The comments here are the email replies we received from Yann Martel, Tomislav Torjanac, Andrea Offermann, and Tomer Hanuka.
1-4: 1st Hour
5-8: 3rd Hour
9-12: 5th Hour
13-16: 6th Hour
17-20: 7th Hour
1-4: 1st Hour
5-8: 3rd Hour
9-12: 5th Hour
13-16: 6th Hour
17-20: 7th Hour
21 comments:
It struck me as the right metaphor. A lifeboat crossing the Pacific is like a soul crossing life. And the two opposing poles found in the lifeboat--religion, in the form of Pi, and wildness, in the form of the tiger--are the same opposing poles found in life. What did I learn? That art and religion (the last defined broadly) are the best ways to exam life deeply.
Yann Martel
During our book tour, Yann mentioned an example of how hard it was to paint with words: the final illustration in the book entitled “You can turn it off” features quite dynamic paint handling, which resulted in paint dripping across parts of the illustration. Yann said there was no literary device or style that could “emulate” something like paint drips. So, I guess it can be challenging to paint with words. But, of course, it also depends on who is holding the (writer’s) brush. Yann is very good at it, so it wasn’t difficult to translate his words into vivid pictures.
Torjanac
Showing violence bluntly seemed to me to fall short of the deep disturbing unease many parts of this book create, I wanted to enhance that atmospheare and create violence, aggression and unease through a more indirect way, like choices of color, composition and focus. In The Battle of the Minds for example I tried to enhance the tension between Pi and Richard Parker through the suffocating busy energetic cloud of fish surrounding them, almost attacking them, and the stillness between the two in contrast to that. Also the text often gives a very detailed description of the violence, I wanted to recreate and enhance the feeling of it.
Offermann
it’s hard to say what or whom i’d be if i had a different biography. I would have probably turned out to be someone else. of course everything you go through ends up reflected in your work in a very direct way. we are our work, and every decision we make is a result of our experiences. you know, it’s a funny thing, when i just started getting work ten years ago, clients where convinced i was Asian, one can contribute that to the look of the work, and maybe a mispronunciation of my name can sound rather Asian as well. for me the work looks very American-- but it’s an interpretation of an American sensibility done by a jew who grew up in Israel, with Iraqi heritage, and who was consumed by European comics during his formative years. i welcome the contradictions. the need to label and confine makes me uneasy.
Hanuka
Reality is a veneer. Just because it is hard and in front of our eyes doesn't mean it has any truth greater than material truth. The meaning of life, that greater truth, lies beyond the material. Or at least, that is the proposition that faith makes. It's possible not to have faith and believe only in material truth, in which case, yes, I suppose I'm lying to my readers by positing more than less about existence. But I prefer the "lie" of faith than the hollow "truth" of materialism.
Yann Martel
I think my paintings worked well in first-person perspective. I tried to involve the reader on a visual scale by making him become Pi, in a way; but we don't get to see what Pi sees in the way a camera captures a picture – the result is a visual information processed in Pi’s brain, what sometimes results in unusual colour schemes, compositions, etc.
Torjanac
They seemed to me key scenes in the development of Pi and Richard Parker and their relationship.
When the ship sinks, Pi makes a decision, he saves Richard Parkers life, almost unconsciously, he does not seem to know what he brought into the life boat until Richard Parker is safely in it and Pi officially realizes that he brought a huge carnivorous beast to his only hope of survival, they are strangers, natural enemies, that this desastrous event brought unnaturally close to each other for a very short moment.
When Zebra, Orang Utan and Hyena fight, Pi seems close to loosing his mind. Richard Parker stays out of sight. Both of them seem to try to forget that the other is there, as far apart from each other as possible.
During the Battle of the Minds Pi and Richard Parker fight for dominance on their life boat. They have tried and tested each other and are now fighting a deciding battle. The space between them has grown smaller and smaller and in this scene finally shrinks to nothing and forces them to face each other.
I added the painting of Richard Parker roaming free in the jungle to suggest Pi understanding that the way he saw and recounted his survival on the life boat with Richard Parker depended on that decision he made in the beginning, and on the development that decision went through during his time on the boat.
Offermann
but my lines are extremely fluid and unharsh! please...
now seriously, the look of my work is a result of consuming comics at a very young age. i was looking at comics right around when the brain settles on how things in the world are represented-- everything had a black outline around it that defined the edges of the shape. i believe this visual language was originally used due to printing limitations (it had to be readable and graphic-- think non digital, metal or woodcut printers). but it stuck as a 'look' with me (and many others) as it's such a clear way to communicate in two dimensional format. the space is divided like a map almost. in other words, my hard art is a result of being soft.
