The Life of Pi
An Interpretation
The Life of Pi-- one of the most philosophical and spiritually intriguing stories of modern day literature and film. The story conveys on the surface Piscine Molitor Patel's journey to survival on a boat with an adult Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, for 227 days through the mercurial weather of the Pacific Ocean. A story about unexpected but genuine companionship, doubt in religion and questioning its existence, the act of letting go, bravery and courage or the importance of hope-- there could be a number of themes for this story. What viewers or readers often miss is what lies between the lines. Is the story as simple as told, or is there beneath a more complex state of understanding? Why does Richard Parker not say goodbye? Piscine Patel's astounding story of surviving the shipwreck comes in two dishes, and both must be equally tasted and savored.
Even though the muddle that is India, the land is till date considered one of the most spiritual places on the globe and attracts a lot of tourist attention for that purpose. Piscine Molitor Patel, aka Pi, was born and brought up in such a surroundings. Whilst his father represents the modern practical Indian man who understands science more than religion, his mother, disowned by her parents for having married "below" her, reaches back to her past through religion. The film's fascinating visuals begin when we see Pi's mother read him an Amar Chitra Katha of when Krishna, an Hindu God, in his early years had eaten mud and come home. When confronted by his mother Yashoda, he was ordered to open his mouth , and to Yashoda's surprise, she sees the entire universe in his mouth.
Pi's interests in religion don't stop here, he continues to explore not only Hinduism but Christianity and Islam, the two other prevalent religions existing in the country, as well.
By this point, one can expect a much deeper connection to a spiritual context rather than just the adventure that Pi is put through. Otherwise, the book and movie could have as easily as have started from the point Pi and his family board the ship and ended when Pi reaches ashore. Yann Martel and Ang Lee have made it an important notion to set the story in this kind of a religious context.
Richard Parker does exist, he exists in Pi's mind. He is a part of Pi's mind. And Pi and him struggle to coexist, it's a battle of the egos. Innocence and magnificence, Pi has both but can only acknowledge one as his own.
Pi is aware of this part of his mind. He feels he has to do something about it, or be constantly threatened to be consumed by it. His attempt to tame Richard Parker proves to be a feeble attempt because Richard Parker is too one of his own ego, he does not simply confide to another's wishes. They are, in the end equal. One with the power and the other with emotions. Pi fails to sanitise the animal within him, simply because he cannot.
When Pi brings Richard Parker that bucket of clean potable water, his incentive is only built out of fear. Pi is afraid of the fact that Richard Parker could consume Pi himself, or in other words, hunger could defeat his own mindset.
However, when Pi has an open shot of completely removing Richard Parker from his journey and life, he cannot bring himself to do so. Piscine cannot simply do away with a part of himself. He needs Richard Parker to survive, he needs that part of him. Not only that, Pi stands for his humaneness-- he is not like the hyena or the cook who could so mercilessly kill the helpless. When Richard Parker is incapable of getting back on the boat, Pi helps him do so, surrenders the boat to him and keeps the raft to himself.
The second time Pi takes life is out of hunger, not anger. In attempt to maintain his purity he is grateful to Lord Vishnu for coming in the form of a fish and saving their lives. Here, he refers to a sequence in Hindu mythology; the Dasavatar. Vishnu, one of Hindu deities comes to earth ten times, each time in the form of something or someone different, including once in the form of Krishna. The first form he takes is that of a fish, and here Pi refers to that. Pi indicates his acknowledgement of Richard Parker when he say "for saving our lives", in the sense that if Richard Parker lives, he lives and vice-versa. Neither can live without the other.
Pi's only source of food is lost for the price of a spectacular presence made by a whale (this only occurs in the movie though to emphasise the fact that Pi starved so much). "Hunger can change everything you thought you ever knew about yourself", Hunger is the key trigger here that incites Pi to cross over his human sanity to the needs of survival. A dramatic battle of the egos occurs between him and Richard Parker over who gets the bigger fish. Here Pi doesn't negotiate with Richard Parker or try to make a fair decision. Instinctively he uses force and volume to keep Richard Parker away from his fish. It used to be human vs. animal, but now each team picks up on the other's tactics. The senses merge to dominate over each other.
