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.

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

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.

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…

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.

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”.

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.

Read Or Die Column: The 2007 National Book Development Board Readership Survey

*We’re not posting all our columns to the blog–because we forget, but once (or right after) the online edition comes out I’ll try to re-post the column here. To those asking: the column comes out every Wednesday and Saturday at the Youth and Campus section of Manila Bulletin.

The 2007 NBDB Readership Survey

by Kristine Mandigma (2/2/2008)

The National Book Development Board (NBDB) presented the results of the 2007 NBDB Readership Survey on November 28, 2007 at the Discovery Suites, Pasig City. I attended the presentation as a representative of Read Or Die along with several publishers, educators, librarians, and other reading advocates.

The National Book Development Board is the government agency tasked with strengthening the book industry in the Philippines. Under its Chairman Dr. Dennis Gonzalez and its dynamic Executive Directory Atty. Andrea Flores, the NBDB has expanded its programs to include a strong advocacy for reading. The NBDB Readership Survey is one of their most important projects. A previous readership survey was conducted in March 2003 by the Social Weather Station (SWS)

The survey was conducted as a rider of 65 questions in the June 2007 survey done by the Social Weather Station (SWS).  The March 2003 was conducted as a rider of 41 questions. According to a statement issued by NBDB Chairman Dr. Dennis Gonzalez, it covered the following topics: reading preferences, patterns of purchase and acquisition, influences on book selection and non-schoolbook readership, and attitudes towards books and reading.

The highlights of the 2007 NBDB Readership Survey are as follows. I am replicating—with permission—the contents of the summary issued by the National Book Development Board for the benefit of the general public who may not have access to the survey results (alas, readership surveys are not as exciting as the latest rumors about pork barrel scandals). You may also acquire a copy of the survey as well as the full complement of statistical data at the National Book Development Board Office, 2/F NPO Building, EDSA cor. NIA Northside Road, Diliman, Quezon City.

Highlights of the 2007 NBDB Readership Survey

The percentage of book readers in 2007 (83%) has decreased as compared to 2003 (90%).

Nearly all (96%) book readers in 2007 read non-school books (NSBs), while only three-fourths (76%) of book readers in 2003 read NSBs.

Among book readers:

• Those who have read NSBs in the NCR decreased in 2007 compared to 2003.

• All other groups who have read NSBs increased.

Among NSB readers:

Weekly/monthly readers of NSBs decreased in 2007.

Those who read NSBs a few times a year or less than once a year increased in 2007.

Packaging is what is noticed by the highest number, but not a majority, of NSB readers.

The blurb found at the book is also noticed.

Most NSB readers, however, do not notice information such as the NSB publisher, date of publication, author, and whether or not the NSB has several good reviews.

Overall, the percentage of NSB readers increased from 68% (76% of 90% book readers in 2003) to 80% (90% of 8% book readers in 2007).

The 2007 NBDB Readership Survey says that Filipinos are starting to read non-school books at an earlier age.

NSB readers are starting to read a year younger.

From 17.2 years in 2003, the average age of those who start to read NSBs decreased to 16.4 years in 2007.

The readers of non-schoolbooks in classes ABC began doing so at an older age compared to 2003. However, readers of NSBs in classes D and E started to read NSBs at a younger age in 2007.

What do Filipinos read?

For both 2003 and 2007, the Bible is the most popular non-schoolbook read. Romance books come in second.

Top scorers in the popularity of NSBs are:

1. Bible (67%) (38% in 2003)

2. Romance (33%) (26%)

3. Cooking (28%) (7%)

4. Comic books (26%) (0%)

5. Religion/Religious/Inspirational (20%) (9%)

Why do Filipinos read?

As in 2003, the main reason for reading non-schoolbooks is still for information, or to gain knowledge.

However, more NSBs are reading NSBs for enjoyment in 2007, compared to 2003.

Whose books do Filipinos read?

In 2007, 46% of readers of non-schoolbooks read NSBs by Filipino authors only.

43% read NSBs by both Filipino authors and foreign authors.

9% read NSBs by foreign authors only.

In the rural areas, readers who read NSBs by Filipino and foreign authors increased significantly (20%+) in 2007.

In the urban areas, readers who read NSBs by Filipino authors only increased slightly (5%+) in 2007.

Means of acquiring books

NSB readers in 2007 acquired the NSBs they read by:

1. Receiving the books as gifts (42%)

2. Borrowing from others (41%)

3. Reading books from the library (27%)

4. Buying (19%)

5. Renting (18%)

Among all groups of NSB readers, receiving NSBs as gifts and borrowing from others are the most prevalent.

In what language do Filipinos prefer to read books?

