Let’s Read Plays Sign Up Post

Let’s Read Plays is a yearlong event of reading classics plays. From November 2012 to October 2013 we will read classics plays (as many as you wish) throughout the year, at least twelve plays for twelve month. Why plays? Well, for me, it’s to encourage myself to enjoy classics plays. I am an Indonesian reader, and here we never study literature either in school or in college. I read only one Shakespeare in my life (which I couldn’t really enjoy), and I think I should give him another try. So, when The Classics Club offered its members to host Shakespeare’s event, I volunteered to host—not only Shakespeare—but a yearlong classics plays event. Dessy, another blogger from Indonesia who share the same interest in plays [especially Oscar Wilde’s :) ], would be my co-host.

So….this would be our biggest challenge for a year! Two Indonesian readers whose first languages are not English, and who never studied English literature, would host the event for twelve month. But here we are…. :), we love challenge, we (try to) love plays, and most of all we love to read. So, here is the event…

Let’s Read Plays

We will read plays from Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, other authors and also Greek plays. As the host, Dessy and I have created a schedule with themes to read for every month (scroll down to the end of this post). For example, for the first month we will read Shakespeare’s tragedy, you can pick as many titles as you wish (at least 1) from Shakespeare’s tragedy collections, read and post the review(s). One or two of the months will be freebie month, when you can read any theme you want. Here is the complete list of the plays, we are gathering as many as possible titles for our reference, but you are free to add your own titles if it’s not included in the list, as long as it fits the theme.

There will be giveaway(s) along or at the end of the event, and there would also meme(s) related to plays or Shakespeare we will have during the event (might come with giveaways too!). If you are interested to participate in any ways (games, quizzes, giveaways, guest posts or anything) please let me know by filling this form. so that we can discuss it. We are looking forward to your active participation because this would be a yearlong event, and it will be good if we can have many different activities and hosts to bring more fun to the event!

You can sign up from today, just leave a comment with your name, blog name and URL! So come…let’s read plays!

List of Participants:
1. Bzee
2. Patty
3. Ao Bibliophile
4. Listra
5. Melissa (Avid Reader)
6. Melisa
7. Joon Ann
8. Risa
9. Arenel
10. Michelle
11. Rachel
12. A.S. Dewi
13. Helvry
14. severalfourmany
15. Katie
16. Sary
17. Hobby Buku

Signing Up after 15 Nov '12:
18. Althesia
19. Annette

20. Darjeeling
21. Ann
22. Cynthia

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.

Robinson Crusoe

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

361 tahun lalu, tepat pada tanggal 1 September 1651 seorang pria Inggris bernama Robinson Crusoe memulai pelayarannya yang pertama. Crusoe adalah putra sebuah keluarga pedagang menengah di Inggris. Ia tak memiliki bakat berdagang, namun kepalanya selalu dipenuhi impian untuk bertualang ke laut. Mengabaikan nasihat ayahnya, ia pun memutuskan untuk ikut dalam sebuah pelayaran. Tak lama kemudian terbukti itu keputusan yang salah, namun bukannya belajar dari pengalaman, Crusoe malah terlibat dalam pelayaran-pelayaran berikutnya—yang kadang berhasil memberinya keuntungan dari berdagang, namun kadang memberinya kemalangan seperti menjadi budak orang Moor (orang kulit hitam).

Bahkan ketika ia akhirnya berhasil memiliki perkebunan yang cukup sukses di Brazil, hasratnya untuk melaut lagi-lagi mengalahkan akal sehatnya. Maka tepat delapan tahun setelah pelayaran pertamanya yang gagal, Crusoe kembali melaut pada 1 September 1659. Pelayaran kali ini benar-benar membawa celaka, karena kapal mereka karam dalam sebuah badai, dan hanya menyisakan Crusoe seorang diri terdampar di pulau terpencil dan tak berpenghuni. Sendirian. Di tengah ancaman kanibalisme di perairan Karibia di abad 17.

Itulah inti kisah ini, yakni pergulatan hidup Crusoe selama dua puluh delapan tahun tinggal di pulau itu. Bagaimana ia bertahan hidup dengan memanfaatkan segala sesuatu yang ia ambil dari kapalnya sebelum karam, bagaimana ia membuat dengan tangannya sendiri segala kebutuhannya, mulai dari rumah, meja kursi, kuali, keranjang anyaman hingga piring-cangkir, termasuk segala alat bertukang yang ia butuhkan, hingga kano atau perahu; dan bagaimana ia bergantung pada alam.

