it is a sin to kill a mockingbird

Tom Robinson is the mockingbird. His innocence is denied because he is black and in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, the whites (majority) must see black people fulfill their destiny as 'trash'. That is from the eye of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch.

The un-girly little girl Scout lives with her father Atticus, her older brother Jem, and their loyal housemaid Cal. During the summer, the siblings is joined by their best friend, Dill who comes during the summer to live with Miss Rachel, the Finch's neighbor. Dill goal is to get the reclusive Boo Ridley to come out from his house.

The novel is divided into two sections and its entire story is told from Scout's point of view. The first section is focus on childhood mysteries of friends and treasures. While the second section depicted the loss of childhood innocence after the children witness Tom Robinson trial. The second part nuances by social political cause and Harper Lee has given a clear-eyed depiction of America's biggest sin: racism. Although Atticus delivered the evidence that it was Mayella Ewell that was making sexual advances toward Tom and Bob Ewell, her father, knew exactly what happened, the jury voted Tom guilty and sentenced him to jail.'

"If you was a nigger like me, you would be scared too"

When Dill was so upset with the way the court delivered questions to Tom Robinson, Scout simply replied, "He's only a negro."

In Indonesia where text is read as plain as it were, this sentence could dangerously be taken as the writer's racist view. But what Lee attempted to portray is the system of inequality and segregation between human race and how we never --rarely-- question the complexity of social codes among us. Even worst, like most citizen of Maycomb, we choose to take side and let ourselves blinded from truths, even though those truths lay right in front of our eyes.

Many critics noted the strength of Lee's talent for narration, I myself see her strength on creating strong characters to represent what she has wanted to say in this novel. A novel that offers so much complexity and compassion on human kinds. In the world where everything is divided into black and white, it would be so refreshing to have more people like Atticus who is willing to comprehend things behind what it seems.

Atticus tells his daughter: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. Until you climb around in his skin and walk around in it."

As for the title, why it was chosen? In one part of the novel Miss Rachel tells Scout that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Because mockingbird is a bird that can sing beautifully and never harm anyone, therefore it is a sin to kill (the bird).

It is as sin to kill an innocent man.

A Purple Sun from Africa

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is my newest favorite writer. I bought her book Purple Hibiscus in 2009, during the Aksara books sale and admiring her writing style ever since. A young writer she is, born in September 1977, she wrote with such maturity and delivered to her readers such insightful characters. Chimamanda's writings are simple yet well crafted, carefully written. If we're talking about painting, Adichie is a true realist. Haven't read her first and latest novels, but thanks to dear mr. Google I found a link to numerous short stories she wrote: 

http://www.l3.ulg.ac.be/adichie/

From all short stories she has written, Cell One I like the most. Begins with an introduction from a sister point of view on her older brother's habit of stealing things. Readers would first drawn into antipathy to the first character's brother, a popular man on campus, handsome, unreliable and all things worldly...until the day the brother is brought to jail for a crime he doesn't committed. Enters a white man, the old white man is brought to replace his son who the police could not find.

In jail the white man must suffered various treatment from the police and the brother does not like it. The story ends with readers expose to the brother's solid character, of how he does not making things up when he could, someone as good looking as his, exploiting what he has done to draw his parents sympathy. In the age of infotainment programs, Facebook Status Updates and Blackberry Messenger, where people love to expose their 'tears' in order to get sympathy *sic*, people who know how to guard their feelings are indeed...admirable. (I) Like the character Adichie carefully built.

Let me end this with a piece of interview I got from internet, it's a sole prove of how unpretentious Adichie is as a writer...she does not feel ashamed to admit she also reads bad fictions...

CNA: I really don’t know. I am sometimes suspicious of the ‘literary influences’ question. It makes me wonder if it really means – tell us who you are trying to imitate. It also makes me wonder if the person asking is trying to ‘place’ you somewhere as a writer. Chinua Achebe will always be important to me because his work influenced not so much my style as my writing philosophy: reading him emboldened me, gave me permission to write about the things I knew well.

I am influenced by everything I read, I suppose. I read bad fiction and it influences me in such a way that I know what never to do. I read good fiction and it makes things flow for me, as it were. I generally prefer quiet, careful writing, story and style done well, literature that makes you think of that interesting word ‘art.’ One of my favourite novels is ‘Reef’ by Romesh Gunesekera. Some writers I have recently reread and will probably read again are Paule Marshall, Amit Chaudhuri, John Banville, Nawal El-Saadawi, Graham Greene, Flora Nwapa, Bernard Malamud, Ivan Turgenev and the incredibly talented John Gregory Brown.

So many people have affected my writing; for everyone I meet and/or talk to, there is the possibility of my fiction being influenced. Of my contemporaries, perhaps the greatest influence is my friend the Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina. I am in awe of his brilliance. Although we often disagree, I think our ideas take better shape when bounced back and forth between each other.

New York, I Love You

New York I Love You at first glance is more like Woody Allen kinda thing: based in New York and presents dysfunctional relationship we used to call love.

In turn New York I Love You is much more than that. A film based in big city (New York!) with complex love story is easy to find. Yet one without succumbing to typicality of Hollywood's romantic comedy is a rare.

New York I Love You offers subtle, sweet stories without unnecessary cynicism the world seems to be presenting these days. In such unfriendly world, New York I Love is a piece of audience-friendly compilation. 

One of them also happened to be Natalie Portman's directing debut too...couldn't ask for more.

i'm not there

After In the Mood for Love; Dancing in the Dark; Me, You, Them; Pasir Berbisik, and Persepolis, I'm Not There is another film presents beautiful images great for our eyes. In several parts the film can do a bit of effectiveness, but by the end I bow in for an applause since great performers and neat images have it all covered.