's life before the sinking of the Tsimtsum.
Seraphim
Joseph Sigrist writes of tsimtsum and creativity, another theme that would
appear to be close to Yann Martel's heart as an author -
You remember the text was from the Gospel where Jesus
says "If anyone will be my disciple let him deny himself..."
and the question, does denial of self mean denial of creativity?
But it seems to me that on the contrary creativity begins with a certain
denial of self. There is the Jewish conception which seems to me very
deep that it is by a contraction of Himself that God made a space for the
world... by a withdrawal, and this is called
the "Tsimtsum" ,or
"Sod ha Tsimtsum" --Mystery
of the drawing back of God.
An ancient Indian poet Tulsi Das, rewriting the oldest of stories, and one
of the best, the Ramayana ,adds this "the gods themselves live by
forbearance"... they live by drawing back.
And so it is written of Jesus in Philippians that he "took on himself
the form of a servant..." The Greek word Kenosis or self-emptying can
parallel the Tsimstsum and perhaps each word enriches the other a little.
Unfortunately few people have set them together! But you and I may today and
see therefore the sign of the cross on the creation of the world itself, and
then the cross as no isolated moment
but the heart of a deep mystery of creation-by-making-space.
Into that space which God made, light entered... and from the light
came all the worlds and all the persons and you and I...
And the creation goes on in and through us... Because we too can learn to
step back from all our hopes and fears and dreams and all our sorrow and the
terrible pain our worlds(each person is a world) contain and yes the happiness
too, and all our habitual thoughts, the explanations to ourselves which we make
as well as we can and which fill our minds...and even from all the joy that God
gave
us yesterday and which we remember with gratitude... and which was beyond
our expectation or hope. step back from all of this
and make a space for God to create something more in us, and make a
space where we also can create...
This was the main idea of the little sermon, and I remembered our Natasha's
words that "at most conferences people think only of their own lectures
and what people will think of them, but we have left a space for silence and
for caring for each other" (I paraphrase her words changing them slightly
but this was the idea) I think it was true of us in these days in Riga.
Well, that is almost all of the sermon unless I have forgotten something.
There is also this ,that it means that we create by being created, that every
story comes from silence, that every gift comes from poverty, that every love
comes from a place where there is nothing but
openness to love.
it is the rhythym and deep truth of the prayer attributed to St Francis
"Lord make me an instrument of thy peace..." which you know well I am
sure. We do not know if this is actually his prayer, but it is his spirit and
that of the Lord Jesus and that of the one who made space for the worlds at the
beginning and today...
Carol
Ochs writes of tsimtsum in yet another way, as a way of discussing
self-creation. Pi, is after all, a teenager when the Tsimtsum
sinks. He's about to discover who he really is, and what he can become,
in the most brutal way possible -
Miriam's Way reminds us that we all have experiences that
require our self-limiting and self-emptying for the sake of a greater life. Our
greatest creativity, exercised when we form a relationship, comes from
divesting ourselves of self in order to make room for an independent life. In
the sixteenth century Rabbi Isaac Luria gave a name to this process, teaching
that the great moment of creation was not "And God said . . ." but
the moment before that, tsimtsum, when
God's self contracted to make room for independent creatures. Tsimtsum is not necessary for all creations,
only those that will be independent, because only an independent being can come
into a freely chosen relationship with God. God's creation of beings in freedom
shows us that beings need independent space to form relationships, and we must
try to emulate this creation of space. In pregnancy, physical displacement
takes place so new life can exist. As the body undergoes radical
transformation, so does the soul -- in this case, a decentering of ego. But not
all of our creations are babies. The new life that grows within may take the
form of ideas, institutions, and -- especially --relationships; all require a
self-emptyyiing that allows space for freedom.
