[About a Boy] Ponderings

I love the page number format (check out the sample pages on Amazon).

Will and Marcus cross paths when they're both in their adolescence -- Marcus his actual adolescence, Will the adolescence afforded to him by his inheritance and lack of responsibilities. They speak with the same voice and have very similar reactions and thought processes -- much as Will tries to deny it. They both oscillate between passivity and aggression, standing up tallest when situations get the hardest to handle.

[I would like to write a bit about the idea that both Marcus and Will are the same person, effectively.]

C2's in media res with the cheesy men's survey introducing Will was a nice touch. The sudden shift from this to Will's own thoughts prove that the protagonist is much more charming than the glossy inanimate pages suggest.

Will's thoughts about children -- from silently condemning his friends' decision to "ruin" their lives by procreating, to recognizing the appeal of [essentially] babysitting and leaving with the sunset, to MARCUS & his strengths/weaknesses when compared to Ellie or Ravi

C3's segue-less narration of Marcus' unorganized thoughts / stream of consciousness style (much like Catcher in the Rye and other good coming-of-age stories) is very effective at setting the scene for his mental state.

It would be neat to be a textbook editor, choosing passages/events and explaining with the "proper" connotations / interpretations (creating ideology)

larder

Consider the idiom "going round the bend" (going crazy, context on p30 suggests). Explain "She'll be coming 'round the mountain..."

I like "on the debit side" in place of "on the down side" (38).

In C7, I like that Marcus can recognize that his father's girlfriend does stupid things but that she is not a stupid person.

I appreciate the threading of acting through Will's parts for a few chapters before meeting Marcus.

Des O'Connor
Crankies
Bing Crosby
David Bowie's duet with Zsa Zsa Gabor
Val Doonican
Cilla Black
Rod Hull and Emu
The Cunts

tetchy

egg-and-cress sandwich?
rounders

avuncular

Brent Cross
matily
barmy
Pet Shop Boys
Prisoner: Cell Block H
James Ellroy
J-cloths
daft (brush-daft?)

I like the phrase "spend the information" (106) since knowledge really is power.

Double Indemnity
The Big Sleep

EastEnders
The Bill
Joe Strummer
nip out
skive
Mr. Blobby
pillock
prat
pulled crackers
International Velvet
Laura Nyro
The Rockford Files
cypher
il ne sait quoi 

p199: nineteen ninety-three VS 1993
Paul Smith
Siouxsie of the Banshees and the Roadrunner
wangle
Drugstore Cowboy
Ryan Giggs
Marks and Spencer sandwiches
The Wasp Factory

p250: things left unfinished propel you forward

doolally
John Major
articulated
GLR
Tesco
Toyah Wilcox

About a Boy quotes

"Finally he spotted a piece of file paper pinned to a classroom door with the word SPAT! scrawled on it in felt-tip pen. The exclamation point put him off. It was trying too hard" (37)

"This wasn't right. He was only a kid. He'd been thinking that more and more recently, as he got older and older. He didn't know why. Maybe it was because, when he really was only a id, he wasn't capable of recognizing it--you had to be a certain age before you realized that you were actually quite young. Or maybe when he was little there was nothing to worry about--five or six years ago his mum never spent half the day shivering under a coat watching stupid cartoons, and even if she had he might not have thought it was anything out of the ordinary" (44).

"The thing was, he could still remember feeling genuinely hopeful, right up until the last minute: Maybe there will be something there, he had thought, maybe I won't lose face" (51).

Hope = Suspending disbelief

"When Will had conceived this fantasy and joined SPAT, he had imagined sweet little children, not children who would be able to track him down and come to his house. He had imagined entering their world, but he hadn't foreseen that they might be able to penetrate his. He was one of life's visitors; he didn't want to be visited" (105).

"Periods of blankness, when he seemed to disappear into his own head completely, were followed by periods when he seemed to be trying to compensate for these absences, and would ask question after question" (116).

"He used loud angry rock music as a replacement for real feelings, rather than as an expression of them, and he didn't even mind very much" (158).

"The boy somehow seemed to be asking for absolutely nothing and absolutely everything all at the same time" (159).

