Courrier Sud / Southern Mail (Pesawat Pos Selatan)

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

Ini adalah buku kedua karya Antoine de Saint-Exupery yang kubaca setelah The Little Prince. Courrier Sud (judul aslinya) ini merupakan karya fiksi pertama Exupery, bertutur tentang pilot pesawat pos bernama Jacques Bernis. Seperti semua novel-novelnya, Courrier Sud ini juga mewakili pengalaman Exupery sendiri sebagai pilot pesawat pos yang tugasnya mengirimkan surat-surat antara Paris – Dakar agar cepat tiba di tujuan, lebih cepat daripada lewat kereta api yang lebih lazim saat itu. Pesawat terbang jaman itu belumlah secanggih sekarang, sehingga pilot harus lebih banyak menggunakan instingnya ketika cuaca buruk, apalagi ketika berada di sekitar gurun pasir Sahara yang sangat luas. Menjadi pilot pesawat saat itu adalah pekerjaan yang penuh bahaya, dan suka duka menjadi pilot ini dituangkan ke dalam novel ini beserta—kemungkinan besar—curahan hati Exupery sendiri tentang hidupnya dan kisah cintanya.

Courrier Sud ini dituturkan oleh sahabat Bernis. Aku melihat Bernis sebagai manusia yang tidak cocok berada di manapun (doesn’t belong anywhere). Semenjak kecil Bernis dan si sahabat merasa bahwa hidup mereka sangat membosankan, selalu dibatasi banyak aturan, selalu dapat diduga, tak menarik sama sekali. Hal ini berlanjut, khususnya bagi Bernis yang—di sepanjang buku ini, lewat ungkapan-ungkapan puitis—merasa orang-orang dan dunia di sekitarnya tak pernah bergerak atau berubah.

“Ternyata, semuanya tetap sama….”

 Sebaliknya, Bernis merasakan kebebasan ketika ia berada di udara, sendirian dalam kokpit pesawat yang dikendarainya. Rasa kebebasan ini terungkap lewat kilasan-kilasan alam sekitarnya yang ia saksikan dari ketinggian, yang banyak menghiasi buku ini.

“Masing-masing (orang-orang yang dulu dikenalnya) terpenjara oleh diri sendiri, dibatasi oleh rem samar-samar, dan tidak seperti dia, si anak yang bebas, si anak malang, si penyihir.”

Apakah itu berarti bahwa Bernis lantas bahagia karena menjadi pilot? Ternyata tidak, orang-orang saat itu memandang aktivitas ‘berkendara di udara’ adalah sesuatu yang aneh. Bahkan lewat kutipan di atas kita melihat bahwa Bernis disebut sebagai ‘si penyihir’ (yang bisa terbang, menyalahi kodrat manusia). Bernis yang malang, Bernis yang kesepian, yang ditolak, namun juga tak kerasan berada di dunianya. Ia mencintai seorang wanita yang adalah sahabatnya semenjak kecil: Geneviève. Setelah keduanya dewasa, Bernis mendapati jurang yang amat lebar yang memisahkan dirinya dengan Geneviève, karena si wanita adalah orang yang amat terikat pada kehidupannya, pada semua miliknya, sementara Bernis adalah orang yang bebas lepas dari segala keterikatan dunia.

“Kebiasaan-kebiasaan, peraturan-peraturan, hukum-hukum, semua yang tidak kau (Bernis) rasakan kegunaannya, semua yang telah kau hindari… Hal itulah yang telah memberi-nya (Geneviève) sebuah bingkai. Untuk tetap ada, kita membutuhkan kenyataan-kenyataan yang mempunyai keberlangsungan di sekeliling kita. Meski dianggap tak masuk akal atau tak adil, semua itu hanyalah suatu bahasa. Dan Geneviève, jika dia kau bawa pergi, akan kehilangan dirinya.”

