Column: The need for more libraries, or for better bookstores

The need for more libraries, or for better bookstores
Rebecca Arcega

Last year, I spent two months vacationing in Wellington, New Zealand and found myself having less control over my time than I’d hoped for.

Not having easy Internet access also left me out of the loop, so I wasn’t able to keep up with the online activities that inspired me to keep working on the Philippine Speculative Fiction blog (http://specfic.philsites.net)

Still, I found that there are some advantages to not being “wired.” One gets more time to think, for one. I think one of the many things about my trip was access to a public library. I was there at least twice a week, and in-between raiding my uncle’s private stash, I foraged in Upper Hutt and took home some titles that I was sure I wouldn’t easily find in the Philippines.

For me, the Upper Hutt Public Library was , quite simply, a little slice of heaven. It had been a while since I was last able to visit a decent library, about four years ago when I was doing research for a certain writing project, and I was able to enter the University of the Philippines Main Library again.

Every time I stepped through the doors of the Upper Hutt Library though, I was bombarded by conflicting emotions. One of them, I was surprised to find, was guilt. I kept thinking about certain people back home who would love the gorgeous selections. I made up my mind to email a friend about the extensive Dragonlance collection I saw, another friend about the newer Iain Banks titles, and someone else about the surprising number of Storm Constantine’s non-Wraeththu books. Hell, I even took pictures.

And I felt like I didn’t deserve to be there. I no longer set aside a sizeable amount of my earnings to books, and while I do love to read, I don’t dare call myself a bibliophile anymore.

Yet I was the one who had access to all those books.

It’s a more personal neurosis, I think - I wouldn’t ascribe it to a Pinoy trait, a “girl thing,” or anything so potentially explosive. I simply hate picking up a paperback at Powerbooks and sitting down to read it, because I feel like I’m depriving other more worthy readers of good seats.

I think things like: there’s a kid out there somewhere who needs to read more Rimbaud than I do; I’m just here rereading Un Saison en Enfer for the nth time on a whim. I’ve already read enough and it’s time for me to write; I shouldn’t take up too much space or too many hours. It made me wonder if my self-esteem issues are still within normal, or if I should start seeing a shrink.

Also, it made me think about how quite a few of the active literati in the Philippines can afford to have their own private libraries. I imagine that really good writers consciously know that they will never have read enough, and in their heart of hearts they are always on the lookout for the next textual high.

The question is, how many of our would-be writers can actually afford that high, and how many can’t?

Loving libraries

Growing up, I was a big fan of libraries. I lived within campus during my university years, so I could library-hop in my spare time. My favorites at the time were the UP Main Library (treasure trove!), the Engineering library, and the Fine Arts library. The last time I had to do research there as an alumna, I had to go through a rigorous (and IIRC, somewhat costly) process just to secure a “special” library card. I just don’t know if students from other schools would have an equally hard time.

But in high school, I used to live one hour away from my campus in Malolos, yet I braved the heat and the traffic during weekends just to be able to visit the town’s public library. Granted, I was very much the little nerd at the time: I grabbed at whatever meant access to books that I could read almost for free.

2007 Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing once spoke of the need for good libraries, saying that “In order to write, in order to make literature, there must be a close connection with libraries, books, with the tradition.” We always hear talk of Pinoy writers needing to write more. But as a good friend once said and I never forgot: “The more I read, the more I want to write.” Some of us tend to notice it off the bat - our most productive times are when we are in the company of other artists, when we’re being forced to catch up with a reading list, when we’ve just experienced something awesome and we’re driven to share it with other people. In short, when we’re being inspired.

And in other countries, they have places where you can just walk in and be inspired, and you have no excuse not to be. When somebody says “I think you should read ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell’ by Susanna Clarke,” you don’t have to shell out P600 just to take that godawful thick but hugely entertaining title home. You don’t have to commute 20 miles to the library at the metropolis or strain your eyes reading pirated ebooks (which are usually badly formatted and poorly spellchecked, by the way) just to catch up with the artists you admire.

We already have a fair number of great bookshops and publishing houses, but I’m wondering if they would ever be able to afford customer-friendlier sales schemes. At Dymock’s bookshop, you can even return a brand-new book within a certain number of days, and as long as it’s in excellent condition you can exchange it for another title - with adjustments duly made to the cost, of course! To be honest, I don’t know if our local bookshops operate with a similar principle, but I’d sure love to see something besides the traditional “No return, no exchange” policy.

Right now, I live near a mall. This mall has a National Bookstore outlet. I notice one specific teenage boy poring through the books in the Filipiniana section almost every time I visit. But every time I approach him to try and ask him about himself, he shies away, as if he’s expecting that I wanted the space to browse through the Filipiniana section for myself.

I can’t help but think this boy should be in a library, not sneaking around in a bookstore.

