23/01/2025
Ulasan SPACE INVADERS
By Nona Fernandez oleh
Publisher:
Translated to Indonesian by Astrid Wasistyanti
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When somatic memory forces the body to forget and remember war trauma, and repressed memories shape the fragments of dreams, Nona Fernández, in her Space Invaders, goes the extra mile. In the hearts and minds of children, in the games they play, and on the TV screens they cling to, mrder and war crmes linger. For the next hundred years, as they grow older, how will they perceive the events that scarred them?
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Most Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) narratives provide spaces for victims to tell their stories. However, as far as I know, these narratives mostly represent civilians aged 50 and above, ex-combatants, prisoners of war, and older family members of soldiers. But who has ever asked the children? For the first time, I’ve found a novel that gives a voice to the children—those who will not outgrow the trauma but remain part of a shared collective memory.
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This novel doesn’t shy away from the irony: we adults try to distract children during war by encouraging them to play Space Invaders. Yet, Space Invaders, as a game and an inseparable part of their lives, exists alongside news of kidnappings, beheadings, and m*rder. Fighting aliens in the game eerily mirrors the greater political turmoil of the nation.
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Take the Pacific War during World War II, for instance—taught to children in schools. The tragedy lies in how children were taught to slay enemies they didn’t even know, to fight without understanding, and to become jingoistic fanatics. These ideas slip unnoticed into the way they play, line up, march, and attack. Simple children’s games become reflections of war. Funny how, even in war, most soldiers didn’t fully understand what they were dying for!
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The plot of this novel is revolutionary. Some chapters consist of only one paragraph, each crafted briefly—just like children, who don’t talk or think much; they play. This novel, with its brilliant depiction of political contestation, behaves like a child itself