It's a curious thing to note how when Pi decides that "maybe Richard Parker can't be tamed, but with God's will, he can be trained", the only thing that works with Richard Parker to go under the tarpaulin of the boat is not with words of kindness and promise, but a "HAAAAH!". Pi shows that he has learnt how to communicate with the part of his mind that he had ignored earlier for all these years.
The boat on which Pi floats on is representative of Pi's mind itself. Pi marks his territory as above the tarpaulin and the open space, and dismisses Richard Parker to only below the tarpaulin, hidden from sight. Similarly, Pi only has his humane, moral characteristics out in the open for show, he hides his animal instincts and behavior in the back of his mind, not purposely but subconsciously. When people see him, they see Piscine Molitor Patel, not Richard Parker. Similarly, when they see the boat, Pi wants them to see himself- not what's hidden below.
One of the most pathos- evoking scenes of the movie occurs when Pi spots a ship and sends many signals to the ship informing it of his situation. He reminds himself what the book he treasures constantly reminds him; "Above all; don't lose hope." The line almost mocks Pi, because it's near impossible not to lose hope after what happens to Pi. The ship leaves Pi's line of vision not having noticed a single signal. Pi's patience is heavily tested, and it'd be cruel to expect it not to affect Pi's mind any further.
Ang Lee makes an interesting move in his take of the story where he subconsciously combines the two protagonists of the story into one. He uses the magical creatures of the ocean to explore the intricate details of both their minds, first by zooming into Richard Parker's, and ending by zooming out of Pi's mind. He merges the two minds together not only through the camera movement, but how the procession of the thoughts in the ocean are.
Very few things in Pi's life remain a part of reality, of which his two treasures are his survival-book and pencil. They are his only connections back to reality, which is why when he loses them to the storm, it is quite tragic for him. The last thing he writes in his book "can't tell daydreams, nightdreams from reality" is quite representative of his state of mind at that point. The madness and the hopelessness of the situation attacks his mind, but him and Richard Parker fight against it together.
Perhaps the reason we see the eldest Pi as a person who has all his senses together, and isn't kept in a mental asylum for having "hallucinated" for more than 200 days in a row, is because he was such a spiritual person, his faiths kept him human, even if his situation made him lose all his faith in God. The situation presents itself as a despondent, but it's still not enough for Pi to change his beliefs altogether. However, that part of him is highly questioned when Pi recognizes God in a majestically powerful storm. While he is ecstatic at first, he tries to share what he feels with Richard Parker, and opens his mind to expose his animal parallel to his human faiths, the splendor that he sanely appreciates. Richard Parker on the other hand sees the storm as the storm it is; frightfully dangerous. Even a splendid animal like a Bengal Tiger recognizes the danger of leaping into faith. Pi tries to make engulf his mind with this vulnerable beauty, but the "beauty" is blatantly rejected by Richard Parker. Pi, who has been on the verge of losing his faith for innumerable days, who has lost most of his life, escaped death by mere inches, who has learnt to understand Richard Parker's emotions sees that he is in reality afraid of how vulnerable he has become by placing all his faith in God's gamble. "Why are you scaring him? I lost my family! I lost everything! I surrender, what more do you want?" As much as pathos this particular part of the story invokes in the viewers and readers, it is important to note that at this point is also the first time Richard Parker and Pi come physically in contact.
Now with no food, no raft, no book or pencil, Pi finds no purpose in his journey to survival. Hunger nearly defeats both him and Richard Parker, by making them not fight each other for a bigger fish, but by finding comfort in each other's presence even though they starve. It's insane how we truly only recognize what we really value when we're on the verge of losing (or have already lost) them.
Pi only really fully acknowledges his animal parallel towards this point of the story where he begins to feel responsible for allowing his faith to keep them afloat, for that decision either kept them alive or put them through starvation.
One thing we don't get a parallel for is the mysterious carnivorous island. Before Pi dies of starvation, he lands on a "deserted" island where he once again escapes death by if not inches, minutes perhaps. The island in Pi's description was ultimately floating algae that was home to millions of meerkats because nothing stopped them from reproducing. It was an island that had unlimited food for both Pi and Richard Parker, clean water and shelter from the sun. Pi had maybe landed on an ordinary island but without the millions of meerkats, but offered the same unlimited amounts of food and clean water. It's everything Pi didn't get on the ocean, everything he needed. The faded thread that Anandi had tied around his wrist, he unties and reties it on a branch of the forest. This act is symbolic of him surrendering himself to the island as all he could imagine doing was staying there forever.