I don’t blame publishers for wanting to make money. I certainly don’t hate bookshops, especially ones that make it a point to stock not only bestsellers, but Really Good Books. All this helps in furthering literacy in the country. But you still have to ask what’s slowing us down, what’s making it harder for the rest of us to catch up.

Make no mistake here, I’m not nursing a resentment for people who have the means to buy the next bestseller hot off the shelves and think P200 for a hardcover is a great buy - for the record it’s a huge bargain, but I think I’ll wait for the paperback to go on sale. But I do want to call more attention to the rift that is being created by lack of access to information. Are we really asking to breed more novelists, when even local novels cost P500 a pop, our cost-effective presses can only produce a limited number of quality titles, and our benchmarks of modern literature are only available via Amazon.com? Are we serious about expecting people to become better writers, when it’s so difficult for them to even have an idea what good writing is?

Moreover, and just to be clear, what I’m saying is not “How can we guilt-trip the haves into slowing down for the have-nots?” but “How can we empower the have-nots so they can finally catch up?”

I’m aware that inequalities will persist. It doesn’t follow that just because we will have more and better libraries, we’ll be able to breed better writers - i.e., that people will actually go to those libraries, and read, and be inspired. It’s not that simple.

Still, if we’re serious about our dedication to literacy, and if we’re serious about wanting to pull our fellow writers up to global standards, we should at least acknowledge certain realities about the playing field. There’s “coddling” and there’s “helping,” and right now we’re still at that stage where we need all the help we can get.

Written by Mia | May 6, 2008 | Filed Under Read or Die, Books, Reading | 4 Comments

LIRA poetry workshop now accepting applicants

The Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA) is now accepting applicants for its annual poetry workshop, to be held from June to August 2008. From the LIRA website:

Bukas na pong muli ang LIRA sa mga nais magpatalâ upang lumahok sa taunang klinikang pampanulaan. Ang klinika po ay gaganapin mula 9:00 n.u hanggang 5:00 n.h. tuwing Sabado at Linggo, at magtatagal nang tatlong buwan, mula Hunyo hanggang Agosto.

Tulad po ng mga nakaraang taon, magpadala po ng isang pahinang bio-data na may 1×1 ID picture, kasama ang limang tula sa Filipino, sa liraworkshop@gmail.com, o ilagay ito sa pigeon hole ni Prof. Vim Nadera sa UP Institute of Creative Writing, 2/F Faculty Center, College of Arts and Letters, UP Diliman. Ang huling araw po ng pagpapatalâ ay ang ika-30 ng Abril, 2008.

Written by Mia | April 8, 2008 | Filed Under Events | Leave a Comment

Two Poems: Kenneth Koch and Louise Gluck

April is National Poetry Month and okay, it’s not a Philippine activity but let’s appropriate their holidays for better poetry appreciation, yeah? I’ll be posting two poems every weekend of the month, with a personal commentary about my views towards the poems and as a way to showcase how reading good poetry doesn’t have to be academic in order to be worthwhile.

That being said, I will put a disclaimer here. Many of the things I will write are extremely subjective. Poetry is something I’m passionate about, but it’s an n00b’s brand of love–I do not use the correct terminologies and I may be severely uninformed. For those who would want to correct me though, feel welcome to do so. There’s nothing more stimulating than a good discussion.

First, let’s start off with a love poem:

To You
by Kenneth Koch

I love you as a sheriff searches for a walnut
That will solve a murder case unsolved for years
Because the murderer left it in the snow beside a window
Through which he saw her head, connecting with
Her shoulders by a neck, and laid a red
Roof in her heart. For this we live a thousand years;
For this we love, and we live because we love, we are not
Inside a bottle, thank goodness! I love you as a
Kid searches for a goat; I am crazier than shirttails
In the wind, when you’re near, a wind that blows from
The big blue sea, so shiny so deep and so unlike us;
I think I am bicycling across an Africa of green and white fields
Always, to be near you, even in my heart
When I’m awake, which swims, and also that I believe that you
Are trustworthy as the sidewalk which leads me to
The place where I think of you, a new
Harmony of thoughts! I love you as the sunlight leads the prow
Of a ship which sails from Hartford to Miami, and I love you
Best at dawn, when even before I am awake the sun
Receives me in the questions which you always pose.

This will be a central theme for most of the poetry I will post, eheh. The other is also about love, but a mournful one, and something that is told in quiet, distilled verses. But for simple love declarations, I find that I’m partial to rambly, extremely naive poems like this one and Having a Coke with You by Frank O’Hara. There is, of course, a danger in it, because it can so easily sound uh, retarded. And admittedly “To You” has less of the musicality I search for in poetry, but I’ve forgiven lesser poems than this in the face of one kick-ass metaphor. This poem has more than five. My favorites are the first line (of course), “I am crazier than shirttails / In the wind, when you’re near,”"I think I am / bicycling across an Africa of green and white fields / Always, to be near you.” I have read that Hartford is actually landlocked and so his analogy is absurd in this way, LOL. But it’s exactly the way we are at love, I feel, because trivial things like geography can easily be overlooked.