"He was good, Will could see that now. Not good as in obedient and uncomplaining; it was more of a mindset kind of good, where you looked at something like a pile of crap presents and recognized that they were given with love and chosen with care, and that was enough" (181).

"At midnight they sought each other out and kissed, a kiss that was somewhere between cheek and lip, the embarrassed ambiguity hopefully significant" (197).

"He'd rather be an idiot again. He'd had his whole life set up so that nobody's problem was his problem, and now everybody's problem was his problem, and he had no solutions for any of them. So how, precisely, was he, or anybody else he was involved with, better off?" (268)

"There was enough real trouble in the world without having to invent things" (277).

"Whether you felt something, or whether you felt nothing, it didn't matter: your responses were off either way" (284).

"'It doesn't matter how far you fall if it makes you think, does it?'" (298)

A few bridges I skipped over...

A Curious Incident... to ...New Spring: A Novel

blah blah blah

New Spring: A Novel... to ...A Memory of Light

blah blah blah

A Memory of Light... to ...About a Boy

blah blah blah

[The Curious Incident...]

apocryphal:
snooker:
invigilator:
Dune
Blake's 7
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
roisterer: 
The Masqueraders
plaster
The Strand

Occam's razor

Chaos How the Mind Works
saccades 
planisphere
The 11th Hour
skip
tesselate


"The word metaphor...is when you describe something by using a word for something that it isn't. This means that the word metaphor is a metaphor" (15).


What is life but a repetition, a recycled existence?
These footsteps in the sand I leave behind quickly disappear with the tide;
How quickly was yesterday's evidence washed away?

"Mrs. Alexander was doing what is called chatting, where people say things to each other which aren't questions and answers aren't connected" (40).


"People think that alien spaceships would be solid and made of metal and have lights all over them and move slowly through the sky because that is how we would build a spaceship if we were able to build one that big. But aliens, if they exist, would probably be very different from us. They might look like big slugs, or be flat like reflections. Or they might be bigger than planets. Or they might not have bodies at all. They might just be information, like in a computer. And their spaceships might look like clouds, or be made up of unconnected objects like dust or leaves" (69).


"But I don't feel sad about it. Becuase Mother is dead....So I would be feeling sad about something that isn't real and doesn't exist. And that would be stupid" (75).


CONSIDER HOW CHRISTOPHER'S VARIANT OF IMAGINATION RELATES THE THE "NORMAL" FACULTY (COMPARE WORDS IN C. 113 VS C. 127)
"Other people have pictures in their heads, too. But they are different because the pictures in my head are all pictures of things which really happened. But other people have pictures in their heads of things which aren't real and didn't happen" (78).

"I like imagining that I am there sometimes, in a spherical metal submersible with windows that are 30 cm thick to stop them from imploding under the pressure. And I imagine that I am the only person inside it, and that it is not connected to a ship at all but can operate under its own power and I can control the motors and move anywhere I want to on the seabed and I can never be found" (80).

[ALSO THE WORDS ABOUT THE "COMPUTER VIRUS" WIPING OUT PEOPLE]



"Loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth" (87).


CHRISTOPHER IS VERY CASUAL WITH THE WORD "STUPID" - WHY?

"White noise...is like silence but not empty" (103).

[policeman's] Uniform = purpose, order  

CONSIDER CHRISTOPHER'S LOVE OF THE SUBLIME (OUTER SPACE, DEEP OCEAN, SKY) DESPITE HIS INABILITY TO EXPRESS THE WONDER

TELEPATHY WOULD LEAD TO AUTISM IF NO COPING MECHANISM WAS CREATED TO SORT/DISREGARD/IGNORE SOME STIMULI. (ALSO CONSIDER NPR PROGRAM RE: INFANTS' PERSPECTIVE ON THE WORLD)

"Take time out to regret your career choice" (an advertisement in the Tube, mentioned on 175)

[The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time] ... before the book

I am not sure where I picked up this book -- a copy from Mom or perhaps something taken home from a book exchange then promptly forgotten. Either way, this book has been in my possession for some time and my motivation to read it is actually (should I feel guilty for this?) because I'm trying to clear off my bookshelves and this one fulfills one of the requirements for my Goodreads reading challenge ("Read a book by an author you've never read before"). Here goes...

