The Alchemist Novel: a Love-Hate Relationship
18th of December 2016
In the afternoon, Lintang told me about his new novel: The Alchemist. I told him my opinion about the book years ago. The one that Silvia lent me.
I said it bluntly, “The book was good, but not for me. It’s good because the core advices are really fit with the problem that fiction readers tend to have: trapped and sunk in their own dream.” I also add, “That is from the content side, from the packaging side, it serves the demographic well. By it’s fairy-tale nuance.”
I said not for me because I think I wasn’t one of the demographic. I’m not a fiction reader. I certainly was chasing my own dream the time I read that book — and up until now.
But nevertheless, when Lintang was getting his power nap, I picked up the book. Surprisingly, it’s not a novel. It’s a graphical novel. “Hm, maybe I could pick-up some things that I missed.”
Turned-out, I did.
This second read made me realize:
- Trapped-and-sunk-in-our-own-dream is not only exclusive for the fiction reader demographic. It’s the problem of everyone. Because everyone is — once — a dreamer.
- Yes, I hated fairy-tale stuff. Because it’s sweet and romantic. But hey, maybe that’s exactly why it can reach a lot of people. I know that I’m a critical rational minority. Yet I tend to do business with someone I personally close with — even though I know she/he is not the best option. My artificial intelligence lecturer once said, “human isn’t a rational being”.
- I used to hate the allegories Coelho choose. One of them is “treasure”. Why? Because treasure hunter is not someone who add value to humanity — even compared to the stock trader. But then I realized: fairy-tale is for children. It’s not that I need to put down the book and give it to a child — The Alchemist is an adult reading. It’s me who need to turn-off my adult brain a little bit. Once I turned it off, I know that “recurring dreams of treasure” means “your personal desire that always calling you to act”, and “personal legend” means “our final state if we keep chasing our dream”.
So, The Alchemist is indeed, a great work for humanity. The focus is any internal emotional struggles about a man and his personal dreams*. If Coelho hasn’t been born to this world and The Alchemist doesn’t exist, there will be another novel that’d fill its spot.
And if I read the novel in my high-school year, maybe I’ll praise The Alchemist like crazy. Maybe.
This post is a part of my December Codex Vitae
*) What if the personal dream is bad? What if the dreamer is a paedophile whose personal legend is ‘someone who fuck 10.000 beautiful children’? Or a Japanese pilot that blow himself in Pearl Harbor for the greatness of Japan? Or the fascist Hitler that want Aria to be the greatest nation on earth? Would this sweet new-agey saying on The Alchemist still be true: “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ?
Well that’s another topic for another post at another day.
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