Tristram Shandy Sudah Tiga Ratus Tahun

Novel paling melucukan - Tristram Shandy - yang akan pernah ditulis oleh sesiapa pun, kini telah berusia tiga ratus tahun, dan saya ikut meraikan bersama artikel yang ditulis di Los Angeles Review of Books:

To no one’s surprise, Sterne does not get an annual Bloomsday, nor will his tricentennial prompt anything near the worldwide mania of the Pride & Prejudice bicentennial earlier this year. I sent Patrick Wildgust a short note to ask why. (Wildgust is the current curator of Shandy Hall. His name, however redolent of Fielding, is real, though he suspects it is a corruption of “Wildgoose,” and that he is descended from Irish mercenaries of the 1600s). 

“Probably because Sterne is difficult to pin down or put into a tidy box,” Patrick said. “He is funny, poetic, philosophical, melancholic, familiar, clever, and unusual — sometimes in the space of a couple of pages. People tend to mistrust such diverse brilliance.”

Ia selalu menghairankan saya kenapa Sterne tidak pernah dipandang sama tinggi dengan Joyce atau Tolstoy. Ia seolah-olah kita mendewakan Picasso tanpa terlebih dahulu mendewakan Leonardo. Atau membina pintu tanpa terlebih dahulu membina rumah. Dan berapa banyak penulis telah menggunakan pintu untuk melalui rumah Tristram Shandy?