Books That Inspire You

How lucky am I. Since young, my parents already forced me to read many books, newspapers, and magazines. Although those books were written in Indonesian language, but still many of them inspire me until now.

No doubt, we spent lots of times during our childhood by reading comics. A lot of us read Doraemon, Detective Conan, Kobo Chan, or many others. For me, I was so inspired by comic written by Herge, a Belgian author. I would say it's not a comic, but a graphic novel. The series called The Adventure of Tintin. I read it first time, the Indonesian version of The Secret of Unicorn. Ah, all the adventures done by Tintin, Captain Haddock, Snowy, until Professor Calculus blew me away. Last time, I had a dream to follow their journeys to the moon, Tibet, or even Peru. Brilliant story!
I even wanted to have the same hairstyle as Tintin, although I failed to do that since my hair was too short. How's about your childhood hero?

I kept my Tintin books aside, then. My father introduced me to a lot of new books, especially Indonesian literature books. I started to read short stories from Kompas Newspaper, author like Seno Gumira Ajidarma, Sapardi Joko Damono, and many others. Their short stories are amazing, and I still remember exactly the story of Pelajaran Mengarang (Composition Writing from Seno Gumira Ajidarma, where a student asked to compose story about her daily life and encountered a problem when the title of the story was 'Mother'. The student experienced a problem to write and to explain, as her mother was a prostitute. That story, was incredible.

After that, I introduced to 'more heavy books' by my father and touched the books of Indonesian great author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer. He was the first Indonesian man and author to be nominated of Nobel Prize. I read his first book of short stories, entitled Cerita dari Blora (Stories from Blora. Almost all of his stories based on Netherlands occupation, but he wrote the story very well. For me, he is the greatest Indonesian author. You must read his writings. Especially, the famous one, four books of Tetralogi Buru (Buru Quartet which consists of Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), Anak Semua Bangsa (Child of All Nations, Jejak Langkah (Footsteps), and Rumah Kaca (House of Glass). In addition, also read fantastic writing from him, which is Panggil Aku Kartini Saja (Just Call Me Kartini). No wonder, those books propelled him to Nobel Nomination, the highest award for many scientists, authors, and economists.

Cover of 'Anak Semua Bangsa (Child of All Nations)' by Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

My father also mentioned foreign authors, like John Steinbeck for instance. I could not read the Indonesian version of his books, because I am pursuing my study in Singapore. However, I can read the English version of his books. Steinbeck, an American writer, was a Nobel laurate and Pulitzer-winner. So far, I already read two of his books and both of them were beatifully-written. First book I read, was The Cup of Gold, a story about a pirate. The second book I read, which made Steinbeck to receive the award from Nobel, was The Grapes of Wrath. The story was about how miserable the family can be after landlord system and discriminating Okies (Oklahoma people). If you want to read this book in Indonesian, search for the title Amarah. I would say, Steinbeck is my favourite author so far. His writing was so pessimsitic yet realistic, contain anger but controlled, and explain the situation exceptionally well. This literature book, was really amazing and inspire me in a lot of ways.

John Steinbeck, an American author

Currently, I am reading the book from another Nobel laurate from Turkey, Orhan Pamuk. The title of the book is My Name Is Red (the Turkish version : Benim Adım Kırmızı ). So far, the story is excellent. And what amazed me, Orhan Pamuk used lots of narrator in this book. He used dog, many characters, even coins to 'talk' in this book. If you read it, then you will understand.

It's good to read many literature books. Although it's quite difficult to understand, but there is an art in it. Once you can interpret it very well, then you know how beautiful the book is. And no doubt, it can inspire you.

So, what books that inspire you? :)

Further readings
Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_is_Red

Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Buru Quartet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Earth_of_Mankind

John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapes_of_wrath

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I want to be D'Masiv (?!)

It's a good morning for me, after knowing that Liverpool beat Fulham 1-0 and managed to overtake Manchester United, at least for 24 hours, in Premier League table. As usual, I spent my time to read Kompas newspaper (online edition, of course). There was a article titled "Seperti D'Masiv, Itu Sudah!". Interested with this title, I went through the article and left astonished.

So what's the article all about?
It was about band competition, named "A Mild Live Wanted" (AMLW), who wished to find another group band from Indonesia. Two years ago, the organiser also organised the same thing, and eventually the winner was D'Masiv. And then, all the bands that participated in the AMLW 2009 wanted to follow the path of D'Masiv. They want stardom, they want to be D'Masiv. The organisers also told all the contestants to follow D'Masiv footsteps.

No offense, but D'Masiv is just the same old non-sense band from Indonesia. All their songs are monotonous, mellow, all about love, and just simply useless. However, I cannot understand why, why lots of Indonesians love their music, and other bands like Nidji, ST12,Kangen Band etc., which are similar to them.

I mean, come on man!, there are a lot of other musicians that can play much better than D'Masiv and other non-sense bands in Indonesia. For instance, there are numerous Indonesian musicians that can play music, where you all call 'pop', much better than them. You want love songs that can cheer you up? I can tell you! And the bottom line is, there are a lot of other kind of music that can make you happier, more excited, and more energised, other than mellow Indonesian pop!

It is quite sad, to know that a lot of Indonesians prefer this kind of music (and also dangdut). Do they know that this kind of music can be harmful to you? With such repeated themes of music (pop, love pop, malay pop, all non-sense), it can prevent you from creativity. And it is very sad, to listen from a lot of people that 'instrumental music' as 'boring music'. You do not know, that instrumental music can expand your musical borders. However, I cannot blame that. Majority(mellow pop) always outshine minority (instrumental).

Do Indonesians know, that all of them are victims from irresponsible Indonesian music producers. They want all the artist to satisfy their needs, by making love pop malay music, and throw them to the market. They do not want creative lads or musicality genius, they only want stupid love lyrics that can satisfy Indonesians, who loves that kind of music.

Indra Lesmana. I respect him so much as Indonesian musician. Foreigners can appreciate him, why we can't?

Come on guys, stop this kind of attitude. Please, stop from restricting yourself from this kind of music. There are other genres, of course smarter genre, such as classical, jazz, Indonesian traditional music, or even dedicated rock band. They are much more creative. I bet, quite a lot of you have not heard Indra Lesmana. He is one of the greatest Indonesian pianist, arguably one the best in Asia. You should treasure his music.

Please, please, stop Indonesian ordinary pop music that can make you die. Seriously, I found it that their music is really boring, kinda not creative and unattractive. You can contact me anytime to ask what is 'good music' sounds like. I would be happy to explain to you.

Sorry for being emotional, selfish, or mean. I just cannot bear anymore with this non-sense. I really do not want Indonesians stuck with this kind of music, without knowing there are a lot of good forms of music. Even, our traditional music is much more better than D'Masiv and co.

I do not want people recognised Indonesian music as D'Masiv or mellow pop, I want Indonesian music to be recognised as traditional, ethnic, ensemble-tight, classical, jazzy, and creative music

Thanks for reading.

D'Masiv. Sorry, I cannot find anything good from them.