Kenneth Koch was associated with the New York School. Here is an interview talking about John Ashberry and Frank O’Hara. Also, I’m sad to discover that he’s dead.

The New York School and the Beat Generation of San Francisco are indispensable if you want vibrant, witty poems that never run out of odd images and similes. Other favorites that write on the same vein are Lawrence Ferlighetti (still alive! :o), Kenneth Rexroth and Gregory Corso. I find Allen Ginsberg (especially the latter poems) and Jack Kerouac highly overrated, sry. :/

The Triumph Of Achilles
by Louise Glück

In the story of Patroclus
no one survives, not even Achilles
who was nearly a god.
Patroclus resembled him; they wore
the same armor.

Always in these friendships
one serves the other, one is less than the other:
the hierarchy
is always apparent, though the legends
cannot be trusted–
their source is the survivor,
the one who has been abandoned.

What were the Greek ships on fire
compared to this loss?

In his tent, Achilles
grieved with his whole being
and the gods saw
he was a man already dead, a victim
of the part that loved,
the part that was mortal.

I’m sorry for not having a lot of things to say for this poem, because I’ve read it more than a dozen times and it still leaves me speechless. I’ll say though that my favorite part is this: “though the legends / cannot be trusted — their source is the survivor,/ the one who has been abandoned.” I may be horribly misreading this line, but it feels to me like the very act of ‘tribute’ or ‘remembrance’ will always say something more about the grieving one than the actual dead person. The way that Patroclus comes down in history as “friend of Achilles” and not the other way around also layers their relationship in terms of the equality(?) between them. It’s also interesting to note how the title contains the word “triumph” yet the body of poem describes Achilles grieving.

Glück has a knack for fleshing out mythological figures into flawed but still super-human characters. Her latest poetry collection, Averno, uses the Hades and Persephone myth to talk about the shadows of love, marriage, and possession.

Written by giyenah | April 6, 2008 | Filed Under Reviews | 1 Comment

Updates

Our column in Manila Bulletin still comes out weekly so you can check it out for our current preoccupations etc. The first phase of Write or Die is (nearly) finished; we’ll start a new round come June 2008.

In the meantime still working on the ‘new’ public site of Read Or Die so people emailing us re: broken links etc, we’ll be back up to snuff soon, i.e., by next week. RoD is undergoing some major re-engineering (not so much re-organization). We started out as a book club, but after RodCon 2007, RoD has evolved into something much bigger, and we’ve had to give serious thought about its sustainability and how it can be effective not just as a book club, but as a reading advocacy, and we don’t think that we can do this by ourselves any longer. We’ve been amazed at the level of support that we have received but we frankly can’t catch up anymore and we don’t want to let this entire thing grind to a halt simply because most of us have had to deal or are dealing with major career and lifestyle changes etc. We were just a bunch of readers who had no ambitions aside from meeting other like-minded geeks, but Read or Die is not, well, it’s not about us, really, and it hasn’t been for a long time. Corny ba? Anyway, as I mentioned in an earlier post, watch out for a more detailed announcement in the next couple of weeks.

Written by tin | April 6, 2008 | Filed Under Latest | Leave a Comment

Panibagong Paraan 2008 Showcases Innovative Ideas

Taking a break from your regular literary postings (that have not been so regular lately–which will change this April! we promise!):

Panibagong Paraan 2008 Showcases Innovative Ideas

Chief Justice (Ret.) Artemio Panganiban will open the Panibagong Paraan 2008 Philippine Development Innovation Marketplace on Wednesday, April 9 at 11 A.M., at the Megatrade Halls of SM Megamall.

He will deliver the keynote speech for the event where project proposals from 99 finalists in a nationwide search for innovative ideas will be judged and presented to the public. The theme of the competition is: “Building Partnerships for Effective Local Governance”.

The project proposals cover a wide range of activities from environmental protection to women’s rights, youth empowerment, livelihood generation, governance and administration. At least 30 winners of the project grant competition will receive up to P1 million each to implement their projects within one year.

The awarding ceremonies will be keynoted by Dr. Milwida Guevara, the 2008 Gawad Haydee Yorac awardee for outstanding public service, CEO of Synergeia Foundation, and a proponent of local good governance through the Galing Pook Foundation. Emceeing the award ceremony is TV host, Edu Manzano.

Four simultaneous round table discussions on the issue of building partnerships for effective local governance will be held on April 9, from 2 to 4 p.m., hosted by the Caucus for Development NGOs (CODE-NGO), Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN), the Local Government Academy (LGA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The topics lined up are: “Are Political Dynasties a Threat to Democratic Governance?”; “Does Community Participation Ensure Transparency and Social Accountability in Local Governance?”, Youth Participation in Governance: A Harbinger of Change in Leadership Style or an Opportunity to Corrupt or Exploit Young Leaders?” and “The Business Case for Cutting Red Tape at the Local Level”.

