Searching for Utopia

The fuss about children’s literature has been started from its definition as literature written especially for children. This explanation is somehow no longer adequate, since there are numbers of violation to this rule. There are books which were intended for adults but now are considered to be children’s (Mark Twain’s “Huckelberry Finn), and vice versa. It then creates a space between the two for works which can belong to both. “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien is one of them.

It might be a simple fantasy novel belongs to children’s literature in the twentieth century for its lacking of allegory and theme simplicity. Yet, Tolkien used his superb skill in linguistics which may cause complication to some points for younger readers to understand.

“The Hobbit” takes place in a realm called Middle-earth, a world full of amazing creatures with their own distinct characteristics, such as: elves, dwarves, trolls, and goblins. There, Bilbo Baggins is a simple hobbit who dwells contently in his nice little hole in Hobbiton. When it is widely known that elf is truly a good race; goblin is the bad race; and human is something in between; it is then arousing curiosity why Tolkien would set a hobbit as the major character instead of others. Although they share elves’ passion for food and poetry, they look nothing like the beautiful folk. They have curly brown hair and their heights vary between three to four feet; a little shorter than dwarves with no fighting skill. Their morality is similar to human; which is commonly good but there are also irritating kinds — such as the Sackville-Bagginses. Though they have sharp seeing and could sneak well despite their plump bodies, they lack of adventurous temperament. They spend their life in the Shire without meddling into outer world affairs.

Our hero, Bilbo Baggins, is such a creature. What makes him different is perhaps his Took side which he inherits from his mother Belladonna Took. The Tooks are known to be eccentric among hobbits. They never quite forget that Bilbo’s ancestor, Bandobras Took, could slay a goblin chieftain. Bilbo, however, wis justly a Baggins; until one day when the mysterious wizard Gandalf the Grey appears on his door way with a band of armed dwarves led by Thorin.

Dwarves always have a lust for fortune. But these dwarves, unfortunately, have lost their kingdom in the Lonely Mountain after Smaug the dragon destroys it and slaughters each one inside. It also has kept the remaining treasure of the dwarves with itself, which they now long to retake. Gandalf then counsels them to hire Bilbo as a burglar to help them. Alas! Bilbo has never thought of leaving his nice little burrow for an adventure. But his pride conquers his hesitation when the dwarves begins to distrust his skill as a rogue. So he accepts the quest with the reward 1/14 of total profits, and hopes that there is truth in Gandalf’s words: “he had something more than meets the eye” .

As there are common characteristics used to classify children’s literature, it would be wise to explore “The Hobbit” based on each of them:

1. Do not contain adult themes
The theme of “The Hobbit” is obviously simple enough to understand by children. This is the typical “good conquered bad” story.

2. Are appropriate for children
This characteristic might be subjective. Yet, in general appropriate would suggest a meaning that the literary work does not contain any violence and sexual depiction, which make this book as harmless as it should be.

3. Deal with themes of growing up, coming to age and maturation.
Bilbo Baggins is 51 years old when he starts the adventure, a mature age in the hobbit period which lasts around 100 years. But the story is emphasized on his character’s development. In the beginning he is an ordinary rich hobbit who enjoys food and poetry; and then later his character develops to be a brave thief, while keeping his common sense and idea of bad and good. He is a classic kind of hero on children literature. He is far from perfect, as he is never good in fighting. Yet he has possessed other skills to prove himself to be worthy in the end.

4. Are plot-oriented (fewer descriptions and ruminations)
Although “The Hobbit” has very thorough descriptions (not necessarily ruminations), it is plot-oriented enough. Tolkien continuously follows Bilbo’s journey and neglects the rest. The third person point of view helps the readers to see what the characters see or do, but not quite yet grasping their feelings.

5. Are educational, or else contain tales of fantasy and adventure.
This is fantasy. If you hold the view that literary work is an imitation of human life, you would likely drop the idea after reading “The Hobbit”. As the result of mimetic criticism, readers of literature might sometimes be mistaken in seeing something that does not really exist; imagining their own imagination as well as interpreting symbols based on their own needs.

Tolkien had confirmed that he dislikes allegory. In this case, it would be out of place to assume that the creatures of Middle-earth were created based on the different races in Europe during the World War II, for example. He preferred history, true or feigned, he said. As a philologist with a huge interest over Old English and ancient mythologies, there is no doubt that he meant to preserve the objects of his concern. The only option left is then to see Bilbo Baggins as his means in directing the story. The story is based on Anglo Saxon mythology, as it is described in how the characters’ aree dressed, or how they give name to their weapons, which has been custom on tales such as King Arthur’s Excalibur. Therefore, this story is rather a pure fantasy with a high sense of literature as it can be seen through the diction. Educational it is, as it teaches many moral lessons wrapped in the manner of ancient English tales with a superb touch of fantasy.

6. Have a happy end, in which good triumphs over evil.
Naturally such a story must end up in a happy ending. But Bilbo had to go through many things before reaching it, which made him more deserve it after all.

He begins the adventure by being sort of a burden for the others, not to mention endangering their life. Yet he never gives up. As the story flows, he could prove his skill as a burglar with the help of this luck; particularly after finding Gollum’s magic ring which could turn him invisible. So there he is; a sudden hero with the help of the magic ring.

