[MOD-CINDY] Go ahead, rtrdogs!
[rtrdogs] (Sorry I'm late) 
I have read your book and loved it! What inspired you to write such a story?
[MOD-CINDY] * * * If you have a question for Mr. Martel, please type a question mark, such as ? When it's your turn to ask a question, you will be "called on" so please have your question ready. * * *
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The Life of Pi Book Review Excerpt
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Named after a Parisian swimming pool, Piscine Molitor Patel is growing up in Pondicherry, India. When he tires of being called "Pissing" by cruel children and well-meaning teachers who mispronounce his first name, he begins calling himself "Pi."
His father, head of the Pondicherry Zoo, teaches Pi and his older brother, Ravi, to respect both the power and the unpredictability of wild animals. Other life lessons follow, as young Pi experiments with religion as a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian, in his quest to draw nigh to God.
When Pi is sixteen, his father sells the zoo and makes plans to move his family to Canada. His wife and two sons reluctantly join him on the Tsimtsum, the Japanese cargo ship transporting animals from the defunct zoo.
Complete Review
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[YannMartel] I was in India, as I mention in the Author's Note, I was in need of a story, India is awash in animals and religions, and I remembered an old review by Updike of a brazilian novel about a Jewish zookeeper who ends up in a boat with a black panther--a rather obvious allegory that I guess Updike found heavy going. But I remembered the premise. Five years later, in India, it came back to me andd suddenly my mind started shooting off ideas. The novel came to me in big chunks--the two stories, the Frenchman, the island, the many animals, etc.
[MOD-CINDY] * * * If you have a question for Mr. Martel, please type a question mark, such as ? When it's your turn to ask a question, you will be "called on" so please have your question ready. * * *
[peanut] ?
[YannMartel] I did research for six months in India, practical research, then I read on zoos, animal psychology, religions and castaway stories for about a year and a half back in Canada.
[YannMartel] Then I wrote the thing out. Took me about 1 1/2 years to get to a draft. So 4 years in all. But I loved every minute.
[MOD-CINDY] Go ahead, peanut!
[peanut] What type(s) of projects are you currently working on?
[peanut] ?
[YannMartel] Speaking of allegories... an allegory of the Holocaust. Sounds really heavy, but I want to find a portable, applicable metaphor for the Holocaust. The H is this huge, monstrous event, the turning point of the 20th c. that is mostly ignored. Most lit that has come out of it--think of Primo Levi, Eli Wiessel--has been documentary: "This is what it was like to be at Bergen-Belsen," etc.
[YannMartel] I would like to see if it's not possible to memorialize it in a different way, a metaphorical way that could be applied elsewhere, where it should have been, like Rwanda or the Former Yugoslavia.
[YannMartel] Sounds heavy and SERIOUS, but I want it to be light, oddly enough considering the topic. It's hard to explain. I remembered people looked doubtful when I was telling them about Pi.
[YannMartel] It will feature a monkey and a donkey who are traveling through a country--with trees and soil and rivers, etc.
[MOD-CINDY] * * * If you have a question for Mr. Martel, please type a question mark, such as ? When it's your turn to ask a question, you will be "called on" so please have your question ready. * * *
[YannMartel] --but that is also a shirt, with seams and pockets and buttons, etc. The two animals will be heading for the capital of the country: Yellow Star
[MOD-CINDY] Actually, that sounds fascinating!
[YannMartel] (so-called because of the color of the brick used and the shape fo the fortifications. But obviously it's a Jew's shirt during the Nazi era. They will start at the back of the shirt, get to the heart, where Yellow Star is, then head down to the stomach. Anyway, you'll have to read it.
[peanut] ?
[MOD-CINDY] <nods> It'll be interesting to see how you do it.
[MOD-CINDY] Go ahead, Peanut!
[peanut] About how many hours a day do you write and, generally, how many words/pages do you get out of a typical writing session?
[MOD-CINDY] * * * If you have a question for Mr. Martel, please type a question mark, such as ? When it's your turn to ask a question, you will be "called on" so please have your question ready. * * *
[rtrdogs] ?
[YannMartel] I have no particular routine. When I'm actually writing, as opposed to researching, I sort of write all day, in a quite inefficient way, mind you, but all day. Which doesn't mean that I write much. A good day will mean half a page. But I'm in no rush, so I don't mind my slow pace.
[YannMartel] Some writers are faster, more fluid than others. I enjoy writing, but it's slow. I don't understand people like Joyce Carol Oates. She's a force of nature.
[MOD-CINDY] Go ahead, rtrdogs.
[rtrdogs] Being published by a major house, do you still have to handle a lot of your own publicity?
[mallory] ?
[TheWord] ?
[tgh] ?
[YannMartel] No, my publishers, in various countries, take care of it. I don't ask much of them: I'm not a publicity hound.
[MOD-CINDY] Go ahead, Mallory
[YannMartel] And if you're lucky, for eg, get a Booker nomination, the publishers don't have to do much to start with.
[mallory] How do you go about fleshing out your characters?
[YannMartel] I don't know. I don't think about it consciously.
[YannMartel] In fact, I tend not to find working on characters very interesting. It's situations, confronted by neutral they-could-be-you charaters, that interest me.
[MOD-CINDY] Go ahead, Word!
[TheWord] How much say do you have in how your cover will look, how many copies are printed, how it's marketed, etc.? Do you have input or do the publishers solely decide?
[YannMartel] Those are all things that the publisher decides on. If they want to put the picture of a naked woman on your cover, they can, over your screaming body. But they tend not to do that since it's not in their interest to have an author who hates his own book.
[MOD-CINDY] Go ahead, tgh!
[YannMartel] I have generally found the world of publishing to be a congenial place, where publishers consult with their authors and seek their approval on most aspects of the book.
