Life of Pi and Postmodernism

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/philosophicalfragments/2012/11/21/life-of-pi-raises-the-ultimate-postmodern-question-of-faith/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eEOHulh7yc

http://prezi.com/pguby5de4mpt/post-modernism-life-of-pi/ 

http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-235281139/life-of-pi-as-postmodern-survivor-narrative

Postmodernism

A general and wide-ranging term which is applied to literature, art, philosophy, architecture, fiction, and cultural and literary criticism, among others. Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. In essence, it stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality. For this reason, postmodernism is highly skeptical of explanations which claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truths of each person. In the postmodern understanding, interpretation is everything; reality only comes into being through our interpretations of what the world means to us individually. Postmodernism relies on concrete experience over abstract principles, knowing always that the outcome of one's own experience will necessarily be fallible and relative, rather than certain and universal.
Postmodernism is "post" because it is denies the existence of any ultimate principles, and it lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything for everybody - a characterisitic of the so-called "modern" mind. The paradox of the postmodern position is that, in placing all principles under the scrutiny of its skepticism, it must realize that even its own principles are not beyond questioning. As the philospher Richard Tarnas states, postmodernism "cannot on its own principles ultimately justify itself any more than can the various metaphysical overviews against which the postmodern mind has defined itself."

7 characteristics of postmodernism in Generation Y

Image Credit: luvablelou  -  ©sxc.hu/luvablelou

Postmodern thinking pervades today’s culture, media, and politics.  If you don’t understand the characteristics of postmodernism that govern today’s culture, you miss out on really understanding what goes on in the world.
In order to understand the world around us, we must understand the worldviews and patterns of thought inform the culture around us.  Postmodernism informs more of the current culture than ever before, and is a driving force behind the media, politics, culture, and religion.
Learning these 7 characteristics of postmodernism that drive our culture can make all the difference in making sense of the world.
1. Characteristics of Postmodernism: there is no absolute truth
One of the most prevalent characteristics of postmodernism is the idea that there is no and can never be any kind of absolute truth.  Truth cannot be known in the context of postmodernist thinking, and those who claim to know truth are either lying or foolish.
2. Characteristics of Postmodernism: facts and falsehoods are interchangeable
Because one of the characteristics of postmodernism is that there is no absolute truth, a natural outgrowth of this thinking is that facts and falsehoods are interchangeable.  What is accepted as truth today could easily be proven wrong tomorrow, and vice versa.
3. Characteristics of Postmodernism: frustrated with modern thinking
Postmoderns are typically very frustrated with the modern generation’s inability to deliver on their promises of peace, advancement, and knowledge.  The modern generation’s failure to accomplish their goals has caused postmoderns to harbor a great deal of distrust in the ideals of moderns.
4. Characteristics of Postmodernism: rationalization is the norm
Because of the scientific method’s shortcomings in resolving the problems of the world, postmoderns’ distrust of what is presented as fact has led them to embrace opinion as the driving force of thought.  One of the primary characteristics of postmodernism is therefore that if a person can rationalize their understanding or opinion, it is worthwhile and as true as is possible for the postmodern thinker.
5. Characteristics of Postmodernism: global community more important than nationalism
Rationalization, frustration, and the thinking that there is no truth beyond personal and corporate opinion has resulted in the postmodern tendency toward the belief that the global good is more important than national interests.
6. Characteristics of Postmodernism: all religions deserve equal recognition
One of the most controversial characteristics of postmodernism is the idea the all religions are equally valid.  If, as postmodern thinking dictates, there is no absolute truth, then no one religion offers a “right” way.  If no religion is true, then all religions are equally false, or equally valid, depending on the person’s point of view.
7. Characteristics of Postmodernism: morality is individualistic
If there is no true religion, and if there is no absolute truth, then each person’s ideas about morality are also equally false or valid.  This characteristic is most clearly seen in the common statement, “it’s right for me.”  Every person’s morality belongs to them alone, and morality that is imposed by another, whether by religion, government, or another person, and anything that claims to be absolute truth is to be distrusted.

Life of Pi Genre

Adventure, Magical Realism, Philosophical Literature, Postmodernism

There's no doubt that Life of Pi follows in the footsteps (or wake) of the great high-seas adventure novels. Its author, Yann Martel, spent a year and a half researching (along with religion and zoology) disaster and castaway stories (Yann Martel, "How I Wrote Life of Pi"). The book itself references many of the great adventure novelists like Daniel Defoe and Robert Louis Stevenson, in addition to historical castaways.

So what happens when you blend fiction and reality? Well, it depends. If you're like Martel, and your fictions are out-of-this-world stuff about tigers and carnivorous islands made of seaweed, then you end up with Magical Realism. In Magical Realism, the author retains a basic level of realism – a lifeboat, hunger, animal instinct – but inserts fantastical elements. Like the random French castaway Pi meets near the end. Or that island with all the meerkats.

Just for kicks, Martel allows Pi to relate the "real" version of events at the end of novel. This, friends, is a very postmodern move. (We mean "postmodern" in this sense: that versions of reality (e.g. stories) have replaced reality itself.) Martel wants to stress how humans create our own "realities," as well as how religion, or fiction, often tells the more attractive story. In essence, there's no such thing as a single true story. Humans often choose the richer story. Although the richer story may not line up with the factual events, it often communicates our humanness in a way the straight facts never could.

Martel doesn't reinvent prose like James Joyce, but he still aims for some fairly lofty goals. He's taken the genre of Magical Realism and, through a real humdinger of a plot, asked his readers some tough questions. Do people believe in religion – and sometimes in fiction – because they tell a better story? A more magical story? Is there anything wrong with that? Because Martel discusses these questions at length – through, of course, Pi Patel – the book also fits neatly in the genre of philosophical literature.