Character Thursday: Telemachus

Why now? You know I have finished Odyssey last month and have also put the review somewhere in the blog. So, why now? The reason is simple. I've been very busy and it was so hard for me to find the time to write about it. So, here we go.

Telemachus is the only child of Odysseus, the main hero of the story. He was a baby when Odysseus went for the Trojan war 20 years ago, but now he has grown up – or not yet. Being the only child in the family, growing up without a father's guidance, he doesn't really know what he should do with all things that happen in his house.

The goddess Athena, for the love she has for Odysseus, takes the child on a journey to learn what a Greek prince should be like. She brings him to Phylos and Sparta to meet Nestor and Menelaus, both are great warriors who fought side by side with his father. There he learns about many things, one of them being the story of Orestes, a prince his age who acts bravely against the killer of his father.

The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis by Jacques Louis David

As the story develops, Telemachus becomes more and more mature. He begins to take leadership in his house, instead of just sitting idly while his mother's suitors take advantage of his father's absence. He begins to object the suitors behaviour, he begins to take initiative upon matters, and most importantly, he takes responsibility as the Prince of Ithaca by helping his father getting rid of the suitors.

Although Odyssey is mostly about the father, it's amazing to see Telemachus' character development throughout the epic.

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Character Thursday

Adalah book blog hop di mana setiap blog memposting tokoh pilihan dalam buku yang sedang atau telah dibaca selama seminggu terakhir (judul atau genre buku bebas).

- Kalian bisa menjelaskan mengapa kalian suka/benci tokoh itu, sekilas kepribadian si tokoh, atau peranannya dalam keseluruhan kisah.

- Jangan lupa mencantumkan juga cover buku yang tokohnya kalian ambil.

- Kalau buku itu sudah difilmkan, kalian juga bisa mencantumkan foto si tokoh dalam film, atau foto aktor/aktris yang kalian anggap cocok dengan kepribadian si tokoh.

Syarat Mengikuti :

1. Follow blog Fanda Classiclit sebagai host, bisa lewat Google Friend Connect (GFC) atau sign up via e-mail (ada di sidebar paling kanan). Dengan follow blog ini, kalian akan selalu tahu setiap kali blog ini mengadakan Character Thursday Blog Hop.

2. Letakkan button Character Thursday Blog Hop di posting kalian atau di sidebar blog, supaya follower kalian juga bisa menemukan blog hop ini. Kodenya bisa diambil di kotak di button.

3. Buat posting dengan menyertakan copy-paste “Character Thursday” dan “Syarat Mengikuti” ke dalam postingmu.

3. Isikan link (URL) posting kalian ke Linky di bawah ini. Cantumkan nama dengan format: Nama blogger @ nama blog, misalnya: Fanda @ Fanda Classiclit.

4. Jangan lupa kunjungi blog-blog peserta lain, dan temukan tokoh-tokoh pilihan mereka. Dengan begini, wawasan kita akan bertambah juga dengan buku-buku baru yang menarik

Proudly a Member of BBI

This post is all about me being a member of BBI, a community of book blogger in Indonesia. I will write in Bahasa Indonesia for this post.

Sebagai blogger baru dan anggota baru BBI, belum banyak yang bisa saya ceritakan tentang komunitas ini. Hmm. Gimana mulainya ya?

Pada bulan Mei yang lalu, saya memutuskan untuk mulai menulis blog. Alasannya sederhana. Saya kehabisan orang yang mau mendengarkan curhat-curhat saya yang mulai membosankan (karena itu-itu saja) tentang buku-buku klasik. Apalagi curhat saya beragam, mulai dari menceritakan seluruh kisah sambil melampiaskan berbagai hasil analisis yang ruwet hingga kalimat sederhana seperti, “Opa William (Shakespeare) keren deh. Coba aku digombalin sama dia,” atau “Athos ganteng. Kenapa coba dia ga bener-bener hidup?” Sebelumnya, diari sempat menjadi pelampiasan. Namun karena diari saya sudah terlalu banyak dihantui hal-hal tidak penting, saya jadi ragu kalau menuliskan tentang bagaimana Milton dengan berani ngotot bahwa pemerintah tidak berhak melarang suatu buku terbit atau bagaimana Shakespeare membuat karakter-karakter wanita yang begitu berani, diukur dari standar umum di zamannya di diari saya. Satu-satunya cara: Blog.