Bridge from [Pi] to [Curious]

COLORS/FAITH/BELIEFS/NUMBERS -- LIFE OF PI *VS* CURIOUS INCIDENT

Colors:
Orange = Hindu,
Green = Islam,
White = Christianity

"The vestibule had clean, white walls; the table and benches were of dark wood; and the priest was dressed in a white cassock -- it was all neat, plain, simple. I was filled with a sense of peace. But more than the setting, what arrested me was my intuitive understanding that he was there -- open, patient -- in case someone, anyone, should want to talk to him; a problem of the soul, a heaviness of the heart, a darkness of the conscience, he would listen with love. He was a man whose profession it was to love, and he would offer comfort and guidance to the best of his ability" (Pi, 52)

Yellow BAD: custard, bananas, double yellow lines, yellow fever, yellow flowers, sweet corn
Brown BAD: dirt, gravy, poo, wood, Melissa Brown (Curious, 84)
Red GOOD

Faith/Religion/Beliefs

"Reason, that fool's gold for the bright" (Pi, 5) DISCUSS

"The individual soul touches upon the world soul like a well reaches for the water table. That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression, is the same thing. The finite within the infinite, the infinite within the finite" (Pi, 48-9).

"I can well imagine an atheist's last words: "White, white! L-L-Love! My God!" -- and the deathbed leap of faith. 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" (Pi, 64).

"I am to suffer hell without any account of heaven? In that case, what is the purpose of reason, Richard Parker? Is it no more than to shine at practicalities -- the getting of food, clothing, and shelter? Why can't reason give greater answers? Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer?" (Pi, 98)


"If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn't love hard to believe?" (Pi, 297)

"Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater" (Pi, 298).

"I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality" (Pi, 302).

"What actually happens when you die is that your brain stops working and your body rots, like Rabbit did when he died and we buried him in the earth at the bottom of the garden. And all his molecules were broken down into other molecules and they went into the earth and were eaten by worms and went into the plants and if we go and dig in the same place in 10 years there will be nothing except his skeleton left. And in 1,000 years even his skeleton will be gone. But that is all right because he is a part of the flowers and the apple tree and the hawthorn bush now" (Curious, 33).

"People believe in God because the world is very complicated and they thing it is very unlikely that anything as complicated as a flying squirrel or the human eye or a brain could happen by chance... (Curious, 164)

"If everyone in the world was tossing coins eventually someone would get 5,698 heads in a row and they would think they were very special. But they wouldn't be because there would be millions of people who didn't get 5,698 heads... (Curious, 164)

"There is life on earth because of an accident. But it is a very special kind of accident" that requires replication, mutation, and heritability (Curious, 164-5).

"And people who believe in God think God has put human beings on the earth because they think human beings are the best animal, but human beings are just an animal and they will evolve into another animal, and that animal will be cleverer and it will put human beings into a disease" (Curious, 165).

Numbers

"In that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge" (Pi, 24) & "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" (Pi, 285)

"I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them" (Curious, 12).

Beauty in the Everyday

"People go on holidays to see new things and relax, but...you can see new things by looking at earth under a microscope or drawing the shape of the solid made when 3 circular rods of equal thickness intersect at right angles....A thing is interesting because of thinking about it and not because of being new" (Curious, 178).

"Every morning before I was out the main gate I had one last impression that was both ordinary and unforgettable: a pyramid of turtles; the iridescent snout of a mandrill; the stately silence of a giraffe; the obese, yellow open mouth of a hippo; the beak-and-claw climbing of a macaw parrot up a wire fence; the greeting claps of a shoebill's bill; the senile, lecherous expression of a camel" (Pi, 14-5). FIND EXAMPLES IN YOUR OWN LIFE

 "You are as likely to see sea life from a ship as you are to see wildlife in a forest from a car on a highway" (Pi, 176). SLOW DOWN!

