The World's Literature in Europe discussion

This month's featured reading is This Earth of Mankind. Don is moderating this discussion, but I had to add my two cents worth with the above documentary about the book's author Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

Thanks Asma.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer has been described as Indonesia's best known author. He led a remarkable life and his story is that of 20th Century Indonesia. He was jailed by both the Dutch colonial government as well as later by Suharto. The wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pramoed... ) is well worth reading to get a sense of the incredible social upheavals involved with the passage to post-colonial life.

Toer "wrote"This Earth of Mankind, the first of the "Buru Quartet" on the prison colony island of Buru where he was not permitted even to have a pencil. He narrated the stories to his fellow prisoners with whose assistance he was eventually able to write the novels down.

The transition from colonialism to independence is one of the great themes of the 20th century and this series is one of best, imo, testaments to the human qualities needed to persevere through that struggle. I highly recommend this book and listed it last year as one of my top 5 books read of the year before Asma came up with this list. Hope you all will join us in working through this this extraordinary work of literature.

Reviews:

http://dannyreviews.com/h/This_Earth_...
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/11...
http://marxistleftreview.org/index.ph...

Study Guide:

http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-th...

Chapter 1 - The narrator, Minke, tells us of the origins of the book we are about to read, suggesting that it has its roots in a period of mourning following a separation from a woman.

Chapter 2 - Minke and his friend Robert Suurhof are students at a prestigious Dutch high school in late 19th Century Java. The school suppresses indigenous astrology. Minke marvels at Western technical innovation. Robert teases Minke, calling him a "philogynist," a word that means "a person who likes or admires women."

This might be a good time to talk a little about the history of the Dutch in Indonesia:

"The first regular contact between Europeans and the peoples of Indonesia began in 1512, when Portuguese traders, led by Francisco Serrão, sought to monopolise the sources of nutmeg, cloves, and cubeb pepper in Maluku. Dutch and British traders followed. In 1602 the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and became the dominant European power. Following bankruptcy, the VOC was formally dissolved in 1800, and the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalised colony." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indones...

"Since the establishment of the VOC in the seventeenth century, the expansion of Dutch territory had been a business matter. Graaf van den Bosch's Governor-generalship (1830–1835) confirmed profitability as the foundation of official policy, restricting its attention to Java, Sumatra and Bangka. However, from about 1840, Dutch national expansionism saw them wage a series of wars to enlarge and consolidate their possessions in the outer islands.Motivations included: the protection of areas already held; the intervention of Dutch officials ambitious for glory or promotion; and to establish Dutch claims throughout the archipelago to prevent intervention from other Western powers during the European push for colonial possessions. As exploitation of Indonesian resources expanded off Java, most of the outer islands came under direct Dutch government control or influence.

The Dutch subjugated the Minangkabau of Sumatra in the Padri War (1821–38)[20] and the Java War (1825–30) ended significant Javanese resistance.[21] The Banjarmasin War (1859–1863) in southeast Kalimantan resulted in the defeat of the Sultan. After failed expeditions to conquer Bali in 1846 and 1848, an 1849 intervention brought northern Bali under Dutch control. The most prolonged military expedition was the Aceh War in which a Dutch invasion in 1873 was met with indigenous guerrilla resistance and ended with an Acehnese surrender in 1912. Disturbances continued to break out on both Java and Sumatra during the remainder of the 19th century. However, the island of Lombok came under Dutch control in 1894, and Batak resistance in northern Sumatra was quashed in 1895. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the balance of military power shifted towards the industrialising Dutch and against pre-industrial independent indigenous Indonesian polities as the technology gap widened. Military leaders and Dutch politicians believed they had a moral duty to free the native Indonesian peoples from indigenous rulers who were considered oppressive, backward, or disrespectful of international law.

Although Indonesian rebellions broke out, direct colonial rule was extended throughout the rest of the archipelago from 1901 to 1910 and control taken from the remaining independent local rulers. Southwestern Sulawesi was occupied in 1905–06, the island of Bali was subjugated with military conquests in 1906 and 1908, as were the remaining independent kingdoms in Maluku, Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Nusa Tenggara. Other rulers including the Sultans of Tidore in Maluku, Pontianak (Kalimantan), and Palembang in Sumatra, requested Dutch protection from independent neighbours thereby avoiding Dutch military conquest and were able to negotiate better conditions under colonial rule. The Bird's Head Peninsula (Western New Guinea), was brought under Dutch administration in 1920. This final territorial range would form the territory of the Republic of Indonesia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_E...

