bed reading, bed watching

Tis season of restless nights!

-- bed reading --

"Hard-boiled Murakami"
Yeah, hard-boiled Murakami. I'm reading it one section after another. Reading it on and off is like letting toffee candy melting in your mouth. Like dark chocolate liquifying a nano second bitterness in your mouth, but leaving a lasting sweetness.

At first, it feels like reading "Die Unendliche Geschiechte" ("The Never Ending Story", Michael Ende). But when it gets to the part of lip reading, quietness and this whole thing about "Calcutec" and the system and the sandwich.. hoo kay, the poison of murakami started to seep into my blood and send me into his dream-like state. I am combing the streets of "The End of the World" with him.

The center of the story is a guy and the guy is doing dream reading at the moment. I'll come back to you when I figured out what the heck is he up to.

"The Celestine Prophecy"
Voila! This book has been sitting nicely in my book shelf for the past 5 years? 6 years? I asked a friend of mine to get it for me because in 1998 I was living in a place where imported books are rarity. I have no idea why I missed reading this one. I'll come back to you later.

"Nayla"
Djenar's first novel, third book out, I reckon. Her novels have always had controversial titles such as "Mereka Bilang Saya Monyet!" (They said I'm a Monkey), "Jangan Main-main dengan Kelaminmu" (Don't play around with your genital). "Nayla" is about a growing young woman. The writer didn't specify whether "Nayla" is the actress of the book or the writer herself. Basically, it's about this woman with bitter life compared to the ideal reality of ideal normal people. Sure thing, "normalcy" and "reality" depend on how you see it. My perspective of "normalcy" might be taken differently from yours. Anyways, let's just compare what's in Djenar's head and what's in ordinary people's head. The reality that Djenar described is on the contrary to the ordinary normal state. A woman should not sleep around. Parents should not be separated. A child should not suffer from bad divorce. Et cetera. This is a sick world. Imagine "American Beauty".

The most interesting thing about the book is the way Djenar presented it. She let everybody talks from their first-person perspective. Nayla herself; The woman; The Step mother; Djuli, the woman's lover and so on. Then, she did not put each section of the story in a chronological way or in any known order. It's a bit surrealistic. Then, again in this novel she uses "SMS" (short message service) template. She presented conversation between two or more people the way an SMS message looks like. It's a bit repetitive, Djenar. But if you like it and the public likes it, hey, the market wins, man ;)

Speaking of female writing, I still can't get away from Oka Rusmini. Sure, Ayu Utama should be on top of the list in terms of being a daredavil to break free from monotonous Indonesian language style. The way I see it, Rusmini was able to be simply eloquent and daring and harsh at the same time.

"Seribu Kunang-kunang di Manhattan"
(A thousand fireflies in Manhattan)
Umar Khayyam passed away. But he is still living in Manhattan, staring at thousands of fireflies hovering over the towering sky scrapers. Wow, ey? He did captured the innermost feeling of being a stranger in a strange land. The bare thoughts of ordinary people. Without any yadda yadda. Naive, as it is, straightforward. Indeed. Despite the thick Javanese diplomacy that surrounds the whole thing. He was the best. He is still the best. He will be in the future to come. No wonder people do a lot of research on the book.

Last but not least, anybody who happens to be reading this piece of text, pardon me for trying to contaminate your mind, but "Sri Sumarah", a short story within this special edition volume of "Seribu Kunang-kunang di Manhattan" is a must read. Again, "Sri Sumarah" is a must read! I was so captured in it. There must be dozens of millions of other "Sri Sumarah" out there during the 1965 coup.

-- bed watching --

"Serendipity"
I have heard about the word. The movie. The romanticism. I felt like watching light, pop corn movie last night. And this one was my choice. Fate, eh? Believe in fate? Believe in love? Heck man, take in whatever you can take, whatever you have on your plate. The movie was okay, but there was nothing more to it.. It's a bed watching thingy. Something you watch to ease your sleep. I didn't regret it, though. That was just what I needed.

"Intolerable Cruelty"
Clooney and Zeta Jones sounds perfect. It's lacking one crucial thing: it was not even a mediocre script! Highlights were not given to necessary and essential things, such as the drama between the so-called "man who has everything" (Clooney) and "woman who wanted everything" (Zeta Jones). Despite his reputation as being "one of the sexiest man alive", Clooney is missing two spoons of everything. He let himself to be left unexplored by the script and the director and to be stuffed into the Massey's character. But anyways, I'm pretty much intrigued by this whole "impenetrable prenuptual agreement" thingy..


"LOTR: The Two Towers"
WOW! Amazing, huh? Got no more comments on this one. I watched this movie in the wee hours. Half an hour after my morning praying. Later on, I discussed this movie to a friend of mine. Sure, I'm so two years ago. What the heck! Something came up in the discussion. That everything in LOTR (Lord of the Ring) has been done through animation. By the power of "Server Farm". I'm kinda curious with this "server farm" thingy.. Wouldn't you?

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Images are courtesy of:

Hard-boiled Wonderland:
http://www.northshire.com/siteinfo/bookinfo/0-679-74346-4/0/

"Seribu Kunang-kunang di Manhattan"
http://www.ekuator.com/katalog.see.p?see=katalogsee&id=3939

"The Celestine Prophecy"
http://www.uk.bol.com/images/ titles/133431_140.jpg

"Nayla"
http://www.gramedia.com

"Serendipity"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240890/

"Intolerable Cruelty"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138524/

"Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167261/