"I sang that tree's glory, its solid, unhurried purity, its slow beauty. Oh, that I could be like it, rooted to the ground but with my every hand raised up to God in praise!" (Pi, 260)


Time

 "If you don't have a timetable time is not there....because time is only the relationship between the way different things change, like the earth going round the sun and atoms vibrating and clocks ticking and day and night and waking up and going to sleep, and it is like west or nor-nor-east, which won't exist when the earth stops existing and falls into the sun because it is only a relationship between the North Pole and the South Pole and everywhere else" (Curious, 156-7).

"If you get lost in time it is like being lost in a desert, except that you can't see the desert because it is not a thing" (Curious, 158) CONSIDER THE INTANGIBILITY OF TIME (MADE MANIFEST IN WATCHES, SUNDIALS -- HUMANITY ACHES TO CAPTURE IT/CHAIN IT TO THE EARTH)

[Life of Pi], pt. 3

"If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn't love hard to believe?" (297)

"Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater" (298).

"In understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?" (302)

"I know what you want. You want a story that won't surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won't make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality" (302).

[Life of Pi], pt2 -- discussion of themes and quotations

"The hyena, with only its jaws, will overcome the ape because it knows what it wants and how to get it" (130). PERSONAL MOTIVATION FROM NATURE

CHAPTER 48 tells of how Richard Parker got his name. It's these silly anecdotes that really draw me to stories; I need to include "inconsequential" details in my own writing.

"Only fear can defeat life" (161). DISCUSS

NOTE HOW ZOOLOGY INFUSES HIS METAPHORS (JUST AS MINE WOULD LIKELY BE PEPPERED BY THD/HOME IMPROVEMENT THEMES).

 "You are as likely to see sea life from a ship as you are to see wildlife in a forest from a car on a highway" (176). SLOW DOWN!


 

[Life of Pi], pt2 -- clarification of terms

tarpaulin
cataleptic
catholicity
durian
fistula
insouciant
chandler
masala dosai
coconut chutney
oothappam
idli
rufous
Kathakali dancer
oestrous
sextant
gaff
ambit
tilak
barnacle
lassi
poriyal
kootu
cardamom payasam
dhal soup
thali
bailing cup
gulab jamun
curmudgeonly
tubercle
gregarious
masked booby
Wilson's petrel
sambar (spicy tamarind / small onion)
black gram dhal rice
curd rice
mixed vegetable sagu
vegetable korma
potato masala
cabbage vadai
masala dosai
spicy lentil rasam
stuffed eggplant poriyal
coconut yam kootu
rice idli
curd vadai
vegetable bajji
mint chutney
green chilli pickle
gooseberry pickle
nan
popadom
paratha
puri
mango curd salad
okra curd salad
plain fresh cucumber salad
almond payasam
milk payasam
jaggery pancake
coconut burfi
green as the color of Islam
orange as the color of Hindi
mangrove
mango tree
lote tree
commensal
lee

[Life of Pi], pt2 -- memorable quotes

"I am to suffer hell without any account of heaven? In that case, what is the purpose of reason, Richard Parker? Is it no more than to shine at practicalities -- the getting of food, clothing, and shelter? Why can't reason give greater answers? Why can we throw a question further than we can pull in an answer?" (98)

"Come aboard if your destination is oblivion -- it should be our next stop" (99).

"When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival" (120).

"I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion" (123).

"Oncoming death is terrible enough, but worse still is oncoming death with time to spare, time in which all the happiness that was yours and all the happiness that might have been yours becomes clear to you" (147).



"If your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you" (162).

"Despair, a foe even more formidable than a tiger" (164).

"If you have the will to live, you will" (167).

"To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one's life away" (169).


WRITE OF A PAST WORLD 50-100 YEARS AFTER A PARADIGM SHIFT.


"Faith in God is an opening up, a letting go, a deep trust, a free act of love" (208).

"At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far" (233).

"I sang that tree's glory, its solid, unhurried purity, its slow beauty. Oh, that I could be like it, rooted to the ground but with my every hand raised up to God in praise!" (260)

"The lower you are, the higher your mind will want to soar" (283).

"Where we can, we must give things a meaningful shape....It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse" (285).

