54 Education & Schools
02 June - 16 June, 2010
Bali Advertiser
Oil painting classes starting
Advanced classes
Thursday morning
Beginner’s classes
Thursday afternoon
09.00 - 13.00 hrs (only 1 place left)
14.00 - 17.30 hrs
Small groups, reasonable rate.
For more information on the teacher, please visit her website:
www.noellaroos.com
For more information about the classes contact:
noellaroos@hotmail.com
C/E/G-2 Dec. 09
TOKO BUKU
Reviews of English language books on Indonesia
Ordeal By Fire by Gde Aryantha Soethama
The message of the 16 stories in Ordeal by Fire is unambiguous. The author is a passionate champion of Bali’s cultural and religious values and has eloquently enlisted language, black humor and a powerful narrative technique to rail against social injustice and desecrations of the island’s heritage.
The majority of the stories chronicle the negative effects of the tourism
industry, the tragic impact of development on individuals as well as spiritual turmoil and confl icts created by Bali’s caste system. In non-confrontational Indonesia the issues the author raises are just too complex and troublesome to deal with by directly criticizing authority, so the writer often uses allegories.
The author’s bitter and hopeless stories are made all the more effective and memorable because his writing style is refi ned and mannerly. Just under the surface there is undiluted anger. Such realistic depictions of unpalatable reality is relatively new in native literature. He doesn’t judge or offer solutions. His descriptions are damming enough.
The anthology as a whole addresses many diverse subjects and issues. The melodramatic opening story gives you a taste of what is to come: two star-crossed lovers throw themselves over a cliff because their families couldn’t agree to a suitable day for them to marry. This tragedy symbol- izes the dangers and excesses that arise when following a belief system too blindly or too strictly.
The protagonists in Aryantha’s stories tend to be innocent and idealistic: young lovers, stubborn old men, temple guardians, honest hard-working farmers, well-intentioned apprentice musicians, dancers and painters. His characters fi ght, often to the death, against irresponsible enterprises and modernity whenever these interfere with people’s lives and traditions.
The antagonists are the nameless and unstoppable forces behind the rampant commercialization of the island’s infrastructure and tourism venues. The author makes it clear that tourists per se are not the enemy. It is the Balinese themselves who are their own worst enemy. His characters often pit Balinese against Balinese.
One of the book’s darkest stories, that typifi es a theme running through them all, is “The Gumatat Gumitit Puppets” about a dalang who teaches his skill as a puppeteer to a student, hands over his complete stock of animal puppets, with his profession being gradually usurped by the younger man. I won’t tell the surprising conclusion, but it ends very badly.
Another troubling tale, “Wayan Tanggu’s Grave” relates how a whole village mercilessly hounds and then ostracizes a farmer because he wouldn’t sell his 10 are of land for use as a village art market. It is yet another story in which the rights and honor of an individual is sacrificed to the prerogatives of making money.
The well-crafted and poignant “Beautiful Fertile Rice Fields,” an allegory on the evil of greed, tells the story of how villagers grew to trust a seemingly benign Javanese, Pak Jamah. At fi rst villagers borrowed money from him, then were ultimately deceived into surrendering their land, until
fi nally the farmers ended up working as waitresses and musicians in his hotel. (This scenario has no doubt actually been played out somewhere in Bali.)
In “Death by Misfortune,” an old man becomes obsessed with paying for his own cremation. His dream is to die in a traffi c accident and his family be compensated so that his sons won’t be stuck with the expense. The old man goes about looking for the best place to die, the best day to die on and the best person to run him over. This story is funny in a macabre sort of way, imparting a lesson in life instead of dwelling on despair.
“The Coconut Orchestra” is a sad story about the loss of an xylophonic coconut orchestra in a small village in east Bali - the only one on the whole island. Handed down through generations, it was played only on occasion of religious ceremonies. The traditional values of Mangku Rajeg clash headlong against the ambitions of Ketut Wijil, a younger musician in the orchestra.
The “Dancer from Timuhun” repeats a recurring theme in Ordeal of Fire – the powers of commercialization despoiling Bali’s sacred cultural assets. The villain is the Balinese owner of a tour agency and the hero is a young dancer guarding the island’s indigenous art forms. Landri cries out in anguish, “We have been destroyed by the actions of our own people. It isn’t surprising that we were colonized by the Dutch for hundreds of years.”
Every story is suffused with a supernatural mysticism. Rituals have to be performed, gods presented with offerings, spirits placated. Even murders are committed with a sacrifi cial undercurrent. Many of the stories have mysterious or inconclusive endings, leaving the reader lost in refl ection. An example is Grandpa Gekol, a haunting story about the death and ghostly reappearance of an old and much loved story-teller.
Ordeal by Fire was originally published in Indonesian under the title Mandi Api by Penerbit Buku Kompas Press in 2006. That book received the prestigious Khatulistiwa Literary Award in 2006. The selection was made by a hierarchy of judges - all well known writers themselves – and included a prize of 100 million rupiah, the richest literary award in Indonesia.
The book’s author Gde Aryantha Soethama is a well known freelance journalist who has long been committed to writing about his native Bali. Currently Aryantha manages the Arti Foundation, a printing and publishing company which assists Balinese writers in getting their work published. It is characteristic of the author’s dedication to letters that he used the prize money he won to buy a new printing press for the foundation.
Ordeal By Fire by Gde Aryantha Soethama, translated by Vern Cork, Arti Foundation 2008, ISBN 9789791145282, paperback, glossary of Indonesian and Balinese words, bios of author and translator. Available for Rp100,000 at Ganesha in Ubud and Ganesha@Biku in Kerobokan.
For any publishers interested in having one of their books considered for review in Toko Buku, please contact:
dariskm@gmail.com
Copyright © 2010
You can read all past articles of Toko Buku at
www.BaliAdvertiser.biz
C/E/I-28 Jan 09 C/E/G-2 June 10
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C/E/G-7 April 10
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C/E/G-10 March 10
C/E/G-2 June 10
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