I think Chapter 2 conveys an introduction to this cultural context.

I haven't had a chance to start this yet but I'm thrilled we are reading! Every other novel I've read set in Indonesia is always from a Dutch person, and I have several more I'd like to read that haven't been translated into English. Not to disparage the Dutch, there is just a difference.

Also I've been making some Indonesian food (pandan chiffon cake, spekkoek, bami goreng, etc) because why not? I need to hunt down some Indo coffee because I ran out. Then I will be ready. (My real reason is that I'm working through some Booker and National Book Award books first.)

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I haven't had a chance to start this yet but I'm thrilled we are reading! ...pandan chiffon cake, spekkoek, bami goreng"

Yum! Glad you can join us! Yes, it is rewarding to get a perspective on Indonesia from an Indonesian author.

Don wrote: "...Pramoedya Ananta Toer has been described as Indonesia's best known author..."

Don, thanks for your wonderful Introduction of this Indonesian historical novel. There's interesting reading in your links to Wikipedia, the LeftReview, and BookRags. Am looking forward to learning further from your next posted message(s), #3 & other ones.

Chapter 2 continued...

Robert Suurhof takes Minke to visit Annelies Mellema. It is love at first sight and a wonderfully awkward beginning to a romance. This serves as an introduction to the social complexities of the identity groups of that era. Minke is a Native. Annelies is a mixed-blood ("Indo") daughter of a Native concubine - the unusual and remarkably talented and insightful Nyai Ontoso. Her father is an unpleasant racist, European businessman, Herman Mellema. Robert Suurhof is Annelies' older brother. Robert Suurhoff. Both he and Annelies are part Javanese, part Dutch or “Mixed-blood”, as referred to in the novel. Mr. Mellema and Nyai Ontoso went on board a ship when she was in labor so that Robert would be born a Dutch citizen, but, although he considers himself Dutch, he is not acknowledged as such. The Dutch basically seem to come in three flavors: European-born European, Indonesian-born European, and Mixed-Blood Dutch citizen.

There are other social indicators. Minke is repeatedly asked if he is a "bupati" which refers to a regency level native official in charge, or regent. A brief guide to understanding the Dutch colonial administration of Indonesia is available at: http://pramoedyatoer.blogspot.com/p/1... which is part of a very nice, accessible website about this author and this series: http://pramoedyatoer.blogspot.com/p/d...

I read up through Chapter 2 today and holy complicated social world! I kind of understood it all except how Mr. Mellama had to defer to Nyai.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I read up through Chapter 2 today and holy complicated social world! I kind of understood it all except how Mr. Mellama had to defer to Nyai."

Good observation. Not what one would expect, is it. Looking forward to this mystery being unveiled in chapter 3.

I am starting chapter 4 today and planning to read a bit more background first. The cookery of Indonesia is diverse; the soup Sayur lodeh looks delicious. The furniture maker and artist Jean Marais isn't historical but his name sounds familiar. He's full of advice for Minke and of memories about himself and May. He advises Minke, an educated and aristocratic Native, to think for himself; he tells the story of the dauntless Acehnese. The Indonesian National Revolution in the next century liberates the country from the Dutch and ends the caste divisions of Minke's society.

Asma Fedosia wrote: "Jean Marais isn't historical but his name sounds familiar...."

Perhaps you are familiar with French actor of the same name?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRkBX...

Well you are ahead of me now. I will try to get caught up tomorrow. Thanks for the link.

Chapter 3 - Minke introduces us to Jean Marais, the French disabled veteran of the Aceh War, artist, furniture dealer, and father, for whom Minke works. Jean was injured fighting against the Aceh people of northwest Sumutra. More on the Aceh War in wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aceh_War

Map of Indonesia showing Banda Aceh on the end of Sumutra:

Chapter 4 about 4 or 5 pages in, there is a sentence "Who knows, I thought, some day in the future I may be able to produce stories like When the Roses Wilt, that remarkable serial by Hertog Lamoye?" Can't find any reference to either the title or the author so I'm guessing its apocryphal. Nevertheless, might be some foreshadowing going on here.

Minke has Daddy issues and Daddy has Minke issues.

What Minke's father, the bupati, may have looked like:

A picture of a man wearing a batik blangkon headdress:

A performance by an East Java gamelan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55wBT...

