McGlynn has no regrets in life

McGlynn has no regrets in life

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Tantri Yuliandini
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
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Nobody knows more about the frustrations of promoting Indonesian
literature without support from the government more than John
Hubert McGlynn, director of publication and co-founder of the
Lontar Foundation based in Jakarta.

"Sometimes I think is it worth it? Sometimes I do think that.
If the government itself does nothing to promote Indonesia, why
should I, a foreigner who has to fight every year to get a visa?"
he said.

Instead of helping foundations such as Lontar to promote the
country through literature, the government put taxes on books,
therefore obstructing the dissemination of information, McGlynn
lamented.

He often becomes frustrated with the country's bureaucracy,
saying that everything is more difficult to do here because there
wasn't a free flow of information.

"The Indonesian government could do a lot to make this place
an easy and pleasant place to be, but whether it's for reasons of
ignorance or stupidity, or they're just lazy, I don't know, but
the government doesn't move. We still don't have reform yet," he
said.

Nevertheless, McGlynn persists, and entering its 15th year,
Lontar also persists. To date the foundation has published more
than 50 titles of Indonesian literary works in translation, like
Y.B. Mangunwijaya's The Weaverbirds (1991) and the Menagerie
series of Indonesian fiction, poetry, photographs and essays.

Of his own headlong stumble into the Indonesian literary
world, McGlynn described it simply as a "fluke" of fate.

Born 50 years ago into a close-knit farming family in Casa
Novia, Milwaukee, his childhood dream ranged from becoming a
fireman ("I love fires," he enthused), an architect to a
puppeteer.

"We were 10 children, we had a small farm and we raised all
our own food, made our own clothes. But my parents were well read
and greatly admired education, they wanted all their children to
get a good education and pushed us."

Initially intending to pursue a degree in graphics and fine
arts, McGlynn became fascinated with the Javanese shadow puppets
or wayang kulit that he saw in a design teacher's room.

"That was the beginning, I said 'Wow these are really neat,
these are really interesting puppets'," McGlynn said. Afterward,
he began to experiment in making his own puppets from various
materials, creating characters from the western canon of
literature.

"So I could create these shadow puppets, but I couldn't figure
out how to operate them. So I found a dalang (puppeteer) in the
United States and studied with him, and while studying I decided
to further my study in Indonesia," he said.

In 1973, McGlynn decided to take up Bahasa Indonesia at the
University of Wisconsin, mainly to prepare him for his departure
to Indonesia. There a lecturer, Tunggul Siagian, used literature
as a tool for language teaching.

His parents supported his move to Indonesia, and McGlynn's
father even spent a couple of months in the country to see how
his son was doing.

"My parents completely supported me all the way. They were not
knowledgeable about Indonesia but they knew where Indonesia was.
My father especially loved to travel, and so when I came here
they too started reading about Indonesia," he said, playfully
adding that since his move to the country, his 300-people-
community in Casa Novia has come to know all about Indonesia.

"So if I've done anything, I believe I've promoted Indonesia
to 300 people," he laughed.

McGlynn's initial fellowship to study puppetry in Yogyakarta
fell through, and he came to Jakarta instead to study Indonesian
language and literature at the University of Indonesia.

That's how he got to know poet Sapardi Djoko Damono and writer
Goenawan Mohamad, and through them various literary figures in
Indonesia.

"Through my study of Indonesian literature I began to feel
this desire to translate literature into English because there
were so few translations available (at the time). But that didn't
pay the bills," McGlynn said. Between 1976 and 1987 he worked as
a freelance translator for the U.S. Department of State, for the
State Film Corporation and the National Film Council, the
Ministry of Information, economic surveys and political analysis.

"But 15 years ago I was feeling burnt out. I really couldn't
stand the thought of working on those kinds of things anymore,
and I wanted to work full time on literature," he said.

Together with Goenawan Mohamad, Sapardi Djoko Damono, Umar
Kayam and Subagio Sastrowardoyo, McGlynn set up the Lontar
Foundation on Oct. 28, 1987, aiming to promote Indonesian
literature and culture abroad, especially to the United States,
Europe and Australia.

McGlynn has never regretted leaving puppetry for Indonesian
literature, "I like to think that I recognize my shortcomings. I
felt I would never be a successful puppeteer. I thought that
maybe my calling was in language and literature instead".

And so McGlynn stayed, partly because as an expert on
Indonesian language and literature there was little for him to do
back in the United States.

"My field was Indonesian language and literature, there were
very few options two decades ago. Only three or four places in
the United States taught Indonesian at that time. Even to this
day there are only two universities in the United States where
Indonesian literature is taught," he said.

And partly because as a publisher, it was a lot cheaper to
publish books in Indonesia than in the United States.

When Lontar first started, there was no publisher in the West
who was going to publish Indonesian literature without a subsidy,
or without the knowledge that if one book was successful, there
would be others to follow.

"With a fairly limited amount of funding we were able to
translate and publish the works here in Indonesia and build up a
series, so we have now about 50 titles in translation," he said.

Now the foundation is in the process of negotiation with a
foreign publisher and has received funding from the Luce
Foundation to produce a series on the history of Indonesian
theater.

The foundation has also received funding from the Ford
Foundation and has been recognized for its key role in helping
promote a more balanced image of Indonesia abroad.

But after 26 years in the country, McGlynn said he was ready
to go back to the United States, "I think that I'm getting now to
the point where I might be able to do more for Indonesia if I
were to spend more time in the United States."

"Regrets? No, not really. I've always been curious. Of course
an impossible question to answer ... curious to learn what
would've happened had I opened the other door or gone the other
way instead. What would've happened in my life, but I don't have
regrets about what I've done so far."