The Militant
A militant is someone who makes himself vanish in order to become something effective, terrifying, overwhelming. Saaman, the character in Pramoedya's novel Keluarga Gerilya (The Guerilla Family), is at age 23 already a guerilla leader in Jakarta then occupied by Dutch forces, and he plans a series of killingsincluding that of his own stepfather who is on the other side. Saaman is captured. But he knows he has to die, just as he has to kill. He is a militant.
Some say that the term 'militant' is from ancient Latin, meaning 'mile-goers'. It probably refers to fortitude, including the bearing of pain and exhaustion, voluntarily, when moving towards something whose meaning is greater than oneself.
February 2, 2016
"I sacrificed my humanity."
Saaman, in Keluarga Gerilya, Pramoedya Ananta Toer
A militant is someone who makes himself vanish in order to become something effective, terrifying, overwhelming. Saaman, the character in Pramoedya's novel Keluarga Gerilya (The Guerilla Family), is at age 23 already a guerilla leader in Jakarta then occupied by Dutch forces, and he plans a series of killingsincluding that of his own stepfather who is on the other side. Saa
...