----- Original Message ----- From: tossi20 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 6:40 PM Subject: [i-s] lifeschool.wordpress.com - Goenawan Mohamad Question about God/Tuhantuhantu-nya
Hi, John, I'm in Jakarta. Also attended the launching of GM's book on "God and Other Unfinished Things". Very interesting, though, I must confess, I know little about philosophy; am also intellectualy lazy to think about God, be He (or She) exist or not, or whether He or She belong to "unfinished" things or not. Instead I discussed a lot with GM about other "unfinished thing": nation. So he is hopefully going to write a preface for my "unfinished thing called nation" i.e. the impact of East Timor and Aceh for NKRI. For those who're interested in GM's book about God etc, here is a note I copied from a blog, best wishes, Tossi A.S ================================================================== http://lifeschool.wordpress.com/ Goenawan Mohamad Question about God/Tuhantuhantu-nya GM Posted on December 5, 2007 by bhayu I was feel alienated when came to community that I visited several times at the past. Last night at Freedom Institute-Jakarta, the newest book of Goenawan Mohamad (a.k.a. GM) -the founder of Tempo and one of Indonesian journalist living legend- was launch. Present as speakers were Rev. Martin Lukito Sinaga and K.H. Husein Muhammad. As I observed, guest whose came divided into: GM's inner circles, peoples who their work and daily life connected to GM including press, peoples who like party and `food free to eat' like students, and peoples like me: who confused to categorized themselves. However, confusion was not my monopoly that night, because many guests whose came looks shocked when they read this unique book. This book is compilation of 99 short fragments which named book, titled with weird like some philosophical book: On God & Other Unfinished Things. Read this book, I remember Nietzsche's work which used fragment broadly, even longer. This model is shortcut for `peoples who have many ideas' which often that idea came by co-incidentally fast that needs to write down immediately before it pass away. It is logic, if fragment chosen as the best way to extract idea. Because of that, never fall into confusion if you don't find chapter number, changed with fragment although it not mean as a row. Never think you can read this book regularly like complete book from the first page until the last page. I was open any page randomly and a-ha!, I got the same sensation. Every fragment was separate but still related each other. Readers have no obligation to read until finish then. Only one thing clear, this book explained about searching process of one wayfarer about meaning of life. And life in the par excellence form is God. The author seemed to show off his knowledge about world horizon. Likely he already discovery every valley, climb every mountain, dive In under every ocean, for write off this book. The never ending style since the era he wrote on Catatan Pinggir (means Side Note, name of his column) at Tempo magazine before it was banned. At his brief GM acknowledge also there are some parts of his book came from his legendary column. For readers who have limitation about religion horizon, this book could shake your faith. Although it not put bright blurp on it's cover like Da Vinci Code was. He took splash stories from far lands: Illiad which tell about Troy (38), al-Mutawakkil Baghdad caliph (41), 1001-Night Tales by Shahrazad (11), Sultan Akbar from India (21), Musa (23, 26,27,28,30), Yesus (24), Sophocles and Mahabharata (39), Serat Cabolek from Java (52), Ratu Kidul from Java also (67), Yosua (88), Sherlock Holmes and Andersen (56), Cervantez' Don Quixote (81), until Mel Gibson' Passion of