Of course luck cannot teach enough lessons for children to learn. Bilbo’s adventure has not yet ended. When the dwarves’ greed over the treasure had blinded their eyes and put them in a conflict against other races due to the share of the treasure, Bilbo keeps his feet on the ground. He gives up his part of the treasure to be given to the human, without betraying his dwarf friends.

However, this novel has also violated some of the common characteristics of the children literature, such as:

7. Have children as protagonist
Although Bilbo is small, he is not at all a child in age.

8. Are written in simple language
As reprinted on the current paperback of “The Silmarillion”, Tolkien said, “Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.” He was an expert in linguistics; which can be seen on the writing of this novel in making it as beautiful as any adult novel can be; adorned with Elvish and other foreign languages of his own invention. The diction might be an extra task for the children to learn nonetheless.

To sum up, does “The Hobbit” belong to children literature or not? I would suggest yes, but that is not all. It is, as previously mentioned; appropriate enough for children to read, given guidance on difficult terms and foreign languages. However, as smart as children can be, this work would be better comprehended by adults seeking for entertainment in literature: serious, playful, compelling, you name it. There is no need of parental advisory label or whatsoever. This is a work for all ages.

This has been originally posted here on March 17, 2005

In October 2004, tiny human fossils which were assumed to be hobbit’s were discovered in Flores, Indonesia. According to The Guardian:

“Remains of the one metre-tall (3ft) creatures were found in a cave on the island alongside some tools and evidence of a fire. One specimen, a female dubbed LB1, is thought to have lived 18,000 years ago when the island was home to other bizarre animals, including elephants the size of ponies, over-sized rats and giant lizards that would dwarf the three metre-long Komodo dragons living there now.”

The description might be a bit too bizarre, as some scientists argued that the hobbit was actually none other than a modern human suffered from microcephaly. You can read the complete article here.

Those who do not hold this view, however, have their explanation. Dean Falk of the Department of Anthropology at Florida State University had done a thorough analysis on the hobbit’s brain, and it proves the brain to be different than any others.

“It’s unique. It has advanced features that span the entire brain, which suggest the original discoverers were quite correct that this is a new species of human,” she said. She never speculated whether it had language, but was certain that the creature had been able to use basic tools.

These creatures, also known as Homo Floresiensis, could possibly be the descendant of Homo erectus which evolved into hobbits in order to survive against the limited supplies on Flores after reaching the island from the sea. Though Flores history has proven that creatures had existed there since 95,000 to 13,000 years ago, one cannot be sure about the chance whether these hobbits might still dwell there in south-east Asia.

This has been originally posted here on March 11, 2005

March; and winter has not yet showed any signs of giving in. The thought of the sunny homeland rekindles my vehemence.

This has been originally posted here on March 8, 2005

Only Your Wish Matters

Note: Beware! This review contains spoilers and therefore should be read at your own risk, especially if you have not played the game yet.

The world has gone crazy as high culture is often degraded to be mass culture in the hands of Hollywood film industry; taken example as when they created the big screen version of Billy Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” with heartthrob Leonardo Di Caprio set as Romeo. A good book is often adapted into movie, but as movie is more easily drawing people’s attention, in many cases it often surpasses the fame of the book itself. J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” was no exception. Even if we knew that Tolkien created the LOTR, we are likely to be more familiar with Peter Jackson’s Frodo Baggins than the one described in the original book.

They are different, of course. I myself think it was difficult to put empathy upon Frodo’s character in the movie; for the duration was never enough to describe his plight as the ring bearer. The struggles on his mind might as well continue in the movie, but what could describe it better than Tolkien’s diction? What has happened, movie-goers were more likely to fall in love with Legolas’ comely face; or Gandalf’s wizardry.

To label Gandalf the Grey in the movie as a wizard was actually rather inappropriate. Apart from his fight against Balrog in “The Fellowship of the Ring”, he rarely cast any spells, and used his sword instead. As I am fond of Role Playing Games (RPG) and believe that each class should fits its ability, I think it is quite a disturbance for LOTR was a remarkable and entertaining work; both books and movies, I would say. Save the differences, they were one of my all time favorites. And thanks to them, nowadays everything which bears “The Lord of the Rings” label on it would suggest a quality guarantee in some points.

While it is not always true, you should perhaps take a look at “The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth”. I began this game feeling a bit reluctant; for fear that it is merely another way to extend the viewers’ impression upon the series. To tell the truth, I had found that most of the games based on the same realm were never as good as I expected them to be.

So I tried this one, –and I was in awe. It is not the first LOTR game featured the voice of the real actors and the original soundtrack, but the graphic makes this game outstanding. It reminds me a little to “Neverwinter Nights”, if not even better. Make sure you have a good video card though, so you could witness the superb detail of the fight between Gandalf and the Balrog.

Story-line, nonetheless, seems to be an unnecessary subject to be discussed. As plain as it could be, this game follows Peter Jackson’s movies instead of Tolkien’s books. Yet there is no need to argue about the importance of the battle. A Real Time Strategy would not do much without it. Here, you can choose to play good and evil single player campaigns, skirmishes, and multi players. I bet you could easily guess that the main purpose of playing the good campaign is to defeat Sauron and let Frodo to destroy his ring; while bad campaign is set to destroy the goods, including the fellowship.

