An insight into Putu Wijaya, writer of weird stories
NGEH, Kumpulan Esai Putu Wijaya (NGEH, Putu Wijaya's Collection of Essays); Pustaka Firdaus, Jakarta, December l997.; Foreword by Jacob Sumardjo; 504 pp + xvi; Rp 32,500
JAKARTA (JP): Putu Wijaya is prolific not only in creating short stories and novels, plays and TV dramas, but also in writing essays. In the past three decades his essays have appeared in various magazines and newspapers in Indonesia, the earliest of the 88 pieces dated l974.
The essays disclose Putu's views about life, culture, arts, etc., which are not as easily discernible as his fiction.
In his essay on culture, he writes that we should adopt a "strategy" which guarantees that every element of culture in this country be given similar opportunity based on mutual respect.
Putu writes that such a guarantee would lead to harmony. However, destructive conflicts can also occur if one or two elements strive to claim dominance.
In writing of efforts to open up to outside influence, while continuing efforts to keep tradition alive, Putu says Japan came to his mind as a good example, though he adds it might not be quite accurate.
Based on his understanding of culture one is be able to comprehend his deep respect for Arifin C.Noer -- a prominent figure in Indonesian theater and film -- who packaged himself with modernization while at the same time was deeply rooted in Indonesian tradition.
According to Putu, Arifin no longer unthinkingly follows the tradition of playwrights William Shakespeare, Moliere, Hendrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Samuel Beckett or writer Antonin Artaud. He has returned to the traditional forms of theater found in various regions here -- wayang, lenong, arja, topeng, makyong, mamanda and kecak.
In Putu's view there are many Indonesian filmmakers who want to create an "Indonesian sense" in our films, but only a few of them really do it.
Arifin was one of the local film directors who consciously made movies which seriously express Indonesian idioms.
Arifin was worried that Indonesian movies in the future would be colonized by the "movie language" of Hongkong, the United States, France, Italy etc., if Indonesian filmmakers didn't do anything to prevent it.
Putu's attitude about tradition is also very distinct. Tradition is not a fossil kept in a gold box, he writes.
All traditions must be reviewed. They live, breathe and develop. They are changed and reborn. But since humans are lazy to think creatively, tradition is made as an eternal recipe which is able to pass through the shift of time.
The rigid thinking about tradition has been pounded on by Putu through his art concept, which has been dubbed "terror" in Indonesian literature and theater here.
Barely any of his characters are realistic and he "terrorizes" his readers and audience into imagining sensational things.
It turns out Dor, for instance, the title of a play based on one of his stories, was not about a shooting as people might have associated the title with.
His reflections reach beyond culture itself, to the philosophical and to more mundane daily aspects of life.
He writes about truth, justice, idealism, children, marriage, housewives, books, reading habits, anecdotes, comics and tales.
His arguments on these topics, colored by experience and intense observation, are as eloquent as those in the essays on culture.
Without hesitation, for instance, he says that truth has made us drunk, wild and crazy. History has recorded many bloodbaths stirred in the name of truth. However we still worship, sanctify and make a cult of truth.
Putu writes that the time has come for us to judge truth proportionally. Time has also come for humans to doubt truth as the highest value, so that it will not be a tyrant and destroy future achievements of history.
Like his fictions, the essays are void of the pretensions to be considered as intellectual works -- no one would frown reading them. What is more interesting is their originality.
Putu is one of the few Indonesian writers who never tries to pepper his writings by quoting others' statements or opinions, as if to show that they read a lot.
If in his fiction one can find many peculiarities and 'wild' things, such characteristics are seldom found in the essays. His sincerity can be felt in his judgments as he tries to be fair and distances himself from suspicion.
In his comments about marriage we find Putu, once married to theater actress Renny Jayusman, elaborating on the reality of the sacred ties. Without doubt he regards marriage as a place where one finds a friend and a teacher. A marriage is also a place where one comes across happiness, problems and maturity.
"When a man is married," he writes, "he has not one head but two... His space narrows... Often he cannot even take care of his own head..."
Putu, 54, openly shares his conviction that marriage is the beginning of a real life journey. Marriage, reveals the artist born in Tabanan, Bali, is a great lesson in life, it's "... where we stop dreaming and see things as they are."
-- Sori Siregar
The writer has written several short stories.