After Credit: Agatha Christie - Murder in the Mews

Pada tulisan sebelumnya, saya telah mengutarakan untuk menargetkan mampu menyelesaikan sekurang-kurangnya 4 buku tiap tahunnya. Meskipun tahun 2017 tinggal 3,5 bulan lagi, keyakinan untuk memenuhi angka tersebut tetap teguh. Hari ini saya telah menyelesaikan sebuah buku karya Agatha Christie, Murder in the Mews. Masih ada 3 buku lagi, minimal, demi mengubah Indonesiaku. Satu buku tiap bulan. Semoga mampu tercapai.

Tulisan ini tidak akan mereview atau merangkum isi novel tersebut, karena teman-teman bisa melihat spoiler-nya di Google dengan fitur search, namun berfokus pada impresi yang muncul usai membaca novel tersebut.

Murder in the Mews sendiri terdiri dari 4 kisah berbeda, yaitu: Murder in the Mews, The Incredible Theft, Dead Man's Mirror, dan Triangle at Rhodes. Semua kisah tersebut menceritakan peristiwa yang dialami oleh Hercule Poirot, seorang detektif swasta berkebangsaan Belgia yang menjadi tokoh utama dalam hampir di setiap karya Agatha, serta bagaimana 'sel otak kelabu'nya bekerja untuk menyingkap tabir kasus yang menaungi tiap kisah tersebut. Novel ini mampu menangkap perhatian sang pembaca untuk fokus kepada tindak-tanduk Poirot yang unik, tidak lazim, dan terkadang mengesalkan tokoh-tokoh lainnya. Berbeda dengan detektif legenda yang mahir dalam ilmu forensik, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot menggarisbawahi analisis berdasarkan reaksi psikologis yang muncul pada tiap kasus tersebut.

Saya sungguh menggandrungi kisah-kisah detektif. Memang pembahasannya seringkali memunculkan sakit kepala, namun saya tidak bisa memungkiri bahwa kisah detektif adalah candu bagi otak saya. Meskipun analisis saya telah terlatih oleh bacaan-bacaan detektif lainnya, tetapi nyatanya saya masih 'gagal' dalam menebak alur tulisan Agatha ini. Di Murder in the Mews, hasil akhirnya tak terkira. Tidak ada clue yang saya temukan untuk membantu memecahkan kasus tersebut sebelum mencapai akhir cerita. The Incredible Theft, Agatha mengarahkan pembaca untuk mencurigai seorang wanita cantik sebagai pencuri, ternyata terungkap bahwa ia hanya agen negosiasi negara asing. Dead Man's Mirror, konklusi yang muncul cukup membingungkan karena tidak ada satu petunjuk pun yang dapat saya temui untuk mengarah pada pelaku sebenarnya. Bisa jadi karena saya kekurangan petunjuk visual, sebagai penunjuk yang konkret, karena hanya mengandalkan visualisasi dari tulisan yang ada. Kisah terakhir, Triangle at Rhodes, pada awalnya saya kira akan membosankan karena pelakunya telah tertebak di tengah cerita. Siapa sangka jika tokoh tersebut hanyalah komplotan pelaku utama pembunuhan dalam kisah ini.

Agatha sejak dahulu telah didapuk sebagai The Queen of Crime, dan saya makin mengerti mengapa nama tersebut sungguh melekat padanya. Balutan kisahnya penuh misteri dan memiliki 'lapisan-lapisan kenyataan', dimana meskipun kita mampu mengupas sebuah layer misteri itu, ternyata masih ada lapisan-lapisan yang membungkus kebenaran yang ada. Situasi seperti ini sebenarnya tidak jauh berbeda dengan realita di sekitar kita. Meskipun kita mampu menguak sebuah peristiwa, namun bisa jadi masih ada lapisan-lapisan lain yang tanpa diduga mengaburkan kita terhadap kebenaran hakiki.

