The Life of Pi

12 years after it was first published and in just time for the film release, I have recently finished reading Yann Martel's 'Life of Pi'. I don't know what stopped me from reading it before now but after seeing the trailer for the film and reading the excellent reviews I decided that I definitely wanted to read the book before seeing the film adaptation.

Perhaps most people already have a rough idea of the story (which I didn't at all) - but it is an account of the extraordinary survival of a young Indian boy stranded on a life boat with an Orang-utan, Hyena and a Zebra with a broken leg. Oh and a Bengal Tiger called Richard Parker.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that the character 'Richard Parker' was actually a tiger  and not a person - maybe because the formality of the name, the clever way in which Martel writes or perhaps just because I am a bit dim; but in any case - the moment you come to realise the gravity of the leading character Pi's situation it becomes impossible to put this book down.

The story is so beautifully written, and although I'm sure the film which is shot in 3D will be pretty spectacular visually - it is worth reading the book anyway because it serves as such a good reminder of how powerful descriptive writing can be. It's not always necessary to have a literal re enactment  or set of images to be able to perfectly picture or imagine a scene as is definitely the case with Martel's book.

Having said that I am looking forward to seeing the film and will post an update on how I think it compares with reading the book.

Another thing to mention is the parallel of spirituality and human brutality that runs as a theme throughout the story. The protagonist (Pi) is an intensely spiritual and religious character - yet inevitably his faith is tried at many points on his journey. In the epilogue there is a slight twist (of sorts) which I think serves as the perfect ending to the book - leaving the whole account as mysterious and open ended as religion and spirituality itself. 

Below is a quote from the book and some illustrations that I found from various artists.

'Battle Of The Minds' - Andrea Offermann. Offermann submitted these images for a 2002 competition to illustrate Life Of Pi ran by The Times but lost out to Tomislav Torjanac.

'Life of Pi' by Jack Bruml Norton 

Snippets of Christmas...and hopes for the New Year.

Christmas seems a long time ago now and it definitely flew by far too quickly this year. I loved being with my family - I just wish I could have spent longer at home!

Since beginning this blog my posts have not been as frequent as I would like at all, and definitely one of my goals for this year is to change the format of it a little bit - hopefully to include more work of other artists and bloggers I follow as well as books, articles, stories, theatre, films - any source of inspiration!

Once I manage to take some better photographs (hopefully on Thursday) I will post some of the projects and presents I made over Christmas for family and friends. Also this week I will include posts about:

Hansel and Gretel
The Life of Pi

My favourite blogs

Pin of the week

and thats all I can think of right now! My thinking is if I write on here what I intend to feature then there is no backing out and I have to post frequently (even though today this blog had a grand total of 1 pageview so its not as though I have thousands of expectant followers but still...)

Happy New Year!

(click picture to enlarge)

Picture credits clockwise from top left:

1. Polar bear Christmas Card (Own design) 2. Mini Christmas Trees taken from Cubicle Refugee Tumblr.

3. 'Warm Winter Wishes' - Own Christmas Card Design. 4. 'Soft Night Descending' - Catherine Hyde

5. Robin Mittens - Own hand embroidered Mittens. 6. Sparkle taken from Bibbity Bobbity Boo Tumblr

The Good Deed Giraffe!

"Giraffes are like me - my head is in the clouds but my heart is in the right place!"

This was a popular story in the news last week that really warmed my heart - you may have also heard of it. 

A man in Scotland called Armstrong Baillie has been parading the streets in a giraffe costume handmade by his Mum, doing good deeds and carrying out random acts of kindness. He got the idea after noticing that everyone seemed a little downhearted and decided he wanted to make those around him smile. For his first good deed he returned to the hospital where he was born and handed out £10 Mothercare vouchers to new parents; he has also given away free bananas to marathon runners and provided cups of coffee to cold passers-by. 

Since his story has picked up and gained attention in the press, Armstrong has been flooded with offers to appear on the radio and television, as well as receiving invites to visit countries around the world to spread his good cheer. He has said that as long as what he is doing continues to make others smile then he will carry on. 

I love stories like this and I wish there were more of them in the news... Random acts of kindness no matter how small can make such a difference to someone's day - whether you are dressed as a giraffe or not!

Armstrong Baillie has his own blog where you can follow updates on his Giraffe antics: http://goodgiraffe.wordpress.com/