A rare book with sexy topic

A rare book with sexy topic

'The Romance of K'tut Tantri and Indonesia'
By Timothy Lindsey
Oxford University Press, 1997
Hardback 362 pp
AU$65

MELBOURNE (JP): There are many a doctorate thesis that have
been spruced up and published as books but one dealing with such
a sexy topic as Timothy Lindsey's The Romance of K'tut Tantri and
Indonesia is rare indeed.

First, any topic that touches on Bali will always hold the
reader's fascination. Lindsey's book not only paints Bali against
the backdrop of Western concept of orientalism, it also explores
the origins of that concept, with its flaws and other drawbacks.

Second, it attempts to place K'tut Tantri, celebrated author
of Revolt in Paradise under a cultural and historical microscope.

Any writer whose autobiography becomes a bestseller, is
translated into over a dozen languages and receives numerous
glowing reviews internationally, is bound to be subject to a
great deal of attention.

K'tut Tantri's Revolt in Paradise is not an ordinary
autobiography. It is a war novel, set largely in romantic Bali
and claims to tell first-hand, the story of Indonesia's struggle
for independence from a participant's point of view. It is
understandable that some people have disputed the veracity of the
events recounted, hence the historical value of the book.

For the satisfaction of separating the fabricated truth from
the real truth, Lindsey may have set out to dissect the image
created by K'tut Tantri but what he eventually achieved is far
more spectacular. He places this image in multiple contexts:
historical, artistic, cultural and psychological.

He describes the phenomenon among artists and other romantics
in the West to regard Bali as an oriental Utopia, uncorrupt by
the trappings of Western capitalism and rampant consumerism.

It is into this image of Bali that Muriel Pearson escaped in
1932 from materialism-saturated Hollywood. She did not seek war
or revolution-type adventure, she was, rather, swept into it. And
it soon became obvious that the role of a revolutionary heroine
agreed with her psyche. And it seems, as a romantic, she
romanticized her version of events.

Lindsey's investigations reveal that there was a great deal
more than mere romanticism that made Pearson -- who later adopted
the name Mrs. Manx and numerous others, nicknamed Surabaya Sue
and Yankee Mata Hari -- present her preferred version in Revolt
in Paradise.

Muriel Pearson, nee Walker, sought to recreate herself and her
place in the world from a less than happy childhood. And she had
the good fortune of possessing imagination, resourcefulness,
courage and get-up-and-go, that many in her situation lacked.

There is no doubt also, that the core of Revolt in Paradise is
true. What critics found doubtful is her role in this core story.
It appears from Lindsey's research that K'tut Tantri may have
reshuffled the chronology of events to make herself more
prominent in the picture.

I have yet to read an autobiography, especially one that is as
gripping as hers, that remains 100 percent faithful to the
chronology of events. Deliberate rebuilding aside, the
autobiographer's memory does play tricks during the denouement of
the whole story.

Most of the official documentation paints Pearson-Manx-Tantri
as eccentric and prone to telling lies. Curiously, this
impression is reinforced by those, mostly fellow Westerners, who
knew her in Bali.

Even the more generous ones were disparaging in their
description of her. However, Lindsey sought to explain this away
by painting her and her situation against the cultural perception
and prejudice prevalent at that time.

In the latter part of her life in the Dutch East Indies, swept
into the middle of the people's struggle for independence against
the Dutch, the Japanese and the Allies, K'tut Tantri suffered a
great deal.

Accused of being an American spy, she was imprisoned by the
Japanese and continuously tortured for eighteen months. Suspected
of being a communist, the Allies made her life as difficult as
possible. Recognized as a sympathizer, the independence fighters
coopted her.

All this happened in a relatively short span of time. Yet out
of this turbulence her sympathies for the Indonesians transpired.
For this there was sufficient documentation and personal
testimony, despite her obvious attempts at self-aggrandizement in
her autobiography.

This book is the most comprehensive so far in painting K'tut
Tantri in the wider landscape of her own native hometown in
Scotland, her brief life in the U.S., her attempts at building
her own Utopia in Bali and her major involvement in Indonesia's
struggle for independence.

Lindsey achieved this without appearing voyeuristic. Her
physical attributes reach the reader's consciousness without the
author having to paint her deliberately and her various emotions
come through without him describing her biological anxieties in
detail.

Lindsey also succeeded in painting the woman as wholesomely as
was possible by his cultural forensic skills. The product is a
three dimensional person, not stripped of her romantic side, yet
revealing her guiles and her attempts at glossing over the
aspects of her life that she liked least.

It is a very human K'tut Tantri that comes across from this
book, deserving of fascination, if not admiration, and in many
ways endearing.

-- Dewi Anggraeni