Having got your attention, you might like to know that shadow puppet master Ki Manteb Sudarsono has joined the ranks of seductive singers and erotic models wondering if they could fall foul of the proposed pornography law.
"I've got a couple of puppets and they don't wear pants," he told a discussion at the House of Representatives yesterday. "And they have these things and they move when I maneuver the wayang (shadow puppet)," he added, gesturing to indicate male genitalia.
"Will I get into trouble?"
Jakartass can't help. I've image googled 'pornographic puppets' and can only come up with this:
I'm always wary of groups who wish to impose their morality on others. Here there is a general supposition that the legislators are using the proposed legislation, which would not allow public kissing between spouses, as a holier-than-thou shield to obscure their own venality.
I suspect that the proponents of this law are, by and large, Javanese. They are the most numerous and used to being in positions of authority. As well as being Muslim, they will also be imbued with Javanese mysticism. They may, therefore, also benefit from a deeper awareness of their cultural history, perhaps as told by Sardono W. Kusumo in his fascinating memoir about the role of dance in Indonesia, Hanuman, Tarzan, Pithecanthropus Erectus.
I once observed (the) creative process of the drunken spirit when Bandoro Pangeran Haryo Cokrokusumo invited Wignyo Hambekso to teach his son, BRM. Kanapi, to dance the character King Niwata Kawaca in love. The cokli movement (which can be associated with kecocok peli or penetration of the penis) is a blatant sexual expression, as blatant as the tantric carvings at Sukuh Temple.
Tantric expression in Javanese art can also be traced back to the Centini manuscript, an important work by scholars of the kraton (Sultan's palace) in the 17th/18th centuries.
Another example of Indonesian erotica can be viewed in the DVD Legong: Dance of the Virgins, originally filmed in 1933.
"Out in the Dutch East Indies, just south of the equator, lies Bali - isle of perpetual summer. In this peopled paradise, untouched by civilization, lives a contented race who joyously worship their gods - to them life is a continuous feast - to them death holds no fear. Here we relate a romance of Balinese life, based on facts and authentic customs - enacted with an all-native case, and produced in its entirety upon the Isle of Bali."
It features 'disrobed native women' and a matching aural subtext for the visual action and plot development by combining Balinese percussion ensembles and Western string quartet and winds in interesting and appropriate ways.
I haven't seen this DVD, but having now read about it I'd like to. Is it pornographic or could it be considered to art? After all, the display of body parts, such as in paintings, statues and dance, was part of Balinese culture.
To quote one review, The restorers had to look to Canada for additional prints of the film because it was censored upon its release in England and the United States - the British didn't like the mild violence while Americans wouldn't abide the film's many bare breasted women.
One man's meat is another man's poison. Me, I'm a tit man and abhor the pornography of violence.
And you?
