Life of Pi sort of with a capital 'S' – something that would direct my life." He spoke of being lonely and needing direction in his life, and found that writing the novel met this need. The name of Martel's tiger, Richard Parker, was inspired by a character in Edgar Allan Poe's nautical adventure novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" (1838). In this book, Richard Parker is a mutineer who is stranded and eventually cannibalized on the hull of an overturned ship (and there is a dog aboard who is named Tiger). The author also had in mind another occurrence
Season of the Tiger Season of the Tiger Produced by Daftfilms and Black Entertainment Television (BET), "Season of the Tiger" premiered on April 27, 2006 at 9:30 p.m. The subsequent episodes were shown at the same Thursday time slot for the following five weeks. In documentary style, the show focuses on the lives of three band members and two football players as they try to fulfill their potential, despite the setbacks they encounter along the way. "Season of the Tiger" is the second BET reality show to focus on life at a historically black institution (HBCU) (see "College Hill"), and the first to highlight