Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Resensi Novel

Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas

Karya: Eka Kurniawan

“Enggak bisa. Aku enggak bisa menjadi kekasihmu. Kamu seperti cahaya dan aku gelap gulita, sesuatu yang kamu tak akan mengerti.” Tentu saja ia ingin mengucapkan sesuatu yang tak terucapkan mulutnya: aku tak bisa ngaceng. (Kurniawan, 59-60)
            Ia adalah Ajo Kawir, seorang lelaki yang tidak bisa membahagiakan istri maupun dirinnya sendiri. Saat berusia 19 tahun, ia menemani Si Tokek, teman sepermainannya mengintip Rona Merah, seorang janda gila yang menggairahkan sedang melakukan hubungan seksual dengan dua orang polisi. Ia terpaksa menyaksikan kejadian tersebut dan sangat menikmatinya. Ketika Ajo Kawir ditantang salah satu polisi untuk menyetubuhi Rona Merah, tiba-tiba penisnya tidak bisa ereksi menyerupai seekor burung yang sedang lelap tertidur. Sejak saat itulah ia tumbuh menjadi lelaki impotensi yang suka berkelahi.
            Perkelahian adalah luapan emosi Ajo Kawir atas ketidaksempurnaannya itu. Ia bahkan pernah membunuh Si Macan, kakak dari suami Rona Merah dengan cara yang sangat tragis. Ia memukul kepala lelaki pincang itu hingga nyaris terbelah. Ia juga pernah mengiris telinga kanan Pak Lebe, pemilik kontrakan yang meniduri Si Janda Muda setelah membunuh suami janda tersebut. Ajo Kawir tidak pernah takut darah, penjara, bahkan konsekuensi mati sekalipun. Ia sangat menikmati perkelahian dengan hanya bermodalkan nekat. Hal ini mengakibatkan orang tua Ajo Kawir menyerah, tidak sanggup mendidiknya lagi hingga mereka mengamanahkannya kepada Iwan Angsa, ayah Si Tokek.
            Ajo Kawir termasuk orang yang beruntung ketika ia hendak menemui Pak Lebe. Disana ia bertemu dengan Iteung, seorang gadis yang menguasai teknik bela diri. Mereka sempat berkelahi sebelum Iteung membiarkan Ajo Kawir pergi menemui Pak Lebe. Sejak saat itulah Ajo Kawir mengagumi kemampuan Iteung dan mereka saling mencintai. Mereka bahkan pernah berciuman dan bercinta di satu tempat parkir yang lengang saat malam minggu. Hanya saja percintaan tersebut justru membuat Ajo Kawir semakin gundah ketika ia sadar bahwa dirinya menderita impotensi. Ia pun berinisiatif menggunakan jarinya sebagai pengganti penis setiap kali mereka bercinta. Tak berselang lama, Ajo Kawir dan Iteung menikah. Mereka hidup dalam kesederhanaan dan kehangatan sebuah keluarga bahagia. Namun, rahasia besar Iteung pun akhirnya terungkap. Iteung hamil tanpa tahu ayah dari calon bayi tersebut.
Jelas bukan Ajo Kawir yang menghamili Iteung. Mungkin saja Pak Toto, guru sekaligus wali kelas Iteung yang berhasil merenggut keperawanannya dengan cara memanfaatkan sifat lugu seorang bocah. Iteung sadar bahwa kelaminnya terasa sakit akibat perbuatan Pak Toto, tapi ia terlambat menyadari hal itu sebagai pertanda bahwa ia sudah tidak perawan lagi. Berkali-kali Iteung mencoba melupakan kenangan itu, berkali-kali pula ia tak sanggup meredam nafsu untuk melakukannya kembali dengan lelaki lain. Saat itu, ia mengenal Budi Baik, teman seperguruan silatnya. Mereka sering terlihat bersama sebagai tim kerja yang kompak. Mereka sering bercanda layaknya teman yang sudah saling mengenal sejak kecil. Hal ini mengakibatkan Budi Baik berprasangka lain dan mengira bahwa mereka telah menjadi sepasang kekasih. Prasangka tersebut semakin kuat saat Iteung bersedia tidur dengannya. Budi Baik salah sangka karena saat itu Iteung telah menemukan cinta sejatinya, Ajo Kawir. Iteung tidak pernah menganggap Budi Baik sebagai pacarnya, ia bahkan sering menolak dengan kasar seluruh ajakan dan rayuannya.
Iteung pernah berpikir bahwa Budi Baik adalah ayah dari bayi yang sedang dikandungnya mengingat mereka sering berhubungan seksual. Namun, hal itu justru membuatnya marah. Jika Budi Baik tidak bersedia tidur dengannya, maka ia tidak akan hamil. Jika ia tidak hamil, maka Ajo Kawir tidak akan marah. Jika Ajo Kawir tidak marah, maka Ajo Kawir tidak akan pergi merantau meninggalkannya seorang diri. Dendam dan amarah itu menguasai diri Iteung. Dalam keadaan hamil muda, ia nekat menemui Budi Baik dan membunuhnya. Budi Baik mati, Iteung masuk penjara, dan bayi dalam kandungan Iteung lahir serta tumbuh besar tanpa didampangi oleh kedua orang tuanya.