Hanuka
I don't know if Life of Pi would have been different. It was a very personal story to me, without any obvious political subtext. Same with Beatrice and Virgil. I've always been interested in the Holocaust and wanted to write about it for years. Politics is an essential but mundane activity, concerned with the here and now. Art has a longer perspective, one that is more obvious to me in the quiet of my office.
Yann Martel
Life of Pi is a first-person narrative, so painting things from Pi’s perspective seemed like a logical thing for me to do. The first illustration I did was the one showing two Japanese investigators as seen from Pi’s point of view, which felt just right, so the rest followed in the same vein. I thought this device was appropriate because Yann never described Pi. In his words: “It’s irrelevant what Pi looks like, as it is irrelevant how any of us looks like”. So my intention was not to affect the reader's own image of Pi: we never get to see the main character's face – all we see are his hands and feet. Many people have expectations of what Pi should look like and would maybe react to my interpretation, but I don’t think people have as many expectations when it comes to what the tiger or Pi’s parents look like.
The placement of the three religious leaders was dictated by the position of their hands – praying gestures – which rise in an almost diagonal succession, thus increasing the tension (imagine the effect of a slowly raising conductor’s hand while conducting an orchestra).The perspective is exaggerated – as it is on many other illustrations in the book – so we have a Catholic, Hindu and Muslim, shown as looming towers. There are physical similarities between them, since what they represent is equal in Pi's heart and mind.
My last answer already answers part of this question. The scenes I chose seemed to me key scenes in Pi and Richard Parker's story. I wanted to enhance the development I saw between them through decisions in space and composition.
In " The Ship Sank" the space overall is wide, focus on the entire scene, not yet on Pi and Richard Parker, to show how overwhelmed Pi is at this moment, taking everything in yet unable to focus on one thing, the incredible closeness of the tiger, unable to understand Richard Parker for what he i. I chose muddy colors, yet still a lot of different ones, to suggest the blur of events, yet the variety of things happening at the same time.
The Screaming Match is almost bursting out of the frame of the image, the fighting animals very close and twisted to make the viewer uneasy, Pi almost lost in the background on the farthest tip of the boat, unable to bear the closeness of life on the boat with all these creatures. With this rather than the pure violence of the animals fighting, I also wanted to show the mind of Pi twisting and trying to hold on to sanity, yet losing grip slowly. I wanted the colors here to have a lot of contrast and more brightness than in the other paintings to enhance the agression.
In the Battle of the Minds Pi and Richard Parker are centered and not taking up very much space, but the fish around them suggest the tension of their minds gripping on to each other and trying to fight down the other. I wanted to fill the space up as much as possible to suggest how the power of their minds fills up their focus and presses down on them, fighting back and forth until Pi wins. I chose to keep the colors of the surroundings close to each other, almost functioning like a vignette, to bring forward Richard Parker and Pi as the center of focus.
I havent read Yann Martels new book yet but am looking forward to doing so!
Offermann
i like Pi's religious openness, and being fully dedicated to supposably conflicting ideas. it's an embodiment of India in some way, all these religions living in (comparative) peaceful way in one place. i can only wish and pray (the way atheist do when there's nothing to loose) it was like that in other parts of the world.
regarding lack of religious imagery : i sadly didn't get that deep into illustrating the book, my proposal for the publisher included 3 images, then they went with a different artist so some parts of the book are forever unexplored.
about leaving the place you call home: my earliest memory plants me on a Persian carpet, drawing, with my brother. we’re surrounded by American comic books-- this is the late 70s-- the windows are open, warm wind blows in. it’s summer, it’s always summer in the Middle East, yellow, dusty. the comics are mysterious and majestic, an unreachable light in a far away land. it’s more beautiful and exciting than anything around. years later I pack a suitcase and move to New York, looking for that hypnotic land of full color and magic. eventually I had to concede that i’ll never find it, the light remains out of reach, and that was the point-- getting lost.
Tomer Hanuka
I did meet a Francis Adirubasamy, but he didn't tell me the story I tell in Life of Pi. He rather impressed me with his openness to things religious. He had that attitude that enlightened HIndus have: if it works for someone, it must be true and is worthy of respect. I think religion is the opposite of animalness; animals don't have religious thoughts. Many humans don't have religious thoughts. I think religious thought goes to the limits of what humans can think, which is why it's often non-rational.