An on-the-spot poster making contest will also be held on Thursday afternoon (from 2 to 4:30) for children 7 to 12 years of age, facilitated by the Ilustrador ng Kabataan (INK), an organization of artists who illustrate children’s books.

Speaking at a workshop on skills sharing on April 10 at 10 a.m., is fundraiser John Silva who gives grant-writing seminars to NGOs, non-profits, universities, religious organizations, foundations and individuals. Silva will make presentations about project development, advocacy and lobbying techniques and effective strategies for resource mobilization.

A Winners’ Forum on April 10 (from 1 to 5 p.m.) will feature presentations by selected past winners of Panibagong Paraan and Galing Pook

Musical and cultural numbers will be performed throughout the two days by LGU groups such as the Marikina Rondalla, Teatro Marikeno, Bungkos Palay Performing Arts Foundation of the Science City of Munoz, and others. Admission is free.

Panibagong Paraan is a joint undertaking of the World Bank, the Department of Interior and Local Government – Local Government Academy, AusAID-PACAP, Peace and Equity Foundation, Canadian International Development Agency, the Philippine Center for Population and Development, the British Embassy, Team Energy Foundation, The Asia Foundation, USAID, ADB, CODE-NGO, the League of Corporate Foundations, and the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement.

For more information, please go to www.panibagongparaan.com

Written by tin | April 6, 2008 | Filed Under Events | 1 Comment

Announcements

Vibal Foundation opens internship program for online writing

Vibal Foundation is opening an internship program for college students interested in writing using digital platforms starting April 7, 2008. This is in line with the Foundation’s mission of encouraging young people to harness the potential of the Internet as a communication tool.

The internship program will involve writing articles for the Foundation’s flagship projects: WikiPilipinas.org, a free and collaboratively written encyclopedia of Philippine content; POC, a news website; and creating metadata information for Filipiniana.net, a digital library containing Philippine books, documents, and multimedia resources.

Interns will be requested to render at least 100 hours of on-site work. They will be provided with a stipend throughout the internship and a certificate of completion once they have finished the program.

Interested parties are requested to email their CVs to Christian Pangilinan (Program Coordinator) at chris@wikipilipinas.org.ph. They may also contact the Vibal Foundation office at 7129156 to 59 loc. 343.

Vibal Foundation is a non-profit organization whose aim is to foster information literacy through the creative use of digital technology and new media.

Katext Mo Sa Katotohanan Poetry Contest>The Filipinas Institute of Translation, Inc. (FIT) launches “Katext Mo Sa Katotohanan” (Your Text Mate For Truth), a dalit poetry writing contest through the popular SMS/text messaging. FIT has sponsored similar contests in the past using other indigenous literary forms like the tanaga and diona.

Dalit is a traditional poetic form consisting of four mono-rhyming lines of eight syllables each. It is highly metaphorical and conveys an insight on human life and experience. Here is an example:

Ang sugat ay kung tinanggap
Di daramdamin ang antak
Ang aayaw at di mayag
Galos lamang magnanaknak.
(When one submits himself to wounding,
The intensest pain is bearable;
When one is unwilling,
Even the merest scratch can fester)

Writers and poetry enthusiasts can join the contest which has a very contemporary theme—the value of telling the truth. Writing poems is an effective way of expressing communal feelings and at this time in our national life, communal action.

Ang tunay na Filipino
Nagsasabi ng totoo
Naglilingkod sa totoo
Ilalaban ang totoo.
- Rio Alma

Contestants can text their poems at 0915-7832810. Or email them at dalitext@yahoo.com. Poems must strictly follow the dalit rhyme and meter. Cut-off time is at 5pm every Friday. Weekly winners gets a prize of P2,000.00 Consolation prize winners will receive certificates. For details, call 9221830 or email at mentioned address.

NBDB Book Club Meeting: Sudden Fiction Anthologies

The NBDB Book Club will be reading two volumes of the country’s best collection of sudden fiction stories.

Written by the finest writers of this generation, Mga Kuwentong Paspasan and Very Short Stories for Harried Readers (both volumes published by Milflores Publishing) contain 30 stories in Filipino and 41 short stories in English. Both volumes are edited by Vicente Garcia Groyon.

The book club meeting will be held on March 15,Saturday, 10 a.m. at the Ortigas Foundation Library. Award-winning writer Tara FT Sering will moderate the discussion.

Mga Kuwentong Paspasan and Very Short Stories for Harried Readers are available at National Bookstore branches for P290 each.

For more details about the NBDB Book Club, please call 926-8238 or 631-1231 local 222 and 228.

Everyone who has read the featured books is invited to come. Admission is free.