Sementara itu, Ajo Kawir bekerja sabagai seorang sopir truk. Perjalanan Jawa-Sumatra dan Sumatra-Jawa sudah biasa baginya. Saat memulai awal kariernya di bidang transportasi, ia bertemu dengan Mono Ompong, bocah lugu yang setia menemani kemana pun ia pergi. Mereka kompak dalam bekerja dan menanggapi ulah Si Kumbang, sopir truk bengis yang menjengkelkan. Mono Ompong bahkan pernah beradu nyawa dengan Si Kumbang hingga nyaris mematikan dirinya sendiri. Namun, Mono Ompong mengikuti saran Ajo Kawir untuk menusuk mata Si Kumbang sehingga ia berhasil memenangkan pertandingan tersebut. Meskipun Mono Ompong menang, ia tetap harus rehat selama beberapa bulan untuk memulihkan kembali kakinya yang hampir patah. Ia pulang ke kampung halamannya dan meninggalkan Ajo Kawir seorang diri.
Di luar dugaan, Ajo Kawir justru bertemu dengan  Jelita, wanita dengan nama yang indah namun buruk rupa. Ia bahkan tidak memiliki nafsu sedikit pun untuk menidurinya. Namun, kisah ini berakhir tragis. Ajo Kawir sering memimpikan Jelita, tidur dengannya, dan sesuatu di balik celana dalamnya menyembul ingin membebaskan diri. Sesuatu itu semakin lama semakin membesar, mengeras, dan menyemburkan cairan putih kental yang sangat lengket. Ajo Kawir bisa ereksi. Ia sangat takjub atas kenyataan itu. Ia pun berpikir bahwa Jelita lah wanita yang dapat membantunya menjadi pria normal. Pikiran itu semakin berontak dalam benak Ajo Kawir. Di satu sisi, ia ingin tidur dengan Jelita agar bisa ereksi. Sedangkan, ia masih ragu atas komitmennya dengan Iteung, wanita yang telah dinikahinya. Ia selalu ingat bahwa penisnya hanya untuk Iteung. Namun, ia adalah lelaki normal yang merasa kesepian setelah lama terpisah dengan istrinya. Ia ingin tidur dengan wanita, ia ingin bercinta. Apalagi Jelita semakin nakal menggodainya saat ia tengah mandi di salah satu toilet sebuah pom bensin. Jelita tiba-tiba menyeruak masuk toilet sebelum Ajo Kawir sempat menutup pintu. Keduanya saling pandang cukup lama hingga Jelita semakin mendekat, menciumi bibir dan kemaluannya. Entah apa yang terjadi, burung itu benar-benar bangun dan mimpi itu menjadi kenyataan. Ajo Kawir bisa ereksi. Ia mempergunakannya untuk bersetubuh dengan Jelita. Sesuatu yang aneh pun terbesit dalam benak Ajo Kawir, ia merasa pernah mengenalnya sewaktu ia masih berusia belasan tahun. Ia sadar, Jelita mirip Rona Merah. Setelah menyadari burungnya yang tidak lagi tidur, Ajo Kawir berniat menemui Iteung yang telah bebas dari penjara. Ia sudah sangatlah merindukan istrinya itu. Ia ingin bercinta dengan Iteung layaknya lelaki normal. Ia ingin memuaskan nafsu Iteung yang dulu sempat tertunda. Hanya saja hal itu tidak pernah terjadi.
Saat Ajo Kawir berhasil menemui istrinya, ia justru semakin kecewa. Iteung harus masuk penjara lagi karena telah membunuh dua polisi yang menyebabkan burung Ajo Kawir tidur. Awalnya, Iteung berpikir bahwa itu adalah cara terbaik untuk membantu membangunkan burung suaminya. Namun, ia salah. Burung itu telah bangun, bisa menggeliat, dan membesar karena Jelita. Seharusnya Iteung tidak seceroboh itu. Ia kembali membuat Ajo Kawir menunggu untuk menidurinya. Ia pun berhasil membuat burung itu ingin tidur kembali.
“Aku akan bersabar menunggunya, seperti kau bersabar menungguku bangun, Tuan. Bolehkah sementara menunggu, aku tidur lagi?” (Kurniawan, 243)
*Tulisan ini dibuat untuk tugas Bahasa Indonesia di semester 2. Awalnya merasa susah dan risih dengan konten atau bahasa novelnya. Namun, setelah dibaca secara keseluruhan saya mengerti bahwa itulah seni menulis dengan gaya bahasa dan nilai estetika masing-masing untuk menyampaikan maksud atau pesan tertentu.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Evaluation of "Comix Poetics" by Andrew D. Arnold

