Lee’s adaptation is a marvellous companion piece to the book
Lee’s adaptation is a marvellous companion piece to the book
Canadian author Yann Martel tells us about his fond memories of Trivandrum, his take on Ang Lee's reel interpretation of Life of Pi and more...
As Ang Lee's visual spectacle, Life of Pi, continues to astound movie-goers around the world and is virtually guaranteed an Oscar nomination, the novel's author Yann Martel couldn't be more happy for letting viewers experience the Booker Prize-winning novel that was once touted to be "unfilmable".
In an email interview, the Canadian author, whose book was influenced by the Trivandrum Zoo, where he spent several weeks visiting in 1996, tells us about his fond memories of the place, what role the city and the zoo has played in shaping his novel, why he has not been able to visit India after the novel's success and his take on Lee's reel interpretation.
You've said that Trivandrum Zoo has influenced Life of Pi. Could you tell us how?
I based the zoo in Life of Pi on the Trivandrum Zoo. The look of the enclosures and the kinds of animals within them, the layout and the atmosphere — I got all this from the Trivandrum zoo. Of course, a novel is an invention, not only of character and action, but even of place — there's never been a zoo in Pondicherry. Nonetheless, to be there, in a place approximating the invented place, to inhale the warm local air, to soak the eyes on the local vegetation, to feel the soft ground underfoot, to hear the people speak and go about their lives, to see an actual Indian zoo —all these can inform the prose.
The then Zoo director, Mohammed Sali, remembers you as a curious foreign student. How did the zoo authorities, the animals and the city in general shape up the novel?
I spent hours at the zoo, poking around everywhere, writing down every detail that seemed significant, taking dozens of pictures. I also interviewed Mr Sali briefly in his office. He was busy, though he did give some information on how the zoo was run. As for Trivandrum, I remember it as a very pleasant city, not too big, not too small. I spent a number of weeks there, soaking in southern India.
Apart from the time at the zoo, what was the schedule like while you were here?
I would wake up every morning and spend my day trying to watch the novel that was being born in my head with the Indian reality around me with which it was supposed to match as closely as possible. In other words, I spent my days observing constantly, feeding India to my imagination.
Have you been to India since winning The Booker Prize?
No. After the Booker, my life got very busy, and India is a continent onto itself — one can't just pop in and out. But I couldn't find the time when I could go there and spend several weeks to visit its many major centres to celebrate the book with the country that gave me the story.
The readers of the book are divided on the opinion that your novel had even more mesmerising scenes than the movie could offer. How would you react to this and how do you rate Lee's version?
There is always the temptation to compare a book with its cinematic adaptation. It's inevitable, but also not very helpful. Each is a different medium, speaking a different language. It's best not to compare and simply take each on its own merits. In this case, I think Lee's adaptation is a marvellous companion piece to the book. It makes crystal clear what most readers can only hazily visualise. The sinking of the ship, for example, or the carnivorous island. And there are many scenes that are breathtakingly beautiful. So I rate Lee's movie very highly. Readers who liked the book should see the movie, and viewers who liked the movie should read the book. The two go very well together.
It's often hard to fully translate the essence of a book into movie, especially when it's been taken over by someone else.
It is, indeed, very difficult. Novels, prose, are very compact. A movie is a selection from a novel. What to take, what to leave out — it's a tricky process. What works on the page may not on the screen, and vice versa. But it's a risk worth taking, I believe. I say that not only because I love cinema and because I love Lee's movies, but because I believe in artistic risk. It was the risk, adapting that oh-so-unfilmable novel to the screen. Because if it succeeded, it would add to the sum total of art in this world, and if it failed, then the attempt was brave and noble. As it is, Ang Lee has brilliantly succeeded.
The movie and the book Life of Pi ultimately poses a few questions to the reader. Could you tell us your take on these as a reader.
To my mind, as one reader of the book, Life of Pi is about existential choice. On the framework of one set of facts — the sinking of a ship and the arrival 227 days later of a sole human survivor to the coast of Mexico — I weave two different stories, one with animals and one without. The reader has to choose, and this choice echoes the choices that we all can make in life, the choice of whether to believe in this or that, or not. Life is about the choices we make, not the factual truth of them. There is a subjective quality to life that cannot be denied. We cannot always choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we react to what happens to us. This is where fiction meets factual truth. Upon the facts of life, we build what we make of life; that is, we build the dreams that sustain us.
