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Titie Said: Writing with passion

JP/Prodita SabariniSenior writer Titie Said, 75, said that when it comes to writing she felt the same spark now as she did dozens of years ago when she was a young girl

Prodita Sabarini (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, March 29, 2011

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Titie Said: Writing with passion

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span class="inline inline-left">JP/Prodita SabariniSenior writer Titie Said, 75, said that when it comes to writing she felt the same spark now as she did dozens of years ago when she was a young girl.

The writer has produced hundreds of short stories that have been adapted to numerous films. She has written more than 25 novels, with six of them adapted to the silver screen.

“When I write, I feel that I light up. My heart booms. I feel my spirit rises when I type. When I’m finished, I say: ‘praise the lord’,” she said at her South Jakarta house recently.

Sitting in the living room of her reconstructed house — it was burned down in 2006, along with manuscripts of her writings — she told The Jakarta Post about her latest writing project and how she fell in love with the art of word-craft.

The grandmother of 11 grandchildren is now working on a collection of short stories in a format that has yet to be carried out before.

Titie, who was born with the name Sitti Raya Kusumowardani, said that she was working on a combined book of poetry and short story collection.

She said she would write poetry and from that poem a short story would be developed. Her face beamed as she explained the project.

The writer of famous novels, including Jangan Ambil Nyawaku (Don’t take my life), Reinkarnasi (Reincarnation) and Fatima, Ke Ujung Dunia (To the end of the world) said that she continues to write almost daily.

Two years after the inferno at her house she released the novel Prahara Cinta (Tempest of love) in 2008.

The young Titie loved to play in theater plays and enjoy poetry readings, she said. Titie said that her first plunge to the world of written words was through poetry. She used this medium to channel anger and aggression, she said.

“If I’m upset, we’re not supposed to be grumpy and we’re not allowed to yell. That’s why I yell to people in my poems,” she said.

She recited a poem for a boy in high school who ignored her. “The accursed, wretched, profane, dogs, cats: I wrapped them all into one and I throw them in your face”.

She said her lonely childhood also influenced her interest in writing. Titie’s mother separated from her father when she was little, she said. Her mother married her father, an independence fighter, at the political prison camp Boven Digul when she was a teenager. Titie said that her mother was deemed the rose of Boven Digul “not because of her looks, but because she was the only girl at Boven Digul among many men” and underwent an arranged marriage in order to prevent clashes between the national fighters in the prison camp, she said.

Growing lonely for missing her mother made her fantasies grow wild, she said. “I have incredible imagination because I was lonely.” At her hometown in Bojonegoro, when a flower bud of a tamarind tree fell, that can give her inspiration,” she said.

Her father encouraged her to write. A proud nationalist, her father told Titie to write down a radio speech that military leader Sutomo or Bung Tomo did November 1945.

“Can you imagine how fast Bung Tomo speaks? And I had to write down all his words,” she said. At the parts where she would be behind, she put in her own words. Her father was impressed, she said, saying that her words were better than Bung Tomo’s.

Titie said that even though poetry was her first foray into written words, she became more interested in short stories and novels. One of the reasons was that she always lost poetry reading or recitals to the late famous poet WS Rendra. “If I’m there, there’s always WS Rendra. And I’d always be second in the competition for poetry recital. There was a university competition in Yogyakarya. There was Rendra again, and I place second again,” she said, smiling.

Titie become a journalist in 1958 for a women’s magazine. She led the magazine Famili and became editor at Kartini magazine.

She said that her journalistic background helped her in being detailed in her background research for her novels.

Titie was also the head of film censorship, which was criticized by people in the film industry for hampering freedom of expression.

Having retired from her position as head of the censorship body, Titie said that she focused on her writing. She said that writing was necessary for her to keep a sharp mind.

In a contemplative mood, she said that people’s lives are limited on earth. “How much time do I have to do work now, who knows,” she said, adding that she would do the best in the mean time.

She said it was normal for the older generation to perish and be renewed by the new generation. “A bus can be emptied in one terminal, but a new generation of passengers will fill the bus”.

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