Mendongkrak Peringkat Perilaku Literasi (Literacy Behavior) di Indonesia

Based on research (tentu saja yang saya temukan di internet),  seseorang pada umumnya mampu menyelesaikan 4 buku dalam waktu satu tahun. Masalahnya, angka ini adalah angka mean, alias rerata orang-orang dengan kultur dan motivasi membaca yang beragam. Artinya apabila di dalam suatu daerah di dunia memiliki angka rerata 8 buku per tahun, maka ada pula daerah lain yang masyarakatnya tidak menyelesaikan buku sama sekali dalam waktu satu tahun tersebut.

Saya, sebagai orang Indonesia, patut khawatir dengan diri saya sendiri.  Flood (2016) mengutarakan bahwa berdasarkan berbagai pertimbangan, Indonesia menempati urutan ke-60 di dunia dalam "Perilaku Membaca dan Dukungan Sumber Bacaan". Well, peringkat 60 sedunia tentu tidak buruk mengingat ada lebih dari 180 negara di dunia. 

Guess what? Peringkat 60 tersebut mampu kita dapatkan hanya dengan mengalahkan statistik dari satu negara saja. Dengan kata lain, hanya ada 61 negara yang menjadi sampel penelitian tersebut! Dengan kata lain dari sebelumnya, Indonesia mendapatkan peringkat nomor dua dari belakang dalam perilaku literasi. Hasil ini mengindikasikan bahwa angka 93% populasi Indonesia yang mampu baca tulis tak dibarengi dengan aktivitas membaca serta perilaku terkait literasi lainnya. Merujuk pada angka yang muncul pada awal tulisan, seandainya rerata tiap orang di dunia menyelesaikan 4 buku per tahunnya, maka rerata Indonesia bisa jadi kurang dari 3 buku tiap orang per tahunnya atau malah bahkan tak ada satu bukupun yang diselesaikan! 

Lalu apa? Memangnya kita bisa apa untuk mengubah Indonesia yang sebegini besarnya? Saya pun tak punya jawaban yang dapat menyelesaikan seluruh problemnya. Yang saya miliki hanyalah satu keyakinan sederhana: menyelesaikan lebih dari 4 buku tiap tahunnya untuk mendongkrak statistik perilaku literasi Indonesia. Lho, memangnya perubahan satu orang saja mampu meningkatkan angka rerata 250 juta orang lainnya? Tentu saja, meskipun hanya nol koma nol nol sekian. Saya percaya progress sekecil apapun dapat berpengaruh pada hasil akhirnya kelak. Memang, sembari membaca buku lebih banyak, perlu dicari solusi yang lebih besar dampaknya bagi khalayak umum. 

Yang jelas, daripada hanya menyalahkan keadaan dan kondisi orang-orang di sekitarmu, lebih baik kita melakukan sesuatu, bukan? Mulai dari yang kecil, mulai dari diri sendiri, mulai dari sekarang.

Yuk baca buku! 

Referensi

Flood, A. (2016). The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/11/finland-ranked-worlds-most-literate-nation Retrieved at 12 Sept 2017.

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That Fear

I. Am. Afraid.

Since I have been here, there is one thing that bugs me most of my time. It is abstract, and that is the main reason of its indestructibility. A form of an idea can not vanish without trace. While it disturbs me like an pop up tab in a web browser, it makes me awake and conscious. There is something wrong with the place I was born. 

And that fear comes true. Well, not suddenly comes true, but based on the prediction it has substantive and enormous probability to occur in the social environment. You might say that it is a product of fear, an anxious feeling of the future, and that might be true. However, I do not see any critical evidence that prove the opposite.

The country will have immense friction. It might not be a weaponised conflict, or not yet. It will start, and already started, with a technological "weapon". Few of us will start to debate something based on its identity. They (or we) will try to distinguish between correct and wrong, and most likely anyone that is having different vision from us will be labelled as "wrong".

