Humanist

Ha no actually I did finish the book. If you read it then you know that it basically had two parts. The philosophical exploration part and then the physical exploration part. The philosophical stuff was what I liked the quotes from and by the time I’d finished the book, I’d forgotten that I’d been posting quotes So much for my word eh?

Thanks for the comment.

Ha no actually I did finish the book. If you read it then you know that it basically had two parts. The philosophical exploration part and then the physical exploration part. The philosophical stuff was what I liked the quotes from and by the time I’d finished the book, I’d forgotten that I’d been posting quotes So much for my word eh?

Thanks for the comment.

“All about was flatness and infinity, an endless panorama of blue.” what page was this?

I hate this book so much. But I do really like the two quotes you chose

Good quotes. The book started off slow but it ended up good.

i really didnt like this book what so ever i thought it was really bad, but it had a lot of meaning ful quotes. i guess

i looked in the book for the pages of those quotes and well they weren’t there. maybe we have different copies or something but your quotes weren’t there.. and well i would really like to know what you think of these quotes.

yaaaaaas i finished the book ages ago and fecking loved it it was great

This is my favorite book. I loved it so much. I actually chose the second one for my senior quote to go in the yearbook.

Quality not quantity. If you are looking for a school report you’ll need to go somewhere else.

“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…”

Quote pge -19-. Zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both. [Pondicherry Zoo doesn't exist any more].
I am convinced there is an analogy with reference to PI, his Richard Parker and “the” Richard Parker that derives from the ballpen of author Neil Hanson.
Illusions about freedom;
The matter is; what would you be willing to do to survive? Our life in freedom? We are like the animals in the zoo. The confined survivalism in the lifeboat leading to existential mind explorations and leading to certain critical decisions.
The story in my opinion relates to the story “Custom of the Sea”: a true shipwreck tale on the last taboo. The author is Neil Hanson. In short, a few shipwreckers after weaks of deprivation, ultimately choose to kill amongst them a weak and dying seventeen year old boy and eat him in order to survive. This boy, “Richard Parker” represents the death that is grabbed. Not by biological necessity. The death of RP in this book sticks to life in a sense that his body saves the lives of his fellows. They survive, but in spite of this life saving act, “custom of the sea”, their spared lives do not leed to freedom. These few survivers are hunted and next to overwhelming remorse, they are hunted and overtaken by the legal system.

The life of PI embodies, however in metaphors, these various moral ambiguities. PI's beliefs and hope lead him to choose for the other kind of death. The kind of death that comes with faith, the kind that leaps over oblivion easily. PI could not abandon RP. To leave him would mean to kill him (pge 276). Quote; in the throes of unremitting suffering PI should turn to God. Thank RP for saving his life and wishing God would be with him. Like RP in Neil Hansons book where his life was stolen and used to save the lives of others, the leg of the wounded sailor (Zebra) was “stolen” by the French cook (as bait) to save the lives of others. The sailor died and was butchered like Hansons RP.
Moral and legal justification
In the story of Martell, PI concluded, he (the tiger RP) should not trust Man (pge 279). Man is not your friend. To do RP justice there's this shift of roles. Instead of the weak pray-like RP of Hanson (the RP that gets eaten by men) in contrast, the RP of PI's story is the strong tiger. The kind of tiger that for instance, eats the French cook alive. Talking of justice done, no weakness and cannibalism is never an option.
In this alternative way, the telling of something, the life of PI, becomes this astounding hard to believe story of courage and endurance. Then again, quote pge 294: Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer.

Having read this magnificent book, in the end it may feel safe to conclude that given the extraordinarily difficult and tragic circumstances, the (moral and/or legal) justification of certain seemingly “unorthodoxe” acts, may not be in mortal hands.

Stupid.

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.