Reading Pride & Prejudice while on Java adds a new flavor. Austen's humorous look at young passionate romance and the ever-flirtatious pursuit of a spouse mimics modern Javanese life in many ways.
The first parallel I see comes in the words of Austen's young maidens who exclaim that being mid- to late-twenties without a husband makes one an old spinster. Many of the girls here are quick to jump at marriage as a form of social salvation, accompanied by the obligatory first child within a year. Unwed girls of 25 or more, and boys of 27 or more, are held in suspicion for their apparent lack of social understanding. Parents become nervous for their child's well-being, and extended relatives watch attentively out of the corner of their eyes while searching vigorously for a prospect from other circles of influence.
The second major parallel I notice between Austen's realm and that of modern Central Java lurks a little below the surface. In Emma and Sense and Sensibility, Austen's heroines collide with the age-old battle of youth: love versus security. Do I marry for basic compatibility and money? Do I pursue love and passion at all costs? Isn't love all that we really need? Although their is little money in Java, family ties and neighborhood connections become that security that correlates to a healthy income in Austen's novels. I know and know of several girls who have married for the social security of a spouse over passion.
One major contrast still remains. Austen's novels are filled with wealthy, single young men who are in search of a wife just as much as they are being pursued. Social life in Kent or Hamptonshire revolves around who has how much per year and how do we bat our eyes at them. Life in Central Java is not so high up. With next to no middle class, the measurement of a man by his income is more or less a question of if he has one at all. Even then, the compulsion to marry overwhelms any recognized Western sense of economical sustainability. "Neither of us have jobs, education, ambition or prospects, but let's get married and have kids right away anyhow." Whereas Austen's families are concerned with a consistent income and a life of comfort, many in Central Java see children as a sign of arrival, even if it means that they can only afford to eat 1,000 calories each per day.
Perhaps Austen's Sense and Sensibility wouldn't be understood here after all. Our Western notions of sensibility and practicality don't fit with Javanese rukun or gotong royong, surface social harmony above all.
