James Joyce memiliki perhatian utama kepada seni, bukan politik. Begitulah menurutnya dari sebuah jawaban yang dia lontarkan, "Saya tidak peduli dengan politik, saya hanya serius dengan seni (prosa)." Sekilas kita mungkin berasumsi James Joyce lebih mementingkan bentuk ketimbang isi. Mungkin saja. Namun, lihat lagi: seninya James Joyce adalah seni keseimbangan bentuk dan isi.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Seperti apakah bentuk keseimbangan itu? Ayolah kita ambil satu per satu. Kita awali dengan A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (A Portrait). Cerita diawali dengan satu episode khusus ketika (disinyalir) si narator masih berusia antara 3-4 tahun. Biarlah saya kutipkan sebagian:
"His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a
glass: he had a hairy face.
He was baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne
lived: she sold lemon platt.
O, the wild rose blossoms
On the little green place.
He sang that song. That was his song.
O, the green wothe botheth.
When you wet the bed first it is warm then it gets cold. His mother put
on the oilsheet. That had the queer smell.
His mother had a nicer smell than his father. She played on the piano
the sailor's hornpipe for him to dance. He danced:
Tralala lala,
Tralala tralaladdy,
Tralala lala,
Tralala lala.
Uncle Charles and Dante clapped. They were older than his father and
mother but uncle Charles was older than Dante.
Dante had two brushes in her press. The brush with the maroon velvet
back was for Michael Davitt and the brush with the green velvet back
was for Parnell. Dante gave him a cachou every time he brought her a
piece of tissue paper."
Banyak yang berpendapat bagian ini sulit sekali dimengerti. Namun, jika kita pikir-pikir, wajar saja hal itu sulit dimengerti, lha wong pada saat tersebut cerita dinarasikan dari sudut pandang anak kecil yang masih belum bisa membedakan antara kenyataan dan ingatan, ingatan dan harapan, harapan dan perkabulan. Dari secuplik di atas, kita bisa lihat bahwa ketika enak-enaknya berbicara tentang mengompol dan kemudian ibunya memberikan kertas penyerap yang berbau aneh tiba-tiba pikirannya melayang ke "bau ibu lebih enak daripada bau ayah". Dan di saat lain, lagi enak-enaknya menggambarkan tentang "Paman Charles dan Dante tepuk tangan" tiba-tiba dia teringat "Dante punya dua sikat di lemarinya." Ingatan itu kemudian disampaikan secara langsung kepada pembaca tanpa adanya perantara! Jadinya: kita agak heran kok meloncat-loncat tiba-tiba begini.
Di bagian agak masuk lagi, kita akan lihat betapa ketika kisah hidup si Stephen Dedalus kecil masih sekolah di sekolah asrama, ketika masih kanak-kanak, cerita dibeberkan dengan sangat lancar dan kalimat-kalimat lugas sederhana. Kalaupun pada beberapa bagian diperlukan kalimat majemuk, maka klausa-klausa itu hanya dihantarkan dengan "dan", "tapi", "dan," "tapi", dsb. Secuplik lagi:
"The wide playgrounds were swarming with boys. All were shouting and the
prefects urged them on with strong cries. The evening air was pale and
chilly and after every charge and thud of the footballers the greasy
leather orb flew like a heavy bird through the grey light. He kept on
the fringe of his line, out of sight of his prefect, out of the reach
of the rude feet, feigning to run now and then. He felt his body small
and weak amid the throng of the players and his eyes were weak and
watery. Rody Kickham was not like that: he would be captain of the
third line all the fellows said.
Rody Kickham was a decent fellow but Nasty Roche was a stink. Rody
Kickham had greaves in his number and a hamper in the refectory. Nasty
Roche had big hands. He called the Friday pudding dog-in-the-blanket.
And one day he had asked:"
Saat si Stephen Dedalus mulai berusia awal dewasa dan sudah menunjukkan kegemarannya kepada filsafat (khususnya Thomas Aquinas) dan kian tenggelam ke dalam puisi, bahasa di dalam novel menjadi sangat indah namun sekaligus kontemplatif, separuh-separuh berfilsafat (mungkin?)—apalagi ketika si Stephen sedang melamun. Hal ini tampak kian jelas karena gaya stream-of-consciousness sendiri memungkinkan narator beralih dari deskripsi dunia fisik yang dia indera ke penggambaran suasana batinnya. Jadi, ketika dia ingin menceritakan suasana batinnya, tampak penggambaran yang bersifat abstraksi pemikiran. Begini contohnya:
"His mind when wearied of its search for the essence of beauty amid the
spectral words of Aristotle or Aquinas turned often for its pleasure to
the dainty songs of the Elizabethans. His mind, in the vesture of a
doubting monk, stood often in shadow under the windows of that age, to
hear the grave and mocking music of the lutenists or the frank laughter
of waist-coateers until a laugh too low, a phrase, tarnished by time,
of chambering and false honour stung his monkish pride and drove him on
from his lurking-place.
