the weakest link: answers of the author (lesson 5th/06)

Would you say that religion and fiction work in the same way?
To the extent that for either to work you have to suspend your disbelief. The subtext of Life of Pi can be summarised in three lines:
1) Life is a story.
2) You can choose your story.
3) A story with God is the better story.

Pi imagines that his brother would have teasingly called him Noah. How does Pi’s voyage compare to the biblical story of Noah, who was spared from the flood while God washed away the sinners?

Like Noah, Pi has to live with animals on a boat. The cook was a sinner and he disappeared. However Pi is not innocent.

What did Pi learn in his life?

Survival.

What is the role of the story with the island?
I wanted to push the reader till he/she was forced to make some leap of faith. If the island didn't do it, then I hoped the second story would.
www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/nov/26/fiction
ch 99, ch 7 when you read the story you believe it at first but then you start to be mistrustful as the algae island seems too strange. yet, at the end you prefer to believe in the story of the algae island: you take a leap of faith because the rational story is too awful.

What do you need to do to get the full flavour of life?

“You can view the world in different ways - historical, scientific, social, political - but there are limits to what you can do with a calculator or a hammer. You must make a leap of faith to get the full flavour of life.”
http://textualities.net/writers/features-h-m/martely01.php
ch 99, 23 reason is helpful but it doesn’t tell you why there is life, it explains how life appeared. you must believe in god otherwise life is absurd and meaningless.