[Life of Pi], pt1 -- discussion of themes and quotations

Pi's names: Piscine Molitor VS Pissing VS Pi

"Reason, that fool's gold for the bright" (5) DISCUSS

"Every morning before I was out the main gate I had one last impression that was both ordinary and unforgettable: a pyramid of turtles; the iridescent snout of a mandrill; the stately silence of a giraffe; the obese, yellow open mouth of a hippo; the beak-and-claw climbing of a macaw parrot up a wire fence; the greeting claps of a shoebill's bill; the senile, lecherous expression of a camel" (14-5). FIND EXAMPLES IN YOUR OWN LIFE

 "It was my luck to have a few good teachers in my youth, men and women who came into my dark head and lit a match" (25). WHO WERE THESE TEACHERS FOR YOU?

"Mr. Kumar was the first avowed atheist I ever met. I discovered this not in the classroom but at the zoo. He was a regular visitor who read the labels and descriptive notices in their entirety and approved of every animal he saw. Each to him was a triumph of logic and mechanics, and nature as a whole was an exceptionally fine illustration of science. To his ears, when an animal felt the urge to mate, it said "Gregor Mendel", recalling the father of genetics, and when it was time to show its mettle, "Charles Darwin", the father of natural selection, and what we took to be bleating, grunting, hissing, snorting, roaring, growling, howling, chirping and screeching were but the thick accents of foreigners. When Mr. Kumar visited the zoo, it was to take the pulse of the universe, and his stethoscopic mind always confirmed to him that everything was in order, that everything was order. He left the zoo feeling scientifically refreshed" (25-6). ATTEMPT TO REPRODUCE THIS TECHNIQUE, WHERE A PERSON'S PERSPECTIVE AFFECTS OBSERVATIONS

 "That is God as God should be. With shine and power and might. Such as can rescue and save and put down evil" (55). SUPERHEROES VS HINDUISM V JUNGIAN ARCHETYPES

"Mr. and Mr. Kumar were the prophets of my Indian youth" (61). WHO WERE THE PROPHETS OF MY YOUTH?

"The [baptism] water trickled down my face and down my neck; though just a beaker's worth, it had the refreshing effect of a monsoon rain" (77). A STRANGE JUXTAPOSITION, WHAT WITH A MONSOON BEING A HEAVY, TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR WITH STRONG WINDS THAT LASTS FOR A LONG TIME -- THESE CONDITIONS BEING DESTRUCTIVE AND FREQUENTLY FATAL. IS THIS TO SAY YOU MUST OPEN YOURSELF TO RELIGION, WITH ALL ITS BENEFITS AND DETRIMENTS; YOU CANNOT PICK & CHOOSE WHICH PARTS OF IT TO ACCEPT BUT MUST ACCEPT IT ALL?

"People move in the hope of a better life" (77). CONSIDER YOUR MOVES.

"Strange in a familiar way, familiar in a strange way" (82) USED TO DESCRIBE MEETING THE FIRST MR. PATEL IN THE ZOO AFTER A LONG STRETCH OF TIME (MUCH OF WHICH WAS SPENT WITH THE SECOND MR. PATEL)

[Life of Pi], pt1 -- clarification of terms

A few ideas/terms I wanted clarified.

People


Isaac Luria's cosmogony theory

• Isaac Luria (1534-1572) was a renowned Kabbalist whose OT/Zohar-based theories were "literally validated" by the Big Bang theory four centuries later.

Kapil Dev: famous cricket player in India during the 1970s and '80s

Mrs. (Indira) Gandhi was the third Prime Minister of India, serving several terms between 1966-1984!

maharaja: Sanskrit for "great king"

muezzin: A man who calls Muslims to prayer from the minaret of a mosque

Places


Tamil Nadu: southernmost state in India

Kerala: A state on the southwestern coast of India; capital, Trivandrum

Tata tea factory: Tata group has been around since 1868 and ventured into the tea world in 1962

Religious (and Philosophic) ideas

mori painting

•  A genre of artwork created to remind people of their mortality

samskara: A purificatory ceremony or rite marking a major event in one's life (examples below)

