Powells.com From the Author - Yann Martel - Powell's Books - 0 views
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most books come from the same mix of three elements: influence, inspiration and hard work.
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was about a zoo in Berlin run by a Jewish family. The year is 1933 and, not surprisingly, business is bad. The family decides to emigrate to Brazil. Alas, the ship sinks and one lone Jew ends up in a lifeboat with a black panther
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the book fatigued Updike but it had the effect on my imagination of electric caffeine. I marvelled.
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Was it that the allegory marched with too heavy a tread, the parallel between the black panther and the Nazis too obvious? Did the premise wear its welcome out? Was it the tone? The style? The translation?
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the novel emerged fully formed: the lifeboat, the animals, the intermingling of the religious and the zoological, the parallel stories.
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tensions simmering just below my level of consciousness were probably feverishly pushing me to come up with a story
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The other animals in the lifeboat ? the zebra, the hyena and the orang-utan ? arose naturally, each one a function of a human trait I wanted to embody, the hyena cowardliness, the orang-utan maternal instincts and the zebra exoticism.
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no matter how the novel would fare, I would be happy with it, that it helped me understand my world a bit better.
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Argument: This article simply gives background to Martel's influences and mindset behind the writing of the novel. Written by Martel himself, he describes the mix of three elements in which books come from: influence, inspiration, and hard work. Claims: Martel writes that most books come from the same mix of three elements:influence, inspiration, and hard work. His influence for this novel was an interest in a novel after reading a somewhat skeptical review over it. Seemingly, Martel became enveloped in the critic's reasonings for such a harsh review. He was disappointed that such "a brilliant premise [was] ruined by a lesser writer", therefore suggesting he could have done better. While in India, the remembrance of this review he read came to him, and while observing Indian ways, all aspects of the story flowed to him. In a place with many animals and various religions, Martel created Life of Pi. All aspects didn't come easily though; he found himself spending over a year doing extensive research and observations in order to create the memorable novel Life of Pi became today. Evidence: "most books come from the same mix of three elements: influence, inspiration, and hard work" "brilliant premise ruined by a lesser writer" "the novel emerged fully formed: the lifeboat, the animals, the intermingling of the religious and the zoological, the parallel stories" "theme that reality is a story and we can choose our story and so why not pick 'the better story'?"