Only thing, he witnesses the creepiest thing about the island the very night he arrives at it. The island was "carnivorous", for the algae that grew on it released acid at night and burnt everything it came in contact with. The millions of meerkats seek safety on the trees and Richard Parker, back on the boat. Dying fish came to the surface of the clean water. Pi opened what looked like a fruit hanging from one of the branches of the tree, and recognizes, in the core of it, a human tooth.
By the island being "carnivorous", Yann Martel and Pi perhaps actually meant that the island consumed all human purpose of life. God reminds Pi that there is more to his life than eating and sleeping, by perhaps the most human thing there is-- a human molar. The animal way of living, which was quite doable on the island, could go on for years. Pi had to live, and his faith, his humaneness reminded him that. "I had to get back to the world or die trying". Pi was prepared give his life, as long as he had the purpose. With Richard Parker, he leaves the island and sails once more with his faith reinvested.
My theory on why Richard Parker never made any last acknowledgement of his co-sailor is because in the end he is an animal. And Yann Martel tries to convey that we should see our parallels as they are, not try to reflect our own emotions through them. While Richard Parker could have only survived with Pi beside him, it is not completely fair to begin expecting human traits like gratefulness or "will-see-you-around"s. Also, when Richard Parker walked into that forest, (where he completely disappeared and no Mexican could locate this adult Bengal Tiger) he walked back into the depths of Pi's mind, where Pi cannot reach him, but this does not mean that Richard Parker leaves him. No goodbyes were necessary.
We all have our own Richard Parkers, our own 'monsters', kept away in some part of our mind. But rather than 'monsters' we have to learn to regard them as something more like 'magnificent creatures', which they are. What we view as horrible or monstrous may just be a judgement made too early, for we need them to survive in the end as they need us.
An Interpretation
The Life of Pi-- one of the most philosophical and spiritually intriguing stories of modern day literature and film. The story conveys on the surface Piscine Molitor Patel's journey to survival on a boat with an adult Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, for 227 days through the mercurial weather of the Pacific Ocean. A story about unexpected but genuine companionship, doubt in religion and questioning its existence, the act of letting go, bravery and courage or the importance of hope-- there could be a number of themes for this story. What viewers or readers often miss is what lies between the lines. Is the story as simple as told, or is there beneath a more complex state of understanding? Why does Richard Parker not say goodbye? Piscine Patel's astounding story of surviving the shipwreck comes in two dishes, and both must be equally tasted and savored.
Pi's interests in religion don't stop here, he continues to explore not only Hinduism but Christianity and Islam, the two other prevalent religions existing in the country, as well.
When discussing Pi's involvement in three different religions at the same time during dinner, his father advises him to "start with reason", and seek more answers in science than religion. His mother, on the other hand remarks that "Science can teach us more about what is out there, but not what is in here." (touching chest)
By this point, one can expect a much deeper connection to a spiritual context rather than just the adventure that Pi is put through. Otherwise, the book and movie could have as easily as have started from the point Pi and his family board the ship and ended when Pi reaches ashore. Yann Martel and Ang Lee have made it an important notion to set the story in this kind of a religious context.
Richard Parker and Piscine Patel's first meeting is one of great drama and questions of trust. The comparison between animal and human behavior kicks in here, where Pi and his young and innocent mind thinks that all living things think the way he does. When his father decides to punish Pi for coming to Richard Parker without his father's supervision, he tells him, "When you look into the eyes of a tiger all you see is your own emotions reflected back at you". This very line foreshadows an interpretation of the experiences Pi Patel goes through on the boat, Whether Richard Parker was there or not, and what he saw as the tiger, were they just his own emotions reflected back at him?
Perhaps the only missing part of the book that the movie ceased to leave out was 16 year old Pi's "love life". Teenagers! How can it be left out. The girl Piscine Patel finds himself attracted to, Anandi- a Bharatnatyam dancer- only enters his life when he must leave hers. Heartbreak, for his father had decided to sell the zoo they had owned and move to Canada.
"It's funny. I remember everything else about our last day, but I don't remember saying goodbye." Piscine Molitor Patel's inability to recall not saying goodbye only foreshadows the number of people (and animals) who leave him forever without bidding him a farewell. We don't know whether Anandi and he ever said goodbye or not, all we know is that in Pi's mind she too is one of the people who he never really could end a connection with.
