Searching for Utopia

The semiotician cum novelist Umberto Eco is among those authors who are able to elaborate a simple idea into a most challenging work. His latest novel, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, is the proof. He brings magic which into the story which otherwise has a rather dull plotline. While the word dull may be too harsh for someone of Eco’s caliber, this is most likely be the first impression upon reading it.

Sixty-year-old Yambo suffers from retrograde amnesia after an accident. He cannot remember his wife, family, his life and even his own name. Yet he has not forgotten every book he has ever read. Having a life dedicated to books, the antiquarian book dealer believes that he could only rely on his childhood readings in order to retrieve his memory. For the sole purpose, he withdrew to his family home which he had been avoiding.

In his sanctum, he finds boxes of manuscripts of high and low culture, newspapers, records, and his old schoolbooks which he then rereads. By reaching this part, other characters have ceased to exist. There is only Yambo—accompanied by the stories published in war-time Italy: Mussolini, Queen Loana and Josephine Baker.

He relearns about what he calls as the schizophrenia of education under fascist propaganda. As an addition to school, boys were recruited into Balilla, the fascist youth organization. They were trained to defend their nation, even if it meant to have their life taken. Yet even the fascist media could not bar the temptation of western readings; and that makes children also read American comics and books as well as listened to American songs. To bridge the gap, the foreign stories were then naturalized. Heroes must be Italian. Mickey Mouse was called Topolino and Buffalo Bill’s real name was Domenico Tombini from Romagna—the region where Mussolini was born.

This is when Eco’s magic is at work. While Yambo single-handedly fought to find his past through the pages, his mind adventure is not at all a bore. Readers would find themselves captivated by how his readings had influenced him in a way that life had never been the same again. He had his views changed about his conscience, way of life and women. We can certainly relate to similar issues as a whole. Aren’t we all influenced by what we read, hear, or see?

Eco has effortlessly captured the moments. It is without doubt because he grew up with the same readings as Yambo’s. The experience gave him the advantage of knowing his subject. However, it may as well be a drawback. Some readers would find the story to be difficult to follow because not everyone knows the subject as intimately as Eco. It requires further reading to understand the whole references mentioned. And since most of them are in Italian, it can be a daunting task. But this is not Eco’s first novel in which he uses the style. The best-selling The Name of the Rose was also dubbed difficult for the many Latin quotations. Eco’s storytelling is loved for that and there is no reason that his presumably last novel does not deserve the same appreciation.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional universe, Middle-earth, has indisputably become an inspiration to many; including readers, scholars, and even other authors. Since then the fantasy genre has gained vast recognition, adaptations were produced and the realm has become a highly-sought subject for researchers around the world. All came from four remarkable works: “The Silmarillion”, “The Adventure of Tom Bombadil”, “The Hobbit”, and “The Lord of the Rings”.

David Day is one author who deems it is necessary to celebrate the brilliance of the Middle-earth. In “Characters from Tolkien” he arranges a captivating study on all the creatures: flora and fauna, the spirit and the mortals. It is an A-Z guide to Middle-earth and The Undying Lands from the creation of the world to the fourth age of sun. If imagination is not enough, it is also supported with illustrations, a map, chronologies of all the ages, and an index to relate to the Tolkien’s works included. The author has done a good job; considering that it is not plain easy to construct an encyclopedia derives from tales. Indeed, literary codes always hinder; making it more difficult for one to grasp an author’s original intention in writing his work.

To write an encyclopedia, however, does not seem to be Day’s purpose. The title changing from “A Tolkien Bestiary” to “Characters from Tolkien” may explain that. While this book gives guides to explore Middle-earth; the author adorns it with acceptable thoughts of his own. As the consequence, some of his elaborations did not exactly correspond with those of Tolkien’s. However that does not necessarily mean that the book is not worth to read. On the account of Telcontar, for instance, the author explained that this term is the Quenyan translation for ‘Strider’—that is King Elessar’s name during the war of the ring in the third age of sun. He then chose this as the name of his House. It led his descendants to call themselves as Telcontari. The term telcontari has in fact never appeared in any of the Tolkien’s works above. Surprisingly, most people agree that it would be the correct plural form of telcontar; and it is repeatedly mentioned in other encyclopedias. There are a few other minor inaccuracies which possibly escape from reader’s attention, unless s/he has read Tolkien’s books more than once to remember the smallest details.