Minke discusses Multatuli with Miriam and Sarah.

The pen name Multatuli (from Latin multa tuli, "I have suffered much"), was used by the Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February 1887), famous for his satirical novel, Max Havelaar, Or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (1860), which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia). Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multatuli

image:

Robert Mellema visits a brothel and "Burmese syphilis" makes an appearance. In the United States and elsewhere, syphilis was a major problem during the period 1880-1920. Public health preventative measures were non-existent and it carried a significant stigma:

"Around the turn of the twentieth century, syphilis was a public health disaster in the United States of America. Because of the lack of official reporting of cases to public authorities, estimates of its incidence are difficult to obtain; however, the figure has been estimated conservatively at ten percent[1] to fifteen percent[2] of the general population from about 1900 to 1920, although its occurrence was presumed to be higher among men than women. Furthermore, since it is transmitted primarily through sexual contact, syphilis was a huge stigma that all individuals wanted to avoid. When people did contract the disease, they were therefore inclined to hide it from the public so as to avoid being permanently branded by their communities. Because of the disgrace associated with syphilis, the topic was generally avoided by the public and the media, such that a veil of secrecy came to conceal it. As one author wrote in 1920,

The third great plague is syphilis, a disease which, in these times of public enlightenment, is still shrouded in obscurity, entrenched behind a barrier of silence, and armed, by our own ignorance and false shame, with a thousand times its actual power to destroy. . . . It is one of the ironies, the paradoxes, of fate that the disease against which the most tremendous advances have been made, the most brilliant victories won, is the third great plague, syphilis the disease that still destroys us through our ignorance or our refusal to know the truth.[3]

Indeed, discussion of the disease only took place in specialized books and in medical journals, not in publications that most people would have read. Viewed as a subject beyond the "boundaries of decency," syphilis was thought to be a disorder that affected only the immoral. In fact, the American press, yielding to the desires of the common people, was so unwilling to deal with the matter that the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature did not include "syphilis" as a heading until 1907, and the New York Times Index avoided the term until late 1917."

http://www.uri.edu/artsci/com/swift/H...

Don wrote: "...French actor of the same name..."

Marais sounded French to me; you found the real Jean Marais. The Parisian district Le Marais with galleries crossed my mind only later. in all likelihood, the seventeenth-century architect Jean Marot struck a cord in my memory when I read Jean Marais.

Don wrote: "Chapter 4 about 4 or 5 pages in, there is a sentence "Who knows, I thought, some day in the future I may be able to produce stories like When the Roses Wilt, that remarkable serial by Hertog Lamoye..."

Hertog in dutch refers to a duke ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herzog ); so the name sounds like Duke Lamoye. About the Lamoye, I am in a quandary. The information trail about a Lamoye is hidden. The outstanding writer whom I see from research and from your posts, Don, is the writer Eduard Douwes Dekker, a major figure in the abolishment of Indonesian colonialism and a man of at least two pseudonyms. History tells us that the succeeding postcolonial freedom is impermanent, the wilted rose in Toer's This Earth of Mankind. Dekker's most famous writing probably is the Max Havelaar book of your above post. Among his writings is Liefdesbrieven , aka Minnebrieven (Love Letters) of 1861. Those letters and Toer's phrase about wilted roses seem similar in sentiment and seem symbolic of his public concerns, but the dutch language of the Letters is beyond my ken at this moment. For the present, Herzog Lamoye and the "wilted roses" derive from literary license.

Asma Fedosia wrote: "Don wrote: "Chapter 4 about 4 or 5 pages in, there is a sentence "Who knows, I thought, some day in the future I may be able to produce stories like When the Roses Wilt, that remarkable serial by H..."

Thanks for that helpful insight Asma.

image:


"The Association Theory of Snouck Hurgronje" is referred to frequently. Snouck Hurgronge was an actual historical figure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christi... noted for using his knowledge of Islamic culture to help crush the resistance of the Aceh inhabitants and impose Dutch colonial rule.