Tagalog (Read: 50%) (Preferred: 32%)

English (Read: 35%) (Preferred: 15%)

Cebuano (Read: 5.97%) (Preferred: 4.6%)

Bisaya (Read: 5.73%) (Preferred: 4.41%)

Ilocano (Read: 4.72%) (Preferred: 4.1%)

Arabic (Read: 1.98%) (Preferred: 1.94%)

Ilonggo (Read: 1.18%) (Preferred: 0.91%)

Source: 2007 NBDB Readership Survey

In conclusion

The summary outlined above gives us a pretty descriptive picture of the state of reading in the Philippines. While questions have been raised about the sampling methods and the structure of survey questions along with the terminology used by the SWS (the unfortunate use of ‘Tagalog’ for one), the study itself yields interesting results.

According to Dr. Linda Luz Guerrero, Vice President of SWS and presenter of the survey results, Filipinos read an average of three books a year. That is not so much interesting as very sad. A couple of people questioned this claim, citing the phenomenal popularity of Harry Potter. I don’t really see the connection, unless it’s discovered that those three books that Filipinos read annually are all Harry Potter titles, in which case it would also be kind of funny. Furthermore, while the resurgence of reading brought about by Harry Potter should be celebrated, especially after the release of Book 7, a number of critics have rightly pointed out that reading Harry Potter doesn’t automatically turn people into readers.

Ron Charles wrote about Pottermania and the ‘death of reading’ in an article in the Washington Post. I think it’s an interesting viewpoint. While a lot of fans and reading advocates marvel at the fact that Harry Potter makes young people read through the sheer magic and pull of its storyline, and that it has become a unique phenomenon in the sense of uniting readers all over the world together, awaiting every new installment with a fervor that no author has generated since Charles Dickens with his considerably less media-oriented reading public, Ron Charles points out that such a unity “has almost nothing to do with the unique pleasures of reading a novel: that increasingly rare opportunity to step out of sync with the world, to experience something intimate and private, the sense that you and an author are conspiring for a few hours to experience a place by yourselves — without a movie version or a set of action figures. Through no fault of Rowling’s, Potter mania nonetheless trains children and adults to expect the roar of the coliseum, a mass-media experience that no other novel can possibly provide.” He emphasizes the importance of a ‘real engagement’ with books that can never be conditioned by marketing hysteria and that the practically monomaniacal obsession with Harry Potter by its readers may have paradoxically created “the literary equivalent of a loss of biodiversity.”

Come to think of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if for most young Filipinos, those three books would indeed turn out to be Books 1-3 (or 4-7) of the Harry Potter series. Or the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Or the first three installments of Precious Hearts’ delightfully intriguing Stallion series. I know dedicated readers who are serial monogamists. They can subsist happily on a steady supply of a certain kind of story. While I would personally recommend a more balanced diet, as long as they’re not pointing at the sky and screaming about Dark Marks and trying to off each other through pointing wands, I’m okay with it. Reading is reading, as Dr. Ned Roberto—professor at the Asian Institute of Management and the resource person tasked with interpreting the survey results from a market-oriented perspective—pointed out. 83% of the population read books. It’s not a sign of the apocalypse. Let’s set aside distinctions between functional literacy and true literacy for now. Eight out of ten Filipinos read books. Compared with other Asian countries, that’s a respectable statistic.

What is a source of concern and should be further studied is the nature of social shifts in reading habits. People read as a matter of course. What we should address is why they read the way they do. For instance, the number of NSB readers in the NCR has fallen drastically while the number of NSB readers in the Visayas has risen in a similarly dramatic fashion. Given that bookstores and libraries are concentrated in Manila, what are we to make of this? Attendees in the presentation put forth theories which ranged from the tentative to bold assertions about the increasingly hybrid nature of reading materials. Since readers in Manila have more access to a diverse array of (distracting) media—computers, video games, television shows, etcetera—they are not inclined to focus on just one media—in this case a book—to educate or entertain them. While it has been a long-held fear that the advent of the Internet will demolish reading once and for all, Dr. Roberto pointed out that the Internet may only have extended reading in ways that traditional print-bound readers would not have anticipated. And it’s not just the Internet. Reading has become a multi-media platform in other parts of the world. Books are turned into movies and movies are novelized. Novels serialized in the Internet are printed out and become instant bestsellers in China and Korea. Japan, ever the country of novelties, has introduced the cellphone novel. The wired denizens of Manila have yet to catch up on the more interesting trends or—on the part of publishers—to integrate non-book media in a way that will impact their reading, but they are susceptible to the technologies which would make these things possible.