Karena pada dasarnya senang berbagi pendapat dengan orang lain, saya mulai bongkar-bongkar mbah Google untuk mencari komunitas blogger buku. Eh, ternyata di Indonesia sudah ada, yaitu BBI ini. Saya langsung tanya Mas Tanzil apa boleh saya bergabung. Begitulah ceritanya hingga saya bisa bergabung dengan BBI ini.

Sebenarnya banyak manfaat saya peroleh. Misalnya jadi kenal sesama blogger buku di Indonesia seperti Mbak Fanda, Alvian, Melissa, trus Bzee Why juga. Walaupun kenalan saya belum terlalu banyak di BBI, setidaknya jadi ada teman lah. :p

Makasih banyak ya BBI, mudah-mudahan semakin banyak blogger yang peduli buku dan mau membagikan pengalaman dan manfaat yang didapat dari membaca. 

Les Miserables, Vol. III: The Known, the Unknown

Third volume of Les Miserables, two more to go. But that's not the point. I know. I'd like to share what I have experienced by reading Marius' story, because the third volume is mostly about him.

As usual, the volume starts with loads and loads of description. We see Marius at first as an ungrateful child. Knowing nothing about his father but mere gossips and misleading information from the grandpa, he concludes that his father is merely nothing. But things changes. After his father dies, Marius falls in love with his father and his ideology, no matter how old and outdated it may seem. His grandpa banishes him from him, but not without concern. But the proud little being waves the money his grandfather offers him and falls into misery.

Aside from Marius, we meet other new actors on the stage as well – Enjolras and his friends. Those youths are intelligent and idealistic, but not in line with Marius'. I like the description of these people, how they truly live to what they believe in – at least from Enjolras, and how they unite together with their similarities and differences. But that's all from them this far. More will be told of Enjolras and his friend in later volume.

Well, now we meet our old friends. By the grace or curse of chance, Marius falls in love with a young lady who usually walks with her father. Marius is madly in love with her, to the point of self-destruction. This lady is Cosette. And the father? Why, Jean of course.

As if fate had not been cruel enough, we meet other people as well – the corrupt Thernadier. He now lives a miserable life with his wife and daughters. But his misery doesn't make him humble as it does Jean, or make him wise as it does Marius. It makes him grow even more sinister. Why, he tries to rob Jean and almost kills him. I was really furious when I read that chapter.

There is also Javert. He's still there, lingering, still a good hand of the law. But not much is told about him, so I think it is not yet the time.

Reading this volume, I just pray for a happy ending. Is it possible? Is there any way to make them all happy? Jean, Cosette, Marius and Javert especially. Is there any chance for them to be happy at the end of the story?

The story is getting closer to its end. The gaps are filled. We are waiting for something to explode, a climax. I can't wait to read how things will end in Volume IV and V.  

Weekend Quote #16

“There is no Mystery so great as Misery.“

So short? Yes, but it's based upon so many paragraphs that I ave read from Hugo's Les Miserables. It seems that I haven't gotten over the thing yet, right? Yes, I haven't. Hugo seems to find satisfaction in describing every facet of human suffering – political instability, poverty, family problem, world's system, name them all. And at the end of these descriptions, I come to the point where everything becomes blurred, where the world is a sphere with no way out. Truly, misery becomes a great mystery. How to solve everything? Hugo doesn't answer that question satisfactorily. Only God knows exactly what to be done with all these things happening in the world.

Now I am neglecting my responsibility as a good quoter. This week's quote is taken from Oscar Wilde's short story – heartbreaking short story – “The Happy Prince”, which is not so happy. The Prince has been anonymously giving nearly everything he has to the people in the town, but he is eager to give more and more. So he asks the swallow his friend to tell him how's the town folk doing rather than telling beautiful stories from all around the world.

I think misery becomes so mysterious because most of those who suffer do not really know the why they suffer and how they can get out of their suffering. Another reason, misery is also, as stated above, something very hard to solve. And aren't mysteries things hard to solve?

Anything you want to share?