Andrew D. Arnold was one of the columnists in Time.com who wrote Comix Poetics. He prefers to use the word “comix” rather than “comics” to describe the entire essay which talking about the combination between comics and poetics. Arnold directs the reader straight to his main topic by asking question in last sentence of first paragraph. He writes, “For example, can comics create poetry like the work of Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, or Aleksander Pushkin?” The point that needs to be underlined is he likes to mention some of expertise in explaining idea. It would help reader easily understand what he is trying to say. However, sometimes, Arnold gives too much details of an idea. When he mentioned about Herriman, he spends a whole one paragraph to explain about Herriman’s work, but he could not elaborate it well, especially when he mentioned Herriman’s three principal characters which are lovesick Krazy Kat, brick-throwing Ignatz Mouse, and dutiful Offica Pup. The explanation about those characters is not concise and not straightforward. This makes reader hard to get the point of that paragraph.

            Furthermore, it also happens in another paragraph. He likes to quote sentence which is unclear. One of them is in second sentence in the explanation of Anders Nilsen. He wrote, “..., published by Fantagraphics books _______ The fall 2005 .....” The blank between the phrase “Fantagraphics books” and “the fall 2005” is not clear. He could not drive reader to get into his point and it is such a rare paragraph that can be found in an essay. Therefore, it might make reader need to evaluate more about Arnold’s work experience. Does Arnold experience capture the work of comics and poetics expertise? Do 5 years working experience as columnist is enough to measure his understanding about comics and poetics? He might be good and detail in giving explanation in his essay. However, he needs to be more specific and concise in explaining and mentioning the work of another expertise as his example. 

