what I came on to say was just, quickly, this: regarding the movie Big Fish (and pertains also to the book Life of Pi). seemingly everyone cept the son believed that the embellished stories were better than the "boring" things that really happened.
not so, folks.
Life is amazing in and of itself. why do you have to make up a story so that the birth of your firstborn son sounds more entertaining? forget the fish, forget the ring, forget the analogy--- there is now a person in the world that was not here yesterday. a person that is part you and your wife. a person whose fate is not your own, yet is and always will be linked to your own. such is the story of every human born into this world, ourselves included. just because it happens all the time doesn't make it less remarkable. I regard my own entry to this strange planet much more interesting than any fish story you could conjure up, and my story is true.
Meeting the love of your life might not be exactly how romance authors pen it: a chance meeting of eyes across a crowded room, the rest of the world melting away, angels singing, all that. hell, love is nothing like romance or even realistic authors hardly ever portray it. and yet! love is still one of the most powerful and life-changing emotions humans experience. ones who have love know how precious it is, and will not let it go. love does not have to be froofed up to be remarkable. it is remarkable in and of itself. you met a woman at college and you spent the rest of your life with her. now I'd say that's pretty amazing. how often does that happen any more? we don't need embellishments to make it more interesting.
and for the love of all that's good--- you're on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean for over 200 freakin days and YOU SURVIVE. that is enough of a story right there! maybe you change your memory of that experience to smooth over some things that happened that you find it incredibly hard to handle, especially emotionally. but you don't need to make anything up to make it remarkable! and please, I don't think I give any of Pi's story away when I wonder out loud... life with God makes for a better story? now, I am responding directly to a statement in the book, Life of Pi. I'm not going to wax philosophical on the existence of God or religion in general. but all the same--- it doesn't make for a better story, actually. nothing else is needed but what is really there (meaning, you don't have to add in fire and brimstone when the world is mind-boggling enough, if you just stop and think about it, and stop taking it for granted!).
I keep seeing this theme (embellishment of reality is necessary and even beneficial), and it's so against my basic tenant (life is more than you can understand just the way it is) that I thought I'd jot that down. 'sall.
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I realized that I have been talking about Life of Pi in the blog (just a bit), and that might be confusing since I mentioned The Joy of Pi under what books I like.
big difference :)
Life of Pi is a popular book right now. basically about a boy who is trapped in a lifeboat, in the Pacific Ocean, with a Bengal tiger. it was okay. if you like parables. I can't credit the author with doing anything astounding except for hitting on a common denominator and selling a lot of copies.
he lost me after the whole floating carnivorous island populated by meerkats. I almost didn't finish it after that, but I thought maybe there was something remarkable at the end to make up for it. there wasn't. I give it a 2.
5---unmissable
4---great stuff
3---worth reading
2---mind candy
1---waste of time
0---unfinishable
The Joy of Pi is actually about the number Pi (3.14159...). "No number has captured the attention and imagination of people throughout the ages as much as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Pi, or as it is symbolically known (symbol here), is infinite and, in The Joy of pi, it proves to be infinitely intriguing. With incisive historical insight and a refreshing sense of humor, David Blatner explores the many facets of pi and humankind's fascination with itfrom the ancient Egyptians and Archimedes to Leonardo da Vinci and the modern-day Chudnovsky brothers, who have calculated pi to eight billion digits with a homemade supercomputer."
it's definitely not the same ;) and The Joy of Pi was much better. I'd give it a 3.14... okay that was lame lol. ;)
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