• Garbhadhana: before conception
• Pumsavana: in third (or so) month of pregnancy
• Simanatonnayana: in fourth or fifth month of a woman's first pregnancy
• Jatakarman: shortly after birth
• Namakarana: naming ceremony performed the 12th day after birth
• Nishkramana: baby's first outing from the house (usually fourth month or later)
• Annaprashan: baby's first solid food (six months old) 
• Chudakarana: baby's first haircut
• Karnavedha: ear-piercing cermony
• Vidyarambha: commencement of studies (three or five years old) 
• Upanayana: attainment of sacred thread (eight years old)
• Praisharth: learning of Vedas and Upanishads
• Keshanta: first shave (16)
• Ritusuddhi: first menstruation
• Samavartana: graduation
• Vivaha: marriage 
• Antyeshti: last rites

bhajans: an Indian devotional song

prasad: food offered to a deity in both Hinduism and Sikhism which is consumed by worshippers

Aarti: "a Hindu religious ritual of worship, a part of puja, in which light from wicks soaked in ghee (purified butter) or camphor is offered to one or more deities. Aartis also refer to the songs sung in praise of the deity, when lamps are being offered"

cassock: full-length garment of a single color worn by certain Christian clergy, members of church choirs, and acolytes

Diwali: A Hindu festival of lights, held in the period October to November.

The Imitation of Christ: Christian devotional text. "The approach taken in the Imitation is characterized by its emphasis on the interior life and withdrawal from the world, as opposed to an active imitation of Christ by other friars. The book places a high level of emphasis on the devotion to the Eucharist as key element of spiritual life."

Flora and Fauna

sambar : A dark brown woodland deer with branched antlers (Cervus unicolor)
            : a South Indian or Sri Lankan Tamil dish made of pigeon peas

Nilgiri tahr: an ungulate endemic to southern India; state animal of Tamil Nadu

mynah: Asian and Australasian starling with dark plumage, gregarious behavior, and a loud call

Moluccan cockatoo: a bird endemic to south Moluccas in eastern Indonesia

one-wattled cassowary: a large, stocky flightless bird

silver diamond dove: a particular color (mutation) of a dove

Cape glossy starling: A blue bird found in several African countries

peach-faced lovebird: a social and affectionate small parrot

Nanday conures: a

orange-fronted parakeets: a

macaques: a

mangabeys: a

gibbons: a

tapirs: a

mongooses: a

mandrills: a

shoebills: a

the "lecherous expression of a camel": a

ungulates: a

peepuls: a

gulmohurs: a

flames of the forest: a

red silk cottons: a

jacarandas: a

mangoes: a

jackfruits: a

stoat: a


Miscellany

nadaswaram: "one of the most popular classical musical instruments in the Tamil Nadu and the world's loudest non-brass acoustic instrument" (listen here)

chapatti: flat pancake-like bread cooked on a griddle


bullock cart: two-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen

ineluctably: Inescapably; by necessity

apoplectic: Overcome with anger; extremely indignant

raiments: clothing

[Life of Pi], p1 -- memorable quotes

"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity -- it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud" (6).

"...a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he's not careful" (6).

"But language founders in such seas. Better to picture it in your head if you want to feel it" (15).

"...in that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge" (24).

 "Life will defend itself no matter how small it is" (38).

"Memory is an ocean and he bobs on its surface" (42).

"Progress is unstoppable. It is a drumbeat to which we all must march" (74).

 
On (animal) behavior

 "In a zoo, when an animal is not in its normal place in its regular posture at the usual hour, it means something" (17).

"In a zoo, we do for animals what we have done for ourselves with houses: we bring together in a small space what in the wild is spread out....A house is a compressed territory where our basic needs can be fulfilled close by and safely" (17-8).

 "Repetition is important in the training not only of animals but also of humans" (23).

 "I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both" (19).

 "Much hostile and aggressive behaviour among animals is the expression of social insecurity. The animal in front of you must know where it stands, whether above you or below you. Social rank is central to how it leads its life. Rank determines whom it can associate with and how; where and when it can eat; where it can rest; where it can drink; and so on. Until it knows its rank for certain, the animal lives a life of unbearable anarchy" (43-4).

"Hediger (1950) says, 'When two creatures meet, the one that is able to intimidate its opponent is recognized as socially superior, so that a social decision does not always depend on a fight; an encounter in some circumstances may be enough'" (44).