Membaca ini aku agak tersentak. Bukankah nasihat sahabat Bernis ini seolah menampar kita semua yang terbiasa hidup nyaman dalam ‘bingkai-bingkai’ yang kita pasang disekeliling kita, sehingga kita lupa pada hakikat hidup ini yang sesungguhnya? Lagipula kutipan itu justru lebih relevan bagi kita yang hidup di jaman internet dan teknologi maju ini, yang begitu terikat pada gadget, teknologi dsb. hingga bila kita harus meninggalkan semua itu sebentar saja, kita merasa seolah lumpuh? Bukankah ini absurd?

Menurutku Bernis mengalami kesepian, bukan saat berada di pesawat sendirian, melainkan justru saat ada di dunia. Karena ia tak seperti manusia lainnya, mereka semua hanya melihat lingkup terbatas dunia mereka sendiri, sementara Bernis—dan seharusnya kita semua—memandang hidup ini jauh lebih luas, lebih agung daripada sekedar rutinitas dan benda-benda mati yang mampu kita indrai. Membaca kotbah seorang pastor saat Bernis berada di Gereja Notre-Dame ini mengingatkanku pada Jostein Gaarder, seorang penulis fiksi-filosofis yang lewat Dunia Sophie juga mengingatkan kita akan hakikat alam semesta dan kehidupan yang sesungguhnya:

“Anda sekalian telah menyatukan perjalanan bintang, wahai generasi baru peneliti, dan Anda sekalian tidak mengenalinya lagi. Dia adalah sebuah tanda dalam buku Anda, tetapi bukan lagi cahaya; seorang anak kecil lebih tahu mengenai hal itu daripada Anda.

Anda sekalian telah menemukan semua hal sampai kaidah-kaidah yang mengatur cinta kasih manusia, tetapi cinta kasih itu sendiri terlepas dari tanda-tanda Anda; seorang gadis muda lebih mengetahuinya daripada Anda.”

Di jaman modern ini kita semua sudah kehilangan makna banyak hal dalam hidup. ‘Terbanglah’ seperti Bernis, jangan menutup diri seperti Geneviève; **spoiler** yang karena tak mau kehilangan hal-hal yang nyata namun sebenarnya fana, malah kehilangan kesempatan merasakan keagungan cinta yang tak nampak namun sebenarnya nyata. **spoiler ends**

Ah ternyata….kisah yang awalnya hanya tampak sebagai curhat seorang pilot belaka, ternyata menyimpan filosofi yang mengagumkan. Tak heran bila sebuah label ‘novel agung dunia’ tersemat di sampul buku ini, yang tadinya kukira hanyalah akal-akalan promosi saja, namun kini kusadari, itulah yang telah kudapat dari buku ini.

Empat bintang untuk Courrier Sud, sebuah novel bermakna indah, dibalut kalimat-kalimat puitis yang seringkali tak mampu aku pahami, mungkin karena itu aku tak sanggup memberinya nilai mutlak (satu bintang kusimpan untukku sendiri, mungkin suatu hari nanti aku akan mampu menyibak seluruh artinya…atau…seperti halnya alam semesta, selalu akan ada hal-hal yang tak mampu kita pahami hingga kapanpun, dan itu yang membuat alam semesta atau buku ini begitu agung? Mungkin…)

Judul: Courrier Sud (terjemahan: Pesawat Pos Selatan)

Penulis: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Penerjemah: Prof. Dr. Apsanti Djokosujatno (guru besar sastra & kritikus)

Penerbit: Komodo books

Terbit: Februari 2012

Tebal: 190 hlm.

Conclusion:

At first I thought Courrier Sud (or Southern Mail) was just a story about a pilot, maybe a kind of Exupéry’s autobiographical story, but I was completely wrong! Like The Little Prince, this is a philosophical thinking which Exupéry has wrapped in a simple story about the life and love of a pilot named Jacques Bernis. Bernis’s job is to carry express mail from Paris to Dakkar (this is a new innovation because at that time mail were delivered by train). Plane and navigation were new at that time, and it needed a big courage for a man to drive a plane. Ordinary people even mocked Bernis as ‘ghost’ or ‘wizard’. Travelling on air was beyond many people’s common sense.

