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character. Yet, Hamilton is a very tall man, even ‘fantastically’ tall in comparison with his
alter ego Billy Kwan (YLD, 7); Cookie questions the authenticity of ‘some of his “a” sounds’
(YLD, 10); and, in case anyone missed the other clues which separate him from the alus
Arjuna, he is distinguished ‘by a rather coarse nose, bulbous at the tip, which stuck a
discordant note’ (YLD, 11). All of these kasar traits push Hamilton towards a moderate
position on the scale.
Other characters share the mix of alus and kasar qualities, notably Wally O’Sullivan, at
‘twenty-two stone’ (YLD, 3), with ‘thick, pale hands’ and ‘bulging, venous cheeks’ (YLD, 11)
is the largest figure in the novel, yet is endowed with many alus refinements, as a delicate,
sideways hand motion to express his dismissal of a topic (YLD, 11); a ‘quiet’, ‘well produced’
and ‘throaty bass’ voice; professional integrity; great emotional control; and personal dignity.
Then there are those clearly kasar Westerners, exemplified by Pete Curtis, whose red hair
indicatesd a fiery temper, and being Canadian makes him foreign, therefore a degenerate
‘Other’ not only to the Indonesians but even somewhat to the Australians. He carries ‘both his
work and his drinking to excess’ (YLD, 4); aggressively encircles the shoulders of his listeners
with his ‘freckled, muscular’ arms (YLD, 4), and ‘clapped a hand’ on Kwan’s shoulder as he
tries to provoke him with racist humour (YLD, 5-6).
7.4.2. The Moral Consequences of Alus and Kasar Tendencies
While these physical features are indicators of the personality of the puppets—and of
Koch’s characters—they cannot alone determine moral standing. In the wayang, only the
ogres, since they are foreigners to Java, are fully kasar and indisputably ‘bad’ characters. All
of the other characters are alus to varying degrees, and are more or less ‘good’ according to
events of a given play. The most blatant example of this is Semar, a god who has been ‘cursed
and transformed into a misshapen dwarf’ (Brandon, 12) but who acts as the moderating force
between opposing elements in the plays. He is a comic figure, but is still heroic and wise in his
action. Thus, Brandon notes, ‘only by watching a character’s actions in the plays can we know
his moral qualities’ (Brandon, 41).
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