Life of Pi Magic Realism 1 Beckett 2020

Yann Martel blends a bit of reality with his fiction. He is BOTH the writer and a character in the book. Throughout the book, the parts in italics are Martel’s character talking Another tricky bit: The Author’s Note The author’s note is mostly fiction. There is no Francis Adirubasamy. But… Moacyr Scilar is real. He wrote a book called Max and the Cats about a man escaping Nazi Germany when a boat sinks and he is on a dinghy with a Jaguar. Yann Martel did eventually write a book set in Portugal: The High Mountains of Portugal (2016)

Average Joe • Ordinary, average, every-day Joe Schmoes (or Jane Schmanes). • Pi at the beginning of the story • An academic? • Both a zoologist and a religious scholar (5). • A typical immigrant family man in Canada—in Scarborough (7) • A great cook, he hordes food (25) • A sense of humour, Pi feeds Martel spicy food which tortures his stomach like a “boa constrictor that has swallowed a lawn mower (43) • He has two kids and a wife who is a pharmacist

Fractured, Circular, Narrative • The text is a bit of a mystery, we know the ending at the start: Pi survives! “This story has a happy ending” (99). • We hear about Richard Parker right at the beginning although we have no idea he is a tiger. “Richard Parker has stayed with me. I’ve never forgotten him” (6).

Part 3… • At the end of Part 2 Pi seems completely done his tale. “And there my story ends, ” (Martel, 286) • Recall… The writer narrator (Yann Martel the character) tells us in the prologue that he “received a tape and a report from the Japanese Ministry of Transport. It was as I listened to that tape that agreed with Mr. Adirubasmy that this was, indeed, a story to make you believe in God. ” • He also, thanks a Japanese diplomat, an employee of Oika shipping company, and the Japanese minister of Transport. • MAGIC REALISM ALERT: Fractured narrative (heavy foreshadowing and a back and forth, end at the beginning, beginning at the end

You want dry, yeastless factuality… (the Japanese Minister of Transport…) • After finally landing on the beach in Mexico, Pi is taken to a hospital to recover. • Japanese officials meet with him to attempt to ascertain the reason the boat sank • They flatly reject Pi’s story with the fantastic magic of a menagerie of animals including a Bengal Tiger, meeting another blind castaway in the Pacific, and a carnivorous island. • They want to hear the facts… just the facts!

What is Part 3 – it is horrifying • The other story: • “You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make your see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless, factuality, ” (Martel 302) • MAGIC REALISM ALERT: authorial reticence and reliable narratives • The retelling of the story (303 -310) • The horror, the horror • • The Chinese sailor The cook The mother Pi

What are we to believe? • This goes into the authorial reticence part of Life of Pi. • Next week’s talk…