There is actually a really well done e-Lit sample of Life of Pi available online. It wasn’t done by the author, but it is an “official” extension of the book, as it was sponsored by the publisher to coincide with the book’s release back in 2001.
The animation begins like the opening credits of a dramatic movie. The sounds are haunting – gentle operatic music with loud cracks of thunder. Soon a voiceover begins to read through the survival manual that Pi finds in his lifeboat. The lines are directly from the text, and every one of them worked as foreshadowing within the book. Slowly, written words fade in and out; more lines from the book (“Life on a lifeboat isn’t much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces”). As the voice continues and a few more lines of text fade in, a small lifeboat slowly appears and crosses the dark blue background. The combination of imagery and text (both spoken and visual) makes this interactive animation a great example of electronic literacy, as well as a great introduction to the book.
This example has provoked a question for me: is it okay that this piece of E-Lit is merely a preview of the book, and not a representation of the whole thing. Ultimately, I think it’s okay. What’s important is that it does represent the book. The fact that it is more emblematic than purely textual in its representation is perhaps more to its credit.
Here is the link: http://pi.flamjam.com/life_of_pi.htm
It also appears in a more static, YouTube version HERE (quality not as good).