Column: Nabokov’s Last Novel Almost Burned and Thoughts on Lost Books

Apologies for the lack of updates. We will start doing so by posting the backlog of Read or Die articles that has been published in Manila Bulletin. This one saw print on June 21, Saturday.

Nabokov’s Last Novel Almost Burned and Thoughts on Lost Books
By Kristel Autencio

It was one of those literary scandals that would seem trivial to many, but was a matter of earthshaking importance to the World of Letters. Dmitri Nabokov, son of Vladmir Nabokov (famous for the controversial novel Lolita), had been tasked with the decision whether or not to burn the manuscript of his father’s last unfinished novel, titled The Original of Laura.

As part of his last will and testament, the older Nabokov wanted his notes burned after his death. According to Dmitri, his father couldn’t take the idea that his most cherished work, “the most concentrated distillation of [his] creativity,” to see the light of day in its unfinished form.

The death sentence on those index cards has been hanging for a long time, kept in a vault of an undisclosed Swiss bank, since the writer’s death in 1977. Now in his seventies, Dmitri had recently hinted to the public that he wanted to honor his father’s request of actually burning the manuscript.

Cue drama here. Newspaper articles and blog posts erupted, eloquent pleas for him to cease and desist, along the lines of, “Oh no, this manuscript is an important piece of literature. Don’t burn it! Who cares about your dead father’s wishes? He’s dead, isn’t he? Think of Virgil (his Aeneid was reportedly meant to be burned as well)!”

There were, of course, people who disagreed and said, “Just burn the blasted thing! A writer is still a human being, famous or not, and his wishes should be respected. Shame on you, literary public. You people are no different from those vultures who scrounge tabloids for celebrity paparazzi shots.”

Writers as notable as Booker Prize-winner John Banville (don’t burn it!) and famous playwright Tom Stoppard ( burn it!) weighed in on the issue. Of course, it would not be a good drama without a satisfying climax and recently, Dmitri mentioned that he wouldn’t be destroying Laura in the near future. Sighs of relief and ill-tempered grumblings circulated in the blogosphere. The question however, still remains: who truly owns a work of art?

When it comes to law, the answer is clear-cut. From the moment the pen is put on paper (or fingers on the keyboard as the case may be, in the digital age), copyright law protects the creators from any form of plagiarism, as well as giving author the right to demand payment if his characters, plot and concept is used by another party. In the Philippines, copyright lasts up to 50 years after the death or author, 70 years in the US and UK.

In the world of literary scholarship, however, the distinction is a little murky. William Shakespeare, for example, has long ceased to be only just the man who lived in Statford-upon-Avon in the 16th Century. With more than 600 years of theatrical interpretations, publications, research and discussion, he has evolved into a concept, a historical artifact– so valuable that even census documents and baptismal certificates of him and his family are considered priceless.

Vladimir Nabokov is arguably one of the most revolutionary writers that emerged in the 20th century. He is certainly one of the most controversial, as to the topics his novels continue to intrigue and enrage his readers. The mere mention of “Lolita” can send conservatives in throes of censorships and book burnings. His literary style is also one of the most unique. Understandable then, how his fans felt horror at the idea of destroying one of his works. Even if he himself wanted them burned.

This dilemma is nothing new. Franz Kafka, before his death, asked his friend to burn all of his notes. The friend’s disobedience allowed the world to see masterpieces like Metamorphosis and The Trial, works which are considered to be definitive of 20th Century European literature. If it wasn’t for Emily Dickinson’s family members who scoured through her belongings, one of America’s most famous female poets would have never garnered so much fame after her death.

The real conflict lies in the line between the author as person and his work. People who have argued for the execution of Vladimir Nabokov’s wishes assert that the writer is still a human being and should not be peddled as a commodity. His wishes should be held sacred, most of all by his family, on whom he has entrusted this task. Whatever the fate of the manuscript, it should be decided by them, and not by the public.

However it is the concept of the “perfect work” that is highly problematic. Nabokov wanted his notes burned because it has not attained its ideal form. But does it matter? This kind of thinking for me is, in all honesty, a little snobbish. If some of the writer’s work is “not perfect,” does it taint the other works? Does it lower a writer’s batting average, like some kind of baseball statistic?

If The Original of Laura ends up to be disappointing, it doesn’t mean that Nabokov’s other works are any less remarkable. I guess the digital age has spoiled me of this idea that publishing makes a work permanent. I no longer have any delusions of literary perfection. The worth of a writer’s body of work lies in the sum of his efforts, not merely in the most obvious products of his genius.