The lore which he was believed to pass his days brooding upon so that
it had rapt him from the companionship of youth was only a garner of
slender sentences from Aristotle's poetics and psychology and a
SYNOPSIS PHILOSOPHIAE SCHOLASTICAE AD MENTEM DIVI THOMAE. His thinking
was a dusk of doubt and self-mistrust, lit up at moments by the
lightnings of intuition, but lightnings of so clear a splendour that in
those moments the world perished about his feet as if it had been
fire-consumed; and thereafter his tongue grew heavy and he met the eyes
of others with unanswering eyes, for he felt that the spirit of beauty
had folded him round like a mantle and that in revery at least he had
been acquainted with nobility."
Dan ketika, pada bagian akhir, Stephen Dedalus sedang diserang gebalau jiwa karena harus memilih antara tetap tinggal di Dublin dan pergi ke Eropa, antara menuruti permintaan ibunya untuk ikut kebaktian Paskah atau menuruti hasratnya untuk meninggalkan agama dan memilih kehidupan seni, gaya tutur naratif biasa terasa sudah tidak memadai. Alhasil, James Joyce menerapkan gaya menulis buku harian di mana kecamuk pikiran (seolah-olah) langsung dituangkan dari tangan pertama Stephen Dedalus. Karena perhatiannya yang besar kepada sastra, sesekali dia menumpahkan pikirannya dalam bentuk alegori. Berikut beberapa kutip:
"MARCH 21, NIGHT. Free. Soul free and fancy free. Let the dead bury the
dead. Ay. And let the dead marry the dead.
MARCH 22. In company with Lynch followed a sizeable hospital nurse.
Lynch's idea. Dislike it. Two lean hungry greyhounds walking after a
heifer.
MARCH 23. Have not seen her since that night. Unwell? Sits at the fire
perhaps with mamma's shawl on her shoulders. But not peevish. A nice
bowl of gruel? Won't you now?
MARCH 24. Began with a discussion with my mother. Subject: B.V.M.
Handicapped by my sex and youth. To escape held up relations between
Jesus and Papa against those between Mary and her son. Said religion
was not a lying-in hospital. Mother indulgent. Said I have a queer mind
and have read too much. Not true. Have read little and understood less."
Dan:
"MARCH 30. This evening Cranly was in the porch of the library,
proposing a problem to Dixon and her brother. A mother let her child
fall into the Nile. Still harping on the mother. A crocodile seized the
child. Mother asked it back. Crocodile said all right if she told him
what he was going to do with the child, eat it or not eat It.
This mentality, Lepidus would say, is indeed bred out of your mud by
the operation of your sun.
And mine? Is it not too? Then into Nile mud with it!"
Sebenarnya, ada lebih dari empat gaya tutur dalam novel ini. Untuk lebih mantapnya saya persilakan Saudara Semilis sekalian untuk menyimak sendiri. Ada banyak situs free karya-karya Joyce, kok.
Ulysses
Ulysses terbit pada tahun 1922. Namun, sebanyak apapun penulis yang muncul dengan bejibun karya kelas dunia, tetap saja Random House menobatkan Ulysses sebagai the best novel of the century. Banyak yang bilang novel ini sulit, tapi banyak pula yang bilang novel ini asyik. Martin Amis bilang bahwa Ulysses adalah novelnya pada penulis, dan James Joyce adalah penulisnya para penulis.
Memang, sejauh ini telah sangat banyak buku kritik atau referensi sekunder yang mendukung novel ini. Dan, jika kita ngomong keseimbangan bentuk dan isi, kita akan dibuat tercengang oleh novel ini.
Dalam bukunya terjudul James Joyce's Ulysses, buku penjelas Ulysses pertama, Stuart Gilbert memuat sebuah tabel yang berisi informasi teknis mengenai kedelapanbelas Ulysses. Di sini kita akan dibikin tercengang dengan betapa sebuah novel bisa dibuat dengan arsitektur yang sangat tertata. Berikut saya akan coba kutipkan tabel itu.
"1. Telemachus
Latar: Menara Martello
Jam: 8 pagi
Seni: Teologi
Simbol: Warisan
Teknik: Naratif (muda)"
"15. Circe
Latar: Lokalisasi
Jam: 12 malam
Organ: Perangkat Lokomotor
Seni: Sihir
Simbol: Pelacur
Teknik: Halusinasi"
Pada prakteknya, kita akan melihat bahwa pada bab 1, yang tujuannya tentulah mengantarkan pembaca kepada kisah baru Stephen Dedalus, kita akan melihat penggunaan gaya naratif muda. Di sini, penceritaan terasa tidak jauh berbeda dengan gaya naratif pada umumnya. Namun, celetukan-celetukan gaya anak muda hadir dengan sangat intens dan kita akan bisa merasakan bahwa narasi tentang anak muda ini disampaikan sendiri oleh si anak muda. Simbol emas juga ditunjukkan dan diulang-ulang beberapa kali selama gaya ini.
