Life of Pi

going to waste when they were mine for the picking."
     
    "It's a pity. Now, about—"
     
    "Could I have my bananas back, please?"
     
    Mr. Chiba: "I'll get them."
     
    [Sound of a chair being pushed back]
     
    [Distantly] "Look at that. They really do float."
     
    Mr. Okamoto: "What about this algae island you say you came upon?"
     
    Mr. Chiba: "Here are your bananas."
     
    Pi Patel: "Thank you. Yes?"
     
    "I'm sorry to say it so bluntly, we don't mean to hurt your feelings, but you don't really expect us to believe you, do you? Carnivorous trees? A fish-eating algae that produces fresh water? Tree-dwelling aquatic rodents? These things don't exist."
     
    "Only because you've never seen them."
     
    "That's right. We believe what we see."
     
    "So did Columbus. What do you do when you're in the dark?"
     
    "Your island is botanically impossible."
     
    "Said the fly just before landing in the Venus flytrap."
     
    "Why has no one else come upon it?"
     
    "It's a big ocean crossed by busy ships. I went slowly, observing much."
     
    "No scientist would believe you."
     
    "These would be the same who dismissed Copernicus and Darwin. Have scientists finished coming upon new plants? In the Amazon basin, for example?"
     
    "Not plants that contradict the laws of nature."
     
    "Which you know through and through?"
     
    "Well enough to know the possible from the impossible."
     
    Mr. Chiba: "I have an uncle who knows a lot about botany. He lives in the country near Hita-Gun. He's a bonsai master."
     
    Pi Patel: "A what?"
     
    "A bonsai master. You know, bonsai are little trees."
     
    "You mean shrubs."
     
    "No, I mean trees. Bonsai are little trees. They are less than two feet tall. You can carry them in your arms. They can be very old. My uncle has one that is over three hundred years old."
     
    "Three-hundred-year-old trees that are two feet tall that you can carry in your arms?"
     
    "Yes. They're very delicate. They need a lot of attention."
     
    "Whoever heard of such trees? They're botanically impossible."
     
    "But I assure you they exist, Mr. Patel. My uncle—"
     
    "I believe what I see."
     
    Mr. Okamoto: "Just a moment, please. Atsuro, with all due respect for your uncle who lives in the country near Hita-Gun, we're not here to talk idly about botany."
     
    "I'm just trying to help."
     
    "Do your uncle's bonsai eat meat?"
     
    "I don't think so."
     
    "Have you ever been bitten by one of his bonsai?"
     
    "No."
     
    "In that case, your uncle's bonsai are not helping us. Where were we?"
     
    Pi Patel: "With the tall, full-sized trees firmly rooted to the ground I was telling you about."
     
    "Let us put them aside for now."
     
    "It might be hard. I never tried pulling them out and carrying them."
     
    "You're a funny man, Mr. Patel. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
     
    Pi Patel: "Ha! Ha! Ha!"
     
    Mr. Chiba: "Ha! Ha! Ha! It wasn't that funny."
     
    Mr. Okamoto: "Just keep laughing. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
     
    Mr. Chiba: "Ha! Ha! Ha!"
     
    Mr. Okamoto: "Now about the tiger, we're not sure about it either."
     
    "What do you mean?"
     
    "We have difficulty believing it."
     
    "It's an incredible story."
     
    "Precisely."
     
    "I don't know how I survived."
     
    "Clearly it was a strain."
     
    "I'll have another cookie."
     
    "There are none left."
     
    "What's in that bag?"
     
    "Nothing."
     
    "Can I see?"
     
    Mr. Chiba: "There goes our lunch."
     
    Mr. Okamoto: "Getting back to the tiger..."
     
    Pi Patel: "Terrible business. Delicious sandwiches."
     
    Mr. Okamoto: "Yes, they look good."
     
    Mr. Chiba: "I'm hungry."
     
    "Not a trace of it has been found. That's a bit hard to believe, isn't it? There are no tigers in the Americas. If there were a wild tiger out there, don't you think the police would have heard about it by now?"
     
    "I should tell you about the black panther that escaped from the Zurich Zoo in the middle of winter."
     
    "Mr. Patel, a tiger is an incredibly dangerous wild animal. How could you survive in a lifeboat with one? It's—"
     
    "What you don't realize is that we are a strange and forbidding species to wild animals. We fill them with fear. They avoid us as much as possible. It took centuries to still the fear in some pliable animals—domestication it's called—but most cannot get over their fear, and I doubt they ever will. When wild animals fight us, it is out of sheer