It's always a brain trip to see festivity, integrity and public irony in orgy.
Distraction
When writing and reading are puffed up to a scale of a 5-day festival, in one of the most expensive places in Bali, the simplicity of being in the company of written word erodes under the abrasion of pricy admissions, faux-celebrity, and travel frenzy.
The good news is that, as far as my experience goes, that's the worst of it. It gets better from there. I think.
Desire
Much like Christmas and Pilgrimage and Rock concerts, when you surround yourself with people sharing the same passion, and in this case a craft both revered and solitary, you either
- lose the sense of being the ONLY ONE in the whole wide world who is taken in reverence and near-crazy, or
- gather the energy to postpone feeling depressed until some actual reading and writing occurs, or
- take home whatever is offered from being in the same place with so many crazies as yourself and squeeze some creative juice out of it.
Detachment
All will be well, you see, if the people gathered around the festival of writers and readers manage to write and read whether or not they gather to celebrate the book-hysteria. The sooner they get to it is the better.
For the Hajji returning from Meccah, the groupie limping home at dawn, and even saints after neural-denting ecstasies, post-party blues entangle us all. Sometimes with even worse feelings than if the boohaha had never happened, lest we fight it off with positive action. Even a little. Even for a minute. Even if for just a cup.
Dénouement
It's just the thing to expect from a place so weird that it would pay such a vivacious homage to writing and reading, two of the most solitary human behaviors. A place that, as often as I have been there, has never failed feeding my imagination with sublime joys and lasting friendships.
Fuel for everyday awesomeness.
If only I could stop myself from telling you about the boy I'm going to stalk while in Ubud.
As for stalking: you've got to mingle to meet a mate.
ReplyDeleteYet, while there one can try to enjoy the event and the participants ;D, but the main goal is to collect observations to write about*.
* One of the three great post-war Dutch authors ( Gerard Reve) did so. He visited an "international writers conference" in Edingburgh in the sixties.In a very long "letter" he -with much sarcasm, irony and analytical wit and in grandiose style- comments on and describes colleagues and the content of the conference. The book which is a collection of "letters" ("Op weg naar het einde" = Heading for the end), is in my opinion still a Mount Everest in the relatively flat Dutch literary landscape.
What are you saying, darling, that my blog isn't conspicuous enough? But I thought that leaving comments and tweeting were enough bait! Damn!
ReplyDeleteOh, and dammit, you just HAD TO introduce me to another Dutch, modern modern version of Oscar Wilde whose work isn't available on the public domain. Didn't you?
I loved reading his wiki page that much. Thank you.
@ Hning: You know damn well I was referring to : "If only I could stop myself from telling you about the boy I'm going to stalk while in Ubud".
ReplyDeleteAs for Gerard Reve I didn't mean to tease you. I'm sorry if I did. But he - in a failed effort to make a breakthrough on the Anglo-Saxon literary market- published one title ( four short stories) originally written in English: "The Acrobat and other stories".
It is out of stock but if we ever come within each other's vicinity I can bring the book - if you are interested :).