The Christ (24) and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu' Babel. GM also rowing many great names -including from Indonesia history-: Sunan Kalijaga (1), Sitor Situmorang (2), Rilke (3,60), Omar Khayam (4), Subagio Sastrowardoyo (4,62), Chairil Anwar (4,16,32), Derrida (6,61,96), Holderlin (7), Amir Hamzah (8,21,40), Ibn Rushd (8, 22), Ibn Sina (8), Al-Ghazali (8,31,76), Buddha (9,28), Shakespeare (9), Karl Barth (13), Tagore and Adorno (15), William James, Roland Barthes (16), Tahar Djaout (17), Alan Badiou (22, 54), Simone Weil (21), Nietzsche (26,74,84), Lyotard (27), Muhammad (28,30), Santo Agustinus and Rudolf Otto (28), Boris Pasternak (33), Pramoedya Ananta Toer (33,53), Brecht (36,83), Noah (40), Al-Tabari (40), Goebbels dan Hitler (42,56), Claude Lefort (48), Baudrillard (49), Rene Girard (50), Lacan (51,54), Descartes (52), Neruda and Walter Benjamin (53), Foucault (54), Karl Marx (54), Sayyed Qutb (55), Gadamer (55), Heidegger (29,42,52,61,67), Ilya Ehrenburg (53), Albert Camus (57), Asmuni (58), Dao and Ranggawarsita (59), Levinas (61,85), Heraklitus (62), Vico (62), Marcel Proust (63), Cokot, Duchamp and Jean Tinguely (64), Husserl, Basho, Matisse, Jean-Luc Marion, Rusli, John Cage (65), Kafka (66), Abraham (68,79), Kierkegaard (68), Allen Ginsberg (70), W.H. Auden, Ibn Arabi dan Herodes (71), Naoki Sakai, Ito Jinsai and Kong Hu Cu (73), Angelus Silesius (74), Signorelli and Michelangelo (78), Roberto Calasso (79), George Steiner (80), Dylan Thomas (82), Fukuyama (84), Iqbal (85), Joan Copjec (86), Nelson Mandela (87), Derek Walcott and Sukarno (92), Rachel Bespaloff (93), Marion (95), Groucho Marx and Franz Fanon (96), dan Habermas and Mother Sud (99). I feel strange, from that many names which like worker who like to put ther presence card on the machine, GM not mention many names of God as they are same each other. He put God concept from any ages and cultures as simply as "God" word only. As simple as that. Just like what he hope from his book reader not to think too hard and look into his writing as simple as look at many stars which became the mystery of night sky. Then, this book maybe as manifestation of question about God which shadowing author's mind for years. The thing that could happen to other wayfarer also. Saya merasa asing berada di komunitas yang dulu pernah beberapa kali saya sambangi sewaktu jadi aktivis mahasiswa. Malam tadi di Freedom Institute, buku terbaru Goenawan Mohamad (GM) diluncurkan. Sebagai pembahas dihadirkanlah Pdt. Martin Lukito Sinaga dan KH Husein Muhammad. Pengunjung terbagi menjadi sejumlah kelompok: orang-orang dekat GM, orang-orang yang kerja dan kesehariannya bersinggungan dengan GM termasuk pers, orang-orang yang tertarik pada keriaan dan makan gratis seperti para mahasiswa, dan orang-orang seperti saya: yang bingung mengkategorikan diri. Toh malam itu kebingungan bukan semata monopoli saya, karena banyak pihak yang malam itu seperti terhenyak membaca buku GM yang mak nyuss. Kumpulan 99 fragmen pendek (GM menyebutnya "tatal") yang dinamainya buku, diberi judul aneh pula: Tuhan & Hal-Hal yang Tak Selesai. Membacanya, saya langsung teringat karya Nietzsche yang banyak berupa fragmen, meski lebih panjang (Meski GM menyebut ia terinspirasi Roestam Effendi). Model ini merupakan jalan pintas bagi `orang-orang kebanyakan ide' yang seringkali ide itu muncul selewat sehingga perlu ditulis bergegas sebelum ia menghilang. Maka bentuk fragmen jadi pilihan logis. Karenanya jangan heran bila tidak ada judul bab, yang ada adalah deretan nomor meski itu bukanlah urutan.Jangan harap akan membaca sebuah buku utuh dari depan ke belakang. Saya malah asal membuka halaman dan benar saja, sensasinya sama. Tiap fragmen terpisah tapi tetap berjalin-kelindan. Tidak