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THE FILIPINO ENGLISH READER AND KALACHUCHI
Hemingway hated Dostoyevsky but I love them both.
Let me tell you something about myself. I am a
city dweller. My lungs are filled to bursting with
car exhausts, and other noxious gases which in time
shall kill me. My stress level resembles a frayed piece
of rope with which a piano is being lowered down
the side of a ten story building. My idea of exercise
is getting up and switching TV channels manually
instead of using the remote-control clicker. When the
building elevator is on the blink, I don't give a sigh
of resignation and take the stairs - I find the person-
in-charge and yell at him to fix it.
Jessica Zafra from Twisted
Published 1995 by
Anvil Publishing, Inc.
Manila Philippines
My Personal Introduction
Disregarding my personal hits on The World According To Alex
Maskara, I still have 15-20 readers a week. This is a lot considering I purposely hid my
writings inside my drawer since I started a daily journal at age fifteen. When I came home
last March, I was shocked to find that all my written accounts as a teen-ager and during
my early college were claimed by the floods after Pinatubo. Instead of being disheartened,
my resolve to keep my writings posted on this web page got more intensified. I believe the
internet will keep my writings in a safe. Why do I keep on writing? I keep writing because
I'm afraid that when I bid this world farewell, I may not return back. And the only proof
of my one-time existence is what I wrote. I know, I know, only a few will read me because
a typical Filipino isn't exactly the voracious reader type. Today. But tomorrow, this may
not hold true. Democracy has increased a Filipino's desire to see himself better, to read
himself, to analyze himself, to compare himself with the rest of the world. And there is
no better way of doing that than by reading a book authored by a fellow Filipino. One day,
millions of Filipinos will start reading their fellow Filipinos. I need not go very far to
find that out. When I was a young man, I rarely read Filipino novels because I found them
too hifalutin, too academe, too scholarly. After 8 years of living in America, I hungrily
snatched from National Bookstore shelves the same old Filpiniana titles I used to ignore.
I re- read Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere. This was followed by Nick Joaquin's short story
collection, followed by NVM Gonzales, Bienvenido Santos, F. Sionil Jose. I recently read
Jose Dalisay, Jessica Zafra, Danton Remoto. Of course I won't miss mentioning the
Filipino-American authors that I've read in America: Jessica Hagedorn, Cecilia Manguerra
Brainard and Arlene Chai. It's true - Filipinos will read a lot in the future. Based on my
experience with Filipino authors, I'm pretty sure English writing is not dead in the
Philippines. And I found another fact after reading Filipino writings : The older
generation of English writers seem to write for a foreign audience. The contemporary
writers that belong to my generation seem to write for Filipino audience. While Filipino
American Australian writers seem to write for an international audience. My generation - I
think it's X - definitely not MTV - or the generation at the boundary between baby-boomers
and X - is at the forefront of the Contemporary Writers in the Philippines: Jessica Zafra
and Danton Remoto are two of the writers I'd like to mention. I'm limited to these two at
this point because, I guess, I have a very limited source to scoop, and I've just read
them. My other reason is - I'm afraid they'd find my writings in the net. And I can just
imagine Zafra bitching and Remoto yawning all over their apartments out of boredom. That
is, if they would care to find out my writings. Okey, go ahead, say it, KEEP ON DREAMING
ALEX! :)
My First Book Review:
One of the books I've read was Twisted by Zafra which revealed a
feminist Filipina who spew gases (This book I believe was a compendium of her column
articles in TODAY), somewhat toxic but definitely true. I was calm all along until I
reached Number Seven collection entitled The Name of the Kalachuchi. From that point on,
all hell broke loose. I don't want to sound moralistic and politically correct
because, hey I'm just as Filipino and whether you like it or not, I laugh at things Zafra
laughs at. At one point or another, I mentioned that we Filipinos cannot produce superior
writings because we're so enamored with correct grammar and structure. I insisted we stick
to the heart of the composition. And yet, as I encountered a mind boggling passage like
this - "Take your men and I'll take mine too... At exactly ten minutes afore zero
hundred hours start the attack and for sure their reinforcement will be on the way at
around five minutes ere twelve. At exactly midnight we'll fire... I want you to observe
it...daintily...if not we'll be pulverized. Okey tha's all!" I create images while I
read. The first statement showed me a couple of uniformed men preparing for a battle. The
next statement showed me a couple of dainty Southern belles hopscotching on a powder
compact. These can be very poetic lines but we're talking of battle here. Zafra did not
write these lines, kiddo! She was referring to an author named AS. I rolled with laughter
everytime she quoted him.
To be continued...
Alex Maskara Is Pinoy
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