Author Dewi Lestari comes into the light<\/p>\n
By Bruce Emond<\/p>\n
BANDUNG (JP): Dewi Lestari admits she has become an unwitting
\nslave to the cult of Supernova.<\/p>\n
In the seven months since the 25-year-old singer published her
\ndebut novel under the pen name Dee, the book's phenomenal success
\n(it is now in its fourth printing, with 48,000 copies sold) has
\ntaken her away from her singing career with RSD, her friends and
\nher writing. Her plans to write the sequel novel have been
\nshelved while she fulfills her engagements of book signings and
\ndiscussions at bookstores and campuses across Java.<\/p>\n
The reception was more than Dewi expected for a book about a
\ngay couple on a quest to produce a masterpiece. Supernova has
\nbeen described as science fiction by some (basic concepts of
\nmodern physics are interspersed throughout the work) but it's
\nreally not. At its core is the very human element of people and
\ntheir relationships.<\/p>\n
"Honestly, I was a bit shocked," Dewi says at her small but
\ncomfortable home in a real estate complex in central Bandung, the
\ntown where she was born and grew up.<\/p>\n
"It was only my dream to have one of my writings published --
\nthat was my dream from the time I was a kid. I knew I was never
\ngoing to win a writing contest. I don't know why, I don't like
\nbeing limited. I want to write five pages, 10 pages. It's up to
\nme."<\/p>\n
The author of one of the most acclaimed and controversial
\nworks in modern Indonesian literature is framed in a scene of
\ndomestic normalcy -- the small front room is filled with the
\nfragrant aroma of a vase of sedap malam flowers and a boisterous
\npuppy is scratching on the front door -- in her otherwise hectic
\nlife.<\/p>\n
She lets me into a "little secret"; after the last of three
\ndiscussions in a row in Yogyakarta recently, she felt so tired
\nthat she sought refuge in a staff room at the building. And she
\ncried.<\/p>\n
There is no need to fear that Dewi Lestari is about to pull a
\nMariah Carey as all the pressure comes down on her. Her decision
\nto publish Supernova and to go it alone again to release her own
\nEnglish-language album in October (her record company begged off
\nbecause it did not believe it was the "right time") shows a
\nresolute confidence in her own abilities.<\/p>\n
Dewi credits her close-knit family with giving her the support
\nto do what she wanted, including her writing. Although she was
\nraised in Bandung, her family is Batak from North Sumatra and she
\ngrew up in an environment of books, music and the arts.<\/p>\n
The fourth of five siblings, she said there was always sibling
\nprodding to go one step further in the pursuit of perfection.<\/p>\n
"From when I was small, I was so familiar with music, with
\nart. It really stimulates me because we always encouraged each
\nother if we had something. Like if I wrote a song, I always had
\nthem listen to it, or if I wrote something my family would be the
\nfirst to read it, we would brainstorm. 'Oh, it lacks this or
\nthat.' Even now, if I'm going to have a TV appearance, they'll
\ntell me to say something in particular."<\/p>\n
Her love of writing, she believes, came from her late mother,
\nwho had been active in her church in her youth and wrote sermons.<\/p>\n
Her writing skills were honed studying political science at
\nParahyangan University in Bandung. Not only is Dewi Lestari
\npretty, a talented musician, well-spoken (she switches facilely
\nbetween English and Indonesian throughout our interview) and a
\nbrilliant writer, but it turns out she also, basically, winged
\nher way to a college degree.<\/p>\n
"I was lazy, and, because of my singing, I skipped a lot of
\nclasses ... But in international relations, almost all of the
\ntests are essays. So I would know a little bit, and then I would
\nmanipulate that, I would push myself to write very good and clear
\n(essays) so I would impress the lecturer and pass ... But for me
\nall those six years of being a student, the most important was
\nwriting that thesis ...."<\/p>\n
Supernova is the third of three novels she has written (the
\nother two earlier, unpublished works are "pretty good", she says,
\nbut were written by a different Dewi at a different time in her
\nlife).<\/p>\n
Her novel was born from the poems she wrote over the years and
\nkept on her computer.<\/p>\n
"I opened them one day and I thought, umm, these aren't too
\nbad at all, and I tried to make a story from them, a single
\nstory, so the poems belonged to someone, someone actually said
\nit. So I wrote Ksatria, Puteri dan Bintang Jatuh (The Knight,
\nthe Princess and the Falling Star), which is the title of the
\nfirst episode. There was no Dhimas or Ruben, no Supernova at that
\ntime."<\/p>\n
She said she fell in love with the process of what she was
\nwriting -- her "ritual" -- in shaping the lives of her
\ncharacters.<\/p>\n
"I really didn't know how it was going to end, until perhaps
\nthe last 24 pages. It was an adventure ... I created them, but
\nthen they became these independent entities. I created them but
\nthen they become something different in the minds of others ...."<\/p>\n
Understanding<\/p>\n
On a trip to America last year, she scoured bookstores for
\nworks on science and physics. For her, the writing of Supernova
\nhelped her come closer to a better understanding of how the
\nscientific and the spiritual, which are so often put on opposing
\nplanes, interact.<\/p>\n
"I had such an interest in understanding life, humanity,
\nespecially spiritually, beginning in about 1999, and from that
\nmoment on I had this hunger to read lots and lots of things. I
\nreally don't know why I hooked up with science ... Reading the
\nscience books, I was so fascinated because I started to see the
\nrelationship (with the humanities), especially because in this
\ncountry religion is always put on such a high plane, and there is
\nalways a conflict between religious and scientific explanations,
\nand that shouldn't have to happen."<\/p>\n
She acknowledges that others have tried to get the same
\nmessage across, but that perhaps their approach was not well
\nreceived. Her "mask", she says, was in novel form.<\/p>\n
Supernova also tackles some other taboos. Her choice of the
\ngay couple of Dhimas and Ruben as the work's protagonists and
\nreferences to drug use were not an effort to shock, she says, but
\nan acknowledgement of realities.<\/p>\n
"I woke up one day and (thought) 'OK, they've gotta be gay'.
