false 4 0 false false Sat May 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 16 03:23:07 -0700 2009 Sat May 16 03:57:59 -0700 2009 Putu Wijaya keeps the reader's curiosity to a certain level. He lets the reader to be patiently read how this will be ended. Like previously, He makes the flow to be not in an order. I personally think that he makes the book just like what I see in daily life. The cases couldn't be solved directly. Any social situation is much more complex than we thought, it is simply not a black or white. For instance, we couldn't really put sex workers much under the ex-head of militant. Or, a becak rider under the police officer. Or a convict under the director of mass media. And so on... Yes, we have strata in our society which is usually be defined by financial condition. But then, as a human could we really put people differently? Or more, under the law of morality, it would not be as easy as we assumed.

Money plays important role in society. It seems that people might do anything in the name of wealthy. Not only virginity that can be bought, but also dignity! Yes, human dignity! What a poor creature!

This book, as so the three others, I believe, will be good sketch of the community. We can "see" a lot!

These is the paragraph that I really like in this book:
"Mungkinkah agama hanya dipakai sebagai atribut, bukan penyelarasan jiwa sebagai makhluk beradab, yang seharusnya sadar pada apa yang pantas dan tidak? Manusia diajak memikirkan kehidupan sesudah mati secara mendalam, tapi melupakan kehidupan yang sedang dijalani. Orang berlomba-lomba mendekatkan dirinya pada Tuhan, tetapi sambil menginjak sesamanya. Seakan-akan moral, tuntunan, etika, agama, dan sebagainya itu bukan mendamaikan, tetapi menyulut permusuhan..." (p.223).

The free translation of that paragraph is as follow:
"Is it possible that religion being used as an attribute, not to maintain the balance of soul as civilized creature, who have to aware what are proper or not? Human has been pushed to think deeply about life after death, but forgotten the life itself. People urge themselves to get closer to GOD, meanwhile, they step on their fellows. It seems that moral, guidance, ethic, religion and others are not make peace, but being triggers of enmity..."




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