6 Degree of Separation: From The Origin to….

I have just finished a wonderful book, of which I still need time to digest: Irving Stone's The Origin—a historical account on Charles Darwin. As always with great books, it'd take me much time and efforts to review. On the other hand, my head is full of it and I was eager to write something. Several weeks ago I saw a meme called 6 Degree of Separation (hosted by Kathy), and thought: why not working on one with The Origin? This book has reminded me of many books as I read it, so I think I would work on two different routes of separations, starting both with The Origin. Let's see where it gets! And to make it more interesting, can you guess the relation of each separation only by the title (without reading my explanation)?

From The Origin to The Lord of the Rings

The Origin

Irving Stone has done a tremendous research on the life and work of Charles Darwin, including the reason why he, in the first place, had courageously written and published On The Origin of Species despite his fears of strong rejection and public accusation of blasphemy: it's because he longed to tell the truth!

The truth was also Émile Zola's reason when he heroically published an open letter to the president of France:

The Dreyfus Affair: J'Accuse!

It was Zola's fight against the injustice imposed upon Alfred Dreyfus—a Jewish officer accused of committing treason.

Robert Harris has written a thorough account of the Dreyfus Case in his historical novel:

An Officer and A Spy

The book made it clearly understood that the biggest crime behind Dreyfus Case was racism.

The real event of racism in a higher level could also be found in this history book:

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

The book retells the history of injustice, genocide, and, at the end, massacre of the native Indian in American West. 

The native Indian was also picked by a German writer who has never been to America but could tell the story so vividly: Karl May with his masterpiece: 

Winnetou (series)

One thing I admired from the series is the true friendship between Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, which overcame their differences—in culture, race, beliefs.

The same true friendship over differences I have also encountered in a fellowship from the other "world" in:

The Lord of the Rings

One of my favorite things from this least favorite book of mine is the friendship of Legolas, the elf, and Gimly, the dwarf. Theirs is nothing compared to Winnetou-Old Shatterhand's, but still... how they could be brothers in spite of their differences, is what we all must keep in world present world full of hatred; is it not?

And there, the first route of separations must end. What do you think? Which part is your favorite? Or do you need a more encouraging piece? Keep reading, then...

From The Origin to La Bête Humaine

The Origin

The easiest path is, of course, that which lead to Charles Darwin's magnum opus:

On the Origin of Species

Darwin's "evolution" was an unprecedented theory amidst the conventional Christian views (that God created living creatures as a whole and unchanged), thus it triggered more disputes between the Church and Naturalists (scientists).

The similar conflict (albeit only in the person of Abbe Mouret) also appears in a book of a naturalist in literary world: Émile Zola:

The Sin of Abbé Mouret

The priest was torn between the rigidness of the Church and the fertility of the Nature. These conflicts eventually led him to committing the sin.

Speaking of sin, reminded me of The Sin which is discussed in:

East of Eden

This is also a magnum opus; of a fiction writer. Besides sin, it also talks about good vs evil--our freedom of choice (or Timshel). This led me to think about...

Lord of the Flies

Remember a bunch of teenagers who was stranded on an uninhabited island? Isn't there one boy who was 'forced' to choose the path of good vs evil, finally chose to keep his common sense, while the others succumbed to their "beast" within or....

La Bête Humaine

Zola highlighted the importance of controlling our beast within in this beautiful yet provoking novel.

And so, that's the end of the second route of the separations.

Tell me, which route do you like most?

Book Kaleidoscope: My Top Five Best Book Covers

This is the second category of the 2012 Book Kaleidoscope, the rewinding of bookish aspects of books we have read during this 2012. After a little #fangirling in the 1^st category: Top Five Book Boy Friends yesterday, now we are switching to artistic aspects of a book: Covers! Here I rank my five most favorite books covers that I had read for 2012…

5. The Great Gatsby

I have posted about this particular The Great Gatsby cover for a classics challenge, and I don’t know why, this post became quite popular with 598 pageviews (when I wrote this post). This is a translated version of The Great Gatsby, and I like it even before I read the book. I like the overall color tone: beige, and the classy nuances. I’ll quote what I’ve written for this cover:

There are three persons, two men and one woman are standing in the middle of a party took place in a mansion. That was my first impression of this cover, and it turned out to match the book theme. The luxury party and the snob expression of those three persons could reflect the moral decadency of the “Jazz Age”. It seems that the woman (Daisy) is torn between the two men. She perhaps will choose the man in the front (Gatsby I presume), but she is somehow still attached to the man behind (Tom I presume), who is staring at her sharply, afraid of losing her.