Namun yang jauh lebih penting adalah bagaimana Crusoe bergulat dengan jiwanya sendiri menghadapi segala ketakutan, keputus-asaan, serta kesepian di sepanjang hidupnya di pulau, tanpa siapapun yang dapat ia ajak berdiskusi. Di tengah pergulatan itu, ia pun akhirnya mampu melihat Tangan Tuhan yang bekerja dalam setiap langkah hidupnya. Betapa, jauh dari sengsara, Tuhan justru telah menyediakan segala kebutuhannya dan melindunginya, serta terlebih-lebih memberikan kesempatan pada Crusoe untuk tetap hidup—ketika semua temannya mati dalam badai yang tak memungkinkan manusia untuk selamat. Dan untuk tujuan apakah semuanya itu dilakukan Tuhan? Di titik inilah pertobatan Crusoe terjadi. Bukan pertobatan yang gampang, melainkan melalui serangkaian pergulatan yang keras dalam jiwanya.

Defoe membuat Robinson Crusoe ini dalam bentuk semacam jurnal yang ditulis oleh Crusoe sendiri. Dengan sendirinya, bahasa Inggris yang dipakai adalah bahasa sehari-hari yang bisa anda bayangkan dipakai seorang pelaut dalam menulis jurnalnya, yang jauh dari sempurna dalam sintaksisnya. Karena itu, kalau anda menemui kalimat-kalimat yang agak aneh, kesalahan mungkin bukan terletak pada penerjemahan, karena versi aslinya memang tidak tertulis dengan sempurna. Inilah letak kehebatan Defoe, yang membuat anda berpikir buku ini adalah jurnal sungguhan, bukannya kisah fiksi.

Yang paling menarik bagiku adalah bagaimana Defoe bermonolog dalam jurnalnya, terutama pada bagian apa yang ia rasakan dan pikirkan. Bagian ini terasa sungguh hidup sehingga membuat pembaca seolah bisa melihat pergolakan emosi Crusoe yang sungguh…benar-benar melelahkan untuk diikuti, namun membuat kita menyadari betapa sulitnya manusia untuk melalui proses pertobatan; betapa panjang, rumit dan sabar Tuhan menuntun Crusoe pada keselamatan.

Yang jelas Robinson Crusoe mengajarkan pada kita untuk dapat mensyukuri apapun yang terjadi pada kita, bahwa justru saat kita merasa kita sedang dibawa pada kehancuran, pada saat itulah Tuhan sebenarnya tengah mengarahkan kita pada keselamatan. Seperti yang terefleksikan dalam quote ini:

“Begitu kecilnya kita melihat ke depan di dunia, dan begitu banyaknya alasan yang kita miliki untuk bergantung dengan gembira pada Sang Pencipta dunia. Dia tidak meninggalkan makhluknya sangat kekurangan, tapi dalam kondisi terburuk mereka selalu punya sesuatu untuk disyukuri dan kadang lebih dekat ke keselamatan dibanding apa yang mereka bayangkan, tidak, bahkan dibawa pada keselamatan dengan cara yang menurut mereka akan membawa kehancuran bagi mereka.”

Empat bintang bagi Robinson Crusoe yang bukan saja menyediakan kisah petualangan menarik, seru, tegang, namun mampu membawa kita pada sebuah refleksi yang mendalam pula.

Judul: Robinson Crusoe

Penulis: Daniel Defoe

Penerjemah: Maria Renny

Penerbit: Bentang Pustaka

Terbit: April 2007

Tebal: 385 hlm.

Conclusion:

How lucky I am that I saw o (delaisse)’s post about reading Robinson Crusoe on the 361^st celebration of Crusoe’s adventure, on September 1^st 2012. The book (Indonesian translation) has been on my TBR list for…perhaps a year, but I haven’t got the mood to read it. I was afraid because this book was not written in good English, so what if I could not get the meaning and couldn’t enjoy it? Reading with a friend gives me encouragement, and the moment is so perfect, so I began flipping the first pages of Robinson Crusoe, and…hey…I like it!

I think most of you already know what this book is about—or even have read it, so I won’t bother to write about the story. What impressed me is how Defoe wrote it as a sailor’s journal. He wrote in detail about how he built the cave, how he brought things from the wrecked ship, how he managed and prepared his foods, and all these stuffs—such, that if one day someone might fell in the same faith as Crusoe, he could have survived if he had learned this book before.