Yann Martel
No, I didn't feel forced to make the illustrations first-person perspective. The process felt very natural and true to the novel’s telling. The choice of scenes was roughly dictated by the fact that we (Yann Martel, Jamie Byng – the editor – and myself) agreed that we didn't want to overcrowd the book with illustrations. It seemed the appropriate rhythm of their appearing (and complementing the text) was approximately every 12 pages, so I picked a few sentences I found inspirational, and Yann provided me with several he thought I could use, and out of that I made my choice of scenes. I must mention that Yann’s input was very valuable to me during my work on the illustrations.
Torjanac
I had different reasons for the detailed style I chose.
In the book Pi often speaks in a very clear, scientific language, almost dissecting the moment he described. When reading it I almost got the impression that he did this as a kind of self-defense, especially in very horrifying moments, keeping sanity through analysing the moment and describing it in meticulous detail. I wanted to mirror that with a slightly scientific touch in the drawings, but also contrast it through using an amount of detail and realism that made you feel closer to the scene than you were and made you uncomfortable. Another reason was that in moments of extreme fear or panic we all of a sudden see everything very sharp and detailed, almost too much so, I wanted to use that element to enhance the atmosphere of forced, fearful concentration and focus that Pi experiences in every one of the scenes I painted.
I felt that this combination complimented the way Pi describes these moments well, because he creates a distance through the scientific, orderly language he chooses, yet at the same time an incredible closeness and clear, sometimes brutal vision of the event through the amount of meticulous detail he puts into his descriptions.
Offermann
my aim is to construct a believable moment where the metaphor and the actuality of the action taking place seamlessly merge into a singular dramatic visual. the composition is the key to an implied narrative. i only get a single frozen moment, so it has to be chosen carefully. the positioning often implies a relationships between characters, or a shift of power. i try to avoid a 'realistic' description of space/figures, i am less interested in how things 'really' look, i want to explore their deeper meaning.
Hanuka
The border between animals and humans is a fascinating one to explore for scientists. But my interest lies more in the symbolic potential of animals. An animal can be just what it is--a tiger in a lifeboat, for example--but it can also have tremendous symbolic resonance. So the tiger can symbolize any number of things. So the overlap you mention is in the order of symbolism.
Yann Martel
I had read Life of Pi several months prior to finding out about the competition and loved the novel. It appealed to me on many levels: the vast blueness that was Pi’s world for so long, the isolation, the silence in which all you can hear is your inner self…I don't like competitions, so I sort of went against myself when I entered it, but my apprehension was outweighed by my love for Yann’s book. As for personal epiphanies, the book deals with what is, in my opinion, the ultimate truth: that reality is what we make it, that perspective creates perception i.e. how one looks at things determines how one sees them. So, once we reach the end of the book, the ball is in our court and we don’t just get to choose one of the two stories told to the investigators but much more than that. In my opinion, we get to create the meaning of it all, which is a relatively subtle way to plant the seed of a notion that we are the sole creators of our reality.
Torjanac
I would say the book itself motivated me to join the competition, it fascinated me, a book that offered you as a reader choices, even demanded them of you! While I was reading it I already wished I could do illustrations for it. When I heard about the competition I definitely wanted to enter and try to create illustrations to enhance and play with that deeply thought-provoking atmosphere this book creates.
For me this is a book that you keep rereading and everytime you might have a new epiphany about the story and how it relates to you and your experiences, also about new possibilities to interpret certain passages, or even the whole book!
Offermann
there was/is an existential threat constantly hovering above us. it's felt in a mundane and undramatic way in every aspect of life. like going to high school with a gas-mask in your backpack. or having armed guard in the entrance of every building, mall, cafe. and the thing is, people master this nervousness, they live full and happy life. that is the tiger in our living room.
Hanuka
Wilson Trent, period 7
Mr. C wanted a poem. I believe I have one. ALSO, I know what the "a" is for. It is a HYPERLINK. WilsonTrnt.blogspot.com link.
Anyways, here's a poem...
Torn to Shreds
The worry plagues my mind
Makes me ache with anxiety
So is from society.
What's worse my grades are slipping.
Once again I drop behind.
I wanted to be one of a kind!
In this hour of my ultimate test
I am charged with a dire task.
Choose, they say, choose between what's now and what is in the past...?
There's nothing but a boy
who's troubled and torn.
Now he's matured, but
a rose still bears a thorn.
Am I a thorn in one's side?
I certainly don't desire
This destiny I have now
Wasn't what I meant to acquire.
Where will I find my rest?
Should I follow my dreams?
If I do, what will happen to me?
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