There are four castles, including: Gondor, Rohan, Isengard, and Mordor. Gondor is the richest in resource, and you will get an additional advantage as you could recruit Gandalf and his Shadowfax to help the knights in this castle. But again, who could stand against Rohan’s horse-lords, Rohirrim? It might not be easy to collect resources in this castle, but when you could afford to keep some Ent moots, victory is at hand.

If you feel it is good to be bad, then do not let it be your dismay, my friends. Warg riders and Saruman in Isengard can be a great challenge to Gondor. Mordor’s trolls and mumakils could crush Rohirrim Warriors in a second if the archers did not act swiftly. The siege weapons available in both of the bad armies would surely destroy even Gondor stronghold. All in all, they have met their match.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is no such thing as flawlessness. When you play skirmish mode, you would get your skirmish profile which notes what kind or army you usually use; how many victories you have; how many losses; and things like that. You could even level up, but only to find that nothing would change. That is a bummer, but not quite too serious that it could ruin the game itself this time; when the life of Middle-earth is in your hands. Neither Peter Jackson nor J.R.R. Tolkien could meddle with your decision for you are bound to be wiser then Elrond the half-elven. Now, what are you waiting for? “Fly, Shadowfax! Fly!”

This has been originally posted here on March 2, 2005

Excuse my absence for I had been away on a journey through the Middle Earth to fight the Dark Lord Sauron.

It is perhaps quite late to speak of The Lord of The Rings epic. But since I had just gotten the time to play “The Battle for Middle Earth” recently, it had stirred up my lust for LOTR once again. I have seldom found, indeed, any complete analysis on the LOTR; save Peter Jackson’s movies, for I am now speaking of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. That was when I decided to write one myself; and you could expect them soon enough. Yet, a brief review on “The Battle for Middle Earth” would not hurt to begin with, I daresay. Though, I will let alone the movies, except as a means of comparison. Now, fare you well; and we shall meet again before long!

This has been posted here on March 1, 2005

It is not a new thing to hear that Indonesia, being the largest Muslim populated nation, is rumored to have a terrorist organization linked to Al Qaeda. But do you happen to know, that mixed marriage has been a trend there for the last couple of years? Yes, what I mean by mixed marriage is a marriage between Indonesian to a foreigner. If I should make it clearer, then precisely it happens between an Indonesian woman and a white man, with of course Muslim and Christian backgrounds.

In 2002 my cousin got married to an American, then my friend, then my friend’s cousin, and then my neighbor, followed by lots of female celebrities. In that year alone, I could tell more than twenty women I knew were married to foreign men.

One can argue that this is merely a consequence of the globalization. As industries as well as technology in Indonesia are growing, more and more natives make contact with foreigners. Numerous local celebrities, however, seem to find out that they get more publicity when they are married to a foreign man. Actress Ayu Azhari, for example, is dating White Lion front man, Mike Tramp after divorcing from her Fin husband.

So why do they marry white men? Because of money, prestige, love, or all combined? I would say the third was my reason, but I cannot speak on behalf of the others.

A more knotty point of view to track down the source of this phenomenon is perhaps from post-colonialism. As this theory suggests, a colony is put to the condition where it loses its original identity as the consequence of the colonization, and is forced to apply the colonizer’s identity. After being a Dutch colony for 350 years, I am not surprised to see Indonesian nowadays still think that everything comes from the West is better. To sum up, though I am totally aware that the case is not always true, most people there thinks that white means rich, prestigious, exotic, etc (believe me, they are all good things). If you are white with no talent, just come over to Indonesia and you could become actor, singer, or model. Just name it.

I agree that marriage is a sacred and private matter between the two persons, so it should not have been an issue. It is just interesting. The fact that the government is never being helpful does not seem to slow down the mixed couple; not to mention that inter-religious marriage is prohibited in Indonesia. Well, let us leave the reason behind the marriage to those who are involved, but we shall take a look at the bright side: it is a good model to show that difference does not always end up in fighting. With the temperature rising around the globe on the subject whether or not Muslim and Christian can get along together, I think it can answer to some points. Love conquered all, I said.

This has been originally posted here on February 16, 2005

February 9, 2005 is the first day of Chinese New Year. It is the most important holiday in Chinese calendar, which is celebrated around the world.

However, the exact time depends on where you are:
Because this is a new moon day, it is the first day of the first Chinese lunar month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar system. The new moon time is at 06:28 on 9-Feb-05 in China time zone. However, the new moon time is at 14:28 of 8-Feb-05 in the US Pacific Standard Time and also at 17:28 of 8-Feb-05 in the US Eastern Standard Time, so the Chinese New Year day is on February 8, 2005 for USA time zones.

The calendar, which is based on the cycles of the moon, associates each year with one of 12 animals whose personalities dictate the characteristics of each 12-month period. The rooster is the tenth in the zodiac sequence that starts with the rat, followed by the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and ending with the pig.

Superstitions or not, Chinese calendar does not only record the passage of time, but also provides a tool of fortune telling. The unique feature of such calendar is that all information about time - year, month, day and hour are presented in terms of the five basic elements - metal, water, wood, fire, and earth, which are believed to be the basic components of everything in the Universe.

