petite note en francais en bas de page… qui a besoin de commentaires… j’attends!
I just finished reading two amazing books that I highly recommend to anyone trying to avoid doing the dishes, cleaning the house, doing homework, or going out in the rain: The Life of Pi (l’histoire de Pi en francais) by Yann Martel and Waiting (la longue attente en francais) by Ha Jin.
I first heard about this book in my World Englishes class because the author is from China but lives in the US and writes in English. He served in the People’s Liberation Army and has also written poetry and other successful texts such as The Pond (la mare), which I want to read next. This is the story of our lives: we wait for better jobs, the end of school, more money, a vacation, a better relationship… but while we wait, we waste the time we have now, and when we actually get what we want, we still want something else. So, we wait and wait and wait, but we never enjoy today! This story is culturally very interesting because it takes place right after the Cultural Revolution. It addresses the problems of ancient vs. modern civilizations, divorce, family, politics, the countryside vs. the city, fame, miracles, fear, and missed opportunities. Towards the end of the story, Lin, the anti-hero, finally realizes something we should all try to remember: « All those years you waited torpidly, like a sleepwalker, pulled and pushed about by others’ opinions, by external pressure, by your illusions, by the official rules you internalized. You were misled by your own frustration and passivity, believing that what you were not allowed to have was what your heart was destined to embrace. » … but that was only 1/2 the truth…
The Life of Pi is an amazing story too because it makes the reader laugh, cry, understand the world better, and learn tons of interesting facts about surviving, animals, courage, zoos, school, power, faith, India, Japanese officials, and odd carnivorous trees. This is the story of a young Indian boy sadly named « Piscine Patel, » who decides to become a Muslim, a Christian, and a Buddhist, and whose family owns a zoo in Pondicherry in India. When they decide to go live in Canada they take several of their animals and go on a boat… which sinks, leaving Pi soon alone in a small lifeboat in the company of a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker! This story made me laugh so often… especially the first 1/3 and the last 1/3. In the middle, it gets a little boring if you’re not highly interested in fishing techniques and boat terminology, but keep reading, it is worth it! I love to imagine my students from India in that boat, I can just picture someone very well… Pi, while on his lifeboat, says, « My greatest wish–other than salvation–was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time. » Well, The Life of Pi is definitely one of these books.
PS: J’espere que cette information ne vous choque pas trop! … en effet il parait (information de quatrieme main) que la famille cote parisien trouve ce blog trop prive et choquant. Bon… vous n’avez pas besoin de le lire si ca vous choque… tant pis, etant-donne que je l’ecris en partie pour vous, pour vous tenir au courant de ma vie « de folle » (comme dirait ma chere mere)… mais comme on dit en anglais, « it’s your loss! » Qu’en pensent les autres francais, les italiens et les suisses (et les autres aussi)? Je peux aussi arreter d’ecrire…
PPS: My poor previous attempt at some kind of design for this blog didn’t work on Macs and with IE, so I had to change it… and I decided to go back to the original greens (check that, back from 11/12/2002 – 12/07/2002. Like it?