*this evaluation is intended to accomplish EAP 3 assignment

Summary of "Violent Media is Good for Kids" by Gerard Jones

In “Violent Media is Good for Kids”, Gerard Jones argues that violent media gives benefit for mentality development of the children. This benefit has been implemented to his son who transformed bloodthirsty dinosaur into an encouragement to enter preschool; a Power Ranger into self power by joining social competition in Kindergarten. He also has helped Emily, a little girl who loves exploring violent action, to have more self-controlled and socially competent by giving her a chance to draw comics to express her emotional condition. Not only that, his mom who firstly against The Incredible Hulk and Marvel Comics turned to believe that those entertainments demonstrate pacifism and tolerance. Those experiences makes him strongly believes that violent entertainment in which people might think it is the trashiest pop culture has its own developmental function. Violent entertainment will help children express their feelings and fantasies so that they will not grow up too passive, distrustful, and easily manipulated. When parent act to protect their children too much to watch violent media, it means they are not against violence but against power and selfhood. Therefore, parent has to not hardly protect their children to be familiar with violent media.

*I wrote this summary for accomplishing EAP 3 assignment

Monday, December 28, 2015

Violent Game’s Contribution to Indonesia

Playing games are very common in today’s era. It usually used by people as a tool to refresh their mind after working and studying. According to a research conducted by the eMarketer, it is noted that there is 10% of Indonesian population playing digital games and the games market are predicted to be doubled by 2017. The behavior of playing digital game is becoming new trend in Indonesia in which sometimes; neglecting the content of the game itself. The Indonesian Intelligence Agency noted that some video games may contain violation and pornography. Those who are addicted to such games will potentially have deviate attitude, behavior, and character. Although video games may lead people to commit crime and violate others, there is some evidence which shows positive impact of playing violates games, especially for the youth in Indonesia.

Many people tend to believe that everything they heard and see will influence their behavior. This paradigm leads news media and researchers in the United States to have speculation about video games as the cause of many violation cases. This speculation begun due to the fact that shows 97% of kids under the age of 12-17 who are actively playing video games make the increasing number of bullying and violence towards women. Not only that, another tragedy also showed that Columbine shooting in 1999 happened in the same time with Seung Hui Cho’s case about killing 32 students and faculty. This paradigm becomes even stronger when most of the famous video games today are talking about battle. One of that famous games in 2015 is Mortal Kombat X, a game that published by Warner Bros. This game gives brutal experience and pushes its player to win the game by killing their opponent. Unfortunately, this fighting game is gaining a good review from game players and potentially expanded by a couple of years later. If this expansion continuously happened, game player will automatically learn on how to fight against each others in many more violation ways. Not only Mortal Kombat X which popular in today’s era, but also 33 popular Sega and Nintendo games in 1990s also contained violation. Interestingly, 80% of Sega and Nintendo were violent in nature and 21% of it was violence towards women.

In fact, there has been a lot of research about the impact of playing violent games. Most of the result of those researches shows that playing games which contains violation will increase people aggressiveness. One of the researches was done by Anderson and Dill by examining two studies on aggression-related variables. Study 1 found that there is positive relation between playing violent game and aggressive behavior either delinquency. It also examined the bad impact of losing time for study because of too much playing such games. Unfortunately, the result of study 2 was similar to study 1 which shows aggressive behavior and thought is increasing after playing violent games. Logically, video game will influence aggression-related feelings of anger or hostility of a person. When they watch and play violent games, the angriness will simultaneously increase rather than playing nonviolent games. It can be said that violation in game may become the provocateur to increase anger which makes gamer could not be relaxed while playing and become ambitious to win. They will also pay too much attention on how to win the game until sometimes; do not care about their surroundings. As the result, they will not only commit violate, but also become individual and have less time to do socialization towards others.

However, a research conducted by three graduate students in the University of Tokyo had contradictory result about aggressiveness. This research was mainly talking about long-term neuropsychological outcomes related to video game violence. Those graduate students noted about previous study conducted by Anderson and Dill which not clearly discussing about long-term aggressiveness level. They only stated that aggressiveness behavior will increase after playing violent games, nor telling the specific time and duration of being aggressive. When it comes to the research about long-term neuropsychological outcomes, the result shows aggressiveness has remained short-lived and lacked of long-term consequences. So, the level of being aggressive will gradually decrease due to some extension of time. In addition, a journal about a meta-analytic review has an interest result about aggression rates which are varies across countries and cultures, especially for western people compared to eastern people. This makes people could not generalize the aggression for each person across nations is merely the same. Therefore, it can be concluded that there are another factors that need to be considered before mentioning violent video game as the major cause of violent actions.

