Melancholic Malaise
In one of the Raya Haji/New Year makan-makans, I found myself enjoying a plate of biryani next to Karen, grandmother to three adorable Malaysian-American kids. She had previously lived in Malaysia for quite some time, claiming Kelantan and Johor to be her two favorite states to live in.
"So what did you like best about Malaysia when you were there?"
Without even pausing to think about it she said, "The melancholic attitude of the people." I had to smile at this. She continues, "The melancholy is so strong it permeates the songs, the food, the clothes, the way people communicate. I liked that. The melancholy is always there when you talk to the people in Malaysia."
"...you're always thinking about a great time long ago..."
"You mean 'sadness'"?
"Melancholy doesn't have to mean 'sadness'. Melancholy is a strong longing for things of the past. When you talk you're always thinking about a great time long ago and it comes out in your conversations, the way you talk and it comes out in your songs, it makes them go like this," and she traces a wave with her outsretched hand.
"Nostalgia."
"Yes, something like that."
She thinks it's romantic, this melancholy. Romantic in the Victorian sense, not the Iloveyouyouloveme sense. I think it's just this inability to let go of the past, this strong grip on what made us so great before that we are unable to turn around "...our arts and culture don't really go through a Neo phase, does it?"and look at what's making us so mediocre right now. It's true about the songs, though. Our songs are so mendayu-dayu, always so sad, always so, well, melancholic, yeah.
When you think about it, our arts and culture don't really go through a Neo phase does it? There's never a New Age or Modern or Post-something era. No New Cinema like the French had in the sixties, no Modern Art. Post-Colonialism, maybe, but those are still yearning for the golden age of our past, of how things were before the British came. We don't embrace modernity that much, just its glitzy shiny steel surfaces and the trappings that come with it. It certainly does not permeate our everyday life.
I was told, almost in passing, that my writings are melancholic. Oh ye ke? Entahlah. Perhaps it's the tone, the voice. Sometimes I do wish things would go back to the way they were, and I guess that comes out somehow. Kalau nak jadi New Age, macam mana ya?
4 people wrote:
Have to embrace something new lor. Not hanging onto the status quo of the arts and culture of old.
There are some movement that does that. Although not in the true sense of word - our experimental theater are not really experimental, our progressive music are not really progressing either.
But, I really think it needs to start on the way we write. We really need to give the literature scene in Malaysia a right kick in the nether regions. In order to do that, we need to get the people to read first. All that crap about zero illiteracy is just a smokescreen I think. If you recognize your ABC then you are considered literate. Whether you grow up to read anything worthwhile or not does not matter.
How many of us can truly say they finished (or even heard of ) Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red or Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. I haven't. I am even struggling to finish the Collected Fictions by Borges. Hah. Ask them if they want a copy to read.
Now ask the same people the same questions for non-fiction titles like from Trump or Martha Stewart. Gates to Azizi Ali. Books that is supposedly helps you to be rich. Or richer. Chances are they can name a few titles. Heck, they might have one for you to borrow.
Those books will only teach you to be materialistic, for me at least. To covet the physical things. None takes you someplace mystical or historical. These books will turn the people into modern-communist, who only seeks material possessions. Superficial.
Like a friend of mine said, "Nyahkan buku ini dari hidup anda."
Oy, enough drivel lah.
Being smart or well read is considered elitist by some in Malaysia. But it's the same here jugak, where blue collar anything is much more appreciated and welcomed than hoity toity whatever. I think the challenge is to make art and culture, good ones, thought provoking ones, not just available and appreciated to the priveleged few, but loved and needed by all.
I'll never forget the time someone asked me why I'm a Lit major, because our country is still developing and has no need for art and lit majors yet. He said until we are fully developed in the economic and political sense, only then can we turn our attention to developing arts and culture. Tapi in the meantime, wither our kids' minds? Sampai bila nak tunggu kan?
Aiyoh, so art, literature, philosophy etc are a luxury, rather than a necessity? What's wrong with feeding the mind and soul along with the body? Don't tell me all those engineers, doctors, lawyers and economists (haha) are supposed to be soulless automatons? And who says studying literature, philosophy and all those other hoity toity subjects are pointless? I think most of my analytical skills I learnt from doing history and lit during A Levels (all I learnt studying for SPM was how to memorize copious skema jawapan).
Btw, odd your sister should mention Orhan Parmuk- he thinks Istanbul natives (Instabulians?) have the monopoly on melancholia. I think Malaysians (or is it Melayu) are not so much melancholic as 'jiwang' (very different from melancholy) and we like to hark back to some so-called glorious past because frankly, that was probably the best times we ever had. Cf. Prof. Ungku Aziz, 'Tak payahlah cakap pasal Zaman Kegemilangan Melayu Melaka, bukannya gemilang sangat pun- kalau Empayar Turki Othmaniah tu barula gemilang'. I await the flames.
P/s:- Ok, dah update.
Yeah, makcik I read your update already tapi your Haloscan was disabled so cannot leave comment, how? I wanted to say pieces like that is exactly why you need to write more often.
Oh and that I too read my own archives and give myself that maudlin feeling. Heh.
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