Writers have private lives, yes, but what they should realize is that in the books that they write, they inevitably reveal themselves, even if it’s but a glimpse. It may be a bit prying and vulture-like for people like me to want to take a peek, but it is one of the impossible quests of a reader to find out a little bit more, peer a little deeper. It satisfies a yearning that any human being who wants knowledge feels.

E.M. Forster, one of the most celebrated British writers of the 20th Century knew a thing or two about keeping his deepest thoughts private. Famous for works like A Passage to India and Howard’s End, he had also written, unknown to most of his contemporaries, Maurice a story about an Oxford student battling societal pressures because of his homosexuality. The moral dilemma of publishing the novel in his lifetime plagued him. It would have caused a massive scandal and would have undoubtedly “tainted” his other works. On the manuscript discovered after Forster’s death, his descendants found a handwritten note by him, “Publishable, but worth it?”

There are countless other factors in the world that can destroy or suppress a literary work. History has already done a pretty good job of destroying books, thanks to war, censorship and simple neglect, so why try to help out by deliberately incinerating one more?

June 30, 2008 | Filed Under Reviews | 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.

April 6, 2008 | Filed Under Reviews | 1 Comment

Shoujo and Sumo!?

If monkeys can draw manga then shoujo heroines can do sumo!? Seriously. Upon the recommendation of many friends who are fans of manga, I had to get my hands on the book “Even a Monkey can Draw Manga” a series of ‘columns’ written by two men trying to explain to readers the formula needed to create a successful manga. And since many RoD people are into shoujo, check out what he has to say about Shoujo comics and Sumo wrestling.

Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga v01 p070

This piece was probably written during the early 90s, when girls were still in a daze over their high school captains and rock stars. And sumo aside, this formula is still being followed in many manga titles today (Mayu Shinjo and Watase Yuu at the front, yo!). There are only a few authors who broke this formula (Tomoko Ninomya?), but I guess pubescent girls like their sumo in their shoujo.

This is just a teaser for this extremely funny book. It even covers other manga genres such as gag and shounen. I’ll be looking into this in a few weeks and see the practical applications of this insane manga manual. For those who aspire to become manga artists, this could be the only book you’ll ever need.

This post was done for the regular Comics/Graphic Novel feature of Read or Die. If you have any suggestions on titles to feature, or if you just want me to post about a particular title or topic regarding comics, feel free to contact me at punkednoodle@gmail.com, or visit my manga website, Otaku Champloo.

October 23, 2007 | Filed Under Reviews, Reading | 1 Comment

Manga rising from the dead

It’s a rare for us to have a chance to understand the world of manga. Many manga studies in English are available only in comic journals or as expensive books in bookstores. Fortunately, Comipress came up with a translation project for one of the most interesting books on manga studies, Manga Zombie. It’s written by Udagawa Takeo and it details the downward spiral of manga during the 80’s and the lives of the artists who struggled to keep the industry dynamic.

The translation is still in its infancy. The preface gives a primer on manga history and how the level of creativity began to subside and then level out with the emergence of formulaic magazines such as Shounen Jump*. He describes Shounen Jump’s formula as the “Great Two System”, wherein artists are placed in a bind with Shounen Jump and have to perform well in the extremely competitive readers’ survey at the risk of getting fired. Udagawa even adds,

“Their system has leeched the art out of manga. The artists are interchangeable, like spare parts in a machine. But the ‘Great Two’ system offers publishers stability, and all the major companies have adopted it.”

It’s really interesting isn’t it? Many Filipinos have been hooked line and sinker by many stories in Shounen Jump. For us, these stories are refreshing and creative. So for a critic like Udagawa to say that Shounen Jump has killed creativity in the manga industry shows us that there is much more to the industry than the casual reader might think. Udagawa implies the promise of a new world of manga, one emerging from the decay brought on by Jump.

* Note: Shounen Jump is a weekly magazine in Japan that publishes popular mangas such as Yu Yu Hakusho (Ghost Fighter), Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, and Bleach.

October 16, 2007 | Filed Under Reviews, Reading | Leave a Comment

Review: Purposes Of Love by Mary Renault

Kristel and I were talking about ~~ancient Greek gay sex~~ Mary Renault’s historical novels the other night. I mentioned coming across an early novel by Renault and promised to post a review which I’d written right after I read it (in lieu of lending the book which um must be somewhere in my bookshelves back home).

