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tigerstiel: the movie
The last time I wanted to do a movie reaction post, I waited too long and got nowhere, so I'm doing this one with Life of Pi still fresh in my mind. What a gorgeous movie. I am a wreck.
- Pi's simultaneity of faiths. I'm used to seeing religion treated as an either/or thing, which I'm realizing is not my experience. I was raised Muslim, but it never really resonated with me, but neither can I escape the system that shaped me. I can never be not a Muslim; I can only be a bad Muslim. A secular Muslim, maybe? Culturally Muslim? Maybe I'm just what Pi's dad accuses him of being - believing in nothing. My point is that seeing Pi embrace multiple religions so openly and readily is so heartening and weirdly affirming. Maybe if I had been allowed to be a good believer in everything, I wouldn't be such a bad believer in one thing. The either/or dichotomy is something I struggle with and try to deconstruct when it comes to my cultural identity/legacy, but I never thought to deal with it in religion, probably 'cos religion as it was taught to me typically deals in dogma. Its currency is the either/or. And then there's Pi, the Catholic Muslim Hindu who also teaches Kabbalah at the university, and I am a-feeeeeeels.
- SPACE WHALES and the inversion of the "space is an ocean" imagery, though I'm not sure how deliberate that is, haha. The scene where Pi was swirling the water with all the phosphorescent jellyfish in, though, LIKE STARS. The way the water acts as a mirror makes Pi isolation seem all the more complete and absolute, like he is surrounded by the ether on all sides.
- PI'S EXUBERANCE AT STORMS. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. MY HEART WAS IN MY THROAT. RICHARD PARKER, COME LOOK AT THE FACE OF GOD. Like, I don't know if I can even put words to it better than that. The exhilaration of being at the epicenter of something so powerful? Goodness without gentleness, destructiveness without malice, beauty, surrender, and inexplicable relief? aaaaaaugh
- Stories about water: the baptism, the flood. But sometimes they are one and the same.
- When Pi told the "believable" story, my blood ran cold. Oh god. oh god of course. OF COURSE. But he has a point: you can't prove or disprove either story either way, and either way they yield the same result: Pi, alive, alone. So yes, here is what happened. On a boat in the middle of the Pacific, there was a boy and a tiger. That is the story. AND THEN I CRY.
- You have two stories and the one that's true has no value. You have the truth and you have the parable. A parable is also true. Two stories, and you write the parable in a little notebook until you lose the notebook in a storm. You call the storm God. You lose the notebook but not the story. You will never lose this story.
- PI WAS SO SURE RICHARD PARKER WOULD LOOK BACK. AND THEN HE CRIED. EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT. EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT SCENE. THE HUMAN NEED TO BESTOW EMOTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE, MAGNIFIED BY HIS DEPRIVATION. But also if he is the tiger... but also if he believes animal have souls... but also if he said the evil was brought out in him... I don't even know how to synthesize all this. TIGERSTIEL SUCKS AT GOODBYES. He also sucks at hellos. I want to say cool things comparing this to how Pi doesn't remember saying goodbye to Anandi, but all I can do is wail. The narrator is unreliable; the story is not.
- idk man idk, there are a lot of things still swimming around my noggin that I've yet to process, like how pi is irrational, life of irrationality, maybe the irrationality of faith, of many faiths, life of faith, life of wonder, life of trying to get by. The insurance company wants a rational story, so here it is, here we go: once upon a time there was a boy and a tiger, and the tiger never said goodbye.
This movie has destroyed me.
- Pi's simultaneity of faiths. I'm used to seeing religion treated as an either/or thing, which I'm realizing is not my experience. I was raised Muslim, but it never really resonated with me, but neither can I escape the system that shaped me. I can never be not a Muslim; I can only be a bad Muslim. A secular Muslim, maybe? Culturally Muslim? Maybe I'm just what Pi's dad accuses him of being - believing in nothing. My point is that seeing Pi embrace multiple religions so openly and readily is so heartening and weirdly affirming. Maybe if I had been allowed to be a good believer in everything, I wouldn't be such a bad believer in one thing. The either/or dichotomy is something I struggle with and try to deconstruct when it comes to my cultural identity/legacy, but I never thought to deal with it in religion, probably 'cos religion as it was taught to me typically deals in dogma. Its currency is the either/or. And then there's Pi, the Catholic Muslim Hindu who also teaches Kabbalah at the university, and I am a-feeeeeeels.
- SPACE WHALES and the inversion of the "space is an ocean" imagery, though I'm not sure how deliberate that is, haha. The scene where Pi was swirling the water with all the phosphorescent jellyfish in, though, LIKE STARS. The way the water acts as a mirror makes Pi isolation seem all the more complete and absolute, like he is surrounded by the ether on all sides.
- PI'S EXUBERANCE AT STORMS. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. MY HEART WAS IN MY THROAT. RICHARD PARKER, COME LOOK AT THE FACE OF GOD. Like, I don't know if I can even put words to it better than that. The exhilaration of being at the epicenter of something so powerful? Goodness without gentleness, destructiveness without malice, beauty, surrender, and inexplicable relief? aaaaaaugh
- Stories about water: the baptism, the flood. But sometimes they are one and the same.
- When Pi told the "believable" story, my blood ran cold. Oh god. oh god of course. OF COURSE. But he has a point: you can't prove or disprove either story either way, and either way they yield the same result: Pi, alive, alone. So yes, here is what happened. On a boat in the middle of the Pacific, there was a boy and a tiger. That is the story. AND THEN I CRY.
- You have two stories and the one that's true has no value. You have the truth and you have the parable. A parable is also true. Two stories, and you write the parable in a little notebook until you lose the notebook in a storm. You call the storm God. You lose the notebook but not the story. You will never lose this story.
- PI WAS SO SURE RICHARD PARKER WOULD LOOK BACK. AND THEN HE CRIED. EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT. EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT SCENE. THE HUMAN NEED TO BESTOW EMOTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE, MAGNIFIED BY HIS DEPRIVATION. But also if he is the tiger... but also if he believes animal have souls... but also if he said the evil was brought out in him... I don't even know how to synthesize all this. TIGERSTIEL SUCKS AT GOODBYES. He also sucks at hellos. I want to say cool things comparing this to how Pi doesn't remember saying goodbye to Anandi, but all I can do is wail. The narrator is unreliable; the story is not.
- idk man idk, there are a lot of things still swimming around my noggin that I've yet to process, like how pi is irrational, life of irrationality, maybe the irrationality of faith, of many faiths, life of faith, life of wonder, life of trying to get by. The insurance company wants a rational story, so here it is, here we go: once upon a time there was a boy and a tiger, and the tiger never said goodbye.
This movie has destroyed me.