The best part of this book is Crusoe’s repentance process. It was a long, tedious and emotional—yet interesting—process through everything that had happened during his stay on the island. I was moved to read about how God brought Crusoe to realization that all of those happened to him were a Great Design of God; from the corn seed which cultivated on the particular soil, to the discovery of worn out Bible Crusoe had grabbed from the wrecked ship’s cabin. But more interestingly, was how Crusoe seemed to forget (too quickly) all these realizations when something bad happened (and this happened more than once). It seemed that Defoe took us to witness God’s tremendous patience towards stubborn sinners. All of these soul struggling monologs are worth to read!

I granted this book four stars, for I was a little disappointed with the ending. Actually I like Crusoe’s struggle on the island more than the adventures after he was saved. And after following Crusoe for twenty eight years, I was wondering how Crusoe seemed to be easily left the island just like that. I imagined that he should have been quite emotional when the time came to ‘say good bye’ to his home. Of course it was far from being called home, but the island could be assumed to be his island, he built the ‘houses’ himself, worked the corn plantation as well as the mini farm with his own hands; in short he has created a miniature of a country. And that had happened for twenty eight years, half of his life! But I did not see anything emotional from Crusoe when he left. Well… I was a little emotional at this part, just as how I got emotional every time I must move from an old house to a new one. I think a little hint of emotion would satisfy me more.

The adventures after he returned to civilization (fighting the wolves) seemed a bit anti-climax. The adventures were heart-pounding, but it washed away my previous emotional bond with the island and the divine experiences, which I think was the ‘heart’ of this story. More over, I wish Defoe closed the story at the ending, instead of hang it for a sequel to come. So now I’m just wondering, is Moll Flanders worth to read after this?...anyone?

Robinson Crusoe & Vanessa Mae - A Classic Challenge September: Music

When the September prompt for A Classic Challenge was published in Katherine’s November’s Autumn, I was skeptic that I would be able to post it this month, the prompt is…

…to select a piece of...

Music

...that you feel reflects the book. Modern, classical, jazz, anything, it doesn't have to be from the period of the novel but share what it is about the piece that echoes the novel in someway.

Well, that was hard because I’m not a big fan of music, though I have quite a lot of CD collections. I can’t imagine what music would reflect Gone With The Wind or Robinson Crusoe—two classics that I’ve been reading this month. However, not long after I have finished Robinson Crusoe—and the rescue scene was still lingering in my mind—one of Vanessa-Mae’s songs suddenly echoed in my ears. It was Contradanza, one of my favorite of hers in my ‘The Violin Player’ album.

I knew instantly that that song would perfectly reflect the emotion of the rescue scene in Robinson Crusoe. It was when Friday first saw three canoes approaching the island, then told Crusoe about it, who instantly arranged an ambush (with only two of them!). The process, how he was agitated to see the strangers and wanted to fight and kill them, how he armed himself and Friday and marched together to the beach; but on the way he reflected that he did not have the right to act as judge by killing them; then after seeing that they were to kill the prisoner, decided to attack them. Then finally the battle scene began…and oh…how all of those made my heart pounding so hard!

This is the song, what do you think? Does it reflect the heroic battle scene? 

And this is how the energetic Vanessa-Mae played this song in one of her concerts. I love her performance!

Vanessa-Mae (Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson) was a British violinist who was born in Singapore, from a Thai father and a Chinese mother—a semi-professional concert pianist. Her music style is self-described as "violin techno-acoustic fusion", as several of her albums prominently feature the techno style. She began playing piano at the age of three and violin at five. At ten she joined the Philharmonia, and at twelve she joined the London Mozart Players in Mozart Bicentenary.

Reading Beloved in October

I know that October would be a busy month for most of you, especially the Classics Club members. There are a lot of read-alongs: my Gone With The Wind Read Along will be stretched to 7^th November, then there is o (delaisse)’s Gothic reading event, Jenna’s Harry Potter Read Along, Adam’s LGBT Reading Event, Tien’s Les Miserables Read Along (boy….how busy we are!). And yet, after posting my September’s meme which highlighted Nishita’s review for Beloved (Tony Morrison), Joon Ann and Listra commented on my post that they were also struck by the review and decided to add it in their Classics Club list. At the same time, I was looking for book to be read along with my few Indonesian Bloggers on October. The theme is authors who won Nobel Prizes, so it would be perfect time to read Beloved.

