A quote from Albert Camus
" I shall examine merely the theme of 'the Intention' made fashionable by Husserl and the phenomenologists. I have already alluded to it. Originally Husser's method negates the classic procedure of the reason. Let me repeat. Thinking is not unifying or making the appearance familiar under the guise of a great principle. Thinking is learning all over again how to see, directing one's consciousness, making of every image a privileged place. In other words, phenomenology declines to explain the world, it wants to be merely a description of actual experience. "
(Albert Camus - The Myth of Sisyphus, page 44)
This is one model of thinking. I think it is good to know many models of thinking. This one is in line with the "Show, Don't Tell!" principle...................
Finding Neverland
Watching Finding Neverland is like having a soft, warm conversation about how imagination can change your life. Unfortunately, not "really" your life, but how you see your life. Sometimes, it is the only thing that matters.
It also tells you how close imagination and writing is. By implication, how close writing and life is. It is a pity that most people are not as close to their own life as they think they are. What about you?
Status Anxiety - Alain De Botton
I have just finished reading the book by Alain De Botton, who has written several books combining popular, daily problem with more philosophical touch. In a way this is a good example of writing exercise since it makes us think more deeply about our daily life. When written on pages, the daily, unobserved things will seem different and not-so-usual!
De Botton organizes the books into 5 causes and 5 solution of status anxiety, namely: lovelessness, snobbery, expectation, meritocracy and dependence as the five causes; philosophy, art, politics, christianity, and bohemia as the solutions. The book is full of anecdotes from many interesting sources. The combination of important and interesting sources into a meaningful, orderly written text is the strength of the book. Although I am not very very impressed with the solution he proposes, I still found many good ideas in it.
A quote from the book:
"However unpleasant anxieties about status may be, it is difficult to imagine a good life entirely free of them, for a fear that one might fail and disgrace oneself in the eyes of others is only a natural consequence of having ambitions, a preference for one set of outcomes over another and a respect for individuals besides oneself. Status anxiety is the price we pay for acknowledging a public difference between a successful and an unsuccessful life.
Yet, though our need for status may be fixed, we retain a choice of where to fulfill the need, we are free to ensure that our worries about being disgraced will arise principally in relation to a public whose methods or judgement we both understand and respect. Status anxiety could be defined as problematic only in so far as it is inspired by values that we follow because we are fearful and preternaturally obedient, because we have been anaesthetized into believing that they are natural, perhaps God-given, because those around us are in thrall to them or because we have grown too imaginatively timid to conceive of alternatives. "
See how I stress on the "imaginatively timid" phrase. Look around you, and you will find this a lot!
Sirkusdirektørens datter - av Jostein Gårder
After reading Ratih's blog entry today, about the Orange Girl, I was inspired to dig into one of the boxes full of books of mine. That's right, it will be a problem when I go back to Indonesia! I remember that I got a book by Jostein Gårder, the author of Sophie's World, which was part of the welcoming package when I joined a book club. Yes, the package consisted of five hard-cover books for free! I chose several famous Norwegian writers, among them was Jostein Gårder. I was hoping that it was "Appelsinspiken" (The orange girl, appelsin = orange, en pike = a girl, piken = the girl).
But it was not! The book I have is "Sirkusdirektørens datter" - The Circus Director's Daughter. I read it righ away and covered 20 pages before writing this blog entry. Of course, as I told Yani to, I put this into my "Reading Log". I am so productive today! I read a lot of pages from a lot of books! It gets my brain going before I start writing and reading for my thesis.
Get back to the book, it is about, as obviously stated in the title, a daughter of a circus director. The story of this girl was made up or "invented" by the character "I", the protagonist of the novel when "I" was little. "I" told this story to her/his mom. "I" told me, the reader in the form of a reminiscene of his/her past by taking a story from a diary. So far, the interesting part was the process of creating the circus girl story, not to mention the way Gårder, tell us the reader about the layered story. A good lesson in writing technique for a wanna-be writer like you and me.
Is this book already translated to Indonesian?
Area X: Hymne Angkasa Raya
I have been reading 50 pages of the aforementioned book (in the title of this post) by Eliza V. Handayani. Just need to ease myself after reading articles for my thesis. When I bought the novel in Surabaya last time, I did not have much expectation beside the curiousity I always have. Yes, curiousity is my dearest friend!
I must say that I am fascinated by this novel. The author is still so young (24) but has achieved so much in writing skill, and I am sure, she has a potential in the future. The novel belongs to a new genre: "sastra yang pinter", borrowing Taufiq Ismail's term from the preface. Reading those 50 pages, I found many bits and pieces from my childhood reading: Enid Blyton's Lima Sekawan, Hitchcock's Trio Detektif, and more recently, Carl Sagan's Contact. Also films like X-Files, and I am sure, other sci-fi films detailing the future must be the source of inspiration to this novel.
Again, I must say that I am so envious of her. I wish I could write and have produced a novel by now! But, well, people walk different paths in life. I hope someday I can write and publish something. Just a happy thought for now! Looking forward to reading it again.
:)
Collective Writing 1
It was just another lousy day until I met her. <......EDIT THIS MESSAGE BY DELETING THIS LINE AND ADD ONE OF YOURS>
A little bit about writing
Writing is an act of hope.
It is a means of carving order from chaos, of challenging one's own beliefs and assumptions, of facing the world with eyes and heart wide open. Through writing, we declare a personal identity amid faceless anonymity. We find purpose and beauty and meaning even when the rational mind argues that none of these exist.
Writing, therefore, is also an act of courage. How much easier is it to lead an unexamined life than to confront yourself on the page? How much easier is it to surrender to materialism or cynicism or to a hundred other ways of life that are, in fact, ways to hide from life and from our fears? When we write, we resist the facile seduction out and declaring the truths that we find, and we dare to put those truths on the page.
To get ideas and to write well,
you have to risk opening yourself.
...
Writing also is an act of joy and celebration. With it we say that life is worth preserving, worth exploring in all its facets, and to do it well we must have fun. It must be approached with a sense of play, or risk and experiment, openness and laughter.
== Quoted from "The Writer's Idea Book" by Jack Heffron ==
Let the game begin!
Masterplan journal is mainly dedicated to two of my sisters who are pursuing better way of writing in English while running their translation service in the hot Indonesian city of Surabaya. "Seize the Meaning" (my lousy translation for Hernowo's "Mengikat Makna") is the concept we would like to live with by using this forum. Well, enough said! I can go on forever and bore them to death if I don't stop now :)... So sisters, start writing and fill this blog with your ideas, dreams, "curhat", pictures and whatever you like! And I will use my big-brother privilege to sit and read, and then with (hopefully) a little smile I will comment on it.