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Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

• Give the context of the quote
• Give your opinion whether you agree or disagree with it
• Share your experience related to the quote
• Share similar quotes you remember
• Or anything else. Just have fun with the quote.

Classic Club October Meme: Why are you reading the classics?

This month's question, I think, is a difficult one to answer. It's like being asked by someone you love, "Why do you love me?". How could one answer that kind of question and be correct?

Why, I will try to answer that anyway. I've been reading the classics since I knew English, or even before. When I was little, I amuse myself with historical stories, reading about great historical events such as the World War and about great people such as Alexander the Great. I heard the name Milton and Shakespeare every now and then, but I was not very good with English, and therefore I wasn't able to read any of those works.

One day, I went to a friend's house and she lent me a simplified version of Ivanhoe. That's the first contact I remember with classics. The next was Sherlock Holmes, being the first classic I read in not simplified or abridged version.

One thing led to another. Before I knew I'd been reading Rabindranath Tagore, Agatha Christie, jane Austen, and others. In high school, I read Shakespeare for the first time. The more I read the classic, the more I love it.

Actually I have tried to read novels other than classic. But maybe there are reasons for my prefering the classic to the others. Let's figure that out.

• I love history. I love mythology. Classics are full of that. Through the classics, I can imagine how life was in certain places and times in history. Also, the classics mention more mythology. The more I read, the more I know. I love to link new knowledge with old ones, and reading the classics give me just the right material to do so.
• I always think that it needs more than just 'good' to be able to survive for decades or even centuries. I believe that there must be something in the classics that makes people read them again and again.
• The deep philosophy inside those book always makes me happy. It broadens my mind and makes me see the world in different point of view. I can understand people's thoughts without being obliged to agree with them. I can see what lies beyond people's conducts, that not all bad deeds are bad by nature, that sometimes people just can't find the right way to do something, that sometimes tragedy is just an outcome of differences in opinions. Those book teach me respect towards people and their choices.
• The language is another matter. The vast vocabulary in classic novels captivates my heart. That's why I love poetry, that's why I love Shakespeare. I love to read how great people of the past make use of words in magnificent ways.

Even all those words cannot describe my motive in reading classics. I just simply love them. Love doesn't always need reasons. Perhaps it's just like Pablo Neruda's poem:

"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way than this."

Weekend Quote #15

“Poverty in youth, when it succeeds, has this magnificent property about it, that it turns the whole will towards effort, and the whole soul towards aspiration. Poverty instantly lays material life bare and renders it hideous; hence inexpressible bounds towards the ideal life. The wealthy young man has a hundred coarse and brilliant distractions, horse races, hunting, dogs, tobacco, gaming, good repasts, and all the rest of it; occupations for the baser side of the soul, at the expense of the loftier and more delicate sides. The poor young man wins his bread with difficulty; he eats; when he has eaten, he has nothing more but meditation. He goes to the spectacles which God furnishes gratis; he gazes at the sky, space, the stars, flowers, children, the humanity among which he is suffering, the creation amid which he beams. He gazes so much on humanity that he perceives its soul, he gazes upon creation to such an extent that he beholds God. He dreams, he feels himself great; he dreams on, and feels himself tender. From the egotism of the man who suffers he passes to the compassion of the man who meditates. An admirable sentiment breaks forth in him, forgetfulness of self and pity for all. As he thinks of the innumerable enjoyments which nature offers, gives, and lavishes to souls which stand open, and refuses to souls that are closed, he comes to pity, he the millionnaire of the mind, the millionnaire of money. All hatred departs from his heart, in proportion as light penetrates his spirit. And is he unhappy? No. The misery of a young man is never miserable.”

I take this long quote from Hugo's Les Miserables. It's a very wonderful description of what chance opens for those who have less material things in life. Misery doesn't have to be miserable. There are always things that we can be grateful of despite our problems. We are not, probably, given the fact that we have access to the internet, very poor as not having enough to eat. But there are times when we complain about life, about what we don't have and what we should have.

The quote above reminds us that even in extreme poverty, there are things that God still provides for us for free, for nothing. We have the air we breathe, and the spectacles of creation so dazzling and artistic, more beautiful than any painting human being ever created. There will always be people who seem to have more than us, but there has never been any guarantee that they enjoy what they have more than we do.