It all then depends on one’s intention in reading. For a technical research, there is definitely no better source than the original work. This book is practical, if used side by side with Tolkien’s. Yet as an entertainment, it serves the purpose very well. It is more like the author’s simplified version of Tolkien’s Middle-earth; yet not less beautiful. There would be more accurate encyclopedic guides to Middle-earth in the future, but this one will always be the first. The reputation speaks for itself as it has had many title changes as well as been reprinted since it was first published in 1978.

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 have been simply a 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” took 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 was a simple hobbit who dwelt contently in his nice little hole in Hobbiton. When it is widely known that elf was truly a good race; goblin was the bad race; and human was something in between; it was then arousing curiosity why Tolkien would set a hobbit as the major character instead of others. Although they shared elves’ passion for food and poetry, they looked nothing like the beautiful folk. They had curly brown hair and height varied between three to four feet; a little shorter than dwarves with no skill for fighting. Their morality was similar to human; which was commonly good but there were also irritating kinds such as the Sackville-Bagginses. Although they had sharp seeing and could sneak well despite of their plump body, they lacked of adventurous temperament. They spent their life in the Shire without meddling into outer world affairs.

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

Dwarves always had a lust for fortune. But these dwarves, unfortunately, had lost their kingdom in the Lonely Mountain after Smaug the dragon destroyed it and slaughtered each one inside. It also had the all remaining treasure of the dwarves with itself, which they now longed to retake. Gandalf then insisted them to hire Bilbo as a burglar to help them. Poor Bilbo; he had never thought of living his nice little burrow for an adventure; one thing he had no idea what it was like. But his pride was conquered his hesitation when the dwarves began to distrust his skill as a thief. So he accepted the quest with the reward 1/14 of total profits, and hoped that Gandalf’s words that “he had something more than meets the eye” were correct.

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 was 51 years old when he started 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 was an ordinary rich hobbit who enjoyed food and poetry; and then later he grew to be a brave thief as he was dragged to be, while keeping his common sense and idea of bad and good. He was a classic kind of hero on children literature. He was far from perfect, as he was no good in fighting, but he had possessed other skills to prove himself to be worthy in the end.

4. Are plot-oriented (fewer descriptions and ruminations)
Although being provided with thorough descriptions (not necessarily ruminations), this work is plot-oriented enough. Tolkien continuously followed Bilbo’s journey and neglected 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 disliked 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 was described in how the characters’ were dressed, or how they gave name to their weapon, which had 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 began the adventure by being sort of a burden for the others, not to mention endangering their life. Yet he never gave 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 was; a sudden hero with the help of the magic ring.

Of course luck cannot teach enough lessons for children to learn. Bilbo’s adventure had 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 kept his feet on the ground. He gave up his part of the treasure to be given to the human, without betraying his dwarf friends.

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

7. Have children as protagonist
Although Bilbo was small, he was 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

A. Introduction
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of A Girlhood among Ghosts was the first work of Maxine Hong Kingston in 1976, which made her one among the eligible feminist authors in the USA nowadays. The National Chiao-Tung University in Taiwan even praised 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 given labeled as a memoir, The Woman Warrior is more than a pure autobiography. The story was set up from her mother’s experience, a Chinese woman who migrated to the USA in 1939. Added by her own understanding and thoughts, Kingston then wrote the book which turns to be a mixture between fact and fiction about American and Chinese culture.

It was told in the first person point of view, Kingston is a Chinese-American daughter who was born in Stockton, California, and raised with the Chinese customs brought from her mother, Brave Orchid. Life was uneasy for her. Being female in a Chinese family which lived in a ghost land (referred to the USA) had caused a lot of troubles 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 emphasized in adapting more of the American customs that she faced more problems in dealing with her mother’s frame of mind, particularly in the term of feminism. Along her writing, she condemned Chinese culture in some level for being misogyny and patriarch, which then aroused protests, since she had never even seen her country of origin until years later after the book was 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 had experienced within her own family or as she heard it from her mother. To her, the revelation of the facts to the world is a means of vengeance. Here was when she as the narrator opened 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, was with child while her husband had been long gone to the USA. She finally committed suicide along with the infant after the villagers raided their house, on the night when the baby was born. Brave Orchid told this stigma to young Kingston, on the day she was having her first menstruation, in hoping that she would never disgrace her family as what her aunt did. In this matter, both mother and daughter had given up the Chinese tradition. Brave Orchid, who had avowed not to share the secret to anyone, in fact opened it to her daughter on purpose that she would learn from the mistake. On the other hand, Kingston told the long time buried secret to her readers, which would almost be an outlaw, for at that time it was forbidden to even mention her name. Her father, as a perfect example, had never admitted that he had a sister.