Written by tin | March 8, 2008 | Filed Under Latest, Events | 5 Comments

Coming soon (or sooner)

Busy on a personal level but there have been some new things going on club-wise. Extensive developments, one might say. Am preparing for the RoD magazine which will be published by National Book Store this April and we’re coming out with a new website (yeah, like what’s new–hopefully there should be something a little bit relevant in it though). The second quarter of the year ought to be interesting for the organization.

In the meantime we’re trucking on with the columns. We’ve just finished wrapping up the last part of Write or Die for Gawad Likhaan and are taking a short breather. Until April, that is, and then…

Written by tin | March 8, 2008 | Filed Under Latest | 1 Comment

Column: Reading Dangerously

Promoting reading and love for books might seem the most innocuous of advocacies, and perhaps–from a certain perspective—kind of boring. Other people seem to harbor an existential sort of fascination with the name of our organization; on our part, the only advantage is that we are not in any danger of being automatically considered as unreconstructed bluestockings, especially when confronted with lofty frat boys. Not that we—or any reader—should care. However I’ll be the first to admit that we’ve run into our share of Lovecraftian weirdness. Publishers and editors have recounted numerous stories of being stalked by aspiring writers. But reams of psychological suspense and slasher novels are written about and starring bibliophiles, and for good reason.

A mysterious self-confessed male person sent me a caustic text message asking why most published Filipino writers are “elitist, pompous, boring, university-bred asshats” and “why can’t we have Filipino versions of Charles Bukowski and William Burroughs?” A day or so later he followed it up with a question–addressed to ‘Read Or Die’–what ‘a priori’ meant because he’d started reading Arthur Schopenhauer. I didn’t reply to his earlier messages and had no phone credit when the a priori question came up. He repeatedly insisted that I reply because he had nobody to ask and he was only a minimum-wage earner employed by the government and a lapsed alcoholic with poetic pretensions who’d started to get back to reading again, specifically philosophy texts. I had to bite and replied via Yahoo Messenger with a hash definition of ‘a priori’ (throwing in ‘a posteriori’ for good measure). He thanked me politely enough. I found the entire thing rather intriguing. Civil servants reading Schopenhauer! There was hope for this country yet.

The next day he sent another message to ‘Read Or Die’ saying that he’d also started reading the Marquis de Sade and then followed it up with a polemic bemoaning the inadequacies of English-Filipino dictionaries. I sent a brief reply saying that this could possibly be addressed by mass circulation of translated texts but wasn’t sure if it was ever going to happen. He made some sort of derisive rejoinder–I’d begun to notice that he was rather touchy and unpredictable–and then asked for my email and MySpace page. I didn’t reply.

That’s when he started flooding. He kept sending ‘Hey, Read or Die’ messages and ‘Why aren’t you answering me? Are you feeling threatened?’ I deleted the messages as they came because my inbox had very limited capacity, and honestly, only an idiot would take the bait this time around.

The next day he seemed relatively calmer and told me about his band and said in a self-mocking tone that for some reason he’d started thinking of me as the the Jack Kerouac to his Neal Cassady. I didn’t reply. Despite the underlying mockery, I thought the comment must either point to an incredibly naive and romanticized view of the Beat poets or to an equally incredible conceit (Neal Cassidy was Jack Kerouac’s psychedelic muse, Ginsberg’s ’secret hero.’) He recommended several books for Read or Die to read–aside from his obvious partiality for skid row writers with destructive personalities and European philosophers with more of the same, his taste also seemed to run towards biting suburban American novels with soft and dry cores, like ‘Bridges of Madison Country.’

He spammed me again later that evening with more demands and goading sarcastic comments. I turned off my phone. The next afternoon he ventured with an almost timid question asking me if I’d read Nietzsche and if so which books would I recommend. I should also have ignored this, but I found him interesting and quixotic and sad despite his rudeness and high-strung temperament. I replied with “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and “Beyond Good and Evil.” He asked me why I did not pick something like “The Gay Science” which was purportedly symptomatic Nietzsche. I said that I hadn’t chosen the books I did based on whether or not they are ‘representative,’ but on the basis of philosophical and aesthetic continuity. He asked me who Zarathustra was. I replied and recommended a few books on German history and philosophy and left it at that. He didn’t, of course.

”Wow,” said Anon. “You’ve even read Nietzsche? You must be a famous professor, writer or columnist. Or somebody really old, which is why you take so long to reply, your fingers must be rheumatic.”

I did not reply.

Anon continued: “You must be all of 60, I’d say. Why aren’t you replying Ms. Read or Die? Have I offended your refined intellectual sensibilities again with my lower-class boorishness? Somebody like you who’s read German philosophy and has the luxury to found a book club for equally privileged bourgeois kids… I wouldn’t be surprised. How old are you?”

I wondered where he got the energy to write polysyllabic texts.

”You must be horrendously ugly as well. Buried in your books.”