On the other hand, Bernis felt that ordinary life was unbearable; life which was limited by orders and routines. Exupéry emphasized the different way of thinking by creating a love story of Bernis and a girl from his childhood named Geneviève. Unlike Bernis, Geneviève loved orders and formalities; that when Bernis asked her to runaway with him from her previous unhappy life, Geneviève found it too difficult because she has already bound to her home and everything she possessed, that she could not live freely as Bernis wanted.

I saw Bernis as a lonely person, he did belong to the world he supposed to live, and only when he was alone in his cockpit that he felt quiet and absorbed in the beauty of nature. I believe that in those occasions, Bernis actually felt the presence of God through His creation. Bernis also felt that everything in ordinary life was stagnant, never changed.

From Courrier Sud I learned—not only about the unreliability of the planes at that time, the dangers of being a pilot, and the beautiful scenes from above—but also a divine knowledge of living our life. Instead of limited ourselves with everything that modern life offers us, we should provide more time to contemplate the true meaning of it; to be more like Bernis than like Geneviève. And all of these were beautifully crafted by Exupéry in poetic sentences, makes me love this book more!

I give four stars for Courrier Sud, for although I know this is a remarkable work, there are still several parts of the story that I could not get into the exact meaning. Maybe that's why I love it, because I know I can go back to this book some day and maybe next time I’ll be able to extract new meanings from it. Maybe…

My Favorite Review: Classics Club September Meme

This month’s meme for The Classics Club is quite interesting. While we are all busy with our reads and reviews, we were encouraged by the moderators to “socialize” with other members (which, by the way, had reached 221! Wow..!!) by creating a meme which permit us to promote another member. This way we can get to know each other, as I think it’s impossible to read all the reviews or to visit the entire member’s blogs. So, here is the meme…

Pick a classic someone else in the club has read from our big review list. Link to their review and offer a quote from their post describing their reaction to the book. What about their post makes you excited to read that classic in particular?

Thanks to The Classics Club blog, I can finally find one review that has made me adding Toni Morrison’s book ‘Beloved’ to my list recently. Fortunately there is only one review for Beloved, it’s from Nishita’s blog.

I was instantly struck by Nishita's review opening:

“What kind of mother cuts her child’s head off with a hacksaw? A mother who felt she had no alternative, that she was actually protecting her child from worse fates.”

While book bloggers cautiously write their review to not revealing any spoilers, this one just pointed it out in the beginning! But it worked for me, this book caught my interest at once. I have always thought Beloved is a kind of romance book (lesson: never judge a book from it’s title!), so reading that spoiler made me curious. What is this book really about? And after reading the entire review, I just knew that I must read this one, for I always love books that is rich of humanity aspects with a slight touch of psychology. This paragraph only strengthened my decision to pick up this book:

“It’s also hard to read how an entire race was kept so backward for so long. There is a section where a newly freed slave is so happy when he receives a coin for helping somebody load stuff in a van. He walks around with the coin, and is so amazed that he can go into a shop and buy something with it. It’s just written so beautifully, and so much from the heart.
And that’s why I love this book. The writing just feels like an outpouring from the heart. You can feel every emotion felt by Sethe, and the other characters in the story in their own voices.”              

I've just bought this 2nd hand copy online,
can't wait to receive & read it!

Thanks to Nishita, your spoiler really made me curious! :)

Weekend Quote 5: Gone With The Wind

Gone With The Wind depicted the American civil war between the Southerner and the Yankees. Just like any other wars, people were so anxious to take part in it; young men joined the army in the hope to be heroes of the country. They were willingly to sacrifice their lives for they believed they’d done it sacredly for their beloved country. But was it really so? Margaret Mitchell—through this book—asked us to see the truth, that war was only inflicted by certain parties for their own sakes; war was not something sacred, it only brought poverty and misery to the people, and lives would have changed completely for them.