In the contrary of bad impact of playing violent games, Jordan Shapiro, a contributor in the Forbes site stated that playing violent games will give positive youth development in giving intrinsic motivation, cognitive effort, and cumulative effort to elicit initiative. The initiative could come when youth feel pressured to face challenges while playing the game. This challenge will push them to have more concentration and effort so that they will win the game. Not only that, the key point of initiative is the ability to sustain activity in order to find youth passion in the game world. In Indonesia, having passion to be the game developer is very valuable. As mentioned in dailysocial.net, Indonesian government starts to realize the opportunity of the development of Indonesian game industries. They have already allocated 30 billion rupiahs to support the development and competitiveness of game industries either to prepare the roadmap. The roadmap itself will help to state the harmonized regulation, standardization, technology, distribution, and other industries facilities. Besides that, the government has also planned to prepare certification for people who have commitment to develop the games. Therefore, by understanding this opportunity, there is no needs to keep bad paradigm about games and give stigmatization on violate game until in the worst case; it is banned from the market.

In fact, playing violate game that become one of the most popular game in this era is important in order to learn and understand the trend and mechanism of how the game works. When youth have better understanding on how to implement and develop current famous games, they will be able to create their own market and increase their competitiveness in global games market. In Indonesia, there are around 8 game developers that are already competed in the global market. One of them is Kidalang which has already launched 2 game series; Sage Fusion and Sage Fusion 2. This start-up game developer which has violation content inside it has won 200,000 USSD from Tizen App Challenge. Besides Kidalang, Toge Productions is also having a great achievement by gaining 159 million users from all over the world. Not too different from Kidalang, Toge Production is also mainly talking about battle. One of their products is Infectonator: World Dominator and Planetary conflict. These two Indonesian game developers have proven that violate video games, in some extend is beneficial for industry and even a country. In the China-Indonesia Mobile Game Conference (CIMGC), Anton Soeharyo, the CEO of Touchten, underlined that there are 5 most-wanted applications in Google Play that has already successfully got 545,000 USD/month and 308,000 USD/month for App Store in 2014. These are a great potential of mobile game penetration in Indonesian market. When youth and game developers could maximize this opportunity, they will not only gain success for themselves but also take a part as contributors to increase Indonesian economic growth.


Another opportunity that can be seen in Indonesian game market is penetrating violent game which contains Indonesian cultural values. Lots of Indonesian hero stories have already been forgotten by most of Indonesian society, especially youth. As the consequence, they might gradually decrease their intention to know and preserve national hero stories of their own country. Therefore, in order to motivate them to have interest in hero stories, game developers could create game about battle to follow today's trend, but still included national cultural values to preserve Indonesian cultures. For example, they can modify Sage Fussion's story becomes Pattimura battle story. The costumes can be changed indto Indonesian hero's costume and replace the gun with bambu runcing as Indonesian traditional battle equipment. By having this kind of game, gamers will not only feel the enjoyment of playing game and consume violation, but also take one step further in preserving national culture.

In conclusion, people could not generalize violent game as the main cause of violation cases. It is clear that game violence is not the sole of aggression, but only one of several factors leading to it. As most of today’s games turned into violent games, people do not need to stigmatization these games only depend on its negative impact. However, they have to look this phenomenon into another perspective. When people are able to put themselves in the positive side of violent games, they will look opportunity on how these games could increase their economic condition and the economy of their country. 