Well, I was only human. I replied that I was not elderly, rich, refined or privileged. I also didn’t know about being ugly.

Anon shot back with a rather nasty query about what sort of milk formula my parents fed me so that I would have developed a penchant for the canon of German philosophy.

I didn’t reply.

“My dear Ms. Read or Die,” Anon sneered. “Cat got your tongue again? Please spare the time to talk to me and bridge the gap, however fleeting, between the working class and the upper class.”

”I don’t know why you keep harping on the question of our respective backgrounds, Mr. Pseudo-Semi-Proletarian,” I sneered back. “Please keep your illusions to yourself. As for mending the class war, if you’d read Marx–which I assume you have since you’re so obsessed with your social condition–you would know that’s rank heresy. You should be shot in the head. Good day.” My fingers were starting to hurt.

”Pseudo?” howled Anon. “I’m a true-blue-dyed-in-the-wool peon, Ma’am. I was a gasoline boy, sold sweepstakes tickets, worked in a farm, subsisted for a while as a gutter poet, took out an eleven-year research fellowship in Alcoholism, and am now staring at a bleak, pathetic and altogether boring future as a cog in this accursed government machinery. But you wouldn’t know that, of course. What’s your name?”

Didn’t reply. He went on to talk about classical music, jazz (inclusive of malicious asides regarding Steve Cooke) and why am I not replying, was I guilty, was I threatened.

Anon: Forget about being Jack Kerouac. You are clearly Tinker Bell to my Peter Pan. Hey, Tink. Are you there?

I turned off my phone again.

Received more text messages the next morning, which I again ignored though it was getting harder to send my own text messages, and met a fellow RoD member for lunch, who was witness to yet more messages. Apparently Mr. Working Class had taken a half day from work and biked home and on the way came up with ever sharper and provoking retorts guaranteed 100% to ensure him a fair hearing. This included a vague Marxist critique of Vivaldi and rhapsodies on the jazz canon as well as more sly digs about my status in life and possible intellectual pretensions.

Anyway, you get what we’re up against. If it’s not bleeding heart writers, you have pseudo-proletarian poets who think we’re their ticket to fame (Lord knows where they get the idea). Mia was of the opinion that—from a strictly interpersonal perspective—it was another variation of sexist playground behavior. Get the girl’s attention by calling her rude names, shivering, in the meantime, with the delicious anticipation of having her pull your hair in retaliation. I don’t exactly revel in the attention but I did find this person interesting and wondered how he conducted his real-life interactions. He struck me as abrasive, lonely, insecure and a bit schizophrenic. He’s also terribly articulate (in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a good poet–he did style himself in those terms) and I think his anger at social injustice is very real. There’s also quite a lot of vain grandstanding and self-delusion. All in all, a novelistic package.

I don’t think that I’d like to be his friend, though (least of all a readymade amanuensis/Muse), and I could really do without the provoking messages and constant demands for attention. Ignoring him seems to be a good way to force him to temper himself. He apologized one night for his foul comments and said that he was only trying to get my attention. Well, I don’t know if he’s that desperate for my upper-class conversation or if he sees me, possibly the first female of his acquaintance who’s read his German philosophers (for whom he professes his usual mixture of contempt and ambivalent admiration), as a reflection of his own brilliance. He does seem intent to carve out some sort of half-crazed, half-fantastic, overall debased Beat-Marxist fairytale where rich girl dwelling in ivory tower breathing in the rarefied air of dead books and dead knowledge meets poor boy, the genius poet with a violent and melancholic past. And together they fight illiteracy and capitalistic exploitation.

Written by tin | March 8, 2008 | Filed Under Read or Die, Books, Reading | 11 Comments

Column: Planetary Pariahs: Bradbury and the Influence of Edgar Allan Poe

Our column last Saturday (February 23). Kristel dishes the dirt on Bradbury (I love these people). I wrote a two-part column before that about er Genji monogatari and the Arabian Nights (you’d know we’re pressed for time when we post something like thesis dissertations in the Manila Bulletin bless their generous hearts).

Planetary Pariahs: Bradbury and the Influence of Edgar Allan Poe
By Kristel Autencio

I. “Bradbury is the Louis Armstrong of science fiction”

More than sixty years after publishing his first story and creating a career full of contradictions, Ray Bradbury has firmly cemented a reputation as an oddity of American Letters. As part of the so-called Golden Age of science fiction in the 1940’s and 50’s, he achieved a fanatical following through his mass production of off-beat stories, spitting them up by the dozen for pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, and Imagination! He later gained mainstream celebrity for his brilliant novels, The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451. One novel is a pioneer-type tale about humans colonizing the planet Mars, the other a futuristic allegory warning against the dangers of censorship. Both of them are generally accepted as part of the SF canon. Aside from that stories had also appeared, in such highbrow publications as Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, and Collier’s and he has been awarded both the National Medal of Arts and the O. Henry Memorial Award. He also earned lavish praise from more “literary” (as opposed to “pulpy”) writers such as Chistopher Isherwood and British writer Kingsley Amis. Is he then a hack, or a genius, a veritable master of the bizarre or simply a writer of childhood elegies? Not many have ridden this fence like he has, balancing between what Amis calls his “dime-a-dozen sensitivity” and literary respectability.