This weekend I will share a quote from Ashley Wilkes, one of the young men who have joined the troop, one of the many who have enough sense to realize the truth, and gloomily foreseen the worse future of their lives. He was saying these in his letter to his wife.

“I am not afraid of danger or capture or wounds or even death, if death must come, but I do fear that once this war is over, we will never get back to the old times. And I belong in those old times. I do not belong in this mad present of killing and I fear I will not fit into any future, try though I may. I do not know what the future will bring, but it cannot be as beautiful or as satisfying as the past.”

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.

Part 1 of Gone With The Wind

Finally…I have just finished the first part for Gone With The Wind Read Along. This read along does not have any deadline for reading each part, everyone have their own paces; however as the host, I feel like I must be ahead from everyone. The problem is, I was a bit struggling with this part. Mitchell focused this opening part to explain the social condition in the Southern America when the civil war was beginning to come closer.

Mitchell also started to built in this part, Scarlett O’Hara’s character when she was sixteen years old, and all she was thinking was only how to get men attracted to her. Frankly speaking, I failed to have sympathy for Scarlett. To me she was spoiled, childish, self-centered, and narrow minded. I’m going to say foolish too, but I realized that she was only sixteen then and was grown up in 19 century when the only purpose in women’s lives was only to get married. Still, I was almost disgusted at Scarlett’s minds, I have never read any book with a main protagonist as annoying as Scarlett. I almost could not find any positive personality from Scarlett other than being persistent in what she wanted (if that could be assumed as a positive side).

The main story was about Scarlett who loved Ashley Wilkes, a young man who was far different from her. The Wilkes had a like in books and music, something that Southern people thought ridiculous. Although Ashley never mentioned it, Scarlett always imagined that Ashley loved her in return and would someday propose to marry her. However, instead of nurturing their relationship, Scarlett also flirted with any other men, only because she felt that she was the most attractive young lady in the county, to whom men’s interests should be poured to (I always HATE girls like this!) and that she must always get what she wanted.

How surprised Scarlett was when she heard that Ashley would be engaged to his cousin. And half of part one was dedicated to tell about Scarlett’s tricks to thwart the engagement. And what do you think she did after knowing the fact? Learned from her mistakes? Wiped in broken heart? No! She did another stupid mistake, decided to marry a young man (a rich one) whom she never even liked or thought about. Unfortunately (or fortunately for Scarlett?) the war arrived, the young men must joined the troop, and Charles (Scarlett’s husband) must left Scarlett who was pregnant. And what do you think she felt about the baby? She did not take any care of it, she even forgot that she have had a baby. Scarlett always thought about herself, what she must have had, what she lost, what others should have treated her, etc etc…

Rhett Butler did appeared in the last chapters, as a snob young man who—I think—has similar characters as Scarlett. And besides that annoying Scarlett, several chapters were dedicated to describe about Gerald and Ellen O’Hara (Scarlett’s parents); how Gerald who was Irish could have settled in the South and have built Tara and the plantation, and how he married Ellen. These chapters were quite long in narration (and made me drowsy sometimes) but I found the history and the struggles quite interesting.

In short, if Jillian hasn’t warned me that Gone With The Wind was not a (pure) romance novel, I would think that I’m reading a bulk chicklit novel, and would definitely have given up. However, as I knew that this is an epic tale, and I am only on Part 1, I will keep reading this and hope everything will get better in the next parts. But first I need to grab another book before getting to Part 2 and to calm my mind down, or otherwise I will keep shouting to Scarlett through Part 2 and won’t enjoy the reading :))

Oh, and this is a quote of what Ashley told Scarlett about love and marriage, which makes sense.