Another thing that strikes my attention is the phrase “millionaire of the mind.” One cannot always feed his body without money, but can always feed his mind through meditation. Being rich materially is sometimes a matter of luck, while being rich in the mind is a matter of choice. When we look through our lives from many point of view, we get the whole picture of things, we stop pitying ourselves, we grumble less and we praises God more.

This quote touches my heart, and here I'd like to share it with all of you. Is there anything you want to share for the weekend?

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Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

• Give the context of the quote
• Give your opinion whether you agree or disagree with it
• Share your experience related to the quote
• Share similar quotes you remember
• Or anything else. Just have fun with the quote.

Chapter Musings: Odyssey

This challenge is hosted by November's Autumn. This month's meme is about a chapter that we find very interesting of impressive. Here I quote the post:

“Jot down some notes about the chapter you've just read or one that struck you the most. It can be as simple as a few words you learned, some quotes, a summary, or your thoughts and impressions.“

Odysseus and Penelope by Primaticcio

The last book that I read this month is the Odyssey. It's a wonderful epic, with lots of adventures and misfortunes that happen around the hero, Odysseus. The hero must face terrible things before he can go back home, to Ithaca, his son, and especially his wife. But then, when he meets his wife again, she faces him with much coldness.

Penelope still loves Odysseus, of course, but she worries that a god might try to fool her by making himself look like her husband. After a test, though, she is finally convinced that it's really Odysseus coming back. That's the chapter I choose. Chapter 23 of Homer's Odyssey: The Great Rooted Bed.

I think it's very interesting how both husband and wife are good in tricks and schemes. Odysseus lies several times in the story – even to Athena herself, and Penelope tricks her suitors and eventually her own husband. Perhaps that's why Penelope loves her husband so much. She says nobody equals Odysseus, and that's very understandable.

Weekend Quote #14

“'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed,

When not to be, receives reproach of being,

And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed,

Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing.”

Just a thought that crossed my mind while I was reading Hugo's Les Miserables. No, not because I agree with the quote, but because the sentence expresses the bitterness of being wrongly accused.

The quote is taken from Shakespeare's Sonnet 121. It has been a long while since the last time I read it, but reading Les Miserables brought it back to my mind. (You can read my ramblings about each volume of Les Miserables here in my blog.)

The quote itself is quite self-explanatory. I don't say that being accused of doing something bad is a good reason to actually do it, quite the contrary. Doing good is rewarding in itself – 'just pleasure lost not by our feeling'. But being accused of doing something bad, while what you do is actually an honourable thing based on a pure motive is hurtful.

In reading, it's one of the things I find most hard to accept: that people might not see our motive and our deeds, and so judging that we have done awful things towards them.

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Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

• Give the context of the quote
• Give your opinion whether you agree or disagree with it
• Share your experience related to the quote
• Share similar quotes you remember
• Or anything else. Just have fun with the quote.

Les Miserables, Vol. II: Love and Humility

That's how Jean describes his relationship with Cosette and the nuns. How does he get there?

We remember him as a wealthy and honourable ex-convict who then sacrificed all that he had for the life of another. He gave himself to authority, but then he remembered his promise to Fantine, about her little daughter. Thus he escaped to arrange Fantine's funeral and his wealth. That's how the first volume ends.

In the second volume, things get a little more complicated, let me say the word, boring, at the first book. The whole book talks about Napoleon, and because I was expecting Jean and Cosette, the details became so insufferable. I finally thought that maybe Hugo was a little fan of Napoleon. Was he?

The second book is our rendezvous with Jean. He is once more a prisoner. By a trick combined with generosity, he escapes and makes the authority believe that he is dead, while he has another thing in mind. Jean doesn't forget a promise he made to Fantine, that he would make sure of her daughter's welfare. So once he gets his freedom back, he heads to Montfermeil – Thernadier's place.