One thing Yann Martel does before diving right into the shipwreck is introduce us to the French cook, who looks at pragmatism and functioning without preferences, living for survival; and the simple sailor who adapts to any hardships, eats "rice next to gravy" and is on the whole a really harmless young man. It's important to note how Pi sees both of these characters before he lands on the life boat, because in his second, alternative story, they are the two characters along with his mother who join him on the boat. How Pi places each of their personalities in parallel with that of different animals, can raise questions about who is a metaphor of who in the end.
We have already met the mother, so instead, before the tragedy, we meet her parallel- Orange Juice. Orange Juice is a female mother Orangutan, and as the name suggests, she is certainly a close animal to the family. A primate-- closest to humans, and probably understanding of human emotion and loss. We meet her when Pi watches his father tend to the animals. Pi asks his father why he has to give Orange Juice tranquilizers. The story is full of foreshadows, because then his father replies saying "We don't want to be cleaning up after a sea-sick orangutan, do we?" Perhaps not a sea-sick one, but later on, Pi does have to clean up after many "animals".
The shipwreck is one of the most important scenes of the story. It is where Pi begins to confuse reality with his imagination. After Pi realises that the very room his family had been in is completely flooded, he demands that the ship crew to find his family. The scene where he is put on the boat is filled with large amounts of confusion and panic. There are a number of sailors on the boat as well as the cook, all that leave the boat before the boat falls into the ocean. A number of sailors from the ship are seen frantically pointing at the boat and screaming something in Japanese, and a grown Zebra leaps into the boat, crashing and injuring itself. Pi helps Richard Parker onto the boat, mistaking him for a human. Pi leaves the boat, and watches the ship that carried what was left of his life sink, and the reality of the situation strikes at him.
Well, reality doesn't strike completely. He doesn't know who he has lost or who survived. The situation is overwhelming as well as confusing. All Pi can know is that the ship has sunk, but he has lived. It's tragic, and shocking, to have dodged death by that many inches.
A day has almost passed on the boat. Orange Juice, the injured zebra and an hyena have made their presence clear to Pi. By nature, hyenas are considered ruthless and very prepared to do heartless things for the purpose of survival- including feed on the helpless; the injured zebra. Orange Juice, intolerant of the heartlessness of the hyena. This part of the story is a lot more palatable if we look at it in this way, a lot more horrific if we look at them in terms of their parallels. The cook, finding that the only way everyone can survive is if the baggage that slows them down is got rid off- in the most economical way; killing the injured harmless and helpless sailor and using his body in other ways. Both the mother and the son, disgusted with this form of practicality, protest.
Orange Juice was perhaps the closest animal to Pi, as mentioned earlier, not only because they both come from the same ancestors, but because she was the most understanding of how Pi felt among all the passengers on Pi's boat. Much like his mother, who was the only one he could really feel close to through his whole family, he felt about Orange Juice on the boat. Perhaps that is why the death of Orange Juice (or his mother) was so dramatically tragic for him, that it brought the Richard Parker out of him.
Richard Parker, Pi's parallel comes back into the story with a dramatic entrance as he attacks the hyena, and takes his life in one go. Richard Parker and Pi, however, make a peculiar parallel, it would be almost correct to say they were more like they were "coincident" on each other. Tigers- large, powerful, magnificent and of course flesh-eating cats; while Pi- the quiet, skinny vegetarian Indian boy.
The sudden appearance of his animal side comes to Pi as a shock. His entrance into and the beginning of his world of madness and imagination, his acknowledgement of Richard Parker as a threat to his life is marked by the rescue letter he writes. Reality and imagination; the letter marks that Pi had confused the two by then. Shock had set him away from his senses.
Pi is highly spiritual, religious and human. His spirituality and pureness is what sets his humanness apart from natural animal behavior. But Pi is so deep into the sanity of human spirituality, that it's impossible to believe he even has a darker, less human part hidden away. The part that he does hide away becomes the extreme opposite of what moral pureness he shows on the outside. His beliefs allow him to be human.
Richard Parker does exist, he exists in Pi's mind. He is a part of Pi's mind. And Pi and him struggle to coexist, it's a battle of the egos. Innocence and magnificence, Pi has both but can only acknowledge one as his own.
