What it do, what it do?
This week on Thug Notes, we hittin dat true-blue sea with "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.
Da book start with a shady first section called “Author’s Note,"
where a nameless narrator flexin like he the author of this book.
Brotha jus chillin, sippin on coffee, when he start choppin it up with a hood named Francis.
Now dis geezer all like, “Say dawg, I bet I can tell you a story dat’s so tight, it's gonna make you believe in God!”
“Oh, sh*t. I gotta hear dis, man!”
Francis start yappin bout a boy named Pi he knew back in the day.
Pi’s story is so damn trill, da narrator gotta hit up Pi, himself, to get the legit story.
It go a lil somethin like this:
As a lil boy, Pi was comin up in Pondicherry, India,
where his parents runnin a zoo that gave em enough cash flow to live a pretty cush lifestyle.
Oh, and real quick — “Pi” ain’t this lil thug’s full name — it’s Piscine Molitor Patel.
But since erryone always on his nuts callin him names like “Pissing,”
he decide “Pi” gonna be his new street name.
Now Pi was actually raised a Hindu, and he is all about dat jam.
Still, it don’t stop his fourteen-year-old self from sniffin around Christianity and Islam.
Eventually, he decide he gonna rep all three religions —
even though his parents, and the local holy rollers, ain’t feelin it.
But Pi ain’t trippin. Cuz to him, all religions are true, and he just wanna show love to da man upstairs.
And it’s a good thing Pi so open-minded, cuz his little ass bout to move cross da world.
Since Pi’s mom and pop ain’t down with some political sh*t happening in New India,
they decide to sell the zoo and peace out to Canada.
So Pi, his fam, and all their animal homies hop up on a big-ass ship and start cruisin.
But afta a couple days, a storm rages through da water and da ship starts sinkin.
Pi-Dawg is da only member of his family to survive. Damn.
Dude hops up on a lifeboat, but brotha gotta share it with an orangutan named OJ,
a zebra with a jacked-up leg, and a spotted hyena,
who start actin like a real d*ck when he decide to eat the other two animals.
So not chill, spotted hyena. So not chill, man.
But sh*t get even less chill when a 450-pound tiger, named Richard Parker,
pop up from under a tarp and merc dat hater.
Pi like, “Man, f**k this.” So he ghetto-rig himself a raft to keep his distance from Richie P’s crazy self.
Pi finally recognize dat the raft ain’t gonna be enough to save his ass;
da only way he gonna survive dis mess is by puttin dat tiger in check with some training.
Pi straight alpha males dat b*tch.
With da help of survival guides, some rations,
and other supplies — Pi able to survive in da Pacific Ocean for a long-ass time.
Dat don’t mean it’s easy, though. At one point, Pi get so dehydrated that he goes blind and his mind start slippin.
Matta fact, he goin so damn crazy that he start conversatin wit Richard Parker
bout their favorite kind of munchies.
Turns out, Pi wasn’t talkin to Richard at all — instead, it was another blind castaway:
this French fool, who float up, and Pi like,
"Ma man! Hop up on this here life raft, and get yoself some rest, dawg!"
But when the dude try to boot up and merc Pi, Richard Parker like,
“B*tch nuh-uh!" and rips dat sucka up.
He dead.
Later, Pi’s boat lands on an island dat survives by eatin brothas.
Yeah — you heard dat right.
Pi just about loses his sh*t when he finds teeth inside a piece of fruit.
Ugggh!
So Pi and Richard Parker chunk deuces outta dat trap.
After over 200 days on da struggle, in dat watery abyss, their lifeboat washes up on to the shore of Mexico,
and Richard Parker rolls out in to da jungle without even saying bye or nothin.
What a d*ck, man.
Pi gets picked up, taken to a hospital,
and later questioned by two dudes from the Japanese Ministry of Transport.
Pi tell em what went down, but these dudes like,
"Psh, this boy musta lost his damn mind.”
So Pi like, “Alright, alright. That too crazy for ya? You want somethin real? Check this out."
And he tell the story again, this time layin it down raw. He say he wasn’t on the boat with no animals.
Instead, it was the ship’s cook, a sailor with a broken leg, and Pi’s own mama.
Just like dat hyena, the cook iced both the sailor and Pi’s mama.
But since Pi don’t play, he shanked dat boy in the stomach, and then feasted on his corpse.
Damn, Pi! You gangsta, dawg!
But since neither story can be really proven, Pi just like, “Forget truth. Lemme ask you:
which story you like better?”
They like, “Eh, we’ll go with the animals one.”
Pi say, “Yeah? Well, just so you know, believing in God is the same exact jam.”
Now the title of this book ain’t just talkin bout the life of some dude named Pi — there’s more to it, playa.
Just look at what Pi say about his name:
"...in that Greek letter that looks like a shack with a corrugated tin roof, in that elusive, irrational number
with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge."
Pi see his name as a symbol for home — dat practical safety from da outside world.
But at the same time, the number “pi” is irrational —
Cain’t nobody can make total sense of it, cuz it never terminates or has fixed boundaries.
And that’s exactly what da book saying about all life:
it's a mix between da rational — things we can make sense of through science and reason —
and the irrational — things dat ain’t even da smartest hood on da block can figure out.
Life of Pi — get it?
Now don’t get me wrong: science, reason, logic — dank.
But dat don’t mean errything in life gotta be rational — da world gotta have a lil taste of madness, too.
"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."
When da sh*t hits the fan, it’s religion — the non-rational element —
that gives Pi the juice to survive and make sense of da world around him.
"Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen..."
Pi might have dat religion game on lock, but it don’t mean dat he’s got all da answers.
Ain’t no doubt dat P-dawg gets sh*t on, in the novel, and has trouble comin to terms with all his sufferin.
So one one hand, Pi realize dat da mess he go through up on dat raft don’t mean a damn thing to the universe.
But on the other hand — to him — there ain’t nothin more important.
Cuz it’s all he knows.
In a cold, dark universe, not only is your suffering relative, but truth is too.
All throughout this book we gettin muddied representations of what’s real.
I mean, who is this fool callin himself the “author” at the beginning?
And at the end, Pi pretty much tell us that the whole story bout him and Richard Parker could all be bunk.
Hell, there’s a good reason to believe dat Richard Parker is jus the savage, kill-or-be-killed side of Pi.
Peep da subtle ways dat lil thug and Richie P associated with each other.
"Since we are on the subject, I became as constipated as Richard Parker."
"I began to imitate Richard Parker in sleeping an incredible number of hours."
But who da hell knows? I guess the realest truth is there ain’t no way to tell what really went down on dat raft.
Hell, both of da stories Pi lay on us might be total bullsh*t.
So like Pi say, does it really matter what’s actually true?
Should we just go wit what’s better for us?
Sure rationality and practicality are worth fighting for, but maybe it ain’t always so important to know the real deal.
Maybe the best thing is just goin with what’s gonna help you cope and give you hope.
Naw mean?
Ay, thanks for watching ma well read ballas.
Peace!
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