I've not been able to glean a succinct account of what was meant by "association theory." I did find a biography of of Snouck, however, that states:

" Snouck left the Netherlands Indies for good in 1906, in order to escape his contentious relationship with Governor-General Van Heutsz. Having refused the offer of a chair in the Malay language in Leiden in 1891, and several other offers of a professorship in later years, Snouck was ready to return to academia. In 1907 he accepted the chair of Arabic language and culture in Leiden, succeeding his teacher De Goeje. His inaugural lecture, presented on January 23, 1907, was entitled Arabia and the East Indies, and dealt with the subject of study Snouck had first embraced in his Ph.D. dissertation, though now set in a mature context of a quarter of a century of personal involvement, field research, and extensive study.

Professor C. van Vollenhoven, occupying the chair in East Indian law, transferred his lecture series on Islam to Snouck. Snouck used these as a platform for his ideas on Islamic politics based on neutrality toward religion as such, and a strict intolerance toward politics based on (extremist) religion. In many respects, Snouck showed himself to be a child—if not a proponent—of the Ethical Policy in both its theoretical form and its development over time. Beginning in the 1890s as a proponent of the unification of the colonial state through the subduing and incorporating of rebellious regions, Snouck shifted in the 1910s and 1920s toward support for emancipation and the development of an indigenous administration. This was most evident in the pleasure he took in educating the sons of traditional political leaders . Snouck and his colleague Van Vollenhoven became staunch defenders of the thorough reform of the administrative structure of the Netherlands Indies through Western education and the association of elites on both sides of the political divide. In reaction to this, a conservative group set up and financed alternative courses at the University of Utrecht aimed at preparing aspiring civil servants for service in the East Indies. At the same time, Snouck kept on promoting the interests of the population of the Netherlands Indies in his lectures and publications ."

Italics and bolding added. From: http://what-when-how.com/western-colo...

I suspect that the "association theory" is related to the "Ethical Policy" referenced above. Wiki explains "Dutch Ethical Policy" in some detail (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_E...) but in brief: "In 1901, the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina announced that the Netherlands accepted an ethical responsibility for the welfare of their colonial subjects. This announcement was a sharp contrast with the former official doctrine that Indonesia was a wingewest (region for making profit). It also marked the start of modern development policy; whereas other colonial powers talked of a civilising mission, which mainly involved spreading their culture to colonised peoples."

Portraits of Queen Wilhelmina are also mentioned several times. Here she is in her timeless glory:



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...

Don wrote: "...novel, Max Havelaar, Or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (1860),...denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies..."

The page link below talks about the novel Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company and concludes with a description of Dekker's Love Letters.

https://books.google.com/books?id=s7A...

Don wrote: "...an East Java gamelan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55wBT... "

The you tube video is helpful with the definition of gamelan. The term gamelan is a group consisting of mostly percussive instruments, an ensemble of variously struck musical instruments which the video portrays in image and sound. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamelan

Asma Fedosia wrote: "Don wrote: "...novel, Max Havelaar, Or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (1860),...denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies..."

The page link below talks about ..."

Fascinating! Thanks

Asma posted a great film in three parts about the author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, on the The World's Literature group home page. I highly recommend it.

Young people have posted some entertaining (imo at least) videos. Here, some young ladies ("The Mean Girls Show") act out This Earth of Mankind in "mean girls style": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8RyJ... (6 minutes)

And here a young lady gives a negative review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_IOe... (3 minutes)

Since Wilhelmus, the Dutch National Anthem, is played at least twice in the novel, it might be interesting to listen to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwBrR... I can't help but remark the irony of playing this particular national anthem in a colony, as it tells of peoples of the Netherlands fight to free themselves of Spanish rule. Written in 1574, "Like many anthems, the Wilhelmus originated in the nation's struggle to achieve independence. It tells of Willem van Oranje (William of Orange), his life, and why he is fighting against the King of Spain. The anthem is written in the first person, as if quoting William of Orange himself, the I-figure (Early Modern Dutch "ick") in the 1st stanza: Wilhelmus van Nassouwe ben ick van Duytschen bloet ("William of Nassau am I, of Duytschen blood")." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelmus

Don wrote: "Portraits of Queen Wilhelmina are also mentioned several times. Here she is in her timeless glory..."

The Dutch queen's views in favor of ethics, regarding the Dutch Indies, made her mentally enlightened as well as visually beautiful.

Don wrote: "Young people have posted some entertaining (imo at least) videos..."

I also noticed the youtube videos and listened again to both their positive and negative views. In the best parts, the young women sometimes in costume reenacted parts of the story.

Don wrote: "Since Wilhelmus, the Dutch National Anthem, is played at least twice in the novel, it might be interesting to listen to it..."

