Synopses & Reviews
Based on close reading of historical documents--poetry as much as statistics--and focused on the conceptualization of technology, this book is an unconventional evocation of late colonial Netherlands East Indies (today Indonesia). In considering technology and the ways that people use and think about things, Rudolf Mrázek invents an original way to talk about freedom, colonialism, nationalism, literature, revolution, and human nature.
The central chapters comprise vignettes and take up, in turn, transportation (from shoes to road-building to motorcycle clubs), architecture (from prison construction to home air-conditioning), optical technologies (from photography to fingerprinting), clothing and fashion, and the introduction of radio and radio stations. The text clusters around a group of fascinating recurring characters representing colonialism, nationalism, and the awkward, inevitable presence of the European cultural, intellectual, and political avant-garde: Tillema, the pharmacist-author of Kromoblanda; the explorer/engineer IJzerman; the "Javanese princess" Kartina; the Indonesia nationalist journalist Mas Marco; the Dutch novelist Couperus; the Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer; and Dutch left-wing liberal Wim Wertheim and his wife.
In colonial Indies, as elsewhere, people employed what Proust called "remembering" and what Heidegger called "thinging" to sense and make sense of the world. In using this observation to approach Indonesian society, Mrázek captures that society off balance, allowing us to see it in unfamiliar positions. The result is a singular work with surprises for readers throughout the social sciences, not least those interested in Southeast Asia or colonialism more broadly.
Review
Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony is a wonderfully moody book. Moody, because it aims at capturing the aura of the Dutch East Indies in the last seventy-five years of colonial rule almost as much as it attempts to tell a critical, historical story. Wonderful, because it succeeds at this project better than any other book that I have read about this particular time and place. One feels as if time travel has been accomplished by the time that the last page is reached. . . . We do not so much analyze the world of this Dutch colony from the nineteenth century into the early twentieth century as we live in it for three hundred pages. . . . It really should be read by anyone who cares about Indonesia."--Eric Tagliacozzo, Journal of Asian Studies
Review
A thought-provoking study. . . . Recommended reading for anyone who studie this period of Indonesian history. -- Tineke Hellwig, Pacific Affairs As no other book has done, this one conveys the feel and flavor of modernity as it took root in the early twentieth-century Indonesia. -- James R. Rush, American Historical Review A striking and deeply engaging historical study. . . . In tracing this history, Rudolf Mrazek takes the reader on a journey, sometimes strange, through the jungles, laboratories, houses, trains, and latrines of late-colonial life. He also brings to life a cast of historical characters . . . who used everything from toilets to airplanes as tools for articulating and reflecting upon what it meant to be modern in the Indies. . . . Mraze develops his theoretical insights with a light hand through the telling of an original history that takes surprising and quirky turns. -- Joshua Barker, Technology and Culture Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony is a wonderfully moody book. Moody, because it aims at capturing the aura of the Dutch East Indies in the last seventy-five years of colonial rule almost as much as it attempts to tell a critical, historical story. Wonderful, because it succeeds at this project better than any other book that I have read about this particular time and place. One feels as if time travel has been accomplished by the time that the last page is reached. . . . We do not so much analyze the world of this Dutch colony from the nineteenth century into the early twentieth century as we live in it for three hundred pages. . . . It really should be read by anyone who cares about Indonesia. -- Eric Tagliacozzo, Journal of Asian Studies
Review
"A thought-provoking study. . . . Recommended reading for anyone who studie this period of Indonesian history."--Tineke Hellwig, Pacific Affairs
Review
"As no other book has done, this one conveys the feel and flavor of modernity as it took root in the early twentieth-century Indonesia."--James R. Rush, American Historical Review
Review
"A striking and deeply engaging historical study. . . . In tracing this
history, Rudolf Mrazek takes the reader on a journey, sometimes strange, through the jungles, laboratories, houses, trains, and latrines of late-colonial life. He also brings to life a cast of historical characters . . . who used everything from toilets to airplanes as tools for articulating and reflecting upon what it meant to be modern in the Indies. . . . Mraze develops his theoretical insights with a light hand through the telling of an original history that takes surprising and quirky turns."--Joshua Barker, Technology and Culture
Review
As no other book has done, this one conveys the feel and flavor of modernity as it took root in the early twentieth-century Indonesia. Pacific Affairs
Synopsis
"This book is both analytically daring and historically informative. I know of no work of colonial history, for Southeast Asia or elsewhere, that is comparable in its scope or power to illuminate--not to mention the zest and wit it brings to a potentially dry topic. There a many intriguing insights, startling images, and profound interpretations."--Mary Margaret Steedly, Harvard University
Synopsis
Based on close reading of historical documents--poetry as much as statistics--and focused on the conceptualization of technology, this book is an unconventional evocation of late colonial Netherlands East Indies (today Indonesia). In considering technology and the ways that people use and think about
things, Rudolf Mrázek invents an original way to talk about freedom, colonialism, nationalism, literature, revolution, and human nature.