Pi is aware of this part of his mind. He feels he has to do something about it, or be constantly threatened to be consumed by it. His attempt to tame Richard Parker proves to be a feeble attempt because Richard Parker is too one of his own ego, he does not simply confide to another's wishes. They are, in the end equal. One with the power and the other with emotions. Pi fails to sanitise the animal within him, simply because he cannot.
When Pi brings Richard Parker that bucket of clean potable water, his incentive is only built out of fear. Pi is afraid of the fact that Richard Parker could consume Pi himself, or in other words, hunger could defeat his own mindset.
However, when Pi has an open shot of completely removing Richard Parker from his journey and life, he cannot bring himself to do so. Piscine cannot simply do away with a part of himself. He needs Richard Parker to survive, he needs that part of him. Not only that, Pi stands for his humaneness-- he is not like the hyena or the cook who could so mercilessly kill the helpless. When Richard Parker is incapable of getting back on the boat, Pi helps him do so, surrenders the boat to him and keeps the raft to himself.
The second time Pi takes life is out of hunger, not anger. In attempt to maintain his purity he is grateful to Lord Vishnu for coming in the form of a fish and saving their lives. Here, he refers to a sequence in Hindu mythology; the Dasavatar. Vishnu, one of Hindu deities comes to earth ten times, each time in the form of something or someone different, including once in the form of Krishna. The first form he takes is that of a fish, and here Pi refers to that. Pi indicates his acknowledgement of Richard Parker when he say "for saving our lives", in the sense that if Richard Parker lives, he lives and vice-versa. Neither can live without the other.
Pi's only source of food is lost for the price of a spectacular presence made by a whale (this only occurs in the movie though to emphasise the fact that Pi starved so much). "Hunger can change everything you thought you ever knew about yourself", Hunger is the key trigger here that incites Pi to cross over his human sanity to the needs of survival. A dramatic battle of the egos occurs between him and Richard Parker over who gets the bigger fish. Here Pi doesn't negotiate with Richard Parker or try to make a fair decision. Instinctively he uses force and volume to keep Richard Parker away from his fish. It used to be human vs. animal, but now each team picks up on the other's tactics. The senses merge to dominate over each other.
It's a curious thing to note how when Pi decides that "maybe Richard Parker can't be tamed, but with God's will, he can be trained", the only thing that works with Richard Parker to go under the tarpaulin of the boat is not with words of kindness and promise, but a "HAAAAH!". Pi shows that he has learnt how to communicate with the part of his mind that he had ignored earlier for all these years.
The boat on which Pi floats on is representative of Pi's mind itself. Pi marks his territory as above the tarpaulin and the open space, and dismisses Richard Parker to only below the tarpaulin, hidden from sight. Similarly, Pi only has his humane, moral characteristics out in the open for show, he hides his animal instincts and behavior in the back of his mind, not purposely but subconsciously. When people see him, they see Piscine Molitor Patel, not Richard Parker. Similarly, when they see the boat, Pi wants them to see himself- not what's hidden below.
One of the most pathos- evoking scenes of the movie occurs when Pi spots a ship and sends many signals to the ship informing it of his situation. He reminds himself what the book he treasures constantly reminds him; "Above all; don't lose hope." The line almost mocks Pi, because it's near impossible not to lose hope after what happens to Pi. The ship leaves Pi's line of vision not having noticed a single signal. Pi's patience is heavily tested, and it'd be cruel to expect it not to affect Pi's mind any further.
Ang Lee makes an interesting move in his take of the story where he subconsciously combines the two protagonists of the story into one. He uses the magical creatures of the ocean to explore the intricate details of both their minds, first by zooming into Richard Parker's, and ending by zooming out of Pi's mind. He merges the two minds together not only through the camera movement, but how the procession of the thoughts in the ocean are.
Very few things in Pi's life remain a part of reality, of which his two treasures are his survival-book and pencil. They are his only connections back to reality, which is why when he loses them to the storm, it is quite tragic for him. The last thing he writes in his book "can't tell daydreams, nightdreams from reality" is quite representative of his state of mind at that point. The madness and the hopelessness of the situation attacks his mind, but him and Richard Parker fight against it together.
