The Garuda, the Jambu Grove, and the Queen of the South Seas?

[whynot]

I mentioned to a couple of people that I'm fiddling around with a reinterpretation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe using Southeast Asian folktales and a cosmology that focuses on cycles rather than linear trajectories and dichotomy. What I'm thinking is, it's still four kids, but instead of the crisis in this world being WW2, it's the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Instead of the kids being sent out of the countryside to escape the Blitz, the parents have to leave the country because there were no jobs in Indonesia. The kids have to stay with their weird uncle. Anyway, I started writing it.

Writing non-autobiographically about Indonesians in Indonesia weirded my brain out. It kept on switching to "speaking Indonesian*" mode (not my most articulate mode, lemme tell ya), and I found myself trying to remember Indonesian vocabulary and sentence structure before I remembered that OH YEAH I'm writing this in English. It was just that my brain was going, "Okay, time to deal with Indonesian people who have X mannerisms and Y ideologies. Adjust!" And then it does. So, I have a few pages written, but the writing's stiff and the diction is off, trying to stay in English but instinctually veering to Indonesian.

I found myself asking, "Are these Indonesian names too off-putting for a non-Indonesian reader?" Then I had RaceFail flashbacks and I was like, "D-:!" wtf. My real name has always been a source of contention for me. It's the typical long foreign name, and people would be like, "Say your name, dude!" like it's just entertainment. And one time, after performing my name, one girl was like, "Yeah, but what is it without the accent? Say your name without the accent." Bitch, that was my name without the accent! diaf :(

In college, I changed my nickname to something simpler - not a Western name, just something monosyllabic (and spelled with two letters, but it still gets misspelled all the damn time anyway I JUST CAN'T WIN) - and my buddy Asef from high school was like, "I can't call you that. You're not that." He says it's colonial mentality on my part, and he talks about how Kang Wook goes by Kevin in Indiana now, and Bilal goes by Billy in Oregon; he makes a face and shakes his head. I don't know if I should be flattered or ticked off at this attitude. On the one hand, I respect his intentions, sure, down with the global western hegemony etc. On the other hand, don't tell me what I should call myself. Who are you to tell me who I am and what my reasons should be?

I also found myself asking, "Who the hell wants to read about Indonesians and Indonesia anyway?" But then I remember that questions like that are why I wanted to write this in the first place.

* Can I just say it kind of SHITS ME OFF when people say "Do you speak Bahasa?" 'cos that just means 'language'. Indonesians don't say we speak Bahasa. Bahasa Indonesia means 'Indonesian language'. It grew out of Malaysian (Basa Melayu?).


And now for something completely meme-ish! Tell me in the comments something you think I'd never ever write, then I try to commentfic this thing I would supposedly never write.

Comments

[westingturtle.livejournal.com]

I would definitely read it, although there'd half to be a bit of hand-holding on the folktales because they are completely out of my background and I wouldn't pick up any nuances.

On the name thing, I've always considered it more about the hassle it gives you. My name doesn't really have a background, it's just weird and made-up and I swore all through childhood that I would change it when I was older. I changed my mind once I stopped being a moody little preteen, but I still answer to at least three pronunciations from the people I don't see often enough to keep on correcting. And so far, they've always been more embarassed about it then I have.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Honestly, it's convenience that made me pick up another nickname. But then it just reminds me of my dad and his billion remote controls. Each one is supposed to make our lives easier and operate another awesome machine, but at the end you just have a lot of remote controls. It's a new kind of hassle. Friends from high school still tend to introduce me using my old name, and when friends from then and friends from now meet, there's occasionally confusion since they know me by different names.

I'm gonna give my kid names that don't need to be shortened to anything.