The central chapters comprise vignettes and take up, in turn, transportation (from shoes to road-building to motorcycle clubs), architecture (from prison construction to home air-conditioning), optical technologies (from photography to fingerprinting), clothing and fashion, and the introduction of radio and radio stations. The text clusters around a group of fascinating recurring characters representing colonialism, nationalism, and the awkward, inevitable presence of the European cultural, intellectual, and political avant-garde: Tillema, the pharmacist-author of Kromoblanda; the explorer/engineer IJzerman; the "Javanese princess" Kartina; the Indonesia nationalist journalist Mas Marco; the Dutch novelist Couperus; the Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer; and Dutch left-wing liberal Wim Wertheim and his wife.
In colonial Indies, as elsewhere, people employed what Proust called "remembering" and what Heidegger called "thinging" to sense and make sense of the world. In using this observation to approach Indonesian society, Mrázek captures that society off balance, allowing us to see it in unfamiliar positions. The result is a singular work with surprises for readers throughout the social sciences, not least those interested in Southeast Asia or colonialism more broadly.
Synopsis
"This book is both analytically daring and historically informative. I know of no work of colonial history, for Southeast Asia or elsewhere, that is comparable in its scope or power to illuminate--not to mention the zest and wit it brings to a potentially dry topic. There a many intriguing insights, startling images, and profound interpretations."--Mary Margaret Steedly, Harvard University
Synopsis
Based on close reading of historical documents--poetry as much as statistics--and focused on the conceptualization of technology, this book is an unconventional evocation of late colonial Netherlands East Indies (today Indonesia). In considering technology and the ways that people use and think about
things, Rudolf Mrázek invents an original way to talk about freedom, colonialism, nationalism, literature, revolution, and human nature.
The central chapters comprise vignettes and take up, in turn, transportation (from shoes to road-building to motorcycle clubs), architecture (from prison construction to home air-conditioning), optical technologies (from photography to fingerprinting), clothing and fashion, and the introduction of radio and radio stations. The text clusters around a group of fascinating recurring characters representing colonialism, nationalism, and the awkward, inevitable presence of the European cultural, intellectual, and political avant-garde: Tillema, the pharmacist-author of Kromoblanda; the explorer/engineer IJzerman; the "Javanese princess" Kartina; the Indonesia nationalist journalist Mas Marco; the Dutch novelist Couperus; the Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer; and Dutch left-wing liberal Wim Wertheim and his wife.
In colonial Indies, as elsewhere, people employed what Proust called "remembering" and what Heidegger called "thinging" to sense and make sense of the world. In using this observation to approach Indonesian society, Mrázek captures that society off balance, allowing us to see it in unfamiliar positions. The result is a singular work with surprises for readers throughout the social sciences, not least those interested in Southeast Asia or colonialism more broadly.
Synopsis
"This book is both analytically daring and historically informative. I know of no work of colonial history, for Southeast Asia or elsewhere, that is comparable in its scope or power to illuminate--not to mention the zest and wit it brings to a potentially dry topic. There a many intriguing insights, startling images, and profound interpretations."--Mary Margaret Steedly, Harvard University
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Preface xv
ONE: Language as Asphalt 1
Bare Feet 1
Hard and Clean Roads 4
Struggle for the Roads 8
Language-game 18
Bahasa Indonesia, "Indonesian Language" 31
TWO: Towers 43
Homes on Wheels and Floating Homes 43
The Cities 52
The Camps 60
The Towers 73
THREE: From Darkness to Light 85
The City of Light 85
Dactyloscopy 97
The Floodlight 103
The Sublime 112
The Mirror 120
FOUR: Indonesian Dandy 129
The Dolls 129
The Modern Times 130
Nationalism and the Birth of the Dandy 143
The Death of the Dandy 147
The Parade 154
FIVE: Let Us Become Radio Mechanics 161
The Metaphor 161
The Thing 166
The Voice 174
The Closed Circuits 182
The Mechanics 189
EPILOGUE: Only the Deaf Can Hear Well 193
Sjahrir Recalled 193
Memories of Holland 197
Time in Three Dimensions 202
Bacteria 204
The Splendid Radio 207
The Mouth of Karundeng 210
Sportsmen-Dandies-Jokers-Engineers 215
Ear Culture 220
The Happy End 222
Notes 235
Sources 285
Index 303