Budi Darma's Slice of Life Inspired Student's Writing

A work of a reputable writer, the late Budi Darma inspired a student to produce a writing comprising a slice of life aspect which she claimed presents in his work of Orang-Orang Bloomington (1980).

On Tuesday (14/09/2021) an online national symposium was held by Universitas Negeri Surabaya to honor a notable writer, the late Budi Darma. Students were recommended to join the event and made a reflection writing concerned with the discussion. 

Ami, a student, was interviewed to deliver her impression toward Budi Darma’s books. She revealed that a theme of slice of life in Budi Darma’s work inspired her to compose a poem containing a slice of life feature.

Ami is an English Literature student whose fondness in writing led her to encounter Budi Darma’s work around a year ago when she followed a book-related account on Twitter. 

Budi Darma’s work which she firstly read was Orang-Orang Bloomington (1980). The book left a deep sense to her with the presence of the slice of life theme and the character Aku.  Orang-Orang Bloomington is an anthology of seven short stories which is more realistic than Budi Darma’s other works.

“Personally, his storyline, Orang-Orang Bloomington, was very interesting because of its slice of life aspect. Although it was written long ago, it’s very relevant to the current situation and the meaning is profound enough to make the reader think”, said Ami. 

Ami valued the character Aku represents people in reality. 

She said “Because it represents people in the real world who can be prejudiced, annoying, having bad and good traits, having a dark side, fragile, and many other things.”

Besides knowing that Budi Darma is a great writer, one other prevalent thing that made Ami interested in his works is that Budi Darma was a professor or Guru Besar in her campus. Thus it made her more curious toward his opus.

Contrast with the referred writer who focused on producing essays and paragraph-shaped writing, Ami preferred to write quotes and poems. One of her poetry resembling slice of life features inspired by Budi Darma’s work is entitled A Black Bird which she has submitted for a subject’s assignment.

The poetry narrates an individual who felt different from others and not aware of her own virtue. Whereby people tend to generalize and underestimate others at the same time, without realizing that each person has their own strengths. These are some fragments from the poetry