This year of the Rooster is symbolized by two elements - with wood sitting on top of metal. According to the cycle of birth and destruction, which governs the inter-relationship between elements, metal will destroy wood. Therefore, wood sitting on its destroyer - metal, is a symbol of disharmony and this may lead to international conflicts.

If it is still not enough, the history of rooster years has proven to be bloody. It is marked with the Japan invasion to Korea in 1909; Hitler came to power in 1933; and the World War II which was ended in 1945 with the atomic bombing of Japan.
Chinese believe that prophecy is the repetition of history. Despite the communist teachings against superstitions, they cannot wipe away their beliefs.

To sum up, Chinese would do just about anything to avoid the jinx of the rooster year:
Women have sought to have babies in the Year of the Monkey (2004) in order to avoid bad luck in the upcoming Year of the Rooster. “Every hospital has seen 20 percent more pregnant women this year because the Monkey year is considered better,” said Han Tianjun, director of south China’s Guangzhou City Women and Children’s Hospital.

The nouveau riche are willing to pay heavily for the privilege of being the first to burn incense at temples for good luck, and fortune tellers report brisk business. Gao Jie, a businessman, paid 66,000 yuan (7,951 dollars) at a recent auction to be the first to light incense and pray at Beijing’s Tanze Temple on New Year’s Day.
The bad luck is presumably affected marriage as well. Many couples rushed to get married just a few days before the monkey year ended in order to avoid the rooster year which has earned its dubious definition as widow year. So far before the New Year, 18,000 local couples have registered for marriage, four to five times more than in past years, according to the marriage management division of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.
Yet, in Hongkong, people are more worried of the possibility that SARS and flu bird might return.

Anyhow, prophecy is not true until it’s happened. If you are still curious about your luck this year, you might want to try this one. Happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate it! Gong Xi Fat Choi!

This has been originally posted here on February 9, 2005

Feeling a bit stingy to spend your money on helping tsunami victims? Think again! You might never know whom you’d see from giving out the charity. If you missed Yusuf Islam or Ronan Keating, you can still hope for more to come:

Michael Learns to Rock World Tour Concert: a Tribute to Aceh and Sumut in Indonesia
February 1, 2005 in Bandung
February 2, 2005 in Jakarta
February 3, 2005 in Semarang
February 4, 2005 in Yogyakarta
February 5, 2005 in Surabaya
February 6, 2005 in Bali
Tickets:
- VIP IDR 250,000
- Festival IDR 200,000

February 3, 2005 MTV Asia Aid in Thailand

February 10, 2005 Sting in Australia

February 18, 2005 Bollywood Stars in Mumbai
February 19, 2005 Franz Ferdinand, Belle & Sebastian, Mull Historical Society, Mogwai, and Travis in Glasgow, Scotland

February 19, 2005 Massive Attack and Portishead in the UK

February 22, 2005 Rap for Relief NYC

This has been originally posted here on February 1, 2005

A. The Happy Early Days

Listening to boyband is a guilty pleasure. One might say it is a pleasure, the others might find it guilty, and the rest would say it is both. But whether we like it or not, boyband has become a part of the music growth. While literally the term means some boys who are committed in a band, nowadays it refers to a clean-cut vocal group of boys singing pop or R&B and targeted mostly to younger audience. It is in fact not a band for they do not really play instruments.

The form has actually existed quite some time ago; if you remember Bee Gees or Jackson Five. New Kids on the Block which was found in 1984 nevertheless was the first major group which really belonged to this category. In fact, although the term itself was made popular far after this group split, the latter boybands adapted the form from them with their typical easy listened songs and choreography which can make the audience every so often ignorant about the quality of their live singing.

I am certain we all know about the fact I have just mentioned. However, let us see this matter from different point of view. In any case, New Kids was absolutely harmless compared to the successors, such as Backstreet Boys, *NSync, or Blue. Unlike those which fairly seem to expose more sexuality, New Kids were more consistent about their choice in targeting adolescents. Their songs, which were written by themselves, were mostly quite clean. You could hardly find even a kiss on their videos. In worse case, no other boyband could top the Forbes magazine’s richest entertainers list. These kids from Boston did take the place from comedian Bill Cosby back in 1991.

Following the success, in early nineties, a counterpart was born in the UK. And that was when boybands changed their appearance in the name of Take That. These boys, including major song writer Gary Barlow and the infamous Robbie Williams, pictured boyband in a more mature way, whether it was in the musical sense or their performance. They still had the classic boyish look, but they covered it with more sensual choreographies. Gary Barlow did write several brilliant tracks though, including “Pray” and “Back for Good”. I don’t know if they were known in the US, but they surely were in Europe and Asia.

And so, the boyband era was begun. They emerged not only from the US and UK, but all over the world; from big names such as Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, *NSync, 98 Degrees, Blue and Westlife to Human Nature, Caught In The Act, 5ive, Worlds Apart, O-Town, Plus One. To put it into addition, there has been F4 fever all across Asia within the last two year.