As Ang Lee's visual spectacle, Life of Pi, continues to astound movie-goers around the world and is virtually guaranteed an Oscar nomination, the novel's author Yann Martel couldn't be more happy for letting viewers experience the Booker Prize-winning novel that was once touted to be "unfilmable".
In an email interview, the Canadian author, whose book was influenced by the Trivandrum Zoo, where he spent several weeks visiting in 1996, tells us about his fond memories of the place, what role the city and the zoo has played in shaping his novel, why he has not been able to visit India after the novel's success and his take on Lee's reel interpretation.
You've said that Trivandrum Zoo has influenced Life of Pi. Could you tell us how?
I based the zoo in Life of Pi on the Trivandrum Zoo. The look of the enclosures and the kinds of animals within them, the layout and the atmosphere — I got all this from the Trivandrum zoo. Of course, a novel is an invention, not only of character and action, but even of place — there's never been a zoo in Pondicherry. Nonetheless, to be there, in a place approximating the invented place, to inhale the warm local air, to soak the eyes on the local vegetation, to feel the soft ground underfoot, to hear the people speak and go about their lives, to see an actual Indian zoo —all these can inform the prose.
The then Zoo director, Mohammed Sali, remembers you as a curious foreign student. How did the zoo authorities, the animals and the city in general shape up the novel?
I spent hours at the zoo, poking around everywhere, writing down every detail that seemed significant, taking dozens of pictures. I also interviewed Mr Sali briefly in his office. He was busy, though he did give some information on how the zoo was run. As for Trivandrum, I remember it as a very pleasant city, not too big, not too small. I spent a number of weeks there, soaking in southern India.
Apart from the time at the zoo, what was the schedule like while you were here?
I would wake up every morning and spend my day trying to watch the novel that was being born in my head with the Indian reality around me with which it was supposed to match as closely as possible. In other words, I spent my days observing constantly, feeding India to my imagination.
Have you been to India since winning The Booker Prize?
No. After the Booker, my life got very busy, and India is a continent onto itself — one can't just pop in and out. But I couldn't find the time when I could go there and spend several weeks to visit its many major centres to celebrate the book with the country that gave me the story.
The readers of the book are divided on the opinion that your novel had even more mesmerising scenes than the movie could offer. How would you react to this and how do you rate Lee's version?
There is always the temptation to compare a book with its cinematic adaptation. It's inevitable, but also not very helpful. Each is a different medium, speaking a different language. It's best not to compare and simply take each on its own merits. In this case, I think Lee's adaptation is a marvellous companion piece to the book. It makes crystal clear what most readers can only hazily visualise. The sinking of the ship, for example, or the carnivorous island. And there are many scenes that are breathtakingly beautiful. So I rate Lee's movie very highly. Readers who liked the book should see the movie, and viewers who liked the movie should read the book. The two go very well together.
It's often hard to fully translate the essence of a book into movie, especially when it's been taken over by someone else.
It is, indeed, very difficult. Novels, prose, are very compact. A movie is a selection from a novel. What to take, what to leave out — it's a tricky process. What works on the page may not on the screen, and vice versa. But it's a risk worth taking, I believe. I say that not only because I love cinema and because I love Lee's movies, but because I believe in artistic risk. It was the risk, adapting that oh-so-unfilmable novel to the screen. Because if it succeeded, it would add to the sum total of art in this world, and if it failed, then the attempt was brave and noble. As it is, Ang Lee has brilliantly succeeded.
The movie and the book Life of Pi ultimately poses a few questions to the reader. Could you tell us your take on these as a reader.
To my mind, as one reader of the book, Life of Pi is about existential choice. On the framework of one set of facts — the sinking of a ship and the arrival 227 days later of a sole human survivor to the coast of Mexico — I weave two different stories, one with animals and one without. The reader has to choose, and this choice echoes the choices that we all can make in life, the choice of whether to believe in this or that, or not. Life is about the choices we make, not the factual truth of them. There is a subjective quality to life that cannot be denied. We cannot always choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we react to what happens to us. This is where fiction meets factual truth. Upon the facts of life, we build what we make of life; that is, we build the dreams that sustain us.
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