Debunking 'Paradise'<\/p>\n
Bali 2day: Modernity
\nJean Couteau, et al.
\nKepustakaan Populer Gramedia, August 2005
\n238 pp<\/p>\n
Vidhyasuri Utami, Contributor\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
White sands, lush tropical rice fields and exotic rites are the
\ningredients from which stems the \"Paradise\" image of Bali, an
\nisland once believed by its inhabitant to originate from a fish
\nexposed to light by Ida Sanghyang Widi Wasa (God).<\/p>\n
Bali is now the backbone of Indonesian tourism. It is indeed
\nthrough the island's exotic appeal that \"native\" Balinese,
\n\"civilized\" Westerners and others have been into contact with one
\nanother for much of the last hundred years. Their sometimes
\ndifficult encounter is the background theme of Bali 2day:
\nModernity, a small, yet fascinating book recently published by
\nKepustakaan Populer Gramedia.<\/p>\n
Who would be better entitled to depict Balinese modernity than
\na bunch of cynical, yet debonair transnational writers -- foreign
\nand Indonesian -- residing in Bali? Most of the vignettes
\ncollected in this book are from the pages of the erstwhile
\nEnglish section of the Bali Post, gathered by Jean Couteau, its
\neditor and principal writer.<\/p>\n
The other contributors are Usadhi Wiryatnaya, Benito
\nLopulalan, Degung Santikarma, Yuliarsa Sastrawan and \"Gung Gede\"
\nRoberts, accompanied by Wayan Sadha's illustrations and
\ncaricatures.<\/p>\n
Bali 2day exposes the quirkiness of modernity in Indonesia's
\nParadise Island. Its \"natives\" may see themselves as followers of
\nthe Religion of Water (agama Tirta), but they are still
\nperceived, as shown in a Time advertisement criticized in the
\nbook, as \"bare-breasted worshipers of the sun\".<\/p>\n
And, although they dress in Western clothes and espouse
\nWestern virtues, they often fail to understand modern
\nrationality, becoming in the process peeping toms, Eldorado
\ndreamers and, always, victims of ill-fated circumstances.<\/p>\n
Yet, since it is the \"quirkiness of modernity\" that gives the
\nbook its tone, the so-called agents of modernity -- i.e. the
\ntourists, foreigners, bule -- are no less weird than their
\n\"native\" counterparts.<\/p>\n
They too behave in ways prone to raise people's brows. One
\ndreams of being cremated in Bali and another, after making a girl
\npregnant, refuses to visit his young wife and newborn son before
\nhearing God's call and becoming a priest.<\/p>\n
So, while the Balinese, and Indonesians, may appear as preys
\nof a modernity imposed from above, their foreign guests are
\ndoubtless themselves the castaways of their own modern societies.
\nBoth identities, \"local\" and \"foreign\", inescapably bear the mark
\nof irrationality and alienation.<\/p>\n
What is, then, the value of modernity, the book seems to ask,
\nif it creates estrangement instead of communication?<\/p>\n
This book, a debunking of the myth of Bali, shows us that
\nparadise is indeed nowhere to be found in this modern world.<\/p>\n
Whether you are local or foreign, Bali 2day exposes many of
\nBali's hidden truths. To quote from Goenawan Mohamad's foreword,
\nthe book \"demolishes every image one builds about Bali ... it is
\na cliche against cliches and a collage of unpleasing lampoons
\n[that] make a polyvalent portrait of Bali that is necessarily
\nunfinished\".<\/p>\n
A must for travellers to \"Paradise Island\", as well as
\nthinkers and pilgrims, it gives a clear, yet stunningly different
\nview of Bali.<\/p>",
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