References:

Ferguson, C.J. (2007). The good, the bad and the ugly: a meta-analytic reviewof positive and     negative effects of violent video games. Psyichiatr Q, 78, 309-316. doi: 10.1007/s11126-007-9056-9

Gentile, D.A., Lynch,P.J., Linder, J.R., & Walsh, D.A. (2004). The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 5-22. Retrieved from http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jado

Anderson, C.A., Ihori, N., Rothstein, H.R., Shibuya, A., Swing, E.L., . . . Sleem, M. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in eastern and western countries: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 151-173. doi: 10.1037/a0018251

Anderson, C.A., & Dill, K.E. (2000). Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(4), 772-790. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.78.4.772

Tamamiya, Y., Matsuda, G., & Hiraki, K. (2014). Relationship between video game violance and long-term neuropsychological outcomes. Psychology, 5, 1477-1487. Retrieved from http://www.scirp.org/journal/psych

Badan Intelijen Negara. (2012). Mewaspadai dampak permainan video game. Retrieved from http://www.bin.go.id/awas/detil/129/4/24/07/2012/mewaspadai-dampak-permainan-video-game

Global Web Index. (2014). Mobile activities [Picture]. Indonesia: We are Social

Do violent video games contribute to youth violence? (n.d.). Retrieved from http://videogames.procon.org/

Shapiro, J. (2013). New research emphasizes gaming's positive impact on psychological development. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2013/01/29/new-research-emphasizes-gamings-positive-impact-on-psychological-development/

Mitchell, M.P., (n.d.). Effects of video games: more good than bad for youth development?. Retrieved from http://www.rootsofaction.com/video-games-for-kids-more-good-than-bad-for-development/

Priambada, A. (2015). Hal-hal yang harus diketahui pengembang sebelum melepas mobile game di Indonesia. Retrieved from https://dailysocial.net/post/hal-hal-yang-harus-diketahui-pengembang-sebelum-melepas-mobile-game-di-indonesia

Ryza, P. (2015). Pemerintah mulai lirik industri game tanah air. Retrieved from https://dailysocial.net/post/pemerintah-mulai-lirik-industri-game-tanah-air

Lukman, E. (2014). Ingin download game baru di handphone? 8 developer game Indonesia ini bisa membantu Anda!. Retrieved from https://id.techinasia.com/ingin-download-game-baru-8-developer-game-indonesia-ini-bisa-membantu-anda/

*this essay is written to accomplish EAP 3 (English for Academic Purposes) assignment about "Writing an argumentative essay" (in 3rd semester) 

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Discovering Talent

That's me with Mrs. Winnie. Kita dapat job buat jadi juri ILC internal speech competition

Aku bukan orang yang ekspert di bidang speech, cuma punya beberapa pengalaman aja di public speaking. Mulai dari SMA jadi Guide team sampai sekarang yang benar-benar fokus buat mengembangkan talent di public speaking. Semester 2 kemarin aku mulai ikutan lomba speech AEO dan ALSA UI. Syukurlah lolos satu round di masing-masing lomba; jadi octofinalist di AEO dan semifinalist di ALSA UI. 

Maunya kasih input buat peserta, tapi jatohnya malah dibikin ketawa sama teman-teman

Dari dua pengalaman itulah aku mulai ngerti talentku dimana, yaitu di public speaking. Makanya sekarang uda ga ragu buat lebih rajin ikut lomba yang eksplor kemampuan berbicara. Tiap kali ikut lomba ga perlu ambisi buat menang, yang penting belajar dan jalin networking sama peserta, panitia, EO, bahkan judges nya. Nanti akan ada saatnya kalau kita uda benar-benar ngerti medan kompetisi, kita patut berambisi buat menang. 

Aku sama teman-teman lagi nunggu lombanya dimulai lagi

Masih banyak peluang-peluang lain yang harus dicoba. Aku masih perlu banyak belajar dari sekitarku. Dari empat target yang aku bikin selama kuliah, masih ada satu yang belum kesampaian. Yaitu ikutan terpilih mengikuti student exchange di negara lain. Perjuangan masih panjang. Semangat!!!

Congratulation for all speech winners! You have to try another competition outside our campus. Ganbatte!!!