As school continues to slowly progress through its monotony like a river filled with molasses, I found time to ponder the human existence. It was an experience that started back in January (or was it December? I can't remember) and has led me on a fruitful journey up until this past week. Of course, such an experience could only come from a book, for I know of no other medium that could examine such an issue so in depthly and prolifically. That book is Yann Martel's, The Life of Pi.
First off, I know that Hollywood has stolen this great work and has attempted to string some lights and flashy special effects to it in hopes of making it more appealing. To that, my literary heart breaks because the novel itself is far more appealing and beautiful than anything Hollywood can shop together in their studios. This may just be the purest in me (actually, it is), but The Life of Pi is a stunning work that gently draws the reader into a young boy's life and then refuses to release its grasp until the very end.
At its essence, the story is about the life of Piscine Molitor Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry where his father owns a zoo. When his family decides to move to Canada, they set out on a voyage that ends in a horrific and unexplained sinking of the ship, leaving Pi stranded on a lifeboat with only one other companion: a full grown Bengal Tiger. From the opening pages of the novel, the reader gets a sense that Pi is a boy who's thoughts consume him more than anything else. He often makes deep spiritual connections with the zoo animals his father has and the world and ideologies around him. It must be stated now because it's practically unavoidable, but this novel will force you to think (and to think critically at that). At one of the more amusing parts of the novel, Pi becomes a Christian, Hindu, and Muslim all at the same time due to his curiosity of each religion. He doesn't understand the contradiction that these three pose to each other, but rather, views them as all parts of a unified God.
If anything, this work is intending to explore the existence of God and the multifarious religions and worldviews that saturate this world. Pi attempts to synthesize these parts into something he can understand which is what makes the novel so fascinating. He isn't a boy searching for one Utopian religion or something to unify the world, but just trying to figure out his own life.
It's interesting that I chose two works to read that so closely compliment, yet contradict, each other. I'm of course referring to Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, where the novella seems to be a very nihilistic and naturalistic look at life. The Old Man who plays the protagonist in Hemingway's work, views the events occurring around him as "just happening", because the universe is indifferent to man and on the whole, cares not for his existence. As for Pi and his boat, there is a reason and harmony to why he is in his situation. He looks for a God and tries to understand Him. It's a journey that reflects our own lives so clearly that the reader can't help but see a small part of him in Pi.
There is far more to the work than just spirituality if that's what the reader's tentative of. Though the philosophy is one that is filled with spiritual notions, there are plenty of other characters and moments that examine other outlooks on life. There is something in this novel for everyone from the apathetic Christian to the devout Atheist, and is still worth investing in.
-- Zach
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
The Yellow Wallpaper
Avid readers and faithful fans, I would like to welcome you all back to another episode of Whiskey Before Breakfast. I do apologize for the delay, but with the start of a new semester many events and outings have been brought to the table thus, sucking away any time to write for this blog. Luckily I am taking an American Literature class so if my laziness proves to be a hindrance on my outside reading, then at least this class will force me to have some content. I would like to thank you all again for being such great fans and lovers of books for without you, Spence and I are nothing more than semi-established authors.
Since I mentioned American Literature in the previous paragraph I find it somewhat fitting to review a story from that class. This short story is fresh in my mind and still haunts me in the late hours of the night. American author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman published The Yellow Wallpaper in 1892 and ever since, set the feminist discussion into motion. Now, before you disregard this work as propaganda for women's rights, let me say that this story is chilling. It revolves around a compilation of journal entries written by an unknown woman who is locked away in her bedroom due to a severe nervous depression or "hysteria". The woman's husband, along with her physician, believe that the lack of interactions with people and the absence of intellectual stimulation will eventually cure her. Of course, they are unaware of her journal writings. As the story progresses the reader begins to see the slow dip into insanity that this woman is taking as her entries become more fantastical and all the more horrifying.
If Poe had a female voice this would be it. If Stephen King was born at the turn of the century this would be his story. I say this because there are many elements of the psycho-deterioration of one's mind where Poe and King find the most horrific stories to thrive. I found myself remembering Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart and kept expecting this woman to hear heart beats and begin tearing up floor boards. In fact, there are some instances of her insanity manifesting themselves in the room and around the house. Throughout the story the woman refers to the wallpaper around her room to be disgusting and oblique. This drives her up the wall (pun intended) to the point where she spends hours a day just staring at the paper, trying to understand its pattern. Again, as her sanity begins to fade, she starts to believe that a woman lives behind the wallpaper and at night she wanders around the room in the moonlight.
The ending to the story is as eerie as you would expect. Yet, at the same time, there is a fairly strong feminist message in all of this, as I mentioned earlier. At the time, physicians and experts hadn't fully understood postpartum depression so they believed that women who suffered from it shouldn't be allowed to stimulate their intellect or any part of their brain for that matter. That, of course, escalated the situation and Gilman attempts to expose that truth by alluding to her own struggles with depression in this story. By rebelling and writing in a journal, the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper is attempting to save the little sanity that she has left.
Reading classic American Literature will never hurt anyone and to be honest, it has far more substance that most of the trash that makes it to the shelves these days (I'm looking at you Hunger Games). Educate yourself and pick up The Yellow Wallpaper today.
-- Zach
Since I mentioned American Literature in the previous paragraph I find it somewhat fitting to review a story from that class. This short story is fresh in my mind and still haunts me in the late hours of the night. American author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman published The Yellow Wallpaper in 1892 and ever since, set the feminist discussion into motion. Now, before you disregard this work as propaganda for women's rights, let me say that this story is chilling. It revolves around a compilation of journal entries written by an unknown woman who is locked away in her bedroom due to a severe nervous depression or "hysteria". The woman's husband, along with her physician, believe that the lack of interactions with people and the absence of intellectual stimulation will eventually cure her. Of course, they are unaware of her journal writings. As the story progresses the reader begins to see the slow dip into insanity that this woman is taking as her entries become more fantastical and all the more horrifying.
If Poe had a female voice this would be it. If Stephen King was born at the turn of the century this would be his story. I say this because there are many elements of the psycho-deterioration of one's mind where Poe and King find the most horrific stories to thrive. I found myself remembering Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart and kept expecting this woman to hear heart beats and begin tearing up floor boards. In fact, there are some instances of her insanity manifesting themselves in the room and around the house. Throughout the story the woman refers to the wallpaper around her room to be disgusting and oblique. This drives her up the wall (pun intended) to the point where she spends hours a day just staring at the paper, trying to understand its pattern. Again, as her sanity begins to fade, she starts to believe that a woman lives behind the wallpaper and at night she wanders around the room in the moonlight.
The ending to the story is as eerie as you would expect. Yet, at the same time, there is a fairly strong feminist message in all of this, as I mentioned earlier. At the time, physicians and experts hadn't fully understood postpartum depression so they believed that women who suffered from it shouldn't be allowed to stimulate their intellect or any part of their brain for that matter. That, of course, escalated the situation and Gilman attempts to expose that truth by alluding to her own struggles with depression in this story. By rebelling and writing in a journal, the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper is attempting to save the little sanity that she has left.
Reading classic American Literature will never hurt anyone and to be honest, it has far more substance that most of the trash that makes it to the shelves these days (I'm looking at you Hunger Games). Educate yourself and pick up The Yellow Wallpaper today.
-- Zach
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