The number 12 holds a special place in celebrated writer Ayu Utami’s life.

JP/Ricky Yudhistira

In her novel Bilangan Fu (Fu Numeral), she created a 12-fingered character named Parang Jati. Parang Jati’s foster father said there were two ways of counting in the world: “The ‘dozen count’, which was formulated by those who searched for signs in nature, and the ‘ten count’, by those who searched for signs on the body”.

It has also been 12 years since her breakthrough debut novel Saman was published. She has since completed Saman’s sequel Larung; Bilangan Fu and her most recent novel Manjali dan Cakrabirawa. Her latest novel is the first of a series of mystery novels based on Bilangan Fu.

Last but not least, Ayu plans to write 12 novels in her Bilangan Fu series — one each year — and finish the series 12 years from now. “It might take longer,” she said. “Twelve years have elapsed already, between Saman and Manjali. It’s not a very long time.”

The incredibly striking writer, who is now in her forties, was sitting in front of empty cups of Masala tea in an Indian restaurant near Sarinah, Central Jakarta, when she spoke to The Jakarta Post. One of her friends from the Czech Republic, whose nephew is translating Ayu’s work into Czech, was also present.

Her award-winning novel Saman — controversial at the time as it dealt with sexuality, corruption, militarism and faith — has already been translated into English and Dutch.

Ayu had planned to write the series two years ago, when Bilangan Fu was first released. “I’m glad I was able to finish [Manjali and Cakrabirawa]. I wanted to finish it in a year, but it took me exactly two years,” she said. The year 2009 was a busy one for her as she completed two film scripts, Ruma Maida and another one that hasn’t been produced into a movie yet.

Manjali, she said, was not a chronological sequel of Bilangan Fu, but more of a novel promoting critical thinking and critical spirituality. Richer in mystery, Manjali features the same characters than in Bilangan Fu — the skeptical rock climber Yuda, his girlfriend Marja, and the mysterious Parang Jati.

“In Bilangan Fu, the debate was almost complete. There’s so much information there. Whereas in Manjali and Cakrabirawa, the debate took up less time,” she said. “My three previous novels have always finished in a dead end. This one doesn’t. It’s like a TV series. The mood goes up again at the end. It feels light because it has a happy ending.”

Characters Ayu created for Bilangan Fu were inspired from Ayu’s partner, photographer and rock climber Erik Prasetya, his former girlfriend and best friend.

“I don’t know the other two personally, so I imagined them.”

As in her previous novels, Ayu explored sexuality in both Bilangan Fu and Manjali, with the main characters caught in a love triangle. Ayu explained she wanted to deconstruct stereotypes in relationships.

“People have preconceived ideas about relationships, men and women,” she said.

“While in fact individuals can have or develop something different outside those stereotypes.”

For example Yuda, the skeptical rock climber, does not believe in marriage. “He sees the relationship between a man and a woman as mutual manipulation, and knows there are imbalances in relationships.

For Yuda, women use sex to obtain security, or to have a child, but not mainly for sex.”

Yuda’s thoughts on women are captured in the following extract from Bilangan Fu: “But, in truth, they [women] are under the power of a jellyfish creature in the shape of a pear with two thin flailing hands lodged in their stomach”.

Ayu explained that people most likely frowned upon Yuda, because he shuns responsibility. “But on the other hand, he’s actually very responsible because he does not use women. He sees women as equal [to men].”

In Manjali and Cakrabirawa, Yuda is taken to a brothel and refuses to have sex with a prostitute. “He doesn’t want to buy sex and doesn’t want to rape a woman either,” she said. ‘On the one hand, he comes across as a bad guy, but he actually treats women as subjects [as opposed to objects],” Ayu said.

Marja, another character in Ayu’s work, is not your stereotypical woman either, Ayu went on. “People tend to think women are always faithful to men. But Marja is attracted to both [Yuda and Parangjati]. She feels guilty, not because she likes more than one guy, but because she fell in love with her best friend.”

For Ayu, relationships like polygamy or polyandry are special. “They [these relationships] are not ideal, but they are not cruel either,” she said. “But I think they can only work momentarily. They can’t be institutionalized,” she said.

It is difficult to preserve balance in an open polyamorous relationship, she added. “Let’s say you’re open [to having more than one intimate relationship at a time] and I’m open as well. But you have
more chances [to act upon it] than I do. That’s already unfair. So controlling the balance [in a relationship] is easiest in monogamous relationships.”

With the Bilangan Fu series, Ayu hopes to spice up the mystery genre. “That genre is not common in Indonesia yet,” she said, adding that she would also like to write another novel, “one with a similar approach to that of Saman”.

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