\nThat's all I thought. But now I think my purpose was to show
\npeople that real love, that if we talk about mighty love
\nconquering everything, then if it's really that powerful then
\nit's not going to stop at sexual preference. That's so
\nshallow ... You can't block love .... "<\/p>\n
Criticism<\/p>\n
It is her solid family background and self-confidence that has
\nprobably helped her deal so magnanimously with some of the
\ncriticism of Supernova, with some deriding the book as a plot
\njuxtaposed with a lot of esoteric cutting and pasting of excerpts
\nlifted from all those physics textbooks.<\/p>\n
"All the criticism and all the praise, eventually, is bound to
\nbe the same amount, it's just a matter of me knowing it. You
\nknow, after the third printing, I used a proof reader (because) I
\nknow I lack perfect grammatical Indonesian. A lot of criticism is
\nworthwhile, but then a lot of it is subjective, just as praise is
\nsubjective."<\/p>\n
Dewi also realizes that while some may have initially regarded
\nher book quizzically because of her celebrity status with RSD
\n(the letters stand for Rida, Sita and Dewi, the names of the
\nthree singers), her famous name also helped get the publicity
\nmachine rolling into overdrive.<\/p>\n
"There are two sides to being a celebrity, and I can use some
\nof that to my benefit. I know that if Seno Gumira released a
\nnovel, he won't get coverage on Cek & Ricek or KISS or those
\ninfotainment shows, but I have that, and I use it as my promotion
\nmedia .... "<\/p>\n
She became part of RSD in 1995 when she was still a student at
\nParahyangan. Producers teamed Dewi and Sita, who were backing
\nsingers together, with Rida.<\/p>\n
"We were all adults when we came together as a group," Dewi
\nsays in explaining how the women remain together while pursuing
\ntheir own interests. "We had our own characters, our own special
\nqualities ... I had my own style, and now we are more
\ndeveloped .... "<\/p>\n
Of course, it could also be argued that going their separate
\nways while staying part of a group is part of the reason the
\nwomen, with all their talent, have not made it to the very top of
\nstardom. The group, at one time dubbed "Indonesia's Wilson
\nPhillips" because Sita is a large woman, has had a couple of pop
\nhits but never really reached the total pop stardom of other
\nIndonesian groups, such as AB Three or Trio Libels.<\/p>\n
Dewi has her writing, Rida is the mother of a two-year-old son
\nand Sita is pursuing acting ambitions, most recently playing in
\nthe star-studded theater production of Madame Dasima in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Dewi says the women are "moving into another phase, another
\nstage" of their careers, but one she hopes will not bring their
\nprofessional relationship to an end.<\/p>\n
Coming up next for Dewi is the album Out of Shell, which she
\nwrote in English over the last four years (she confirms the story
\nthat she learned a lot of her English watching The Muppets on
\nvideo during two years spent in Medan).<\/p>\n
"People think I must have studied abroad, but I didn't, I've
\nonly been to America once ... I feel intimate with English, I
\ndon't know why. Maybe in another life I was white!"<\/p>\n
She knows it is a challenge for an Indonesian artist to
\nproduce an English-language album in Indonesia. She also knows
\nsome will call her brave, and probably just as many will be ready
\nto scoff at her new aspirations.<\/p>\n
"I have hopes for it, (but) Supernova was like that at first.
\n(People said) 'It's too heavy, blah blah blah'. But it became a
\nsuccess. And I think I have to be optimistic about my own stuff,
\notherwise I wouldn't have the energy to promote it ... The most
\nimportant thing is to get it out. It's like having a baby -- I
\nhave to give birth sooner or later."<\/p>\n
It is one more step in Dewi Lestari's charmed journey. She may
\nnot know where it will lead, but one feels she has every
\nconfidence that she is on the right path.<\/p>",
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