the classic and the contemporary Pygmalion

what do you think of a guy who thought that he could build a statue of what he thought of a perfect woman to replace a real woman?

Hmmm... sounds rather pathetic if you ask me... but then again, nothing is impossible...

If we thought the men nowadays are rather weird and kind of eccentric, well, how ab0ut this? A few hundreds years ago, a Roman poet called Ovid, wrote about a man who fells in love with the statue that he carved from the ivory... Ironically, the man whose name was Pygmalion, actually a self-confessed bachelor who admit that he is "not interested in women" after he saw daughters of Propoetus, prostituting themselves.

So, he decides to carved a statue that he envisioned as the perfect image of a woman. The statue looks so real that he fell in love with it and treat it with love and care, as if it was a real woman. He even pray to Venus, so that he could have a woman that look like his statue to spend his life with. His wish was granted and they get married and even got two children. It makes me wonder, if the mother was stone, as beautiful as she might be, how does the children look like?

as for the comtemporary Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw, the creation that change is not from stone to a woman, instead it is a poor young woman, Eliza, created or transform into a young lady of a high class society. Instead of using carving tool to transform her, Professor Higgins uses his knowledge on linguistic to carve her speeches and the way she talks to other people and the way she dresses.

Bear in though, he does not treat her like a lady, he himself does not even act like a real gentleman. He continously, bully her to make her do things that she does not like. Professor Higgins do not care of her feelings at all, all he cares is that she was able to produce correct sound of a word or speak like a proper lady and ask her to mimic other people's dialects.

He does not love her but she does have some affection towards him. The play does not end with a happy ending. It ends with a bit of chance that Higgins might have some affection for her too... The question of what going to happen between Eliza and Higgins, is open for interpretation.

How Deep Is Your Love?

There are only thousands of ways to describe how deep your love towards your love ones is. I spare you all the clichés of examples. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before.

I just want to ask you this, how deep is your love towards your family? How long do you think your love for your family will last? Will you stop loving them when they die? How long would you be willing to sacrifice for them?

If, you are Antigone, a character from Sophocles’s Antigone, then I’ll believe all your words about sacrificing and all....

Antigone is a woman who sacrifices her life in order to make sure that her brother, Polyneices have a proper burial even though it means that, it is going against the king’s law. That’s why, I asked you all just now, how long would you be willing to sacrifice for your family…

Even after the death of her brother, she is still willing to sacrifice for her brother, Polyneices. She even lost her fiancée, Haemon, who is also the son of the King Creon. He killed himself because is enraged over the fact that his father is too arrogant to listen to other people’s advice and suggestions regarding the punishment of Antigone and Ismene.

When Antigone finds out about Haemon’s death, she was so heartbroken…that she commits suicide… Hmmm…don’t you think it’s just like a little reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet?

So, I ask you again. How deep is your love? Do you really meant what are you going to answer?

changes through time...

The classic version of Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw is Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

In the contemporary Pygmalion, the transformation is done o a flower girl, Eliza who are poor and unable to speak the proper English. As a man of linguistic, Professor Higgins was intrigued by the way she talks in her local dialects. But, unlike Pygmalion who treats Galatea with attentive care and kind words, Professor Higgins talks to Eliza rudely and treats her with indifference and didn’t care for her feelings. A bit ironic for a man who is considered as a gentleman.

Professor Higgins transforms Eliza by dressing her up like an upper class woman. He also taught her the proper way to talk until people could mistaken her for an aristocrat or a princess. But, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, there is transformations, first one is when Pygmalion transforms an ivory by carving it into a statue of a woman. The second one is when the goddess of Venus grant his wish for a lover by giving life the statue of woman that he carved.

Kuda Kepang

Well, I mentioned bout Mak Yong in my last blog. This time around, I want to talk about the other form of dance that also has spiritual value just like what they in Mak Yong. In Johore, another state in Malaysia, they have this dance called ' Kuda Kepang '. 'Kuda' means horse in English.

In this dance the choreography of the dance are of the actions of the rider of a horse. This sounds straight foward, isn't it? But, it isn't. The dancers of this dance have to be the mentally strong one. it's because, if they are not, they could be easily possesed by the spirit of the rider of the horse.

I heard from my Johorian friends that, when this dancers are possesed, their eyes glint just a little bit more than usual and the way they handle the mock horse is just like the way a horse rider gallop a real horse. Wicked isn't it?

In Indonesia, they are also a indigenous community that have this dance which called the tiger dance. Mind you, this tiger dance is not the exotic tiger dance. This dance is performed to worship the spirit of the tiger that considered as powerful animal and the strongest one in the jungle. The choreography of the dance resembles the actions of a tiger and including their facial expressions.

Hmmm...talking about these dance make me realize why the western use to describe the east as mysterious.

Mak Yong - The Forbidden Dance

Basically, I didn’t know much about this royal dance but I learn that this dance is very unique and considered quite controversial in the state of east coast of Malaysia from which it comes from, Kelantan. During our last class, our lecturer discusses with us a scene from a play called In The Name Of Love by Ramli Ibrahim. That scene was about an elderly woman sharing her view and her first hand experience as a former dancer of Mak Yong.
I am intrigued by her local Malay dialect; it is just like a fresh breath of air that I really welcome after our discussion over a scene from two plays by two major playwrights, Macbeth by William Shakespeare and A Night Out by Harold Pinter. It’s really nice to study on the local play that is culturally familiar to you and could easily relate to.
The dance is actually some kind of traditional musical theatre. in the past the dance can only be watch by the royals and the aristocrats. but nowadays, the dance can be watch by anyone who are interested in the dance.

These actors and actresses of this dance recite their lines in Kelantanese. i used to think that mak yong is just an ordinary dance but my Kelantanese friends told me otherwise. They told me that the dance contains some old rituals that idolizing the spirits... in other words, the dancers are worshipping the spirits but at the same time, their faith is Islam.

Therefore, you can see that something is not quite right... I think this is the main reason why the state's government of Kelantan banned the mak yong dance, and totally can understand that... under Islamic rule, it is wrong to worship anything other than Allah...

As the saying goes...there must be a reason behind every actions that we made...