Thernadier inflames my heart with fury and rage. The old fox thinks only for his benefit, and null for others. He's like a hyena that feeds on people's corpses – others' misfortune. I can imagine how years in that den must have drained Cosette's spirit. The little child is poorer than a stray kitten. Even lost animals still have time for themselves, while Cosette has nothing. The poor child must

clean the house, serve in the inn, and fetch water in winter, all by herself. I don't know how Jean could show so much patience to the ravenous innkeeper. When he asks money from him to take Cosette, Jean pays without the slightest hesitation. I would have threatened him that unless he gave me Cosette, I would tell Javert about all the cruelty he treats Cosette with.

Everything is good enough now, but then, Javert reappears. He's like a ghost in the story, comes and comes again when he is least expected. Somebody should tell him to stop meddling with Jean's business. But then it's his duty. Jean is a fugitive once more. By grand luck or divine protection, he ends up in a convent, full of humble and simple nuns. There he stays while watching Cosette growing up. Then the second volume ends.

I begin to think that Les Miserables is about how a man learn so many things in his life. It's all about Jean's transformation from a lost and lonely wolf into an virtuous man. The Bishop taught him virtue, Cosette teaches him love, and the nuns teaches him humility, while his life as an ex-convict teaches him endurance. I begin to love the person as someone who is perfectly human, with many mental and spiritual battle inside his heart, but then tries to make best decisions possible. Jean is someone full of contemplation, someone who looks at the best of all things, hard though it may seem.

I'm ready to begin the third volume: Marius. No spoiler, please. I will be patient and read it chapter by chapter.  

Character Thursday: Penelope

This week I'd like to take a figure of a great queen, the Queen of Ithaca – Penelope. She is the wife of Homer's hero Odysseus. She is perhaps the role model of women in ancient Greek – beautiful, skilful, wise, and most importantly, loyal.

Penelope was left at home with the baby Telemachus when her husband went to war. Ten years passed, and Odysseus still had not come home. Many people had, though, such as Nestor and Menelaus, safe and sound, to their own realm. Then another 10 years passed. Now Telemachus has become a good-looking youth, just like his father. But he still needs experience and also guidance to become a hero and a great king. That is one problem.

Another thing, many suitors plague the palace of Odysseus. They want Penelope to marry one of them. These shameful suitors say nothing when reproved. What should Penelope do?

“So by day she’d weave at her great and growing web—

by night, by the light of torches set beside her,

she would unravel all she’d done.”

She promised the suitors that she would marry one of them once she has finished the garment for Laertes. But it was actually a trick. She weaves by day and unravels all by night. Thus she tricks the suitors for three years long. Then they find out.

She at last consents to marry one of them if he could bend a bow which is Odysseus'. No one, of course, can do it but Odysseus himself. It's like saying, “I would marry one of you if he could equal my late husband, which is incomparable among men.”

When her husband finally comes home, though, in all splendour and majesty that is his, she refuses to instantly believe that it is so. She is convinced that her husband is dead, and therefore, fearing that it might be a god who tries to trick her, she puts her husband to a test.

“Come, Eurycleia,

move the sturdy bedstead out of our bridal chamber—

that room the master built with his own hands.

Take it out now, sturdy bed that it is,

and spread it deep with fleece,

blankets and lustrous throws to keep him warm.”

The fact is, nobody can move that thing. It's a secret between them, that the bedstead is unmovable. Thus she proves that both of them are still loyal to each other. It's actually a grand love story inside a fierce and nasty epic.

Another thing. Homer makes a great distinction between Penelope and Helen. Penelope says herself that she puts her husband to the test because she knows what happened to Helen of Troy.

“Remember Helen of Argos, Zeus’s daughter—

would she have sported so in a stranger’s bed

if she had dreamed that Achaea’s sons were doomed

to fight and die to bring her home again?”

It is also heart-touching to read how day by day she weeps for her husband, thinking that he might be dead. Penelope, Penelope, you are indeed a great queen and a good wife.

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Character Thursday

Adalah book blog hop di mana setiap blog memposting tokoh pilihan dalam buku yang sedang atau telah dibaca selama seminggu terakhir (judul atau genre buku bebas).

- Kalian bisa menjelaskan mengapa kalian suka/benci tokoh itu, sekilas kepribadian si tokoh, atau peranannya dalam keseluruhan kisah.

- Jangan lupa mencantumkan juga cover buku yang tokohnya kalian ambil.