"Socially inferior animals are the ones that make the most strenuous, resourceful efforts to get to know their keepers. They prove to be the ones most faithful to them, most in need of their company, least likely to challenge them or be difficult" (45).

"All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive" (41).

"Animals that escape go from the known into the unknown -- and if there is one thing an animal hates above all else, it is the unknown" (41).

"It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names" (20).

On faith

"I said nothing. It wasn't for fear of angering Mr. Kumar. I was more afraid that in a few words thrown out he might destroy something that I loved. What if his words had the effect of polio on me? What a terrible disease that must be if it could kill God in a man" (28).

"Atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them - and then they leap" (28).

"We all must pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation" (28).

 "We are all born like Catholics, aren't we -- in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God? After that meeting the matter ends for most of us. If there is a change, it is usually for the lesser rather than the greater; many people seem to lose God along life's way" (47).

"Brahman saguna is Brahman made manifest to our limited senses, Brahman expressed not only in gods but in humans, animals, trees, in a handful of earth, for everything has a trace of the divine in it. The truth of life is that Brahman is no different from atman, the spiritual force within us, what you might call the soul. The individual soul touches upon the world soul like a well reaches for the water table. That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression, is the same thing. The finite within the infinite, the infinite within the finite" (48-9). .

"I am reminded of a story of Lord Krishna when he was a cowherd. Every night he invites the milkmaids to dance with him in the forest. They come and they dance. The night is dark, the fire in their midst roars and crackles, the beat of the music gets ever faster -- the girls dance and dance and dance with their sweet lord, who has made himself so abundant as to be in the arms of each and every girl. But the moment the girls become possessive, the moment each one imagines that Krishna is her partner alone, he vanishes. So it is that we should not be jealous with God" (49).

"...Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims" (50).

"If Hinduism flows placidly like the Ganges, then Christianity bustles like Toronto at rush hour. It is a religion as swift as a swallow, as urgent as an ambulance. It turns on a dime, expresses itself in the instant. In a moment you are lost or saved. Christianity stretches back through the ages, but in essence it exists only at one time: right now" (57).

"'If you take two steps toward God,' he used to tell me, 'God runs to you!'" (61)

"I can well imagine an atheist's last words: "White, white! L-L-Love! My God!" -- and the deathbed leap of faith. 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" (64).

"There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless....These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defence, not God's that the self-righteous should rush" (70-1).

Goodreads' Neverending Quiz, Day 1

GoodReads' neverending quiz tells me:

1. I need to reread The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (and other Coleridge just to be safe).
2. I know nothing about Nancy Drew books.
3. I should read The Time Traveler's Wife.
4. Perhaps I should take a look at All the King's Men as well.
5. I want to read some Ian Fleming and watch Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.
6. It's past time to read Rebecca.
7. I need to read Mrs. Dalloway.
8. It's time to check out stuff by Anais Nin and Henry Miller.
9. I need to read A Tale of Two Cities and Schindler's List.
10. Catch-22 looks like a good read.
11. Anna Karenina (and Les Miserables and War and Peace if we're going with that tone) needs to be read.

[Life of Pi] ... before the read

I'd like to share a few thoughts about the book before I open the front cover.

I chose this book because...

I grabbed this book at Goodwill several months ago and the recent movie (which I have still not seen) reminded me that it still sits on the bookshelf collecting dust. I have loved every bit of Indian culture I've encountered -- from writings on Eastern philosophy ([Tao of Pooh]) to Bollywood movies to saris to [The God of Small Things] -- and am excited to travel back to the country! (I also suspect I can finish this one up in time to read [A Memory of Light] when it releases on January 8.)

The title brings to mind...

...the mathematical principle of π, an idea which has caused centuries of confuzzlement throughout the world. Its seemingly random digits have formed the basis of many nerdy memorization contests (the nerdy equivalent of the staring contest -- itself too difficult to execute from behind Coke-bottle glasses), though no one has been able to harness its true essence. The "life" of pi is a long one without an end in sight.

The author seems...

...like a pretty cool dude, whose mundane "career path" and "useless" degree tempered his writing style and led to this distinguished book. Here's hoping my digestion of fiction and rut of a job lead me down a similar path.

And off we go!