Aesthetically I love the cover, it can reflect the theme of the book, but I think it still could not reflect the whole story. I could not even guess which one is Gatsby from the two gentlemen in the illustration.

4. Nobody’s Boy

This one is translated version of Nobody’s Boy from one of the biggest publishers in Indonesia. I like the old parchment color for the cover background, the illustration is nice too. Remi was pictured as a tiny and helpless boy, patting the dogs’ heads he loved—and the dogs loved him too. In the background, there was Signor Vitalis with the monkey on his shoulder, illustrated as if they were looking at Remi from a far before they both vanished. The illustration reflected the story very well.

3. Lord of The Flies

Red is my favorite color, so when I saw this new edition of Lord of the Flies in one of The Book Depository’s hourly sales, I just grabbed it without further consideration :) I liked the cover from the beginning, and after I read it, I loved it more. Firstly, the red color represented the fighting spirit of the characters. The illustration of the primitives fit with the story’s theme, and the bright colors (in leaves, animals) represented youthfulness. All in all, the cover tells the whole story of this book, about how youths could become savages, and how they fight against it. And the cover fits well with young adult readers.

2. The Color Purple

Not only because there were purple flowers in the cover that makes The Color Purple’s cover one of my favorites, I loved it because the cover reflected the story and the emotional aspects of the story. I have written about it here, let me just quote it now.

I think this certain cover speaks a lot about the book. First, there is a portrait of a black woman’s bare legs, standing at the porch (leaning on a pillar from rotten woods). The lack of shoes and the body language of the woman already brought the sense of poverty and powerless. The grayish color of the portrait only added a sense of hopelessness (and reflected the non-existence of women in the world) to the scene. However, there are also three purple flowers, as if from the helpless ground the flowers had grown to bring a new brighter and more colorful scene to the world (and to women in particular). The purple flowers represent the new hope of happiness that awaits Celie at the end of her long waiting.

1. Beloved

From the moment I held this book, I have been intrigued by the black woman’s picture. At first I thought the woman was so black that her face was almost disappeared. However at second sight, I began to realize that the half right of her face was completely transparent, as if half of her face dissolved to the red background of the cover (it’s a brilliant idea to choose red as part of the background so that the transparency effect became more distinct). And that was not intended to be just an effect (the transparency), or otherwise her hat and clothes would be transparent as well. It’s not until after I have finished reading Beloved—and it’s a very powerful book too—that I realized how clever the illustrator was in designing the cover. I could not say as much as I like without revealing the whole story, but I think that “Beloved” was exactly as what this cover is reflecting, mysterious, dark and made you think whether everything was real or was it as what you’ve been thinking. Genius design of a cover!

And….that makes Beloved…

Fanda’s Most Favorite Book Cover
of 2012!

*Put your post in the linky at Book Kaleidoscope Master Post*

*We still have one final post of the Top Five Most Favorite Books on December 31^st! (see the details in the Master Post)*

Jack Merridew in Lord of The Flies

Jack Merrydew was the main antagonist in Lord of The Flies. He arrived at the isolated island as the head of a group of choir boys.

“Inside the floating cloak he was tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness. Out of this face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger.”

From the beginning we could see that Jack was a leader. While all the other boys—in fear and without adult supervision—wandered confusedly around the island after the plane crash, Jack had managed to assemble his group orderly. All the boys listened to him, obeyed him. However, from the beginning also, I have sensed vaguely a kind of wicked passion in this boy. From above quote, Jack was pictured as being ‘frustrated and was going to be angry’, while it was still at the beginning, nothing had yet happened.

Without any reasonable reason, Jack already hated Piggy from the first time Piggy was involved in the conversation. In a harsh manner Jack howled Piggy to ‘shut up’ and called him Fatty. I could not understand, even now, why Jack hated Piggy so much from the beginning (and persisted till the end), while Piggy did nothing to him. Was it because Jack has a superior sense in him, that the shyness of Piggy was unbearable to him? I think so, and I think it is the same reason of most bullying cases everywhere.

[before] Jack - the head of choir boys

In his superiority, Jack never thought that there would be anyone else who was more capable than he to become the chief of the boys; there was there another sense of dominating, of controlling others, in spite of his leadership qualities. And when it turned out that the boys (except the choir boys) elected Ralph to be Chief, the rage was germinating in him.