- Kalau buku itu sudah difilmkan, kalian juga bisa mencantumkan foto si tokoh dalam film, atau foto aktor/aktris yang kalian anggap cocok dengan kepribadian si tokoh.

Syarat Mengikuti :

1. Follow blog Fanda Classiclit sebagai host, bisa lewat Google Friend Connect (GFC) atau sign up via e-mail (ada di sidebar paling kanan). Dengan follow blog ini, kalian akan selalu tahu setiap kali blog ini mengadakan Character Thursday Blog Hop.

2. Letakkan button Character Thursday Blog Hop di posting kalian atau di sidebar blog, supaya follower kalian juga bisa menemukan blog hop ini. Kodenya bisa diambil di kotak di button.

3. Buat posting dengan menyertakan copy-paste “Character Thursday” dan “Syarat Mengikuti” ke dalam postingmu.

3. Isikan link (URL) posting kalian ke Linky di bawah ini. Cantumkan nama dengan format: Nama blogger @ nama blog, misalnya: Fanda @ Fanda Classiclit.

4. Jangan lupa kunjungi blog-blog peserta lain, dan temukan tokoh-tokoh pilihan mereka. Dengan begini, wawasan kita akan bertambah juga dengan buku-buku baru yang menarik

Odyssey: The Tale of a Hero

I didn't plan to read it, no. I've never read any Greek literature before, so this is my first. In fact, I've tried to read the first book of Homer's Illiad, but I stopped – I wasn't ready for it. This time, something forced me to read it, no matter what, and I was ready for it.

The opening of the book reminds me of the opening of Milton's Paradise Lost. In the first several lines, Homer puts the summary of the book in such a simple way. And then, he asks the Muses – goddesses of art – to guide him.

Odyssey starts with the Olympus, where Athena asks her father Zeus to let Odysseus go home to his son and wife. Zeus gives his consent, and Athena flies to Ithaca, the homeland of this unfortunate king, and visits his only son, Telemachus. There Athena advises him to grow up, be a man, and take on a journey to gain experience.

In the hall of Odysseus, many suitors hold parties, day by day, robbing the king's possessions. They want Penelope, Odysseus' wife, to marry one of them, being convinced that Odysseus is dead. Penelope refuses, playing trick by trick to deceive them. But the suitors are persistent; they refuse to leave the house until getting Penelope.

Meanwhile, Odysseus has been away from home for the last 20 years. The baby that he left at home has become a young man. Now he's trapped in an island with Calypso, a fair goddess who is desperately in love with him. He has no friend, no companion, and no ship. How could he go home? And even if he could, would he find his servants still loyal, his son brave and worthy, and above all else, would he find his wife still loving?

Odyssey is a great story. It brings us through the Mediterranean Sea, by ships and tempests. It drives us as high as Olympus and as low as Hades. We meet gods and goddesses, monsters, nymphs, and mortals. We can feel the grandeur of this epic through the pages.

Odysseus himself is more than just a fierce man of war. He's a cunning man and skilful in diplomacy. He's a man of hand and a man of brain. During many years, he endures hardship and somehow finds his way out of troubles. It makes him more interesting than his comrades, let's say, Ajax or Achilles.

Overall, I'd like to recommend this book to you all. I know I should have read Illiad first, but there's a need for me to do so. Illiad is in my list, I will read it sometime during these 5 years. Odyssey gives me a good reason to do so. 

By the way, I read the translation by Robert Fagles. It's so easy to read, and so understandable. But I want to read other translation soon, just for the sake of comparing. 

Monthly Meme for Year-Long Play Event

I'd like to participate more in Fanda's Play Event by providing monthly meme for those participating. Here is the list:

1. Character
2. Costume
3. Stage/Movie adaptation
4. Fiction vs. Reality
5. "It's all Greek to me," why?
6. Quote
7. Music
8. Oscar Wilde
9. Playwright
10. Favourite Scene
11. What makes a play easy or difficult to read?
12. Lesson for life

The complete information about the meme will be posted at the first week of the month. You don't have to participate each month, but it would be nice to share what you think of the plays you read for the event. I will provide a link (by Linky or the others) for all to know what others are reading for the month.

Happy reading!