Still, they must be doing something right over at the Visayas. One is inclined to paint a bucolic picture of diligent young readers bent over their books by the flickering light of a gas lamp—and in certain parts of the country this may well be an actual scenario, with less idyllic whitewashing and more focus on the fundamental truth of poverty and social inequality in the regions. Poor students who can’t afford to buy the latest gadgets or to go online whenever they feel like it will have to read more, if only because doing so might secure them better grades and a fighting chance to get into universities in Manila. The role of parents in such a situation is especially acute. Educators have always agreed that reading should start at home, but in the case of lower- to middle-class homes, this acquires an extra and perhaps more urgent dimension. Poor parents are more likely to buy their children books because these are perceived to give them leverage in terms of educational opportunities. In fact, Dr. Queena Lee-Chua—member of the NBDB Governing Board and one of the commentators at the presentation—noted that the NBDB and other concerned reading groups should make it a point to solicit feedback from parents in public schools with regard to how they implement reading in their homes or the relative importance of books in the familial hierarchy of needs.

Another interesting result is the fact that Filipinos—whether in the NCR or elsewhere—do not buy books the read. They get them as gifts. In a lecture on the history of the book in the Philippines last July, Dr. May Jurilla of the University of the Philippines pointed out that books in the Philippines have acquired a decorative, even aesthetic function, which has superseded its more utilitarian applications (i.e., as sources of information). This should explain the popularity of coffee table books in a country where cheap paperbacks rarely sell more than 1000 copies. Filipinos tend to display books—like wedding knickknacks and travel souvenirs—instead of, well, reading them. For some reason, the notion of a book as a decorative item has crossed over to the notion of a book as a worthy gift item, which would then presumably be enshrined as a decoration. Such is the circuitous nature of Filipino cultural exchanges. My mother—along with countless other Filipino mothers—has received several sets of perfectly useful dinnerware over the years. We have yet to touch a single spoon and instead eat off plastic ware. The dinnerware sits in pompous splendor in the kitchen cabinet, like remnants of an obscure shipwreck. In a trip to Barcelona, my mother bought me several huge volumes on Greek prehistory and archeology, which I couldn’t read as comfortably as I would have liked—inasmuch as you could derive relaxation from reading about how to date Mycenean helmets—because she insisted on shelving them inside more glass cases. I imagine the presence of similar glass shelves in similar living rooms all over the country. Come to think of it, this might also be the reason why there’s very little discourse of and about books in this country. I’m speaking in terms of general readership. It’s kind of hard to embark on a literary discussion—outside established if small literary circles—when most of your favorite books are shrink-wrapped.

To go back to the reading survey, I’m still thinking of ways through which we could effectively synthesize the results in order to map a coherent reading campaign though a more thorough research into Filipino cultural history and behavior with regard to the functions and symbolism of books in our society should also be part of such an enterprise. Filipinos do read. But like everything else in this country—the way we approach politics and revolutions, the way we behave in traffic, the way we pray in churches—the reasons why we do it are probably obscure even to us.

Write Or Die: Gemino Abad

Much thanks to Prof. Butch Dalisay for mentioning us in his latest column and for agreeing to do Write Or Die last  Saturday despite last-minute schedule changes.  We had a very interesting discussion. I haven’t read most of Prof. Dalisay’s books though I admire his writing. After that talk, though, you may  now consider me an official fangirl. (Was also great seeing Kyu again and thanks to Noemi for lending her presence and support).

I haven’t had the time to write about the January series of talks for Write Or Die. Hopefully I can sit and buckle down to it for this Saturday’s column (… or for the next).

We’re moving on to Writing Poetry starting February 9, 2008 (Saturday) with Professor Gemino Abad. His talk will be held at Powerbooks Trinoma from 2PM to 4PM. Currently Emeritus University Professor at the College of Arts and Letters at UP Diliman, Prof. Abad is one of the most gifted and well-known poets writing in English. This talk is seriously a pretty unique opportunity so please attend! Much thanks to Sir Jimmy for agreeing to come~

Filipina Stories

WikiPilipinas.org is launching a special portal on Filipino women  in partnership with Filipina Images and the UP Center for Women’s Studies in time for the celebration of Women’s Month in March 2008. An associated microsite on women’s studies will also be hosted in Filipiniana.net. Both the portal and the microsite aim to profile and celebrate the achievements of Filipinas through time and adversity.

To kick things off, WikiPilipinas and Filipina Images  are sponsoring an essay writing contest called Filipina Stories with the theme “Uplifting the Image of the Filipina.”

The winning essay will receive P5,000. Runners-up will get P3,000 and P2,000 respectively. Deadline of submission of entries is on February 29, 2008.

For the complete contest rules, please visit the Filipina Stories contest page.

*Filipina Images is a collaborative blog by Lorna Lardizabal-Dietz, Noemi Lardizabal-Dado and Dine Racoma. Dedicated to reshaping and changing world views about Filipino women, it advocates the real representation of Filipinas across the globe. For so long, whenever one searches the word “Filipina” in Google or Yahoo, pages of search results pointing to dating and porn sites pop up.  Filipina Images has changed all that but they need people to keep on blogging. Join the campaign.

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