I admit it that if you scrap his wicked qualities, Jack was actually a better leader than Ralph. Unlike Ralph who often confused and could not focus his mind, Jack was self-possessed, always knew what to do, and could make a quick decision when needed. Unfortunately, the rage that began to germinate in him, soon transformed him into a devil. I think, it’s all began when he failed to be chief. He needed to prove others that he was more capable than Ralph. He boasted that he could hunt and killed pigs easily, but when they really met a pig, Jack could not kill it.

“You cut a pig’s throat to let the blood out, otherwise you can’t eat the meat.” [Jack]

“Why didn’t you—?” [Ralph I guess...]

They knew very well why he hadn’t; because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood.

Next time there would be no mercy. He [Jack] looked around fiercely, daring them to contradict.

That scene reflected the point when ‘evil’ took over ‘kind’ in men’s soul. It was when Jack’s pride conquered him, that he dismissed his own conscience. Jack has surrendered to the evil’s hand… And after that Jack rapidly transformed into a barbarian. When you have let the evil overpower the kind in your soul, it is very difficult to have your conscience back. Things got worse because Jack had the leadership in him. Soon enough he gained other boys respect to join him by providing food and freedom, while Ralph kept prating about ‘keep the fire’ and ‘build a shelter’.

[After] Jack (right) - the head of a barbarian tribe
(left) is Ralph

In the end, it is not the skill of leadership that matters in a leader, but the conscience (and the persistency to keep it). Jack gained respect from others, obeyed by others, but to what point? He only led them to savagery. No, I would not proud of a chief like Jack.

That is my Character Thursday of this week, an analysis of book character of my choice, who is yours?... Just put your post URL in the linky below. Do you like to join us in discussing characters from books you read? See the details of Character Thursday first.

Ralph in Lord of The Flies

Ralph was the main protagonist of Lord of The Flies—an allegory about civilization vs barbarian written by William Golding. Ralph (12 or 13 years old) was one of the biguns (group of the bigger boys according to their ages) who was voted as Chief by the other boys when they found themselves trapped in an isolated island without any adult’s presence. Ralph was an ordinary boy with a fair hair before arriving at the island with a slight teenage indifference. He treated Piggy—a fat boy with asthma and thick glasses—like what boys usually treats a weak boy. Everytime Piggy said anything about his asthma, Ralph would answer spontaneously “sucks to your ass-mar”. He never wanted to know Piggy’s name, but when Piggy told him a secret about the humiliating nickname people often called him (Piggy), Ralph laughed hard at him. And despite of Piggy’s plead not to tell other boys about his nickname, Ralph cried that name out loud to everyone.

At first Ralph enjoyed the freedom he accidently found in an island where no grown-ups would tell him what to do. The adventurous spirit overwhelmed him, and he believed his father would come in no time to rescue him. Before that…it’s time to fun! But when you have reached the end of the story, you would find the very different person of Ralph. What have had changed him? And to what kind of character he would transform?

I think Piggy had a big influence in Ralph’s transformation. I imagined Ralph as an attractive boy, not only fair hair but I think he was rather handsome too. He has a self confident in him, that boys like Piggy would like to befriend him. No wonder the others voted him to be their Chief, partly because he seemed to know what he spoke of, but partly because he was the one who had found the big conch with which Ralph—following Piggy’s advice—called the others for an assembly. You can see that it’s actually Piggy who had the most common sense and intellectuality among them all, but Ralph had what we called charisma.

“There was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out; there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully; there was the conch. The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was se apart.”

After suddenly being made a Chief, Ralph seemed to adapt quite soon, he learned how to make a speech and gain attention from others. However, further along the story, you’d find out that he had not the natural leadership. He often confused and lacked of confidence when trouble comes. If it was not because of Piggy who always supported him, he wouldn’t be that strong. That is his weakness, the lack of focus.