Pada bab 7, ketika dikisahkan Stephen Dedalus mengunjungi surat kabar, kita akan melihat bagaimana narasi dikisahkan secara unik: narasi dipenggal-penggal dalam bentuk episode-episode singkat yang masing-masingnya diberi judul besar seperti headline surat kabar. Dan, seperti lazimnya headline yang ingin mencuri perhatian pembaca, headline-headline itupun sesekali tampak bombastis. Secuplik ini untuk Anda:
"IN THE HEART OF THE HIBERNIAN
METROPOLIS
PARBefore Nelson's pillar trams slowed, shunted, changed trolley, started
for Blackrock, Kingstown and Dalkey, Clonskea, Rathgar and Terenure,
Palmerston Park and upper Rathmines, Sandymount Green, Rathmines,
Ringsend and Sandymount Tower, Harold's Cross. The hoarse Dublin
United Tramway Company's timekeeper bawled them off:
PAR—Rathgar and Terenure!
PAR—Come on, Sandymount Green!
PARRight and left parallel clanging ringing a doubledecker and a
singledeck moved from their railheads, swerved to the down line, glided
parallel.
PAR—Start, Palmerston Park!
THE WEARER OF THE CROWN
PARUnder the porch of the general post office shoeblacks called and
polished. Parked in North Prince's street His Majesty's vermilion mailcars,
bearing on their sides the royal initials, E. R., received loudly flung sacks of
letters, postcards, lettercards, parcels, insured and paid, for local,
provincial, British and overseas delivery. "
"WITH UNFEIGNED REGRET IT IS WE
ANNOUNCE THE DISSOLUTION OF A MOST
RESPECTED DUBLIN BURGESS
This morning the remains of the late Mr Patrick Dignam. Machines.
Smash a man to atoms if they got him caught. Rule the world today. His
machineries are pegging away too. Like these, got out of hand: fermenting.
Working away, tearing away. And that old grey rat tearing to get in."
Pada bab delapanbelas, ketika dikisahkan tentang si Molly Bloom yang separuh bangun-separuh tidur, kisah pun dihantarkan kepada pembaca dalam bentuk sangat unik: kisah berjalan tanpa ada satupun pemotong, tak juga koma, tak juga titik. Gaya ini menjadi masuk akal jika kita ingat bahwasanya pada orang yang separuh terjaga-separuh tidur, pikiran mengambang-ngambang dengan sangat lancar, segalanya terpadu, baik kenangan hari ini, kenangan lampau, atau bahkan harapan dan mimpi-mimpi. Tiliklah sekejap bagian berikut, diawali dengan:
"Yes because he never did a thing like that before as ask to get his breakfast in bed with a couple of eggs since the City Arms hotel when he used to be pretending to be laid up with a sick voice doing his highness to make himself interesting for that old faggot Mrs Riordan that he thought he had a great leg of and she never left us a farthing all for masses for herself and her soul greatest miser ever was actually afraid to lay out 4d for her methylated spirit telling me all her ailments she had too much old chat in her about politics and earthquakes and the end of the world let us have a bit of fun first God help the world if all the women were her sort down on bathingsuits and lownecks of course nobody wanted her to wear them"
dan diakhiri dengan:
"or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."
Nah, setelah melihat bagaimana gaya-gaya bahasa itu dihadirkan kepada pembaca, kita akan bisa mengatakan: ada banyak gaya tutur yang dipakai dalam karya-karya Joyce, tapi gaya itu benar-benar memang diperlukan sebagai keseimbangan untuk isinya. Jadi, meskipun gaya interior monolog Molly Bloom di bab delapanbelas itu terasa berlebihan, tetap saja bagian itu akan terasa masuk akal karena gaya seperti itu cocok dengan keadaan Molly pada saat tersebut. Jadi, dengan James Joyce, tidak akan ada sastrawan pro status quo (ah, dik pemimpi ini ada-ada saja bikin istilah! Hati-hati lho, nanti ada yang tersinggung!) yang menuduh Joyce hanya aneh-aneh saja dengan gaya naratifnya itu, mereka akan kalah dengan argumen: gaya naratifnya itu memang benar-benar mewakili isi ceritanya, semakin mendukung isi cerita. Dalam bahasa Prancis (perkenankan saya berlagak genit meski nggak ngerti bahasa Prancis): Le style c'est le thème.