His reputation among SF circles is shifty as well. Despite being constantly mentioned in the same breath as other SF greats such as Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke, many science fiction purists refuse to recognize Bradbury as a legitimate SF writer, and have criticized his stories’ “science,” with good reason. In Bradbury’s fiction, Venus skies are full of rain and not toxic ammonia, and improbable rocket ships scoop out burning pieces of the sun while the crew recites poetry.

Even his stories that are supposedly set in planets like Mars reek heavily of Americana–readers imagine Ohio with a pink sky rather than a hostile, alien world. Bradbury’s imagery is far removed from the exact scientific logic in the fiction of his contemporaries. Science for them is never poetic, never irrational, the fulcrum for their stories’ believability. Bradbury simply chucks it out of the window. Therein lies the presumption that perhaps Bradbury operates not by the logic and laws of typical SF writers but by an entirely different frequency altogether. Despite having rocket ships and time machines, his fiction is not in the tradition of Jules Verne or H.G. Wells, where the logistics of the story, however fictional, take precedence over imagery and symbolism.

Ray Bradbury’s body of work has much more in common with that of American Gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe.

1. “Bradbury is of the house of Poe.”

Beyond overt homages to Poe’s talent, Bradbury has also incorporated much of Poe’s style into his fiction. Foremost of this is Poe’s deft use of setting as an ingredient, not only to as the backdrop for his unforgettable characters, but also as a symbolism, a indication that there is something rotten just below the surface. From Prince Propero’s Gothic chambers (”The Masque of the Red Death”), the decaying House of Usher, and the catacombs of Montresor (”The Cask of Amontillado”), the setting acts as an additional character, oftentimes more memorable and quotable.

Bradbury’s greatest strength is his poetic sensibility as “existential fabulous.” Much like Poe, he relies heavily on atmosphere, often imbuing them with metaphor. The texture varies greatly however, employing nostalgia and dark foreboding with equal deftness. Oftentimes, Bradbury’s characters may not have any faces but readers always remember his settings. Seldom in science fiction words would you encounter passages such as these, more remarkable because Bradbury is describing a drive through lonely Martian roads.

There was a smell of Time in the air tonight. He smiled and turned the fancy in his mind. There was a thought. What did Time smell like? Like dust and clocks and people. And if you wondered what Time sounded like it sounded like water running in the dark cave and voices crying and dirt dropping down upon hollow box lids, and rain…. That was how Time smelled and looked and sounded. (“The Martian Chronicles”)

In one of his most haunting short stories entitled “The Scythe,” a story about a farmer who has dominion over people’s death by cutting wheat, Bradbury successfully evokes the American Midwest in the time of the Great Depression through the imagery of vast rolling wheat fields contrasted with the mention of unemployment, starvation and dust. Roderick Usher’s ancestral home operates in the same way in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, using a dilapidated house instead of wheat fields. Through carefully crafted images of “decayed trees…a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible and leaden-hued”, the deterioration of an entire family line become inevitable.

In fact, Bradbury’s themes, his use of setting to generate a tone of foreboding and disintegration, and romanticizing of death and decay seem to be heavily rooted in the Poeian tradition. Bradbury’s sense of suspense also contains shades of Poe. Being able to successfully sustain action and anticipation through intricate and sometimes convoluted sentences have always been the specialty of Edgar Allan Poe’s fiction.

Both Bradbury and Poe use layer upon layer of imagery, often tactile, to achieve a slow-creeping, insidious kind of horror that is more than just shock value. Admittedly, both of them revel in the use of grotesque elements–Bradbury gravitates towards mummies and skeletons while Poe was latched on the concept of being buried alive–but unlike other writers who employ the same tricks, their images stay longer. They both value paranoia in their fiction. One of Poe’s most memorable characters kills a kindly old man because “one of his eyes resembled that of a vulture”. Bradbury, on the other hand, uses innocuous objects like a set of stairs, a jar filled with animal fetuses, and the carnival of your childhood and transforms them in the stuff of nightmares.

2. “Is Ray Bradbury a Luddite?”

This contradictory and often contentious relationship of his with science fiction and technology in general is the reason for much of flak he has received from the SF fans and fellow writers. Bradbury himself has written that he has been “criticized by many who observed that I was no writer of science fiction, I was a ‘people’ writer, and to hell with that!”. The perception, articulated here by Damon Knight writer and one of the first SF scholars:

“Although there is a large following among science fiction readers, there is at least an equally large contingent of people who cannot stomach his work at all; they say he has no respect for the medium; that he does not even trouble to make his scientific double-talk convincing; that–worst crime of all–he fears and distrusts science.”