This a slide show of Ralph in “Lord of The Flies” 1990 movie (Balthazar Getty played as Ralph)

  

But what I love most of Ralph is his kindness, bravery, and of course his strong persistence to keep his common sense and conscience. After Ralph felt that Jack has opposed him, he gradually turned to Piggy’s friendship. I think he saw the same way of thinking with Piggy, and at last he admitted that Piggy was the cleverest of them all. Later on Ralph was Piggy’s protector, both of them depended each others. When Jack and the ‘tribe’ stole Piggy’s spectacles—without which Piggy was almost blind—and Piggy wanted to come to Jack’s to ask for it to be returned—while at that time Jack & his gang has transformed to a frightening tribe of barbarians—Ralph decided to go with Piggy. He even stood alone to ask Jack to return Piggy’s spectacles. Ralph the indifferent has transformed to Ralph the kind-hearted. Sorrows often pull out the real qualities of men…or boys.. :)

**spoiler alert** The last chapter showed how Ralph struggled to keep his common sense. At one point, among his loneliness, pain and fear, Ralph was tempted to join the tribe. He was questioning himself about why he must stick to the ‘kind’ side when the evil side promises a more comfortable life. He answered it himself: “Cos I had some sense.” **spoiler ends**

That’s what I love Ralph most for, he had the persistence to keep his conscience, no matter what the consequences were.

That is my Character Thursday of this week, an analysis of book character of my choice, who is yours?... Just put your post URL in the linky below. Do you like to join us in discussing characters from books you read? See the details of Character Thursday first.

Lord of The Flies

[conclusion in English is at the bottom of this post]

Sebuah pesawat yang mengangkut sekelompok anak-anak lelaki berusia antara 6 – 12 tahun mengalami kecelakaan, dan anak-anak itu terdampar di sebuah pulau terisolir. Ralph—anak bertubuh sehat—dan Piggy—anak bertubuh gemuk, berkacamata dan mengidap asma—menemukan sebuah keong besar yang jika ditiup bisa mengeluarkan suara seperti terompet. Dengan keong itu Ralph dan Piggy mengumpulkan semua anak yang terdampar dan mengadakan pertemuan mereka yang pertama. Ralph akhirnya terpilih menjadi Ketua, membuat Jack—anak sebayanya yang mengincar “jabatan” itu—mulai merasa iri.

Awalnya mereka semua hidup bahagia menyadari mereka boleh bertindak bebas tanpa pengawasan orang-orang dewasa. Ralph sebagai Ketua memikirkan bahwa membuat api adalah satu-satunya cara mereka untuk diselamatkan karena akan memberikan signal apabila ada kapal lewat. Sejak awal ia membuat aturan-aturan dan anak-anak lainnya mematuhinya karena ia Ketua dan karena keong besar yang menandakan kewenangan itu. Jack—sebagian karena dendamnya pada Ralph—mulai melanggar aturan, dan alih-alih menjaga api tetap menyala, ia mengajak anak-anak lain untuk berburu babi.

Hal itu membuat kelompok mereka yang tadinya saling bersahabat terpecah menjadi dua kelompok. Kelompok yang bertahan dalam keteraturan dan mempertahankan akal sehat mereka melawan kelompok yang bertindak sekehendak hati dan menunjukkan tanda-tanda kebiadaban khas suku-suku terasing. Bagaimana mereka semua bertahan hidup di pulau itu? Akankah mereka semuanya selamat?

Lord of The Flies menunjukkan kepada kita bahwa dalam diri manusia selalu ada dua insting yang bertentangan, kebiadaban dan keberadaban, atau singkatnya baik vs jahat. Insting mana yang selalu dipupuk, itulah yang akan menonjol dalam diri kita. Di dunia yang serba teratur dengan hukum, aturan, pendidikan dst. anak-anak yang terdampar itu tadinya anak-anak yang baik (sebagian malah aslinya anak-anak paduan suara di Gereja). Namun ketika aturan itu tak ada lagi, mereka mulai membiarkan diri masuk dalam keliaran, dan akhirnya insting kebinatangan mereka pun mulai nampak. Dan saat itu, hanya akan ada bencana dan kebinasaan, yaitu ketika manusia telah berubah menjadi primata tanpa akal sehat dan moral.

Novel ini membuatku berpikir keras setelah menamatkannya. Apa yang sebenarnya memicu mereka untuk memupuk insting kebiadaban itu? Perpecahan mereka bermula dari Jack, dan dalam diri Jack ada nafsu untuk berkuasa, ada superioritas yang amat kental. Dia tahu bagaimana cara menguasai orang lain, yaitu dengan iming-iming makanan dan kebebasan. “I’m a hunter….I give you meat” adalah apa yang berulang-ulang ia ucapkan. Dia jelas berbeda dengan Ralph yang terus-menerus menekankan bahwa mereka harus menjaga api tetap menyala dan membangun tepat berteduh. Ralph adalah lambang keteraturan dan demokrasi di mana orang yang sedang memegang keong punya hak bicara dan yang lain tak boleh menyela.