B. The Conflicts Within

Of course, a boy band cannot last forever. When the boy grows up, the band is practically finished. As kids’ role models at that time, particularly for New Kids’ , maintaining clean image was important: no alcohol, no drugs, no smoking. It was not easy, at least for bad boy Donnie Wahlberg who was arrested on an arson charge after setting fire to a hotel carpet in Louisville, KY using a bottle of vodka. The issue was a major turning point for the kids, I think. When they put their last effort on Face the Music, shortened the name into NKOTB and sang some sexual song like “Let’s Play House” to change their image from teen idols to mature musicians, it was too late.

Take That then faced the same circumstances. Wahlberg’s role was over taken by Robbie Williams. The difference is that, unlike Wahlberg who stayed in the group until the fans left them, Williams chose to leave. It was followed by the group’s splitting up shortly after.

The next generation learned from their previous associates. Nowadays, boybands showed more sensuality as well as sexuality. Whether it is good or bad, it depends on their market. But considering that they sing for teenagers, who are under aged, I suppose it is not good. Yet we cannot deny that fans’ attitude has also changed. When earlier bad attitude was not tolerated, nowadays it is the opposite. The worse the idols act, the cooler they would be in the fans’ eyes. Robbie Williams’ nonstop unkind remarks on ex partner Gary Barlow had put him into outer atmosphere that even Take That could not reach, and left Barlow far behind. Several more incidents occured relating to those teen idols, such as when Backstreet Boy Nick Carter was arrested after an incident at a Florida Nightclub, or in the “Justin-Britney” case which would not be a good model for kids.

The good thing is maybe that fans are becoming more grown-up, and they worship their idols differently. It is an advantage for those boybands, since they can act more freely without being afraid that they might be losing some fans. In contrast, it can be a bad news for parents, since most of those folks cannot control themselves. Frankly, I would be a little bit worried if my 10 year old daughter were to fancy today’s boybands. I surely would not want her (when I will have one) to stumble across news about her idol being given an oral sex by a striptease dancer on his bachelor party while his fiancée was expecting a baby, like what Bryan McFadden did.

McFadden, who recently changed his name into Brian instead of Bryan, walked out on Westlife last year. It is no secret that boybands are not the most talented musicians. Usually you can find one outstanding figure in a band who sings most (and McFadden was not that one), but that is all. To be honest he used to be my favorite among those Irish lads, but his action of stepping out of the group and dissed it on his solo record was a sign of immaturity. It was simply another pattern of Robbie Williams’ case. He had taken the advantage from Westlife making him popular. After he could get nothing else, he had enough of it and thought that solo rock record would perhaps fit more into his personality: an attempt which was failed by ones like Mark Owen and Nick Carter. No doubt Williams is a success and there is nothing wrong if McFadden wanted to reach something better than he was holding.

Westlife, on the other hand, is possibly the biggest group left in the legacy, apart from the fact that I have met these guys twice over press conference before their concerts in Jakarta and I did not find them nice. Fifty percent of their songs are cover versions of other artists and the rest are written by other people. Yet, they can sing well (not dance though). By singing mostly ballads, the band is practically the representation of a pure boyband. They broke their own record on Guinness Book of Records by scoring six consecutive number 1 hits on the UK chart. We will still have to wait whether McFadden can make it alone, but honestly his first single “Real to Me” does not sound too. Decent may be the right word, but I would not use the term impressive.

Talking about loyalty to boyband world, Jordan Knight is a perfect example. Listen to his New Kinds on the Block: The Remix Album. I know some people would force me to get back to 2005 for suggesting this stuff. But as I say before, New Kids are harmless. It might sound a little awkward to hear a 35 year old man to sing: “Step by step, ooh baby you’re always on my mind, step by step ooh girl I really think it’s just a matter of time…” But hey, I think the new arrangement is not so bad. Download the free sample from here and I would like to hear what you think. In my opinion it is as good as the real version, if not even better.

C. The Folks: Now

When the boyband era was over in the new millennium, it left question to many girls, and probably some guys who were no longer able to criticize them. What could have happened to the ex boyband members? There were plenty of them; surely it could not leave them all jobless!

Well, most of them went on solo career; the ones such as Robbie Williams, Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, and Brian McFadden, although not all succeeded. Some focused on song writing, like Gary Barlow who is now collaborating with major British musicians. Acting seems to be an alternative for them also. Donnie Wahlberg tried his luck by playing a minor character on Bruce Willis’ Six Sense. Not as successful as kid brother Mark, he did gain some recognition for his performance as Lipton on Band of Brothers. Lance Bass of *NSync had also played in several movies. The ex-98 Degrees lead vocal, Nick Lachey keeps his place on spotlight (or even more?) after marrying the pop princess Jessica Simpson and have their reality show Newly Weds.

That was it. Many things had been going on within the world of boyband which looked rather grey than black or white. Unlike in fairy tale, the good did not always win and the bad were not always bad. Anyhow, the trend seems to be slowing down now, and unlikely to boom again soon. However, I hope when it go on again, they would watch out their attitude more carefully if they still targeted to young audience.

This has been originally posted here on January 27, 2005

A. Introduction
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of A Girlhood among Ghosts is the first work of Maxine Hong Kingston in 1976, which makes her as one among the eligible feminist authors in the USA nowadays. The National Chiao-Tung University in Taiwan even praises this book as the most wanted book of the decade after winning the best fiction award at the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award. Along with the sophomore work, China Men, this book has become a must read subject for students of literature, women’s studies, sociology, ethnic study, and the history in the USA (cc.nctu.edu.tw 1996).