Tsimtsum
is something that Adam refers to in Zadie Smith's The
Autograph Man, when he refers to God leaving his "bits"
behind. Daniel
J. Elazar gives a more concise explanation of what Adam was talking about,
using the metaphor of "repairing the vessels". Pi must be
repaired before he fully rejoins humanity -
The kabbalists understood God's making of space for humanity as tsimtsum (contraction), God's withdrawal from a
part of the world to allow a material creation. After withdrawing to make that
space, God then made an effort to fill that space with emanations of His
energy, but those emanations were too strong for the material vessels of this
world that were to contain them and the vessels were shattered in the process
of receiving the emanations. This phenomenon is known in kabbalah as shevirat
hakelim (the breaking of the vessels), and is the source of trouble and evil in
the world. Thus, a major task of humanity, working in partnership with God, is
tikkun olam (the repair of the world), or more explicitly, repairing the
vessels to make them whole again, at which point, according to the kabbalists,
the messianic age will be achieved
Rabbi
Isaac Luria - he was the writer who first developed the concept
of
tsimtsum - he
was known as the Lion
The Cauvery - Chapter 35
page 90 - is an excellent webpage on the Cauvery River
Gold Flake
cigarettes - Chapter 35 page 91 - not a brand as such
Arun Ice Cream -
Chapter 35 page 91 - more exotic than Walls'
Hero Bicycles - Chapter 35
page 91
Ambassador Cars -
Chapter 35 page 91 - let the guru guide you
Higginbothams - Chapter 35 page 91 - have
some way to go before they challenge Amazon
worrywart - Chapter 37 page 97 - a definition
"I
am to suffer hell without any account from heaven? In that case, what is
the purpose of reason, Richard Parker?" - chapter 37 page 98 - Pi muses on
the theme of tsimtsum
"All
around me was the vomit of a dyspeptic ship" - Chapter 38 page 101 - good
imagery
landlubber - Chapter 38 page 102 - a definition
Gaur - Chapter 38
page 104 - see a picture of one of these wild ox
Female Hyenas -
Chapter 41 page 109 - are curious creatures
"Around
the world in eighty swells" - Chapter 41 page 110 - a reference to Jules
Verne's
Around the World in Eighty Days
catholicity
- Chapter 43 page 117 - I believe that Yannn Martel is alluding to the hyena's
'universality' of taste
Durian online - Chapter
45 page 122 - a whole webpage devoted to smelly fruit
Hawksbill turtles -
Chapter 45 page 123 - more about these ugly critters
Mako Sharks - Chapter
46 page 124 - are powerful leapers
What killed
Christ on the cross - Chapter 49 page 135 - Christ's agonising death
"necessity is the mother
of invention" - Chapter 50 page 139 - the xrefer definition
chandler - Chapter 51 page 139 - a definition - one famous
detective novelist obviously came from a family that sold 'four candles' (or
should that be 'fork handles'?)
Kathakali dancer -
Chapter 53 page 152 - see what one of these looks like
Dorados -
Chapter 53 page 154 - some pictures
tigers and saline water -
Chapter 55 page 161 - this webpage postulates that
saline water may
turn tigers into
man-eaters in
the Sundarbans
opossum - Chapter 56 page 161 - "If attacked and
unable to fight or run from danger, it collapses and appears to be dead!"
communication -
Chapter 57 page 163 - this webpage even lets you find out what 'prusten'
sounds like.
Solar still - Chapter
59 page 172 - this is what the
solar still that Pi uses looks like
Markandeya - Chapter 60 page 177 - is also the last living
man in a fable from The
Mahabarata, wandering around a sea of devastation, but nourished by the
strange apparition of a child beneath a fig tree.
Markandeya, a
devout boy, was destined to die at 16 (Pi's age when he is shipwrecked) -
Markandeya is saved by his faith. His story has some interesting
parallel's to Pi's
Flying
fish - Chapter 61 pp.180-181 - is it a bird? Is it a
plane? Is it a... fish?
The science bit
Saint Sebastian -
Chapter 61 page 181 - erm... Saint Sebastian actually survived his
execution by archery, and was martyred by being beaten to death
"I
was now as guilty as
Cain" - Chapter 61 page
183 - Pi explicitly identifies himself with the first murderer from the Book of
Genesis, who angered by giving offerings but withholding his love
"Once
you saved the world by taking the form of a fish" - Chapter 61 page
185 - Yann Martel is alluding to another myth of the
Great Flood.
Vishnu appears to
Manu in the form of a fish
and warns him of the
imminent deluge, and tells him to build
a big boat, and
to take one animal of each type... Sounds familiar?
Dorados - Chapter 61 page 185 – an image. "I felt I
was beating a rainbow to death" - the Great Flood is also associated with
rainbows - the dorados could be seen as a bounty from
God to nourish Pi
sea cows - Chapter 62
page 187 - a boon for shipwrecked sailors, these curious creatures are now
thought to be so tasty as to be extinct
"The
Robertson family survived thirty eight days at sea" - Chapter 63 page 189
- visit
the Robertson family webpage.
Readers of
Life of Pi
may be
interested in
Defeat Defeatism,
involving the kind of internal debate Pi goes through
Captain Bligh -
Chapter 63 page 189 - a superb navigator - surely his leadership skills were
proved by that admirable voyage of 3000+ miles after the mutiny?
Owen Chase - Chapter 63
page 189 - you can see where the French chef may have got some of his
culinary ideas from
adrift
in a dinghy for 117 days - Chapter 63 page 189 - this obituary of
Maralyn Bailey, who passed away in June 2002, says that she and her husband
actually survived 117 days, rather than 118 days (it looks like they would have
been dead on the 118th day, if a Korean fishing boat hadn't found them).