“Love isn’t enough to make a successful marriage when two people are as different as we are. You would want all of a man, Scarlett, his body, his heart, his soul, his thoughts… And you would be hurt, and then you would come to hate me—how bitterly! You would hate the books I read and the music I loved, because they took me away from you even for a moment.”

How about you? What have you found in Part One? Don’t forget to share it in the Update Posts page, and hop to other blogs as well!

Étienne Lantier on Germinal

Étienne was the protagonist in this book about mine workers in their struggle under the bourgeoisie’s power. Étienne was the son of Gervaise and Lantier in L’Assommoir, born from the drunkard parents. Without any money he came to the settlement after having thumped his former boss. Étienne, despite of his poverty and unlike any other miners, was quite an educated man. He liked to discuss politics with his comrade and read a lot of books, especially books about socialism. And not only reading, he was thirsty of all the new knowledge and absorbed them all in his leisure time.

Although not described in detail in this book, I choose to imagine Étienne as a quite handsome young man with a polite manner. He had a shyness towards a woman, that when it’s obvious that Catherine (one of the female protagonist) also liked him, Étienne still wordlessly in front of her. In short, Étienne was an outsider. Not only that he came from other town, but he had a manner of self respect and of ‘higher level’. Maybe if his parents did not that poor, he could have been educated and being one of the bourgeoisies. It was he who first felt the need to do something against the unfair treatment towards the mine workers, while the workers themselves had been accustomed to submission and passive obedience.

So with the combination of his concerns and his knowledge, he started to share his ideas about demanding their rights against the bosses. Then suddenly Étienne became a leader (and I imagine that he seemed to fit that position, with his handsome face, educated mind and he learned fast the skill of effectively talking to a crowd). Little leader at first, then the snow ball rolled, and there he was, ready to lead a strike, a big strike of thousands of men and women! Here I then saw his weakness. He became proud of himself, he enjoyed the sense of being a leader, of overpowering his comrades, when everybody listened to what he said, and did what he told them. He overestimated his own capability though, with his only short self-education, he just thrown the theories into practices, never having thoroughly calculated and planned his movement.

I don’t know whether alcoholism was hereditary, but Étienne noticed himself that when his body has contaminated from certain numbers of alcohol, he would lose control, and brutality would came to him out of nowhere. That was why he thumped his former boss, and that’s why he lost his temper during the strike. Was that because he inherited some bad cells from his drunkard parents? I don’t know…. Through the entire story I have been hoping that Étienne won’t fall at the temptation of drinking. Let him always be in his consciousness that had prevented many killing attempt from his comrades.

One thing I like from him was how he loved and treated Catherine. Unlike his comrades, Étienne treated women tenderly, he had a respect for them. Especially with Catherine, although he knew that men often bumped at their women just like that, and although he knew that Catherine had a crush on him and would be submissive enough to him, he never forced her. It might partly because of his shyness, but I prefer to believe that somehow Étienne had a respect to Catherine because he really loved her. Étienne  never blamed Catherine for choosing Chaval, and on the day of the disaster on the pit, Étienne—despite of his decision not to go down again and calling them who did that a coward—decided finally to go working only to protect Catherine from the angry Chaval.

And when the disaster came, Étienne always protected Catherine, covering her with life as best as he could. How sweet those scenes were….

What I love the most of him was that he always found new hope from the bitter falls. People do make mistakes, but at the end it’s how they do out of it that’s important. When he knew that the comrades turned away from him with hatred, he did not give himself long time to regret, he knew what he must do, going from there to renew his knowledge and to make himself useful at other place.

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!   