Although being labeled as a memoir, The Woman Warrior is more than a pure autobiography. The story is set from her mother’s experience, a Chinese woman who migrated to the USA in 1939. Added by her own understanding and thoughts, the works turns to be a mixture between fact and fiction about American and Chinese culture.

It is told in the first person point of view that Kingston is a Chinese-American daughter who was born in Stockton, California, and raised with the Chinese customs brought from her mother, Brave Orchid. Understandably, life has been uneasy for her. Being female member in a Chinese family which lives in a ghost land (referred to the USA), she encounters many difficulties in finding her true-self during adolescence.

To illustrate the problem, we may draw a line to join the Chinese and American backgrounds of the author. Apparently she emphasizes in adapting more of the American customs that she faces more problems in dealing with her mother’s frame of mind, particularly in the term of feminism. Throughout her writing, she condemns Chinese culture in some level for being misogyny and patriarch, which then arouses protests, since she has never even seen her country of origin until years later after the book has been published.

In any case, it is difficult to separate the essence of the story with Chinese culture, since American feminism is different than Chinese. According to Cora Kaplan in A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory, the western feminist critics nowadays have realized the importance of understanding a text in its relation with its own culture. As an example, we can see Kristeva’s book About Chinese Women, in which she had already been able to analyze the third world context without attributing it to international feminism. (Selden 230)

B. Analysis
The Woman Warrior, as said by Michael T. Malloy, displays the same subject as other works by most mainstream feminists in the USA. It is about “mother-daughter” genre. However, here we can see how Kingston formed her mother’s story on superstitious Chinese customs and culture, which happened to be very different from her views, to deliver her messages.

Her main purpose in The Woman Warrior seems to be telling the inequality received by Chinese women, in particular as what she has experienced within her own family or as she hears it from her mother. To her, the revelation of the facts to the world is a means of vengeance. Here is when she as the narrator opens up herself in account of her relationship with her mother and extended family.

The story begins with “No Name woman”, a narrative about a nameless aunt. This aunt, being the only sister of Kingston’s father, is with a child while her husband has been long gone to the USA. She finally commits suicide along with the infant after the villagers raid their house; on the night when the baby is born. Brave Orchid tells this stigma to young Kingston, on the day she is having her first menstruation, in hoping that she would never disgrace her family as what her aunt has done. In this matter, both mother and daughter have given up the Chinese tradition. Brave Orchid, who had avows not to share the secret to anyone, in fact opens it to her daughter on purpose that she would learn from the mistake. On the other hand, Kingston tells the long time buried secret to her readers, which would almost be an outlaw, for it is forbidden to even mention her name. Her father, as a perfect example, has never admitted that he had a sister.

Kingston herself values the path she takes as a rejection toward Chinese patriarchal policies, and also general discrimination. As a woman who was born and raised in the USA, she has tried to seek a more reasonable justification to her aunt’s pregnancy which ended with her death. To Kingston, her aunt could have been an innocent victim of gender discrimination, or there was another possibility that she flirted with another man. Although, given the time and situation, the latter was almost impossible. For that reason, she dislikes the family solution which preferred to see her aunt died and forgot what happened. Kingston viewes this case as discrimination. Her aunt had to suffer for a mistake which was not only hers. The man who impregnated her, on the contrary, was never known and he would never need to worry to be uncovered.

In the second chapter, “White Tigers”, Kingston recounts her own version on the legend of Fa Mu Lan, an infamous Chinese female warrior. This time, Fa Mu Lan kills her misogynist enemy who is very much feared on her village, and afterward choose to return to her family as a wife, daughter in law, and mother. She, as a warrior, has the options to choose, which is rarely happened to Chinese women at that time.

Like in “No Name Woman”, Kingston hears this story from her mother. A woman, as Brave Orchid has said, is always destined to be wife or slave in the end; the two choices which are not fancied by the American minded Kingston. She is certain that her mother never actually likes to see that her daughter to be one of them either. Why else would she tell the story of Fa Mu Lan? To put matters more complicated, Brave Orchid frequently repeats the story about Chinese custom to tie their daughters’ feet, and how Kingston is fortunate for not having to experience it. One thing noted from Brave Orchid, despite her aptitude in sharing stories, she never provides her stories with explanation. That is perhaps Chinese way to educate the children by interpreting the messages by themselves. Yet, Kingston is different. Brave Orchid is unaware that Kingston with her American background might not grasp her real purposes, as the stories are often full of metaphors adapted from Chinese custom. For this reason, Kingston regularly makes her own interpretations which even parts her way of thinking to her mother’s more. On this particular case, for instance, she thinks that Chinese men fears the women that it is necessary for them to tie the women’s feet.

The third story, “Shaman” is about Brave Orchid’s struggle in finding her own self. When she is young, she learns in a medical school in Canton. She was the smartest and bravest student. She even tells her story when she has to face the sitting ghost, possibly a sign referred to symbolization of traditional limitation in China at that time.

She is a feminist, seen from Chinese point of view. As it is not easy for a married woman like her to get higher education, she chooses to continue her study instead of serving her husband’s parents after he sails to the USA. She then gains outstanding grades as medical doctor.

