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.

Gone With The Wind Read Along KICK OFF!

It’s September 1^st finally! I am already excited to announce that our Gone With The Wind Read Along is started TODAY!....

I will only remind you of few things:

• The read along is from September 1^st to November 7^th, 2012.
• You can have your own pace, manage your own schedule.
• After finishing each part (Part 1, 2, 3, and 4) you are encouraged (but not mandatory) to write update posts (see details in Master Post).
• As you have your own pace, you can post update posts anytime you like, and put the link in the linky provided on Update Posts page (the linky is already opened).
• When you have linked your update post, don’t forget to visit others who have finished the same Part you just posted, to see about their thoughts.
• Each update post will be counted as one entry for my giveaway (details will follow).
• After finishing last part (Part 5), post your review/thoughts on Margaret Mitchell’s birthday, November 8^th, 2012.
• ==Surprise!== Bzee (my co-host) would host another giveaway at the end of our read along. Your review post will be eligible for the giveaway, so don’t miss it guys!

Now, what are you waiting for? Read your book! And I hope you will enjoy our read along….

Notes:

• To make it easy for you, I have placed all posts regarding this read along on the top right side bar (below the read along button), including the Update Posts page (already opened) and Reviews page (will be opened on November 8^th).
• You just found this read along and would have liked to join but are afraid you have missed the start? Don’t worry, you can still join in as long as you think you can catch us and post your review on November 8^th! Just add your name and blog in the Sign-Up page, then read along!
• I don’t oblige you to follow this blog (but will thank you if you do), however it is one way you can always be updated about giveaways or other things during this read along. I will also publish anything related to the read along on my Twitter (@Fanda_A) with hashtag #GWTWReadAlong.

Germinal

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

Germinal adalah buku ketiga belas dari dua puluh novel dalam seri Rougon-Macquart karya Émile Zola. Bersetting di kota daerah pertambangan di Prancis pada akhir abad ke 19, di mana industri sedang mengalami kelesuan. Yang paling merasakan dampaknya (seperti biasa) adalah para pekerja pertambangan yang setiap hari harus bekerja keras di lubang-lubang kecil ratusan meter di bawah permukaan tanah untuk menambang batu bara; dengan resiko kehilangan nyawa setiap saat, demi mendapatkan upah yang sangat minim untuk sekedar dapat melanjutkan hidup dari hari ke hari.

Étienne Lantier tiba di distrik Montsou, pengangguran yang sedang mencari pekerjaan untuk menyambung hidup. Ia tiba di pertambangan Voureux, berkenalan dengan keluarga penambang bernama Maheu, yang kebetulan sedang membutuhkan seorang pekerja. Jadilah Étienne si pendatang baru dari kota lain, seorang pria muda yang lumayan tampan, suka membaca dan berpendidikan, menjadi salah satu penambang di situ. Lewat mata Étienne kita diajak melihat betapa kerasnya pekerjaan mereka, betapa penuh bahaya, dan betapa tidak manusiawinya perusahaan pertambangan itu memperkerjakan mereka.

Kemiskinan dapat terlihat di mana-mana, yang akhirnya menjalar pada kemerosotan moral keluarga penambang. Dengan upah yang pas-pasan mereka mempertaruhkan nyawa, dan seringkali karena kesalahan kecil mereka, upah yang sedikit itupun harus dipotong. Étienne mulai merasakan ketidakadilan di sana, dan mulai timbul dorongan untuk membuat perubahan. Ia mulai belajar dari beberapa buku, termasuk dari pelopor serikat buruh yang memperjuangan nasib pekerja di Paris. Bisa ditebak, Étienne mulai mempengaruhi para penambang dengan ide-ide perlawanan terhadap perusahaan untuk mendapatkan hak mereka. Sedikit demi sedikit, lewat rapat-rapat dan orasi-orasi, Étienne mengumpulkan partisan.

Kemudian momentum itu tiba, perusahaan memberlakukan peraturan baru, yang pada akhirnya menurunkan upah yang mereka terima. Upah yang sudah tak cukup itu harus kembali dikurangi. Maka mendidihlah kemarahan mereka, dan dengan segera mereka memutuskan untuk mengadakan demonstrasi dengan Étienne sebagai pemimpin mereka. Demonstrasi ini segera menyebar hingga hampir seluruh pertambangan harus berhenti berproduksi. Akankah mereka berhasil mencapai tujuan mereka, agar perusahaan makin memperhatikan kesejahteraan mereka, sementara perusahaan dan pemegang saham pun terkena imbas kelesuan dunia industri? Akankah yang lemah akhirnya menang?

