Downton…and Pi

Three things are on my mind this morning: the name of this blog, prognostications for Downton Abbey, the show, and my reflections on the Life of Pi.

I chose Methuselah for a name some time ago, because I thought “old…and hopefully wise…” The first is certainly true, but my readings backward tell me that wisdom is in short supply on these pages. So I’d like some assistance from those few of you who find the time read these pages. A name that suggests wisdom of perspicacity, a name that will spur me on to greater things!

On to DA. Most of us are aware by now that Matthew’s sudden demise at the end of season three was not so much the action of Julian Fellowes, but the action of Dan Stevens, the actor. He wanted out, to get on with more interesting projects. So Fellowes was stuck with something that comes to all of us: a fait accompli. The only appropriate way to get Matthew out of the script was to kill him. Voila!

Now that leaves a host of plot lines waving about, unraveled. On FB, I have read a number of hopeful…and hopeless…scenarios. Here are some of my own!

 Mary will ‘carry on bravely,’ as any 19^th century aristocrat would. ‘Widows weeds’ will prevail, and there will be a struggle about naming the boy Matthew…or Robert, for dear old papa. She will not marry Tom. Tom, the new agent, will shoulder the farm like the brick that he is, and will save them all from ruin while still being looked down upon by Robert, at least.

I wish a good life for the Bates, perhaps even a baby, and departure from service to some nobler and more personal life together. I’d like to see Barrow more fully rehabilitated, seen as a human being, rather than an evil man, if only for Sybil’s memory’s sake.

Deep in my heart, I hope that Edith and her Editor beau kick over the traces and live together in sin, even if it has to be in France…of the USA, under the tutelage of that other grandmother, Shirley McLain.

I want Daisy to get her farm and cooking business, with a doting father-in-law in the background, smiling at the way things are turning out. I also hope that something bad happens to O’Brien. She seems to stubbornly avoid personal trouble. Could she fall down the stairs? Be caught in a fire, or better still, be blown up in an early air raid on London when the family is visiting? I forgot to mention that I see the series coming to a decent end in 1939, with the declaration of war, or even the blitz!

A great twist would be the young son and heir, now 17 or 18 in 1939, rushing off to join the RAF in defense of the Homeland, leaving his mother torn between terror and pride as she finally realizes that she’s no longer in the age of cavalry, and that even aristocrats die in war. Alfred could stomp off to war as well, to be a grunt in the army if nothing else.

Carson and Mrs. Hughes are, de facto a married couple, but I do hope no thought is given to wedding them. Mrs. Hughes deserves more of a real guy than the wonderful stuffed shirt Carson presents.

As the series closes, I want to see Robert and his eminently sensible spouse, facing up to closing a large chunk of Downton, while Robert (the honorary Colonel, remember) goes off to die in France. Lady Grantham and Tom could fade into the sunset, not a “couple,” but a pair who will keep Downton alive in some manner until the boys come home.

I still need a more fitting end for O’Brien. No one will marry her. So who could kill her? Barrow, perhaps? That would redeem him in my eyes. How about you? I await your suggestions and alternative patterns.

The Life of Pi. Hmmm…. The tale of that young man of infinite possibilities was enthralling, and filled with mind-bending images and metaphors. For me, the quintessential scene in the movie version, is of Pi standing at the blackboard, having memorized all the digits following the “3.14” of traditional Pi. He has filled three blackboards in the math classroom, and given you the sense of the possibilities in this boy.

Rather than trekking through the whole book, let me reflect on just three aspects of the story. The first is “the island of vegetation.” What a wonderful metaphor for western culture! In the daylight, it provides you with everything you need, indeed, everything you could ask for, and more: food, comfort, cosy friends who demand little. The visitor is lulled into believing that this is paradise! Then darkness slides over the island as the sun sinks into the sea. Suddenly, the water is acid, the ground as well, and unless one is willing to pull oneself up above the whole place, it will devour you whole, leaving only a tooth behind! Much the same could be said of our culture, embraced fully and without caution. Death ultimately ensues. First of the spirit, and then of the whole person.

Then, of course, there is Richard Parker, the Bengal Tiger. What a conceit, to present each of us with the tiger we carry within us, without ever making the accusation! A killer cat, useful but dangerous. One can live with the cat only if one trains and tames it. By the tiger never becomes your ‘friend.’ It is always there when you need it. When you don’t need it, it simply walks away into the jungle. Of course it doesn’t say goodbye…because it is not really gone. Pi comes to love Richard Parker, who keeps him alive. He has realized what so many humans do not; that our inner tiger is essential, though frightening and destructive to us and others. But we need our Richard Parker, all of us!

The wonderful scene with the Japanese men from the shipping company allow Martel to remind us that our lives are a story. Well, actually, our lives are more than one story. We tell different stories in different places. Which ones are true? Only one, or in some way, are all of them true. They want ‘just the facts.’ But ‘just the facts’ doesn’t satisfy them. It isn’t the best story. The other story – what one colleague insists is Pi’s psychotic episode – tells you all you need to know about the characters and what they accomplish. The long struggle of Pi with his Richard is a heartening tale of a boy dealing with his inner life with whatever resources he has – orange whistles, a locker, flying fish and a gaff pole, with a knife. That’s what life gives you. Your family, which produced you, can’t in the end help you.We are all ‘in the same boat’ and have to tame our tigers with just those things.

I’m sure not all of you will agree with my understanding. Good: what is yours? Share it here please. And for those of you who have not heard of, or read, this book, it is The Life of Pi by Yan Martel, 2001, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2002. And enjoy!