After fifteen years living separated, she then rejoins her husband to the USA and builds their family there. She changes her image from a professional Chinese doctor to be a laundry woman, household servant and even tomatoes picker. She does quite everything to help her husband. As a good mother, she tries to make her children grow to be good people. That is a practical feminism to her. She raises her children with her stories, in hoping that they would learn from them. She is in many ways different from Kingston, for Kingston is an American girl who is free to speak her mind. Brave Orchid occasionally threatens to spank her when she would not stop crying and calls her bad girl. And she would reply that she is not a bad girl. In fact, she wants to claim in her heart that she is not at all a girl. In this case, she reflects a rejection toward Chinese sexism. She sees that badness in Chinese is connected to female. Thus, she refuses the label. She explaines about misogyny on Chinese culture as “when you have a daughter, you raise her to be given to other”. In the end, when she grows up, she changes her opinion to fulfill American standard of feminism. Yet, she still bears similarities to her mother, as she claimes: “I am a Dragon, as she is a Dragon, both of us born in Dragon years. I am practically a first daughter of a first daughter” (109).

Another conflict on the concepts of feminism, however, occurs in “At the Western Palace”, when Brave Orchid helps her sister “Moon Orchid” to confront her husband who has been living in the USA and remarries. While being accustomed to Chinese culture which allow men to marry more than once, Brave Orchid insistsd not to accept the custom in her own way:
“Brave Orchid tellsd her children they must help her keep their father from marrying another woman because she doesn’t think she could take it any better than her insane sister has. If he bring another woman into the house, they are to gang up on her and play tricks on her, hit her and trip her when she is carrying hot oil until she ran away” (160).

Although the idea of getting rid of the other woman may always be logical, it proves that a different culture background offers different outcome. Kingston, who agrees with her mother in the case of monogamy, is aware about the difference conceptions between their views on feminism. Yet, she respects her mother’s aspirations which has helped her in growing up. To explain her opinion on it, she writes in “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, “The beginning is hers, the ending, mine.” She means to convey that she lives in a different time and place than her mother. She believes in different customs, and she has the right over them. So, she completes her revenge to patriarchal domination on Chinese culture by revealing all about her life.

C. Conclusion
In criticizing Chinese culture, Kingston is influenced by American culture. In some level she could only see the dark side of her own ancestor’s custom. She thinks that her mother, as well as other Chinese women, will not be free as long as they stayed in China. In fact, she only interprets her mother’s subjective stories, and had never seen the country herself. Therefore, her statement in claiming her personal rebellion to her mother’s stories as a vengeance against general sexism in China is a misconception. The memoir is rather a means of correcting her life, existing what did not really exist.

As for the concept of feminism, it is different in China and the USA, and also in other places. Even though it might be based on the same idea, a further understanding on the background of the society is needed for a thorough analysis. Brave Orchid is probably a Chinese feminist in China as well as Kingston is an American feminist in the USA, and may be not be the other way around. Culture exists because it is practiced by its society. Thus, Brave Orchid’s Chinese values did not fit the social order in the USA. It is exactly the same case such as when critics in China disapprove of the way Kingston has described Chinese culture in The Woman Warrior. In a way, one cannot escape the hegemony of their society.

WORKS CITED

Feng, Pin-Chia. Maxine Hong Kingston (27 October 1940-). (1996) 1 Juli 2002. <http://www.cc.nctu.edu.tw/%7Epcfeng/CALF/ch1.htm>

Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of A Girlhood among Ghosts. New York: 1976. Vintage International.

Soderstorm, Christina K. Women Writers of Color Maxine Hong Kingston. (1996. 1 Juli 2002) <http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/MaxineHongKingston.html>

This has been previously posted here on January 18, 2005

When we talk about pop culture, trend among peers might be the first thing come to mind for there is no restricted field. The statement, however, proved that in fact trend is the restriction within the range. Anyway, it is called as pop culture because it is massively liked, isn’t it?

It has, therefore, created its own icons, which apparently have to be those good-looking mainstream artists. One to be noted first is perhaps Britney Spears. She provoked controversy when she_revolutionary_changed her image from a teen school girl to a sexy-nearly-vulgar woman (Compare her performance on “Baby One More Time” and “Slave for You”).

Regardless of the condemnations, her fellow-female singers seemed to somewhat picture her as a trend setter. Several, if not many, followed her marketing strategy with most used similar basis to justify themselves: they had grown up, and they wanted to show the real person they always were. Some stated it explicitly, like Christina Aguilera (watch her performance on “Reflection” and “Dirrty”), and some rather saved the nice image she carried while exposing most of her body, like Beyonce Knowles (compare “Independent Woman” and “Baby Boy”) or Christina Milian (”AM to PM” and “Dip It Low”). What is hilarious is that the tendency is not only adapted by those of early twenties, but their predecessors as well; Mariah Carey (note the difference between “Without You” and “Loverboy”) and Kylie Minogue (”I Should be So Lucky” and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”) are on the list.

If any, the most observable fact of the self-transformation seems to lay on their nakedness. It never increases their vocal quality (for they even sing less). But their business range is overlapped from singing and dancing to acting and modeling, which in turn increases their fame. Losing some fans (those who fancied their old image) to gain more is the purpose. Those who had been unheard for some time might want to try to push back their popularity using this. Remember Janet Jackson’s nipplegate before her album “Damita Joe” was released.