The Indonesia anthem is stirring. And, the Dutch anthem you describe about William of Orange (aka William the Silent) is an historical epic and a wonderful musical piece.

I read through chapter 7 last night. The drama his father employed just to bring him home! It seems as if he could have asked (I guess he wasn't reading his letters, so maybe that was the only option.) It was interesting to see more of the Indo political system, which seems largely symbolic/ritualistic that runs in parallel to the larger Dutch empire's control.

Also interesting was the conversation between Minke and the two girls (Miriam and Sarah) - it illuminates the difference between education systems and in so doing, a challenge of the two cultures working together. Do you really "believe" in that new science? Or do you still deep down believe the universe is controlled by the gods you've grown up with? I know Asma previously mentioned this but I'm just now getting to it! :)

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "... Do you really "believe" in that new science? Or do you still deep down believe the universe is controlled by the gods you've grown up with? ..."

I kept wondering about the title: This Earth of Mankind. I concluded that that oft-appearing phrase in the novel indicated Minke's amazement at humankind's and nature's plentiful diversity. I gathered that Minke's position (through 2/3's of the story so far) saw hope in the science and learning of a European education. Unlike most other Javanese youths, Minke's aristocratic birth invited him to study at the Dutch high school. His later response to the Javanese tradition, such as obeisances, greatly annoyed him. From Magda Peters, Minke learned Dutch literature and language, while from de la Croix, he learned about the Association Theory through which aristocratic boys were taught the skills of Dutch colonial administration. I got the impression that the Dutch Indies colonial government oversaw the Native Javanese government of bupatis. Perhaps, Jenny, you're correct in that the Association Theory would integrate the highly educated Javanese into the colonial administration. Back to the title. The complex personalities of characters and the rich vein of phenomena in daily life made the phrase This Earth of Mankind mean both changing and discoverable, i.e., to be learned. By contrast, the gods and practices of traditional society annoyed Minke, who outwardly observed traditional forms but inwardly seethed at them. To me, the story demonstrated the dominating, one-sided viewpoint of the colonial powers towards native Javanese society. Nyai's self-education demonstrated to Magna Peters astonishment, that the attitude of European superiority proved false in the example of Nyai. I took it that the title emphasized learning about nature and humanity's works. Through impartial knowledge, one saw that the genetic lineages of people got entangled over the course of time, and that the European legal restrictions affected the native Javanese for the worse. The multiplicity of This Earth of Mankind continued to unfold its wonders.

Don wrote: "...The transition from colonialism to independence is one of the great themes of the 20th century and this series is one of best, imo, testaments to the human qualities needed to persevere through that struggle..."

Don, thanks for so many helpful explanations about Toer's This Earth of Mankind. Your guidance into significant passages and about historical persons improved my reading of this novel.

Asma Fedosia wrote: thanks for so many helpful explanations..." You are very welcome, Asma. I appreciated the opportunity. Glad the posts were of interest. I learned much from your posts as well. On to the Deep North!

Hi, just a quick word, a bit off topic, to thank all those who take part in these discussion threads, find some interesting links for us, gives us explanations and opinions. It is all very interesting and enlightning. Unfortunately, I do not have time myself to participate more and have a hard time keeping up with all my readings, especially those for this group. But I enjoy tremendously all the discussions and the books I am discovering here.

Don wrote: "Minke discusses Multatuli...The pen name...was used by the Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker..."

Among the Dutch East Indies authors of colonial times is Maria Dermoût, whose book is in this year's reading schedule.

Melaslithos wrote: "...I enjoy tremendously all the discussions and the books I am discovering here. "

A great compliment. Thank you, Melaslithos. I find a lot of knowledge in reading international historical fiction and in learning others' perspectives about the stories. I want to make these pages a forum about the readings.

I finished today (view spoiler)[ and the end was so devastating!! (hide spoiler)]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I finished today [spoilers removed]"

You are so right about the ending. Really wrenching.

Asma Fedosia wrote: "Don wrote: "Minke discusses Multatuli...The pen name...was used by the Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker..."

Among the Dutch East Indies authors of colonial times is Maria..."</i>


Yes, very much looking forward to [book:The Ten Thousand Things in November. A beautiful book as I remember it.