I could not find anything on the internet about Poon, the Korean merchant
sailor, probably because Poon
Lim was actually Chinese
The Goddess Durga - Chapter
66 page 195 - a very handy goddess
What should Arjuna
do? - Chapter 73 page 207 - Yann Martel would appear to be referring
to the Bhagavad Gita
The Gideons - Chapter 73 pp. 207-208 -
their homepage, the well-known Bible distributors.
"I cannot think of a better way to spread the faith. No thundering
from a pulpit, no condemnation from bad churches, no peer pressure, just a book
of scripture quietly waiting to say hello, as gentle and powerful as a little
girl's kiss on your cheek."
Oceanic
Whitetip - Chapter 79 page 217 - what this shark looks like
Tiger
Shark - Chapter 79 page 217 - is aptly named
Matysa - Chapter 80 page 221 -
was the fish incaarrnation of Vishnu that saved the world in the Flood story
Dinosaurs and the
Bible - Chapter 84 page 230 - a behemoth is mentioned in the Bible,
and some Creationists have used its example to claim that Man existed at the
same time as the dinosaurs
"I
took each one to be an angel announcing nearby land" - Chapter 84 page 230
- a reference to the dove from
"Twice
I saw an albatross" - Chapter 84 page 230 - surely a reference to
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (also
set in the Pacific), where the lone mariner is cursed after killing an
albatross - read more in
Coleridge's Albatross
Wilson's Petrel -
Chapter 84 page 230 - more about these extraordinary
birds
Short-tailed
Shearwater - Chapter 84 page 231 - another bird that is harvested for
its oil
Masked Booby -
Chapter 84 page 231 - what these boobies look like
oxtail soup -
Chapter 90 page 245 - thought to have been invented by the French in the
privations of the Revolution
Safety
from man-eaters - Chapter 90 page 246 - according to this webpage,
tigers usualllly only go after humans if they are too injured or too old to go
after other prey
"This
was the terrible cost of Richard Parker. He gave me a life, my own, but
at the expense of taking one. He ripped the flesh off the man's frame and
cracked his bones... Something in me died then that has never come back
to life" - Chapter 90 page 255.
Introduction to the green algae
- Chapter 92 page 259 - Pi's
food on the Anti-Eden
island. Maybe Yann Martel's a secret fan of the classic Hammer Horror
film “The Lost Continent”, that features man-eating algae?
The Lote
Tree of the Furthest Boundary - Chapter 92 page 261 - the lote tree
played a spiritual role in
Islam
Meerkats - Chapter 92 page 265 - were the subject of a
famous BBC wildlife film
"I
explored the island. I tried to walk around it but gave up. I
estimated that it was about six or seven miles in diameter, which means a circumference
of about twenty miles" - Chapter 92 page 270 - Pi uses Pi
man-eating tree of
Madagascar - Chapter 92 pp. 280-281 - Yann Martel is not the first to
write of carnivorous trees. But I'm more of the opinion that Yann Martel
is referring to the Garden
of Eden and the
Original Sin, one
of the most controversial and misused ideas from the Bible. This
would appear to be the Tree of Death, as opposed to the Tree of Life. Adam
was forbidden to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil
"I
am a person who believes in form, in the harmony of order. Where we can,
we must give things a meaningful shape. For example - I wonder - could
you tell my jumbled story in exactly one hundred chapters, not one more, not
one less? I'll tell, that's one thing I hate about my nickname, the way
that number runs on forever. It's important in life to conclude things
properly. Only then can you let go" - Chapter 94 page 285 - Pi goes
all circular. Reader Rajeev Pandey has pointed out that 22/7
is another way of writing Pi, and that Piscine spent 227 days adrift, so this
is another way that Yann Martel has played with the concept of Pi in the novel
Benito
Juarez Infirmary - Part Three page 287 - Don Benito Juarez was
an heroic leader of Mexico
Venus flytrap -
Chapter 99 page 294 - how this curious plant
got its name
Copernicus - Chapter 99 page
294 - a brief biography of this genius
Charles Darwin -
Chapter 99 page 294 - a brief biography
An introduction to Bonsai -
Chapter 99 - page 294 - more about this Japanese art
"Love
is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any
believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?" - Chapter 99
page 297 - Pi gets to the heart of the matter. "But be excessively
reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater" -
Chapter 99 page 298
Tempura -
Chapter 99 page 298 - was brought to Japan by Portuguese missionaries
Oika
Shipping Company - Chapter 99 page 301 - the name of the shipping company is
possibly derived from the Greek kyriake oika,
from which the word "Church" is derived - "House of the Lord",
with oika
meaning "house".