Meski tampaknya novel ini dipenuhi ide-ide sosialisme, namun Zola berhasil meramunya dengan cantik. Selain Étienne, ada keluarga Maheu yang menjadi pusat cerita, belum lagi para penghuni kompleks pertambangan itu. Di sini kita seolah menyaksikan sendiri suka-duka mereka semua, bukan hanya soal pekerjaan, namun juga tentang cinta, keluarga, dendam, harapan, amarah, dan semua kompleksitas yang terajut dalam benang kehidupan manusia, dengan kemiskinan sebagai awal dari segalanya. Lewat Germinal kita bisa menyadari bagaimana kebejatan, nafsu membunuh dan kriminalitas biasanya bermula dari kemiskinan dan ketidakadilan. Sementara kita mengutuk tindak anarkisme dalam sebuah demonstrasi, lewat Germinal paling tidak kita tahu bagaimana kemarahan yang lama terpendam, dari generasi ke generasi, akan meledak hebat pada suatu saat, bak gunung berapi yang telah bertahun-tahun tidur, padahal selama itu sedang menggodok magma di perutnya, untuk suatu saat memuntahkannya dengan penuh kekuatan. Salahkah mereka? Atau siapakah yang sebenarnya bersalah?

Germinal menggabungkan ide Darwinisme (yang kuat akan memakan yang lemah) dengan sosialisme, menghentak dalam penggambaran dashyatnya kekuatan ‘yang lemah’ ketika mereka menggalang persatuan, serta dahsyatnya kemiskinan dalam merenggut hidup manusia. Kekuatan itu lalu dilembutkan Zola dengan metafora-metafora cantik, juga kisah cinta yang menyesakkan dada dalam thriller drama penyelematan di area tambang. Dan gabungan dari semuanya membuat Germinal sebuah kisah yang selalu relevan hingga kapanpun, bagi siapapun. Tak heran Germinal masuk (dan ia lebih dari layak untuk masuk kategori ini) dalam 1001 Books To Read Before You Die di urutan ke-824, karena memang, entah kapan, anda HARUS membaca buku yang dahsyat ini sebelum anda mati!

Lima bintang untuk Germinal!

Judul: Germinal [in English]

Penulis: Émile Zola

Penerbit: Wordsworth Classics

Terbit: 2007

Tebal: 478 p.

Conclusion:

Germinal is my third book of Zola, and I can say that it already becomes one of my favorites. Germinal is not only a story about the classic fight between workers and company, the poor and the have, it is also about the agony of poor working class. Germinal was written from Étienne Lantier’s (Gervaise’ son in L’Assommoir) point of view. He was an engine man came to a coal mining town Montsou to find a job. From his eyes, Zola took us to watch the sorrows of coal miners who worked hard under poor conditions for very small wages which could hardly support their poor lives. And for generations this condition has never changed; and they seemed to just accept it; to be overpowered by the bourgeoisie and the industrial machines called capitalism.

“No matter how hard we might struggle, we probably wouldn’t change anything. The best is to try and live honestly in the place in which the good God has put us.” ~Maheude, p. 86

Until Étienne—a quite educated young man—appeared from nowhere, mingled with the settlemen, and little by little affected their way of thinking. They soon put him into their lead, with a dream to dethrone the wealth and to regain their freedom and rights. The question was, what was the best method to carry it; anarchism? Long term evolution? Or strikes?

Germinal was a combination of humanity, Darwinism and socialism, packed beautifully with metaphors and romance. This is the third Zola’s I’ve read so far, and compared to Therese Raquin and L’Assommoir (sorry, the reviews are still in Bahasa Indonesia). Germinal was less distressing and less striking. Yes, Zola still described poverty, hunger and moral degradation brutally to the most extremes, yet he still slipped a hope, a bigger hope for a better future in the end. Germinal was only the beginning, the seeds sowing of workers’ battle against the oppression of capitalism. Germinal would show the world that there is a possibility for the weak to fight the strong. It only took time and refinement, and one day the seeds that were now germinating would harvest perfectly and change the earth.