Mana yang lebih menarik? Tentu saja kebebasan dan makanan. Bukankah itu awal semua dosa manusia yang tak ingin dikekang melakukan apapun yang diinginkan? Nafsu-nafsu itulah yang gampang menimbulkan anarkisme di tengah kemiskinan atau kelaparan. Sangat sulit untuk tetap berpijak pada akal sehat, hati nurani dan moralitas, yang di novel ini digambarkan dalam sosok Ralph dalam perjuangannya mempertahankan akal sehat.

Lima keong untuk Lord of The Flies!

Judul: Lord of The Flies

Penulis: William Golding

Penerbit: faber and Faber

Terbit: 2002

Tebal: 225 p.

Conclusion:

What will happen if a bunch of boys (ranging from 6 to 12 years old) were forced to live by themselves without adult supervision in an isolated island for days? After reading this great novel, I began to think that only in worst situation, that one’s consciousness would have the true trial. These boys arrived at the island (after plane crash) as good, innocent, civilized boys (some of them were choir boys) who were familiar to live in laws and orders. Having found a beautiful conch on the beach, Ralph—a fair hair boy, and Piggy—a fat boy with asthma and myopic eyes—called the others for an assembly. In this first meeting they acted like civilized people, they voted Ralph to be their Chief. Everyone agree except Jack, a tall boy who actually hoped to be made leader.

Soon Ralph instructed them to make fire to act as a signal so that is a ship should see it, they would be rescued. Through the novel Ralph emphasized the urge of keeping the fire on, and to build their shelter. Other boys obeyed him, but soon they were distracted by Jack who preferred to go hunting for pigs then to think about fire and shelter. The boys quickly divided into two groups, those who stuck to their senses in civilization, and those who fell in savagery. Things got worse with ‘the Beast’ issue, something few of them had seen in the darkness of the forest.

Lord of The Flies is an allegory to highlight two sides of human being, the kind and the evil. While we were born and grown up in a civilized world with laws and orders, there’s a dark side inside of us which in certain circumstances or influences would reveal itself and even overpower our common sense. I can see that in the boys’ case, Jack had been burned by his envy towards Ralph from the beginning. He had a strong desire to prove to the others that he was a better leader than Ralph by offering them food and freedom. Through the hunting activity, Jack’s group were then transformed into barbarian savages, with the instinct of killing, just like the chant they sang over and over again: “Kill the pig (later on became beast), cut the throat, spill the blood.”…..(imagine a tribe with paints on their faces sang that in a circle with their victim at the centre); believe me, those scenes really sent chill down my spine! There’s no beast more terrifying than evil souls!

I don’t want to give you any spoiler, so I would just say that William Golding has made me realized how difficult it is to keep our pure conscience in the world where morals had been degraded to a terrifying point, when religion is just accessories. Why must we keep being in the right side with all limitation, while the bad side offers so much of freedom? We can follow Ralph’s answer when he too, in a very crucial moment, was being forced to choose where to stand on: ‘Cos I had some sense’. When you lose it (or let it lose), then you lose everything.

Five stars for this thrilling novel, and for William Golding, the Nobel Prize for Literature laureate on 1983!   

Weeken Quote 4: Lord of The Flies

This time I picked a quote from Lord of The Flies by William Golding. It’s about a bunch of little and teenage boys who must live by themselves in an isolated island. Several of them soon transformed to barbarians while only few of them could keep their sanity. This quote is from Piggy, one of the civilized boys, a boy of twelve years old, fat, with severe asthma and a pair of thick glasses. A kind of boy who would be neglected in the real world, but proved to be the most reasonable among the other boys in the island. The quote was addressed to the tribe (the barbarian boys) in the beginning of their unequal battle….

“Which is better—to be a pack of painted niggers like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph [Piggy’s friend who was elected as their Chief] is?
Which is better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?
Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?”

In our lives, this quote was also relevant, as we have so often watched how people became more and more barbarian in spite of the more modern life… Don’t you agree?

Lord of The Flies is a very good book that I recommend you to read, the review will be published next Wednesday.

Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

• Give the context of the quote
• Give your opinion whether you agree or disagree with it
• Share your experience related to the quote
• Share similar quotes you remember
• Or anything else. Just have fun with the quote.