Most famous modern use - perestroika
"You
want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless
factuality" - Chapter 99 page 302 - sublime
"He
was such an evil man. Worse still, he met evil in me - selfishness, anger,
ruthlessness" - perhaps a reworking of Cain and Abel, the first
murder?
"In
my experience, when a dingy, third-rate rust-bucket sinks, unless it has the
luck of carrying oil, lots of it, enough to kill entire ecosystems, no one
cares and no one hears about it" - Chapter 99 page 312 - Pi's cynicism
here sounds more like that of an older man's
"The
story with the animals is the better story" - Chapter 99 page 317.
Although I believe that Life of Pi utilises aspects of the Book of
Genesis, it's important to remember that the Theory of Evolution is also a
story that features animals, and that Yann Martel also defends scientific as
well as religious faith in Life of Pi. This novel seems concerned, most
of all, with the importance of Faith (no matter what God you believe in)
Adrift in the
Pacific with a Bengal Tiger – Marcia Goin presents the psychiatric view
Losing your faith increases
your risk of death - for people with serious illness, that is
The Essence and
Importance of Faith - Rosemary Ellen Guiley's view
The Importance of
Faith - by Bishop Tim Sowersby
Planets
of Faith - by Swami BG Narasingha
On the
Importance of Faith - Raimundo Panikkar's view
Understanding
the Importance of Faith - an article written about Islam Awareness
Week
All in
the same boat - George Sranko's fable proves how attractive the
lifeboat is for fabulists
The
Impossible Voyage of Noah's Ark - I am not sure if Life of
Pi makes me believe in God, but it has created a yearning in me to read
the bible.
William Hill suspends betting on Booker Prize – how
Yann Martel was ‘accidentally’ declared winner days before the actual ceremony.
Just as well that he won then
Third
Time Lucky - Aida Edemariam interviews Yann Martel for The
Guardian. Moacyr Scliar is mentioned in the Foreword of Life of Pi
because he wrote a book where a Jew ended up in a lifeboat with a black
panther. Which has led to Yann
Martel accused of Plagiarism - the author of the Book of Genesis is
seriously considering taking legal action tonight, blah blah blah, Literary Storm
swirls around Martel. Canadian
book raises hackles in Brazil - was the review of Max and the Cats by
John Updike, and in which publication? In May
Richard Parker always be by your side, Yann Martel answers these
criticisms. I still think God should sue - I mean who originally came up
with the idea of having animals on a lifeboat. It was God... or was it
Lord Vishnu?
Yann Martel
relishes the Booker Prize - "In some ways, being a writer is the
most wonderful profession in the world. I spent four years waking up in the
morning thinking 'OK, what's happening today with my tiger?'"
New
Statesman – Yann Martel writes about the Booker Prize ceremony
Meet
the Writers - Yann Martel tells Barnes & Noble about some of
his favourite things
Ask Booker
Prize Winner Yann Martel - Yann Martel answers questions from readers
Easy
as Pi - DeNeen L. Brown interviews Yann Martel for the Washington Post
A Life as simple as Pi -
Emily Bearn jots down the clichés for her interview with Yann Martel
Another
Slice of Pi – Alan Taylor interviews Yann Martel
Pandora
– Yann Martel talks to The Independent about writing the follow-up to “Life of
Pi”
Writing is a kind of
happiness – Yann Martel talks to Shiri Lev-Ari from Haaretz.com
How do you
picture the Life of Pi? – Yann Martel talks to Zoe Paxton about the
competition to illustrate a new edition of “Life of Pi”, which has been
launched by British publishers Canongate and “The Times”. My first reaction is that you couldn’t
possibly surpass the cover that Andy Bridge had originally done for the iconic
Canongate edition that went on to win the Booker Prize in 2002. However, Yann Martel has encountered
some quite novel interpretations of the novel from the general public, and it
appears that the competition is aimed at encouraging the reader to progress
from their birth and to crawl around a little, a la Roland Barthes. Only one winner will be chosen to illustrate
the novel 25 black and white plates, and 6 plates in full colour. The contract with Canongate will be
worth £5,000.00 to the winner.
Details on how to enter can be found here. Local
Artist Vies for Pi – this article from “Inside Toronto” gives an idea of
how the process is going so far
A brush with
the art of Pi – Yann Martel writes about the competition to illustrate “The
Life of Pi”, and reveals that Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac is the winner
Coming
back to Saskatoon – Yann Martel talks to Joanne Paulson about his latest
move
Montreal
plays host to the world’s literary lights – Yann Martel talks a great deal
about his next novel, “Twentieth Century Shirt”, in this article
Jeremy
Peter Allen and Serge Houde teach us “Manners of Dying” – the director and
lead actor talk about film Yann Martel’s story
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