ada keharusan membacanya sampai selesai bahkan. Hanya satu yang jelas, buku ini memaparkan pencarian seorang pejalan tentang makna kehidupan. Dan kehidupan dalam bentuknya yang par excellence adalah Tuhan. Di buku ini GM seperti pamer pengetahuannya akan cakrawala dunia. Seolah sudah dijelajahinya seluruh lembah, didakinya segala gunung, diselaminya selaksa samudra, demi menuliskan buku ini. Gayanya tetap tidak berubah, penuh referensi tanpa perlu catatan kaki. Gaya yang tak lekang sejak eranya ia menulis Catatan Pinggir di Tempo era sebelum dibreidel. Dalam kata pengantarnya GM juga mengakui ada tulisan yang berasal dari kolomnya yang legendaris itu. Bagi yang khazanah pengetahuan keagamaannya minim, dijamin buku ini mengguncang iman. Meski tanpa tulisan mentereng sebagai klaim "Buku Yang Mengguncang Iman" di sampulnya seperti Da Vinci Code. Serpihan kisah dari penjuru negeri-negeri jauh pun dicupliknya: Illiad yang mengisahkan Troy (38), al-Mutawakkil khalifah Baghdad (41), 1001 malamnya Shahrazad (11), Sultan Akbar dari India (21), Musa (23, 26,27,28,30), Yesus (24), Sophokles dan Mahabharata (39), Serat Cabolek dari Jawa (52), Ratu Kidul yang juga dari Jawa (67), Yosua (88), Sherlock Holmes dan Andersen (56), Don Quixote-nya Cervantez (81), hingga Passion of The Christ-nya Mel Gibson (24) dan Babel-nya Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. GM pun membariskan nama-nama besar: Sunan Kalijaga (1), Sitor Situmorang (2), Rilke (3,60), Omar Khayam, Subagio Sastrowardoyo (4,62), Chairil Anwar (4,16,32), Derrida (6,61,96), Holderlin (7), Amir Hamzah (8,21,40), Ibn Rushd (8, 22), Ibn Sina (8), Al-Ghazali (8,31,76), Buddha (9,28), Shakespeare (9), Karl Barth (13), Tagore dan Adorno (15), William James, Roland Barthes (16), Tahar Djaout (17), Alan Badiou (22, 54), Simone Weil (21), Nietzsche (26,74,84), Lyotard (27), Nabi Muhammad (28,30), Santo Agustinus dan Rudolf Otto (28), Boris Pasternak (33), Pramoedya Ananta Toer (33,53), Brecht (36,83), Nuh (40), Al-Tabari (40), Goebbels dan Hitler (42,56), Claude Lefort (48), Baudrillard (49), Rene Girard (50), Lacan (51,54), Descartes (52), Neruda dan Walter Benjamin (53), Foucault (54), Karl Marx (54), Sayyed Qutb (55), Gadamer (55), Heidegger (29,42,52,61,67), Ilya Ehrenburg (53), Albert Camus (57), Asmuni (58), Dao dan Ranggawarsita (59), Levinas (61,85), Heraklitus (62), Vico (62), Marcel Proust (63), Cokot, Duchamp dan Jean Tinguely (64), Husserl, Basho, Matisse, Jean-Luc Marion, Rusli, John Cage (65), Kafka (66), Ibrahim (68,79), Kierkegaard (68), Allen Ginsberg (70), W.H. Auden, Ibn Arabi dan Herodes (71), Naoki Sakai, Ito Jinsai dan Kong Hu Cu (73), Angelus Silesius (74), Signorelli dan Michelangelo (78), Roberto Calasso (79), George Steiner (80), Dylan Thomas (82), Fukuyama (84), Iqbal (85), Joan Copjec (86), Nelson Mandela (87), Derek Walcott dan Sukarno (92), Rachel Bespaloff (93), Marion (95), Groucho Marx dan Franz Fanon (96), serta Habermas dan Ibu Sud (99). Anehnya, dari nama-nama yang bak antri memasukkan kartu absen di buku itu, GM sama sekali tidak menuliskan beragam nama Tuhan seolah mereka semua sama saja. Ia memukul rata Tuhan dari berbagai zaman dan kebudayaan semata dengan menuliskan kata "Tuhan" saja. Sesederhana itu. Sebagaimana bisa jadi ia mengharapkan pembaca bukunya tidak mengernyitkan kening dan memandang bukunya sesederhana memandangi bintang yang jadi misteri langit malam. Maka, buku ini bisa jadi merupakan manifestasi pertanyaan tentang Tuhan yang telah menghantui GM -dan mungkin juga semua pejalan- selama tahun-tahun perjalanan kehidupannya. Foto: Bhayu M.H. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.16.15/1173 - Release Date: 05/12/2007 21:29 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
