Bilangan Fu: the words don’t shine anymore

Finally, a new book by Ayu Utami is out. As a fan of her previous works (Saman & Larung). I couldn’t be any more excited than this. I bought the book “Bilangan Fu” in Toga Mas and finished it in less than one day. Surely it was engaging but reading “Bilangan Fu ” is more like reading Dewi “Dee” Lestari than reading Ayu Utami. I guess, “Bilangan Fu” is a bit more “pop” than Saman or Larung and it concentrate more on youthful self-fulfilling ambitions and surely the characters are lack of maturity and wisdom. Not only that, Ayu Utami put less politics and more spiritualism in this book. Another hint is, the book criticize propaganda monotheism and give support to Eastern beliefs. No wonder it sounds like Akar by Dewi Lestari. One thing that bother me, the character parang jati doesn’t sound at all like a person teknik geologi ITB  =P  I have to admit, he doesn’t even sound or act like an ITB students at all!!

Well the point is, I like Saman & Larung much better than this new book. Saman is so much thinner but for me it contains a world many times bigger than the one contained in Bilangan Fu. Bilangan Fu felt too weak, in characterization, writing style and editorial. I have to admit, I was left a bit dissapointed because I didn’t find the words shining like what I found in Ayu Utami’s previous book. However, still worth reading..

 

Rosaline

“Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?” – Act I Scene I (Romeo & Juliet)

Romeo was in love, not with Juliet, but with Rosaline, his unrequited love.

At the first time, Romeo saw Rosaline as “The all-seeing sun / ne’er saw her match since first the world begun.” but soon after she was replaced by “Did my heart love ’til now? Forswear it, sight / For I ne’er saw true beauty ’til this night.” Romeo’s love for her was short. She was forgotten. Romeo forgot Rosaline just as fast and as easy as he fell in love for Juliet.

Just after one second, Juliet became the dove and Rosaline turned into one of the crows and her name is only appeared in the later petrachan sonnets only to be compared to Juliet. Romeo was like an animist who is awed by the bright light of sun and turned his back after worshiping the moon in the night.

As the forgotten, Rosaline just sat in the dark side of Romeo’s heart with her faint soft glow, just like the moon. Was she sad when she was forgotten? Did she regret being forgotten? Did she know she was forgotten? Did she really become “the pale and envious moon” killed by the “fair sun”? She was no longer the rose, because “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, even if the rose was named Juliet.

Maybe she was indeed lucky that she remained chaste and profoundly proud. At least she wasn’t a foolish lover or didn’t die in a dim manner or wasn’t a part of tangled stupidity. She was lucky, because she avoided love and she ran away from it.. Maybe she was lucky to be forgotten…

 

Tentang Saya

Nama saya Kaca. Kebanyakan orang memang menemukan nama saya unik, tidak biasa, dan setiap orang memiliki respon mereka masing-masing. Sebagian tercengang atau kebingungan, sebagian tertawa dengan nada tidak percaya, sebagian memuji. Apapun yang terjadi, selama hidup saya, hubungan antara saya dan nama saya memang dapat dikatakan ‘a love-hate relationship’. Saat saya kecil, saya sering sebal karena nama saya sering dijadikan candaan tetapi sekarang saya malah bersyukur dan menganggap nama saya suatu berkah. Nama ‘Kaca’ selalu gampang diingat dan sulit dilupakan kebanyakan orang.

 

What I want most…

Out of many things in life, there’s a few things I want most. Currently, my best picks are:

1. Higher G.P.A. in which I actually feel that I don’t deserve to get for the reason that I have not made any obvious academical efforts in order to achieve such thing. I should be satisfied with my achievement but I should not have been satisfied with my own self because I have not used my full potential.

2. Toto-Chan Book which I have been wanting to find for months. It’s not that I can’t find any, there’s plenty at Gramedia but the thing is that they’re the REPRINTED version!!! And can you understand how much I despite seeing the reprinted version??!!! (and no, I guess most of you won’t understand). I actually read Toto-chan for the first time when I was 8 or 9 years old and I got the book from my aunt. The book teaches a lot of simple but important values about being nice to other human beings, which is the reason why this book became very important to me. However, I was a young stupid careless kid who couldn’t take care of things carefully so the book got into a pretty sad condition with fallen pages which is the main reason why I have not finished reading the book until NOW (how can i? the pages are missing)!!!!!! I keep blaming myself for this and I wish I could have turned back the time so I will still have the book in an excellent condition.. Still, for some reasons I refuse to touch the Reprinted version of the book to finish reading the stories, I just want the old ones (first edition, if possible) with brown pages and that old look on the cover. I miss that book, and I love that book soooooo much…… People told me I should try to look for the old version of the book at Palasari, but I haven’t got any time to go there.. and I don’t know how to get there… Sight…

3. To Be Nicer to Others… Oops I suppose I should have put this to number one since this is the thing I actually want most.. Sorry, I am not a perfect human being, I can be a b****h a lot of times but despite my personality imperfections I just want to be nice to people – and if I can, to become an altruistic person….

 

English Assignment – Connected Text Study

   I need to finish my connected text study assignment this holiday. At the end of our last lesson of the term which was English, when our teacher said to us, "Have a good holiday, satirists!" The first thing in our mind was, "Ah, holiday!" but of course she reminded us about how our last journal and the draft of the comparison essay is due first day back. And right now, I’m trying to finish my journal for my last text, and I still have 1000 words to go!!

My theme for this assignment is "multiculturalism" and I picked Memoirs of Geisha by Golden, The House of the Spirits by Allende and Desert Flower by Waris Dirie. They’re all wonderful in different way. I guess my favourite of these three is Allende’s masterpiece. It was certainly challenging; it took me two weeks to finish it ( and I could finish the DaVinci Code and Harry Potter in one night). My teacher told me Allende writes literature, even though she has also written a teenage adventure trilogy. Allende’s writing is descriptive and full of complex vocabulary. However, I’ve heard a lot of comment about "The House of the Spirits" being a form of plagiarism of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabo, so I might need to read that before making any further comment about Allende’s novel. Memoirs of Geisha is just charming and it was beautifully written. A mesmerizing storytelling achievement. Desert Flower touches me, it was written in a very simple, straightforward language (easy to read- took me less than one night to finish) but yet honest and meaningful. Waris (the book is an autobiography) captivates me with her courageous spirit, unlike Sayuri (main character of "Memoirs of Geisha) who is likable but constantly letting herself being controlled by others.

Hang on a sec, I could have used my time and my ideas about these book for my analysis assignment instead of for this blog… oh well.. Id betta start my essay now..