It's In The Details

Because of our discussion last week about world and character building, I find that I am trying to pay more attention to the details that Martel drops in. It's the little intriguants that fill the story with its richness, making easier for me to connect to the story. When I think about it, I realize that life is similar, it's the details, the connections between our pasts and present state of being. When we look back it's easy for us to find the connections, the decisions that brought us to our current point. That's the way the first half of the book works, the past informing the present. The example I think of is when Pi's father takes him to the zoo to watch the tiger kill, and then after rotates to all of the zoo animals. When they come to the hyenas Pi's father says, "The strongest jaws in nature." And then what does he end up with in the life boat, a hyena, among other animals in the boat. I have to think that because of that experience his father gave him at the zoo, Pi's thoughts and actions are governed in part by that memory.

There is another intriguant that I think is important in how it sets things up for Pi's situation on the boat. At the top of page 44, when Pi is talking about animals, he says," Social rank is central to how it leads its life. Rank determines whom it can associate with and how; where and when it can it; where it can rest; where it can drink; and so on." I think when Pi is in the boat with the zoo animals, he is placed into a ranking system. At the point where I am in the book, Pi seems, at least to me, to be in the lowest position, the socially inferior animal in the boat.

Those two examples just show me how the story is built, and that nothing is written randomly or for arbitrary reasons, there is point for what is written. I think everything in the first half of the book is there to help move the story forward. Which makes me wonder about the writing process. It makes me wonder what kind of plan the author had before he started writing the story? Does the author know at what point in the story he wants to drop an intriguant? Just a couple of things I wonder about when I think of story/world building.

To wrap up real quick, I think the first half of the book is essential to the story, it's the guide that prepares us for the journey. All of the things that Pi relates help to drive the story forward, and show us how his past informs his future. Without the world and character building we would be lost, we wouldn't care about Pi and his story.