Classics Authors of September (2)

Melanjutkan ulasan tentang enam penulis klasik dunia yang berulang tahun pada awal hingga pertengahan bulan September, kali ini aku mengetengahkan penulis-penulis lainnya yang lahir antara pertengahan hingga akhir September. Inilah mereka…

H.G. Wells

Herbert George "H.G." Wells dilahirkan pada 21 September 1866 di Kent, Inggris. Wells adalah seorang penulis novel yang terkenal dengan genre fiksi sains, meski ia juga menulis dalam genre lain seperti contemporary, sejarah dan social-politik. Bersama dengan Jules Verne, Wells disebut sebagai Bapak Science Fiction. Saat berusia 7 tahun Wells harus berbaring di tempat tidur karena kakinya patah setelah sebuah kecelakaan. Ayahnya membawakannya buku-buku dari perpustakaan, dan dari situ minat baca Wells berkembang (dan keinginan untuk menulis). Sayang ia kemudian harus putus sekolah dan bekerja karena ayahnya tak mampu lagi membiayainya.

Wells tidak bahagia di semua tempat kerjanya,tapi akhirnya ibunya memasukkan ia sebagai asisten pengajar di sebuah sekolah dan memenangkan beasiswa untuk belajar biologi. Novelnya yang pertama The Time Machine pertama kali diterbitkan dalam The Science School Journal di mana Wells turut membidani penerbitannya. Novel itu segera disusul dengan yang lainnya, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, dan The War of the Worlds. Selain fiksi sains, Wells juga menulis beberapa karya utopia serta game perang berjudul Little Wars yang kini dianggap sebagai “Bapak Miniatur Game Perang” oleh para penghobby game.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Anda mungkin pernah mendengar salah satu novel klasik yang paling terkenal: The Great Gatsby? Kini aku akan mengenalkan anda pada penulisnya, yaitu F. Scott Fitzgerald. Lahir pada 24 September 1896, penulis Amerika bernama lengkap Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald ini adalah novelis dan penulis cerita pendek yang mempopulerkan istilah Jazz Age, yaitu era setelah Depresi Besar (Great Depression), ketika musik (dan dansa) Jazz mulai popular. Selain The Great Gatsby yang sudah diterjemahkan Serambi, Fitzgerald juga menelurkan antara lain This Side of Paradise dan Tender Is The Night.

Fitzgerald lahir dari keluarga menengah-atas. Karya fiksi pertamanya (kisah detektif) diterbitkan di majalah sekolah saat ia berusia 13 tahun. Ia menikahi Zelda, istrnya pada sekitar th. 1920. Fitzgerald sering bepergian ke Eropa terutama Prancis. Ia bersahabat dengan banyak orang berpengaruh, di antaranya Ernest Hemingway yang tida menyukai Zelda dan menuduhnya mempengaruhi Fitzgerald untuk minum-minum agar tidak dapat menulis novel lagi. Untuk menambah penghasilan, Fitzgerald banyak menjual tulisannya ke studio-studio film Hollywood, praktek yang disebut Hemingway sebagai “pelacuran literatur” yang menyebabkan retaknya persahabatan mereka. Keuangan Fitzgerald sering bermasalah karena gaya hidup mereka yang mewah di antara para selebriti dan biaya pengobatan Zelda yang kemudian menderita schizophrenia. Tgl. 22 Desember 1940 Fitzgerald meninggal dunia karena serangan jantung.

William Faulkner

Salah satu penulis klasik asal Amerika yang pernah memenangkan penghargaan Nobel adalah William Cuthbert Faulkner alias William Faulkner yang lahir pada 25 September 1897. Selain novel, Faulkner juga penulis cerita pendek, puisi, drama, dan esai. Meski ia mulai menerbitkan karyanya sejak 1919, Faulkner mulai dikenal setelah menerima Nobel tahun 1949. Beberapa karyanya yang terkenal: The Sound and The Fury, As I Lay Dying dan Absalom, Absalom!. Sebelum masuk sekolah, Faulkner telah diajari membaca oleh ibunya dan diperkenalkan pada karya-karya klasik. Ibu dan neneknya membekali keahlian artistik juga pada Faulkner.