I'm almost finished with this story. Aside from the entertainment of the novel, what I learned from this story was some Javanese history. According to BookRags, a subscription study guide, the setting begins in 1898, proceeding into the twentieth century. The scenes with the Mellema father and son, the restrictions on Nyai's status of motherhood, and the class/societal hierarchies of permissible languages I found heartbreaking. As I recall, the author Richard Flanagan in interviews has noted the evil deeds committed under the influence of pervasive inequality. During the trial of Ah Tjong, Nyai's assertiveness to the (European) judge was typical of her business woman's personality, but her physically awkward, vocal exit out of the courtroom showed her legal rank. During Dutch colonial times, society including teachers like the intelligent Magda Peters were not allowed to criticize the colonial government, and Minke was advised to distance himself from her kindness. Is this the best book I've read? Maybe not so, but it's instructive.

This novel is an historical fiction, set during the Dutch East Indies's colonization of Java, Indonesia. Its English translator Max Lane gives the years 1898-1920 and describes the tetralogy's theme thus:

"...a series of historical novels about the birth of national consciousness in Indonesia."--Afterword.

The novel's beginning depicts some satisfaction by Minke and Nyai Ontosoroh then progresses to a standoff between native Javanese and Dutch East Indies's courts and people. The two leading Javanese characters finally face the obstacle to their and Annelies's freedom, happiness, and property. In "Struggling Identities...", Muhammad Thaufan Arifuddint says, "...they have to fight against discrimination to reach their human rights." That is what they do when they bring Nyai's European, next-to-inherit stepson Maurits to court. Though they are of Native rather than European ancestry, they believe in the legitimacy of Nyai's business, property, and daughter and of Minke's legal marriage. The court case loses even with the help of an influential lawyer but Nyai and Minke remain physically unharmed. However, their servant Darsam is taken away and the young woman Annelies is taken from her home and marriage to live in the Netherlands. Though Natives by birth, Nyai and Minke have been comparatively privileged, Nyai becoming fluent in Dutch and in European ways and Minke of Javanese nobility becoming a student at the elite Dutch high school. The legal discrimination against them might not be apparent except for their court case. Their status is better than Richard Flanagan's POWs in The Narrow Road to the Deep North who are enslaved in an inhumane dystopia. Those prisoners maximize survival through a matey system of mutual assistance, and many are diseased, near-lifeless skeletons nearer to death than resistance. In both Toer's and Flanagan's novels, the possibility of change arrives with the events of WWII. About Toer's novels, Harriet Hu writes,

"While the novels explore the darker aspects of humanity, Pramoedya's message is ultimately a positive one, a belief in mankind's compassion, dignity and potential for greatness in the face of immense hardship."

That viewpoint is well to remember when the rest of the Quartet is read and when Toer recounts his prison years. His ability to tell the stories of those novels and to get them written down during that period exemplifies how art, music, imagination, and creativity animate the soul.

Besides Toer's Buru Quartet, his other writings also develop the themes of colonial and post colonial Indonesian history. Carl L. Bankston III gives synopses of The Fugitive, and especially The Girl from the Coast and The Mute's Soliloquy: A Memoir.

Don wrote: "...A brief guide to understanding the Dutch colonial administration of Indonesia...is part of a very nice, accessible website about this author and this series: http://pramoedyatoer.blogspot.com... "

Finding again Toer's blogspot, I agree that the illustrations in it are beautifully in color. Haven't read through all the pages, but there's something to find out more about in the sugar economy. Besides the blogspot you mention, there are a couple of book reviews written from opposing viewpoints. One writes from the perspective of class struggle, i.e., Marxism. The other one doesn't see evidence of class struggle in this book; instead the story's plot resembles a Bildungsroman about Minke's "individual development and education."

In postcolonial Indonesia, the hopes for equality were not fulfilled.

Toer's character Ontosoroh became the subject of a choreographed dance.

Asma Fedosia wrote: "That viewpoint is well to remember when the rest of the Quartet is read ..."

Thanks for that good information. I have yet to read the full quartet. Read the second but was not as taken with it as with the first. Also a reminder that I need to rewatch the movie The Year of Living Dangerously.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yea...

As you note in your next post, postcolonial Indonesia presented a whole new set of social problems.

Don wrote: "...I have yet to read the full quartet. Read the second but was not as taken with it as with the first..."

Thanks for that insight, Don. There is a lot on my literary calendar. Someday for the Quartet!

Thought I might request the original book behind the film, then view the film. An exciting trailer of it though.