Naturally we cannot desert the other edge of the issue. To picture the world view, female singers today seem to have been polarized to be pro and anti Britney style. Among the opposition, Avril is maybe the most outstanding figure; followed by others like Fefe Dobson, Ashlee Simpson, and those teen girls who claim themselves to be alternative rock musicians and refused to let their clothes slipped off of their body. Being so young, fresh, and ideological, they probably deserve a high five for standing on what they believe in. But it does not help the situation, does it? We surely cannot miss the similarity between Ashlee’s “Pieces of Me” to Avril’s “Complicated”. As a matter of fact, it is means of creating a trend-setter on another genre. There is nothing wrong for being trend setter of course; but these latter girls, whether they realize or not, wear their uniform. It is different from Britney’s, but what can be not identical on uniforms? In short, in ceasing to be homogenous, they cannot escape their own monotonicity. Oh well, at least they tried.

This has been originally posted here on January 11, 2005

Many seem to have happened to Eminem after “The Eminem Show”. He might still show up on TV as much. Watch MTV every weekend, and you will find Eminem weekend, Shady family weekend, hip hop weekend, which are mostly talking about the same person: him.

He, in fact, is still the best known rapper in the whole world nowadays and young schoolgirls worship him more than N Sync. However, listen to “Encore” and be prepared to be shocked! This album, being the politest among his records, is also presumably the weakest. First of all, we might miss a central theme which is to be found in each of his previous albums. In “Encore”, instead, Mathers spread unfocused issues and put up some jokes which made the work silly rather than hilarious.

The track “Evil Deeds” with its similar beat to the hit “Lose Yourself” is simply the continuation of his longtime problems, in comparison that this one is not as heartily. A few tracks are still centering on ex wife, Kim. One of them, “Puke”, has in fact a very catchy tune, but Mathers seems to lose his remarkable touch in depicting his feelings while singing it; not to mention the vomit sound along the track, which is quite disturbing. Another track, “Crazy in Love” with a sample from “Crazy on You” by Heart was a failure compared to “Stan”, with sample from Dido’s “Thank You”.

What can be a good idea is to include Martika on “Like Toy Soldiers”. While the central idea of the song is simple, about his complicated life and quarrel with others, the military drum beat helps to build the image. It is definitely better than the first single, “Just Lose It”, when he played as slapstick comedian and mocking Michael Jackson with his nose fell off.

“Mosh”, which was expected to explode more controversy, didn’t work well except for the amazing lyric noted by critics. Other tracks have various themes and repeatedly mention American pop culture icons, such as Jessica Simpson and her husband Nick Lachey, the Olsen twins, and JoJo; which didn’t fit Slim Shady’s characterization.

To sum up with, the album is immature. It seems like Mathers had run out of controversy, which made him tried to bring up any issues he could get. The result, thus, is that he sounds unenthusiastic of what he was doing. It might be a decent album for a first time rapper, but for Eminem? I would say I expected more.
Anyhow, this is the continuation of my thesis. I hope you can find something useful.

chapter 2

chapter 3

chapter 4

chapter 5

lyrics

works cited

This has been originally posted here on january 8,2005

For the last two years, I’ve been suppressing disappointment concerning Eminem. Yes, THE EMINEM! Of course, it was none of his fault! (I don’t even know him personally)

The story goes like this:
I analyzed his “The Slim Shady LP” for my thesis. It was absolutely one of the greatest works I have ever known (I mean the album, not the thesis), if it weren’t too much to say. It took two semesters for me to finish it, then I got a straight A, and graduated with err… not so bad GPA, let’s say so.

Still, soon after, I got very embarrassed everytime I started to re-read my thesis. I found several things which could only be done by amateurs. I think I should apologize to my lecturers. I still wonder though; how did I pass my exam?

So, to chuck out my disappointment, shame, or whatever it was, I revised my thesis and post it here. I haven’t finished yet, but hopefully I will soon. Here are the first parts:

cover and acknowledments

table of contents

abstract

abstract (Indonesian)

Chapter I

This has been originally posted here on january 6, 2005

Click on the picture for full-color version

The year of 2004 is over, leaving a trace of mess on what I call as homeland: where the sun always shines.
More than 94,000 lives have been taken over a horrific tsunami tragedy in western part of Sumatra. Thousands have been made orphan and homeless with nothing to hold, except perhaps some nameless graves.
The sun may keep on shining, but it is no longer enough.
Do you care?

This has been originally posted here on January 5, 2005

While we constantly hope that things would turn as we expected, they could still go wrong. I realized this today when I checked my good old blog

No doubt, many have happened since I started it last January, with a hope that I could find my own tranquil sanctuary—away from the maze of the world. Sadly Blogger seems to have disliked the idea. With no possibility to put on categories, my old good blog has been losing its original purpose. That’s when I decided to start a new beginning. Be prepared though; everything won’t be the same—just better, I hope. You can always find the old and new stuff here, and pray nobody will ever get lost again now that we have the handy categories.

So, folks, this is the new Searching for Utopia. Still haven’t found what we’re looking for, but we may be on the right track. How else we’d know until we try, I say. Thank you for coming, and please enjoy your stay!