Kingston herself valued the path she had taken to be a rejection toward Chinese patriarchal policies, and also general discrimination. As a woman who was born and raised in the USA, she 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 disliked the family solution which preferred to see her aunt died and forgot what happened. Kingston viewed 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 recounted her own version on the legend of Fa Mu Lan, an infamous Chinese female warrior. This time, Fa Mu Lan killed her misogynist enemy who was very much feared on her village, and afterward chose to return to her family as a wife, daughter in law, and mother. She, as a warrior, had the options to choose, which was rarely happened to Chinese women at that time.

Like in “No Name Woman”, Kingston heard this story from her mother. A woman, as Brave Orchid said, is always destined to be wife or slave in the end; the two choices which were not fancied by the American minded Kingston. She was certain that her mother never actually liked 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, even so, Brave Orchid frequently repeated the story about Chinese custom to tie their daughters’ feet, and how Kingston was fortunate for not having to experience it. One thing noted from Brave Orchid, despite her aptitude in sharing stories, she never provided her stories with explanation. That is perhaps Chinese way to educate the children by interpreting the messages by themselves. Yet, Kingston was different. Brave Orchid was unaware that Kingston with her American background might not grasp her real purposes, as the stories were often full of metaphors adapted from Chinese custom. For this reason, Kingston regularly made her own interpretations which even parted her way of thinking to her mother’s. On this particular case, for instance, she thought that Chinese men feared the women that it was 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 was young, she learned in a medical school in Canton. She was the smartest and bravest student. She even told her story when she had to face the sitting ghost, possibly a sign referred to symbolization of traditional limitation in China at that time.

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

After fifteen years living separated, she then rejoined her husband to the USA and built their family there. She changed her image from a professional Chinese doctor to be a laundry woman, household servant and even tomatoes picker. She did quite everything to help her husband. As a good mother, she tried to make her children grow to be good people. That is a practical feminism to her. She raised her children with her stories, in hoping that they would learn from them. She was in many ways different from Kingston for Kingston was an American girl who was free to speak her mind and cried out loud. Brave Orchid occasionally threatened to spank her when she did not stop crying and called her bad girl. And she would reply that she was not a bad girl. In fact, she wanted to claim in her heart that she was not at all a girl. In this case, she reflected a rejection toward Chinese sexism. She saw that badness in Chinese is connected to female. Thus, she refused the label. She explained about misogyny on Chinese culture as “when you have a daughter, you raise her to be given to other”. In the end, when she grew up, she changed her opinion to fulfill American standard of feminism. Yet, she still bears similarities to her mother, as she claimed: “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 helped her sister “Moon Orchid” to confront her husband who had been living in the USA and remarried. While being accustomed to Chinese culture which allowed men to marry more than once, Brave Orchid insisted not to accept the custom in her own way:
“Brave Orchid told her children they must help her keep their father from marrying another woman because she didn’t think she could take it any better than her sister had (who had gone insane). If he brought another woman into the house, they were to gang up on her and play tricks on her, hit her and trip her when she was 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 agreed with her mother in the case of monogamy, was all the time alerted over the difference conceptions between their views on feminism. Yet, she respected her mother’s aspirations which helped her in growing up. To explain her opinion on it, she wrote in “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”, “The beginning is hers, the ending, mine.” She meant to convey that she lived in a different time and place than her mother. She believed in different customs, and she had the right over them. So, she completed her revenge to patriarchal domination on Chinese culture by revealing all about her life.

C. Conclusion
In criticizing Chinese culture, Kingston was 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 interpreted 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 was probably a Chinese feminist in China as well as Kingston was 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 disapproved of the way Kingston 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

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