Greatly Reviewed!

Okay now, I gotta tell you about a book. The title is Otobiografi (or Autobiography in English). Wait up! It’s not time for you to draw a conclusion. No. Not yet. It’s not an autobigraphy in the conventional sense of this word. It’s not even a memoir. This is a poetry anthology of Saut Situmorang. FYI, Saut Situmorang is quite a controversial contemporary Indonesian poet. He’s controversial in terms that he is more well-known as a harsh-critic of a major Indonesian cultural pocket Komunitas Utan Kayu led by a senior poet Goenawan Mohamad. Saut shows an open opposition to Goenawan and all around him.

Well, back to Otobiografi, this poem is unique in two ways. First, it is the first poem in Indonesia whose write declares himself adhere to the so-called intertextuality, the notion that a certain work is in any way related with texts that precede it. A text is judged in the light of other texts that precede or succeed it, that’s how T.S. Eliot put it less than a century ago. In Saut Situmorang’s case, in his poems he responds previous Indonesian as well as international poems he had read at the time of writing those poems. Some poems respond to the work of an Indonesian senior poets Sapardi Djoko Damono, Goenawan Mohamad, Rendra, etc. Some other poems respond to the work of western poets like T.S. Eliot, Apollinaire, etc.

Secondly, inspite of the fact that this book is an intertextual play, we cannot judge that the author fools around when he wrote the poems. They’re what he’s got to offer. They came out of the poet’s anxiety. They were borne when the author feels something that strikes his soul and fingers. Some of the most carefree poems show how the author feels a kind of distress and writing a poem, much less powerful than any kinds of drug, is the way for him to channel the ever-increasing volume of depression. As for the respond to preceding writers, they’re just there because the author finds a perfect occassion that suits the theme or form of previously read poems. Therefore, we can say that it’s a “play” but to come up with the play, he has to go through a certain process called “personally moving experiences”.

I think that’s all about this poet. If you would take delight in reading indonesian essays, please click this for more about Saut Situmorang’s Otobiografi.