Kiat Sukses Hancur Lebur, or WTH Did I Just Read

"Tidak ada gunanya. Itulah intinya. Tidak ada gunanya. Mari makan rebung, Bapak-Ibu sekalian."

I'm a total philistine when it comes to contemporary Indonesian literature. Or any Indonesian literature, for that matter. As such, I don't have what you might call "taste". I don't know what is good even if it hits me in the face. Once in a blue mooon, though, I'd pick something up, and my only criterion was whether something was interesting. It must've been one of those aimless Internet surfing sessions that brought me to Martin Suryajaya's Kiat Sukses Hancur Lebur, and let me tell you: reading it was one hell of an experience. It alternately fried my brain and made me cackle like some kind of wild parrot imitating human. So yeah, it was interesting. Very interesting, in fact, that I felt like I need to write something up about it, just to make the brain itch go away. So consider this not a review, but random musings of an Internet stranger, inspired somewhat by the "novel".

One thing about me is that I'm easily amused. Lame puns and stupid jokes are my jam. Beruang mengkudu? Kebugaran syahwati? WC Rendra?--I eat that kind of stuff up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, no pun intended. And since superficially Kiat Sukses Hancur Lebur is chock full of puns, of course it managed to secure my goodwill right from the start. But it would be wrong to think of it as just a collection of clever, and inane, wordplays. The author mixed up, twisted, stretched phrases, sentences, and even a whole genre of writing into non sequitur, often making it impossible to extract meaning from sentence level. Here's a sample, from Chapter 1:

Struktur buku ini memang dirancang fleksibel. Kalimat-kalimatnya mudah dimasak, sangat praktis dan tidak perlu dibersihkan--cukup ditiup sesekali saja. Kalimat-kalimatnya jenaka seperti khotbah motivator yang ingin gantung diri, tetapi juga menggugah iman seperti suara tetabuhan ondel-ondel. Kalimat-kalimatnya terdengar lugu seperti petuah-petuah anak TK, tetapi juga tampak benar seperti jeritan dosen mata kuliah Desain Bejana sewaktu kukunya terjepit pintu. Seluruh kalimat itu dibungkus dalam struktur sambal goreng labu yang praktis dibawa ke mana-mana. Penulis juga menyediakan banyak jembatan keledai agar Bapak-Ibu sekalian mudah menghapal intisari spare part yang bertebaran di sekujur buku ini.

Like, how can you even begin to comprehend that nonsense? But in between confusion and glee, it got me thinking. To recognize that there's something "wrong" with the text in the first place, you need to be familiar, or maybe socialized in is a better way of putting it, with what is considered common sense, what is commonly understood as valid. But for the uninitiated, there might not be any meaningful difference between, say, the book's bonkers avant-garde chart of account and real, legit accounting. On the flip side of the coin, the sensibility you acquire through training and constant exposure can make you lazy; your judgment becomes automatic you never stop to wonder about the building blocks of your thinking. What is common is right is natural.

You shouldn't take my word on any of this, though. Go and read the book yourself.

Google Play
The publisher's site