Surprisingly, no one had mentioned how much talk about religion it contains (at least in the first quarter where I am) and the contempt he held agnostics in (which I happen to be).
Still, weathering the insults, I read on. Because, God apart, we have several common grounds:
There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, "Business as usual." But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, the sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.
Life of Pi, Chapter 25. By Yann Martel
2 comments:
Have you finished it? Because if you haven't, I'd say: read on. Don't take the insults literally. The religious talk isn't there as an end in itself. And although I fall in atheist/agnostic group [actually I prefer Douglas Adam's way of saying it: "I'm a radical atheist: I do not believe that there is a God" :). emphasis mine], by the end of the novel, the religious talk didn't bother me, because I was hoping there is a reason why it's there. And there is, trust me.
cheers,
asuph
Oh yes I finished it - not a book I could put down! Turned out to be very little about religion but a lot about faith. And, by the end of it (as Yann Martel promises), it does kinda make you believe in God...
Funnily, the most abiding moment that sticks to my mind is of Pi serving stomach-burning food to the author :) I would love to be fed that stuff!
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