Unfortunately, that was not the most scary thing that I feared the most. The thing is when we actually in the wrong side, we still prove our correctness by using the mass effect. Quantity over quality. The country that at a time was using "musyawarah mufakat" or discussion and compromise as a foundation to pursue decision, now debate over everything and try to prove individual superiority. The debate itself is useful at some point, but frequently the "wrong-that-debate-everything-based-on-personal-opinion-but-do-not-want-to-accept-defeat" will eventually attack the identity of the opposite side. And, the scariest thing is, it works.

Technology development and advancement is like a knife. For a chef, it is a significant equipment to create an art. For a murder, it is a weapon to kill - but well, everything could be a weapon for them, even chopstick or pencil. In regard to this analogy, there is an obvious major distinction between the two and several slight differences. One of that differences is to become a chef, someone will need a proper training and knowledge, while for the other it is not needed. Therefore, we need a large number of "chef trainer" to train the people to use the tool correctly in the safe way and indirectly minimise the probability of increasing number of murderer.

The First for Everything

Being a newcomer could cause stirred feelings inside us. It is a fascinating, exciting, but confusing or even overwhelming circumstance. We can be enthusiastic, yet worried the outcome discouraging ourselves even more. 

The fear of doing something based on our own thoughts or consideration called mental block. Basically, it is a natural survival instinct to protect us from any potential risk which might be threatened ourselves. The lack of our understanding of the state, anxiousness, fearfulness, and the drive to be safe build a thick barrier that prevents crossing action. A frightening well-known nature we need to be wary of, mental block grows over time which implicitly means it will be harder to overcome.

We always have two options, face the mental block and cope with the horror or avoid the position and be safe in the comfort zone. While all of us know breaking the mental block is the only way to live comfortably, it is easier said than done. We may suggest others face the challenge, but hardly have the courage to solve our problems. Run and wish never deal with the terror is an intense tempting alternative but escaping problem will only suspend it from reoccurring again and again. Nevertheless, forcing ourselves to take a small step continuously to pass the barrier is a reasonable long-term solution.

Everything we can do was nil at the beginning. Our actual skill was only a potential at one point and will always be unless we boost ourselves. However, we can list abundant things now because of our previous effort. Trying something then failed is natural, but we never gave up. As an ordinary person, not a special snowflake, I kept telling myself that flunked on the first try is normal. Even so, a significant self-improvement should develop upon every failure.

A new condition might horrifying and escape from a potential risk element is a tempting alternative, yet dealing with the situation is the better -but more challenging- choice to overcome the problem. There always be the first time for everything. Giving up before even trying not only postpone individual's growth, but also the world's since its improvement totally depends on the people.

By the way, this is my first post in February.

Bertemu

Love, the burgeoning sector in young adulthood phase of human development, was the only important and interesting thing in the early third semester.  I tried to build a relationship after my ex dumped me all of a sudden in the first semester, but none succeeded. There was two or three candidate, but one was too bland while another frequently broached sensitive matters. I did not mention the others that did not have any interest with me. However, life must go on. I was a wanderer that looking for a peace.

She was the one. She, the one that ended our relationship before we even started, indirectly instilled her life principal to me. But she was the past, only a history. And I did not want to enlarge the wound that she made.

My mind wandered through the past. The ex, the girl that I liked, the girl that I secretly admired, and so on and so forth. The details of the situations were repeated like a record in my brain. It kept going on for days. I could not concentrate on the course (since when I even concentrate on one?). But, poof, suddenly they were gone. I saw you.

I found you, you the one that I saw in the public lecture. You that gave a strong first impression to me, but I could not find you anywhere I look. I was frozen for a while. You walked past me and sat on the back of the class. It was an Industrial and Organization Psychology class. Finally, I found you and I could jump for joy.

Wait, I did not know you, neither you were. What if she already had a boyfriend? What if she did not like me at all? What if, what if, what if. Okay, just go with the flow, I had to make it smooth and slow. Maybe, just a friend? Yes, moving on to "friend" from two strangers was the choice that I made. I wanted to know more about you but slowly, so nobody will get hurt.

I kept quietly watching you throughout the day.