What interested me the most is the metaphors Zola used throughout this story. First of all, the way he described the surroundings in the mine from the eyes of the newcomer Étienne. Zola often used the terms of animal’s digestion in describing the mine pit.

“And the Voureux, at the bottom of its hole, in contractions those of an evil beast, continued to grind away, breathing with a heavier and slower respiration, appearing troubled by its painful digestion of human flesh.”

 “The shaft swallowed men by mouthfuls of twenty or thirty, and with so easy a gulp that it seemed not to feel them go down.”

I only think, that it is the way Zola described capitalism which swallowed people and crushed them in poverty just like a monster digested human flesh; and what a beautiful metaphor they are indeed!

Zola also closed the story in a very beautiful and touching way. The rescue drama in the tumbling pit near the end of the story was really breathtaking, but approaching the end it was also warming my heart with love. And the final ending was superb! I love the final quote which brought a new hope for a better future, and look how Zola crafted it with nature’s elements of a new spring for the world, the most beautiful metaphor from this book.

Five stars (obviously) for Germinal, which have just become my new favorite!

On The 361st Anniversary of Robinson Crusoe’s Journey…

In Daniel Defoe’s best book, Robinson Crusoe started his journey on 1^st September 1651….

“... and in an ill hour, God knows, on the first of September, 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London. Never any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner or continued longer than mine.”

It means, tomorrow would be the 361^st anniversary of that journey. Robinson Crusoe has been on my TBR pile since…perhaps the last one year. I own an Indonesian translation copy, and have put this book into my The Classics Club list. So, when I knew that o (Délaissé blog) will read this book and asking whether her followers might join her (it’s kind of informal read along without deadline, only we must start on 1^st September), I promptly decided to join in.

Although I have been engaged with hosting the Gone With the Wind read along, I feel I’d need a book to go along with GWTW. I don’t think I’d be able to stuck on those >1400 pages for the whole month (and followed by another month). Robinson Crusoe might have been a perfect choice. So....who wants to join me?

Bhima on Mahabharata

I think, besides Arjuna—who was always the celebritiy :)—Bhima is one of the most famous characters from the ancient Indian mythology: Mahabharata. Bhima was the number two of Pandavas, he was born from the same mother as Arjuna, Kunthi; however his father was Vayu (god of the wind). Bhima was the biggest among the brothers (actually he was more like a giant), with a rough and straight manner. He always carry a cudgel as his weapon, which fits his enormous body.

Though he was tender hearted and polite, Bhima did not have the elegant manner of a prince like Arjuna or Yudhisthira. When others sat at the palace hall, Bhima would choose to stand outside the room. He could never adapt with the formality in the palace, and actually was more fit with the lower classes people. Bhima was also an honest, straightforward and trustful person. He was quite an impulsive man, acting rather from his instinct than his consideration. With his enormous energy and his skill, Bhima would challenge everyone who insulted him or people he loved, almost without much thinking. One of his characters that I don’t like.

I suspect that Bhima had actually some passionate feelings for Draupadi—his sister in law, wife of Yudhisthira. When Draupadi was humiliated by Kauravas, Bhima seemed to be quite broken hearted. It was Bhima who—I noticed—responded to it with his gesture, while the husband and the others kept silenced and seemed to be resigned to their defeat. When Draupadi at their exile in the forest would like to have flowers to do her hair, it was Bhima who volunteered to search it. Can you imagine that Bhima, the invincible man who usually been seen with his cudgel roamed in the dark forest to pick flowers? But Bhima did not consider that as something ridiculous, he just wanted to please Draupadi’s heart, to show that he cared for her, because he could feel the humiliation she had suffered terribly.

I think, in his enormous muscles, there laid a tender heart of a man….

Germinal - A Classic Challenge August: Quote

The August prompt for A Classic Challenge is so far the one I like most! It’s the simplest and most exciting of all :)

Rather than a questions this month's prompt is to share a memorable

Quote

... or a few of them from what you're currently reading. Try to select one that are not so well-known but, of course, if you can't help yourself share it too!

I have just finished reading Germinal by Émile Zola, and  LOVED it so much! This time it’s not only distressing, but Zola slipped a hope for a better world at the end of the novel. It reflected on the ending—and I found myself reading this quote over and over again, always feeling warm after that. And I also enjoyed Zola’s beautiful metaphors here….