Perhaps the reason we see the eldest Pi as a person who has all his senses together, and isn't kept in a mental asylum for having "hallucinated" for more than 200 days in a row, is because he was such a spiritual person, his faiths kept him human, even if his situation made him lose all his faith in God. The situation presents itself as a despondent, but it's still not enough for Pi to change his beliefs altogether. However, that part of him is highly questioned when Pi recognizes God in a majestically powerful storm. While he is ecstatic at first, he tries to share what he feels with Richard Parker, and opens his mind to expose his animal parallel to his human faiths, the splendor that he sanely appreciates. Richard Parker on the other hand sees the storm as the storm it is; frightfully dangerous. Even a splendid animal like a Bengal Tiger recognizes the danger of leaping into faith. Pi tries to make engulf his mind with this vulnerable beauty, but the "beauty" is blatantly rejected by Richard Parker. Pi, who has been on the verge of losing his faith for innumerable days, who has lost most of his life, escaped death by mere inches, who has learnt to understand Richard Parker's emotions sees that he is in reality afraid of how vulnerable he has become by placing all his faith in God's gamble. "Why are you scaring him? I lost my family! I lost everything! I surrender, what more do you want?" As much as pathos this particular part of the story invokes in the viewers and readers, it is important to note that at this point is also the first time Richard Parker and Pi come physically in contact.
Now with no food, no raft, no book or pencil, Pi finds no purpose in his journey to survival. Hunger nearly defeats both him and Richard Parker, by making them not fight each other for a bigger fish, but by finding comfort in each other's presence even though they starve. It's insane how we truly only recognize what we really value when we're on the verge of losing (or have already lost) them.
Pi only really fully acknowledges his animal parallel towards this point of the story where he begins to feel responsible for allowing his faith to keep them afloat, for that decision either kept them alive or put them through starvation.
One thing we don't get a parallel for is the mysterious carnivorous island. Before Pi dies of starvation, he lands on a "deserted" island where he once again escapes death by if not inches, minutes perhaps. The island in Pi's description was ultimately floating algae that was home to millions of meerkats because nothing stopped them from reproducing. It was an island that had unlimited food for both Pi and Richard Parker, clean water and shelter from the sun. Pi had maybe landed on an ordinary island but without the millions of meerkats, but offered the same unlimited amounts of food and clean water. It's everything Pi didn't get on the ocean, everything he needed. The faded thread that Anandi had tied around his wrist, he unties and reties it on a branch of the forest. This act is symbolic of him surrendering himself to the island as all he could imagine doing was staying there forever.
Only thing, he witnesses the creepiest thing about the island the very night he arrives at it. The island was "carnivorous", for the algae that grew on it released acid at night and burnt everything it came in contact with. The millions of meerkats seek safety on the trees and Richard Parker, back on the boat. Dying fish came to the surface of the clean water. Pi opened what looked like a fruit hanging from one of the branches of the tree, and recognizes, in the core of it, a human tooth.
By the island being "carnivorous", Yann Martel and Pi perhaps actually meant that the island consumed all human purpose of life. God reminds Pi that there is more to his life than eating and sleeping, by perhaps the most human thing there is-- a human molar. The animal way of living, which was quite doable on the island, could go on for years. Pi had to live, and his faith, his humaneness reminded him that. "I had to get back to the world or die trying". Pi was prepared give his life, as long as he had the purpose. With Richard Parker, he leaves the island and sails once more with his faith reinvested.
My theory on why Richard Parker never made any last acknowledgement of his co-sailor is because in the end he is an animal. And Yann Martel tries to convey that we should see our parallels as they are, not try to reflect our own emotions through them. While Richard Parker could have only survived with Pi beside him, it is not completely fair to begin expecting human traits like gratefulness or "will-see-you-around"s. Also, when Richard Parker walked into that forest, (where he completely disappeared and no Mexican could locate this adult Bengal Tiger) he walked back into the depths of Pi's mind, where Pi cannot reach him, but this does not mean that Richard Parker leaves him. No goodbyes were necessary.
We all have our own Richard Parkers, our own 'monsters', kept away in some part of our mind. But rather than 'monsters' we have to learn to regard them as something more like 'magnificent creatures', which they are. What we view as horrible or monstrous may just be a judgement made too early, for we need them to survive in the end as they need us.
'Which story did you prefer?'
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