I then contacted Joon Ann and Listra, who were both happy to read Beloved together with me. So, this will be a kind of informal read along, no host, no event, no deadline, no pressure! (I’m still hosting GWTW Read Along, and preparing the yearlong plays reading event for November). If you are interested to read Beloved together with us, be pleased to join, it will be just a fun reading through the month. So…anyone? Just leave a comment here, so we know who will come along…:)

The Classics Club Group Check-In #1: September 2012

It’s been six month that I have been joining The Classics Club, and so far it’s been enjoyable. Especially when this club has been grown to a bigger community (221 clubbers to date), and has been taken seriously by a number of moderators. Here we are not only organizing our classics reading for five years, it’s also a place where we can meet others who share the same interests in classics. There are plenty of events and features that make classics reading more fun.

My list has been growing, from 100 at the start to 120 at this moment. So far I have been reading 19 books, I love most of them, but the most memorable one was L’Assommoir by Émile Zola. It shocked me when I finished it, and the impression lasts till now. But the most enjoyable read was probably Germinal. Yep, both are from Zola, I’m crazy about him! :)

The latest book I’ve finished is Robinson Crusoe, it was a good experience to read it, the review will be published in a couple of days. I am now reading Gone With The Wind for my read along, I am quite struggling with this one, being not in my usual reading genre. However, the read along is so far fun, there’re several of us whose pace is similar to me, and we’ve been discussing how we hate Scarlett :) or whether we are on Rhett or Ashley’s team… *poking Bzee, Chinoiseries and Vannya*

There are a lot of classics books waiting for me for next months till the end of 2012. Besides continuing Gone With The Wind during October, I’m going to read Toni Morrison’s Beloved together with Joon Ann and Listra (it’s not an official event, though). Then there’s Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde I’ve been meaning to read for months.

In November, I will be hosting a yearlong plays reading event. The sign up post will be up in several days (I’m just waiting for my co-host to finish the—I hope—lovely button for this event. Hey, the button will be showed up in my blog the whole year, it’s got to be lovely, right?). Besides plays, The Scarlett Letter and Notes From Underground are waiting for me in the same month. As for December, I’m planning to read The Jungle Book and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and finally ended the year with Great Expectations. Sounds exciting, right? And busy… :)

While I’m not reading, I will be busy blogging! Lately I really enjoy writing character analysis for my Character Thursday weekly features. I’ve made myself to write at least two characters for each book. I’ve been waiting Saturday afternoons lately, for it’s a perfect time for me to concentrate on my writing; either reviews or one or two character analysis. Listra’s Weekend Quote is always a fun too; not mentioning other monthly meme from Classics Club and November’s Autumn A Classics Challenge. Far from burdening, these memes and features only add my excitement in classics reading, as I can explore more about them.

So, how have you been with your classics club, dear clubbers? :)

Weekend Quote 6: Robinson Crusoe

This week I am reading Daniel Defoe’s masterpiece: Robinson Crusoe, the English man who lived alone on an isolated island after a ship wrecked for more than 20 years. Actually there are a lot of beautiful quotes here, but I picked one that touches me mostly. I read the Indonesian translation version, so I quote it in Bahasa Indonesia, and will explain the meaning in English (it’s hard to find the particular passage in the original book):

“Begitu kecilnya kita melihat ke depan di dunia, dan begitu banyaknya alasan yang kita miliki untuk bergantung dengan gembira pada Sang Pencipta dunia. Dia tidak meninggalkan makhluknya sangat kekurangan, tapi dalam kondisi terburuk mereka selalu punya sesuatu untuk disyukuri dan kadang lebih dekat ke keselamatan dibanding apa yang mereka bayangkan, tidak, bahkan dibawa pada keselamatan dengan cara yang menurut mereka akan membawa kehancuran bagi mereka.”

I know that Defoe did not write this book in good English, so I can understand that the translation process would not be easy. I often felt the sentences are weird, but it’s still understandable. I tried to translate the quote in English, although I’m sure you will not find this in the original version :)

“If we look at our life, we always have many reasons to hold on to our Creator. He never left His creatures to be in a deep sorrow; even in their worst situation, they would always have something to be grateful of; and sometimes they are very close to salvation, nearer than what they think—no, they are even brought to salvation in a way that they thought it would have brought them to their ruin.”

That was a very deep reflection from Crusoe after being isolated from civilization for almost three decades. A reflection that has brought him to a realization that God was not punishing him, but bringing him to salvation. I hope we don’t have to suffer like Crusoe to learn about this….

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.