“Now the April sun, in the open sky, was shining in its glory, warming the earth as it went into labour. From its fertile flanks life was leaping forth, buds were bursting into green leaves, and the fields were quivering with the growth of the grass. On every side seeds were swelling, stretching out, cracking the plain, filled by the need of heat and light. An overflow of sap flowed with whispering voices, the sound of the germs expanded in a great kiss. Again and again, more and more distinctly, as though they had come right up to the soil, the comrades were hammering. In the fiery rays of the sun, on this youthful morning, the country was pregnant with this rumbling. Men were springing forth, a black avenging army, germinating slowly in the furrows, growing up for the harvests of the next century, and their germination would soon overturn the earth.” ~p. 478 (closing quote).

Don’t you just love it?

Arjuna on Mahabharata: Character Thursday (25)

Arjuna in Indonesian folklore style

Of all the characters in the ancient Indian mythology Mahabharata, Arjuna was always my favorite. Arjuna is the third of the Pandavas, and is one of the family’s protectors besides Bhima. From the graphic novel version I read, he is very handsome, the most handsome of the brothers, with well built body, the type that easily attracted women. I also believe he has a polite and elegant manner, a good personality to whom everyone enjoys his conversation. Arjuna is the son of Kunti with Indra (the lord of the heavens for sons), so he is a demigod, like all Pandavas.

In swordsmanship, Arjuna is most leading than all his brothers and of the Kauravas. He is perhaps a knight who has the highest skill among the universe. One day the heaven (or where the gods lived) was attacked by a strong and wicked enemy, and it is Arjuna who helped the gods to beat the enemy. For that, Arjuna was allowed to stay for few days in the heaven. From there he could be regarded as gods dear son, a human being whom the gods always protect. Well taught by Kunti, Arjuna—like all Pandavas—has a tender and noble heart, always eager to help others who are weaker and in need.

Woman is always his weakness. I reckoned that he at least married twice in the version I read, but in the original version he also married Draupadi, a woman he won at a competition whom he must share with his four brothers as Kunti’s request. His biggest ‘sin’ was when he was, at his young age, meditating in a cave in a dark forest. At that time a young queen was having a journey, and has been attacked by the forest villains. She ran away from her guards deeper in the forest and arrived at the cave where she—in her astonishment—found a handsome knight who was in his meditation. Out of terrible fear, she disturbed Arjuna’s meditation by her sobs and gentle touch that suddenly turned the young man on. He did not know that she was a queen, he thought she was just a beautiful girl in fright, and decided to seduce her.

Arjuna agreed to help her on one condition, that she must do whatever he asked in return of the protection. The frightful queen agreed without much consideration, and Arjuna killed all the attackers. Arjuna who was already burnt with desire, despite the fact that the woman is a married woman and even a queen, kept seducing her to a degree of almost became a rape. The queen who was cornered, and in order to protect her pureness, threw herself down a cliff and would have died if her god mother have not helped her. And this is what I like from him, Arjuna deeply regretted his big mistake, and was at once confessed his sin in front of his brothers after he returned home. He was also willing to take all the consequences when the woman’s husband (a King) challenged him for duel, and was ready to die to compensate his deed. I always like men (or women) who made mistakes (for all human being must have mistakes in their life) but brave enough to confess it and to take all the consequences. That made Arjuna a real gentleman.

Arjuna was also a man with high persistency and discipline that made him good in meditating (that’s I guess what made him such a strong and skillful knight). When Pandavas were at trouble, he was instructed by Krishna to take a meditation to ask gods for invincible weapon which he would need to protect the Pandavas.

Arjuna (left) with Krishna in Kurukshetra war

Arjuna has always respected his big brothers, especially Yudhisthira who was too weak as a leader and who was incapable of making decisions. At a crucial time when Krishna asked the Pandavas to demand the return of their kingdom from Kauravas, it was Arjuna—together with Bhima—who finally made the decision, while Yudhisthira could not make it.

Although it was not pictured in this graphic novel, I think (and I read about this in later series of Pandavas stories) Arjuna must have swollen with pride from his handsome appearance and being the best knight of the universe, despite of his efforts of being humble. I mean, he seemed to be quite humble in this epic, but I think it only makes sense that a man whom everyone regarded as the highest, must have this quality.

Note: 

I picked Arjuna illustrations from the graphic novel I read, it is illustrated in Indonesian culture, so the fashion must not reflect the original appearance of Indian men on 500 BCs.

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.