Damon Knight, who recognizes Bradbury’s talent, doesn’t really think much of him as a writer of science fiction. This reading of Bradbury, however, purely on the merits of his scientific know-how and the general logic of his stories seems to be a little to myopic. Most SF writers and readers accept that for science fiction to be called good it must be “based on knowledgeable scientific extrapolation and cannot be inconsistent with known science” . But in a world where you need to upgrade your cellphone every other month, and the US military is supposedly developing “invisibility suits,” what is merely scientific extrapolation mere months ago is fast becoming obsolete. Good stories, not just SF ones, need something more substantial to hang on to. When Knight says that “Bradbury’s Mars, where it is not bare as a Chinese stage-setting, is a mass of inconsistency,” he is basically telling the truth. But claiming that “his imagination is mediocre” and that “he borrows nearly all his background and props, and distorts them badly” fails to take into account that other SF writers also employ these props, they are cliches by themselves, and only through skewing them a little does an SF writer’s literary gift manifest itself.

Realms of the science fiction today are fluid, with concepts such as drug-induced alternative realities, and genetic mutation as some of the trendiest themes. Writers like Philip K. Dick have successfully avoided this kind of censure from other SF folks, so why is Bradbury continually trapped in this controversy?

Knight was correct though in saying that instead of being born a century too late, Bradbury would have been a cast-away at any age. In fact, Edgar Allan Poe was too. Despite having a formidable reputation now, his almost sing-songy poems and his almost manic glee towards the grotesque made him the 19th Century equivalent of a pulp writer, always a notch below the likes of Hawthorne in terms of respectability. And perhaps writers of Bradbury and Poe’s vein need this kooky kind of reputation.

Bradbury’s name is recognizable to readers, even those who aren’t SF buffs. Half a century later and people still read his stories, still read his novels, the most formidable of which, reputation-wise is his literal “dime-novel” Fahrenheit 451. And Edgar Allan Poe, despite being known as merely the writer who writes “scary stories” was translated to French by no other than Charles Baudelaire and has had great influence to “Mallarme, Valery, and the Symbolists” and has been recurrent the poster-boy for American Gothic. Staying the consciousness of the people may be one of the benefits of their unique styles.

If staying power is the yardstick by which a writer’s style is deemed effective, then Poe and Bradbury pretty much has it won. Their works are admittedly uneven at times but these mutant parts construct unique literary creatures that are strangely attractive. Unafraid to seem like laughingstock, they didn’t conform their imagination to the prevailing norms of the time–whether the sedate literature of the 19th century or the exclusive requirements to become “SF enough”–but managed to blaze a trail of their own, the new writers all try to follow. They are the unique voices of their time; they are illusionists and they continue to dazzle us even now. “It is a great age to live in and, if need be, die in,” Bradbury says. “Any magician worth his salt would tell you the same”.

Written by tin | February 26, 2008 | Filed Under Latest, Read or Die | 4 Comments

Write or Die features Marne Kilates

The UP Institute of Creative Writing in cooperation with Powerbooks and Read Or Die present the third series of Write Or Die: Writers Write lecture-workshops. The discussions will be held every weekend from November 2007 to February 2008 in different Powerbooks branches and will be moderated by some of the best writers in the country. The purpose of the workshops is to promote the Gawad Likhaan: The University of the Philippines Centennial Literary Prize.

The workshops has three areas: Fiction (November 2007-December 2007), Non-Fiction (January 2008), and Poetry (February 2008).

Noted Bikol poet and translator Marne Kilates will be speaking on writing poetry in English on February 23, 2008 (Saturday) in Powerbooks Greenbelt from 2PM to 4PM. The talk is free and open to the public.

Marne Kilates is a member of the Board of Directors of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) and is an Associate Fellow of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC). He has also won several Palanca Awards and the 1998 SEA (Southeast Asia) WRITE Award given by the Thai royalty. For more information please contact us at readordie.ph@gmail.com.

Written by tin | February 21, 2008 | Filed Under Latest | Leave a Comment

Support
Libro.ph
Recently Written
Recent Comments
- bhex
  @ jon - hahah you and your friends rocked! my dad always used to brag that he used up more UP diliman library...
- Mia
  I used to go to my elementary/high school library a lot. :D Didn’t go to the library that often in college,...
- jon
  I love the UST Elementary/High School Library. I was always there when i was studying there. There were so many...
- gus reininger
  Good to mention Corso, pure poet. Would you consider linking to the film about him. www.corsothefilm.com
- Andrea
  Gusto ko ito. Hinahanap ko sa kasalukuyan ang mga koleksiyon ni Rio Alma. At ito ang nabasa ko. Malaman ang...
Bloggers
Categories
Mailing List
Donate