Pada 1927 Faulkner menulis novel Flags in the Dust, ia begitu bangga pada novel itu dan yakin akan tulisannya sudah berkembang. Betapa kecewanya ia ketika ditolak oleh penerbit, dan ketika editornya menawarkan untuk mengeditnya secara signifikan, Faulkner hanya bisa pasrah. Ketika menulis The Sound and The Fury Faulkner menutup hubungan dengan penerbit, sehingga dapat menulis sesuai dengan gayanya sendiri, dan setelah selesai ia mintalepada editornya—kali ini—untuk tidak mengedit apapun atau menambahkan tanda baca apapun pada novelnya. Mungkin keberaniannya itulah yang menyebabkan Faulkner kemudian terkenal dengan gaya eksperimentalnya.

Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell merupakan salah satu penulis klasik jaman Victorian yang terkenal dari Inggris. Beliau lahir pada 29 September 1810 . Setelah kematian ibunya saat melahirkan dirinya, Gaskell diasuh oleh bibinya di sebuah kota bernama Cranford, yang kelak menginspirasi novelnya yang berjudul sama, Cranford. Sejak remaja ia sudah didorong oleh ayahnya dalam pelajaran dan menulis. Bibinya banyak mengenalkan Gaskell pada karya-karya klasik, dan abangnya banyak menceritakan pengalamannya di laut saat berkarir di angkatan laut.

Novel pertama Gaskell adalah Mary Barton. Tahun 1850 keluarga Gaskell dan suaminya pindah ke villa di 84 Plymouth Grove yang kemudian banyak dikunjungi penulis-penulis besar seperti Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, termasuk sahabat karib Gaskell, Charlotte Bronté. Karya-karya Gaskell ada yang awalnya diterbitkan di jurnal milik Charles Dickens, Household Words, antara lain Cranford dan North and South. Juni 1855 ayah Charlotte Bronté meminta Gaskell untuk menuliskan biografi anak perempuannya yang meninggal di usia muda. Buku itu akhirnya terbit dengan judul The Life of Charlotte Bronté. Sedang Wives and Daughters adalah novel terakhir Gaskell sebelum beliau menghembuskan napas terakhir pada tahun 1865 karena serangan jantung.

Truman Capote

Nama Truman Streckfus Persons mungkin tak berarti apapun bagi anda, karena itu adalah nama lengkap penulis kelahiran Amerika pada 30 September 1924 yang dikenal dengan Truman Capote. Capote terkenal dengan novella-nya Breakfast At Tiffany’s (diterbitkan Serambi) dan novel kriminalnya In Cold Blood (diterbitkan Bentang Pustaka), yang dalam pembuatannya cukup banyak dibantu oleh penulis To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee. Harper Lee memang sahabat dan tetangga Capote, yang kemudian memasukkan karakter Capote ke dalam salah satu tokoh To Kill A Mockingbird: Dill. Saat usia 4 tahun orangtuanya bercerai dan Capote diasuh sanak keluarga ibunya. Ia anak yang kesepian, yang lalu belajar membaca dan menulis sehingga saat usia 11 tahun ia telah mampu menulis karya fiksi!

Capote juga banyak menelurkan cerita pendeknya, dan pernah menyabet O. Henry Award saat Capote berusia 24 tahun. Capote pernah menulis sebuah novel tapi ia lalu mengaku telah menghancurkan manuskrip itu. Akan tetapi 20 tahun setelah kematiannya diketahui bahwa seseorang telah menyelamatkan manuskrip itu dari tempat sampah Capote, dan akhirnya novel itu terbit secara posthumous (diterbitkan setelah pengarangnya meninggal) pada 2006 dengan judul Summer Crossing. Sebenarnya novel pertama Capote adalahh Other Voices, Other Rooms yang ternyata autobiographical. Capote dikenal sebagai seorang homoseksual, dan pada th 1950-an banyak berkecimpung di dunia perfilman Hollywood serta menjalani kehidupan ala jet set. Di akhir hidupnya Capote keluar masuk klinik rehabilitasi dan akhirnya meninggal karena kanker liver.