Tales of Pi # 8

Pi admits that he came out of his ‘gloomy and sad state’ by devoting himself to the study of religion and zoology. Both of these subjects play a dominant role in his life. He gives the reasons why he chose the sloth as the subject of his zoological study. Sloths are ‘calm, quiet and introspective’. Yann Martel then embarks on a journey to describe the sloths in detail. My above post talks about one member in RR who is a keen observer of nature. I think that’s one thing we all miss in our lives. To stop and gaze at the world passing by. There is one similarity between Yann Martel’s life when he visited India and Pi’s life in Canada – both of them had a ‘shattered self’. With one failed book behind him, Martel – then merely an aspiring writer – spent six months in south India in 1996. He visited Trivandrum Zoo, where he interviewed its director, observed the tigers, and ate French toast in the Indian Coffee House just across the road. The Life of Pi started to emerge in a “smashed up, kaleidoscopic” way.                                        

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/oct/29/india.bookerprize2002 As we listen to the soul-stirring OST of Mychael Danna, we feel the slowness of life. Pi quoting a zoologist writes that the sloths reminded him of the ‘upside-down yogis deep in meditation or hermits deep in prayer, wise beings whose intense imaginative lives were beyond the reach of my scientific probing’(P#5). It is quite unfortunate that in the movie Zootopia, the sloth is made a butt of ridicule and it contradicts the notes on sloth by Pi. ‘The three-toed sloth lives in a peaceful, vegetarian life in perfect harmony with its environment. A good-natured smile is forever on its lips’’ (P# 4)