2666: Hans Reiter Berlari Ke Pantai
Setiap novel harus ada satu atau beberapa detik pengalaman yang sangat mengesankan sehingga susah untuk kita lupa walaupun bertahun selepas novel itu selesai dibaca. Kadang-kadang pengalaman itu sangat berkait rapat dengan plot, dan tanpanya, mungkin ia akan menjadi novel yang berbeza terus. Misalnya, penderitaan Lahuma akibat terpijak duri, atau detik mencemaskan ketika Meursault mengarahkan muncung pistol ke badan seorang lelaki Arab. Kadang-kadang pengalaman itu memalukan dan menjatuhkan maruah wataknya, seperti wanita kulit putih yang dirogol oleh kumpulan lelaki kulit hitam dalam novel J. M. Coetzee Disgrace, lalu kita menjadi sangat marah apabila nasib watak itu tidak diselematkan oleh pengarang. Kemudian ada juga pengalaman yang datang sekejap di tengah novel tetapi ia begitu aneh serta melucukan (novel Murakami sangat kaya dengan pengalaman jenis ini). Dan ada satu lagi pengalaman istimewa, malah jarang-jarang muncul, dalam novel yang saya sebut sebagai pengalaman membebaskan tekanan.
Saya temui pengalaman ini ketika membaca semula novel mega Roberto Bolano 2666:
"During his regiment's stay in Normandy, Reiter often swam, no matter how cold it was, off the rocks of Portbail, near the Ollonde, or off the rocks north of Carteret. His battalion was based in the town of Besneville. In the mornings he went out, with his weapons and a rucksack in which he carried cheese, bread, and half a bottle of wine, and walked to the coast. There he chose a rock well out of sight, and after swimming and diving naked for hours, he would stretch out of his rock and eat and drink and reread his book 'Animals and Plants of the European Coastal Region'.
Sometimes he found starfish, which he stared at for as long as his lungs would hold, until finally he made up his mind to touch them just before he returned to the surface. Once he saw a pair of gobies, Gobius paganellus, lost in a jungle of seaweed, and he followed them for a while (the seaweed jungle was like the locks of a dead giant), until he was seized by a strange, powerful despair and had to come up quickly, because if he had stayed down any longer the despair would have dragged him to the bottom.
Sometimes he felt so good, drowsing on his damp slab of rock, that he might have chosen never to rejoin the battalion. And more than once he gave serious thought to deserting, living like a tramp in Normandy, finding a cave, feeding himself on the charitable offerings of peasants or small thefts that no one would report. I would learn to see in the dark, he thought. In time my clothes would fall to rags and finally I would live naked. I would never return to Germany. One day I would drown, radiant with joy."
Bagi peminat Bolano, babak ini mungkin akan mengingatkan mereka kepada budak lelaki dalam cerpen "The Last Evening on Earth" yang meninggalkan kamar hotel untuk pergi berenang di pantai. Babak ini walaupun tidak ada sebarang kepentingan kepada perjalanan naratif, ia tetap membuka ruang sebentar untuk Hans Reiter lari dari medan perang, dan menjadi dirinya. Malah kita boleh juga kata apabila Hans dapat lari daripada tekanan naratif, Bolano juga dapat lari daripada tekanan untuk menulis dan menghabiskan novelnya. Seperti mana laut dan buku "Animals and Plants of the European Coastal Region" menjadi dunia peribadi untuk Hans membebaskan tekanan, maka fiksyen menjadi dunia untuk seorang novelis bernama Roberto Bolano menghilangkan dirinya. Ibarat menjadi tua dan mati di dalam sebuah gua di tepi pantai.
"During his regiment's stay in Normandy, Reiter often swam, no matter how cold it was, off the rocks of Portbail, near the Ollonde, or off the rocks north of Carteret. His battalion was based in the town of Besneville. In the mornings he went out, with his weapons and a rucksack in which he carried cheese, bread, and half a bottle of wine, and walked to the coast. There he chose a rock well out of sight, and after swimming and diving naked for hours, he would stretch out of his rock and eat and drink and reread his book 'Animals and Plants of the European Coastal Region'.
Sometimes he found starfish, which he stared at for as long as his lungs would hold, until finally he made up his mind to touch them just before he returned to the surface. Once he saw a pair of gobies, Gobius paganellus, lost in a jungle of seaweed, and he followed them for a while (the seaweed jungle was like the locks of a dead giant), until he was seized by a strange, powerful despair and had to come up quickly, because if he had stayed down any longer the despair would have dragged him to the bottom.
Sometimes he felt so good, drowsing on his damp slab of rock, that he might have chosen never to rejoin the battalion. And more than once he gave serious thought to deserting, living like a tramp in Normandy, finding a cave, feeding himself on the charitable offerings of peasants or small thefts that no one would report. I would learn to see in the dark, he thought. In time my clothes would fall to rags and finally I would live naked. I would never return to Germany. One day I would drown, radiant with joy."
Bagi peminat Bolano, babak ini mungkin akan mengingatkan mereka kepada budak lelaki dalam cerpen "The Last Evening on Earth" yang meninggalkan kamar hotel untuk pergi berenang di pantai. Babak ini walaupun tidak ada sebarang kepentingan kepada perjalanan naratif, ia tetap membuka ruang sebentar untuk Hans Reiter lari dari medan perang, dan menjadi dirinya. Malah kita boleh juga kata apabila Hans dapat lari daripada tekanan naratif, Bolano juga dapat lari daripada tekanan untuk menulis dan menghabiskan novelnya. Seperti mana laut dan buku "Animals and Plants of the European Coastal Region" menjadi dunia peribadi untuk Hans membebaskan tekanan, maka fiksyen menjadi dunia untuk seorang novelis bernama Roberto Bolano menghilangkan dirinya. Ibarat menjadi tua dan mati di dalam sebuah gua di tepi pantai.
Comments