I actually have a bit of an atavistic? haha interest in the early or more obscure works of certain writers. I’m not quite sure why. Some impulse to connect the dots, maybe.

Purposes of Love by Mary Renault (Promise Of Love in the American edition) — Found this book in a strange little garage sale in Los Banos and took it home post-haste. I’ve read somewhere that Mary Renault wrote a number of contemporary novels during and after World War II before the successful publication of her historical novels on Ancient Greece. “Purposes of Love” is apparently her first book.

The story is set in a London hospital, a setting that Renault knows intimately and makes use of with great deftness, drawing on her experiences as a professional nurse. At the simplest level, “Purposes of Love” is the story of Vivian, a nurse, and Mic, a newly arrived pathologist who meet, fall in love, have the usual jealousies and reconciliations, and work it all out in the end. Renault, however, complicates this standard plot by introducing a host of characters whose relations with the leads are of a sexually (and emotionally) ambiguous nature. One of these characters is Vivian’s brother, Jan. The reader learns that Mic is first attracted to Vivian because of her resemblance to Jan, for whom he nurtures an unrequited longing. Vivian, too, has a more complex sexuality than was usual in 1930’s fiction; she is not repulsed by the advances of Colonna, an openly lesbian colleague. What passes between them is left to the reader’s imagination, but Renault, in her subtle way, has sketched the scenario in terms that are very clear.

I don’t think that “Purposes of Love” is intended to celebrate homosexuality in any direct manner; rather, Renault proposes the idea of a broad spectrum of sexuality along which people move, settling for a time at points which are not as fixed as some people would like to imagine. Indeed, the book makes it clear that it is not Vivan and Mic’s ‘internal’ problems which hamper their relationship, but the ‘external’ stumbling blocks thrown up by the hospital itself, its rigid disciplines and capricious hours, which cohere themselves into the dual concepts of power and control as exercised by the people trapped in such a potentially destructive hierarchy. Vivian embarks on a disastrous fling with the surgeon Scot-Hallard, which almost wrecks her affair with Mic. Where Scot-Hallard has refined his relationships to a polished set of finely orchestrated physical satisfactions, Mic reacts to jealousy like a wounded adolescent. Brought up by strangers, taunted throughout his childhood because of his illegitimacy, he has no defense against betrayal. Where Vivian is delightful, extravagant, impulsive, he can be cold and humorless. Unless he can defeat jealousy, she will be lost, for the underlying theme of the book is not deviant sexuality but, like I said, power. When Scot-Hallard’s ruthlessness manifests itself, he is referred to as “something between Hitler and the Archbishop of Canterbury,” and this side of his character is brought out by the interest he shows in a new experimental weapons factory working day and night producing poison gas.

When Vivian casually enlists the aid of the nurses’ drug cabinet to cope with a delayed period, she cannot resist telling Mic what she has done. Her excuse, that she has protected him from fathering another bastard, masks the unspoken urge to exercise power by hurt which she has so roundly despised in Scot-Hallard. Here Renault is suggesting that when the desire to enjoy control proves irresistible, it leads to a deadly self-deception. When Vivian buys a new dress for an assignation with Scot-Hallard, she tells herself the garment is to please Mic and that by sleeping with the surgeon she will somehow be sprucing herself up for her real love-making with the younger man. What began as an amusing love story has progressed into a subtler discourse on the nature of honesty and trust, hence the title, drawn — I looked it up — from the nurses’ prayer.

The ending may seem a bit trite and melodramatic at first reading, but I think it’s interesting to the extent that it foreshadows if not actually *references* Renault’s later work, specifically her novels on the Socratic circle.

Vivian and Mic’s break seems to be final after the extended battering their relationship has been subjected to. Vivian’s affair with Scot-Hallard was only the last straw. Jan, Vivian’s brother, decides to intervene. In order to talk Mic around, Jan takes him for a drive in his sports car. When he crashes it, Mic is only slightly hurt, but Jan is trapped and seriously injured. He is taken to the hospital where he learns there is no hope, the least movement will kill him. When he decides to put an end to his own life, he takes on the sacrificial status assumed by ancient Greek kings who accepted death at times of crisis in order to appease divine anger.

This sense of Jan as a scapegoat, a consenting sacrifice, and the fact that, once reunited, Vivian and Mic discover their love approaches the Platonic ideal of deep friendship untrammelled by desire, is very intriguing. Plato is constantly quoted throughout the book. I didn’t realize it until I was re-reading certain passages; the network of Greek allusions and ideas is tenuous, but it exists. One can say that it even holds the story together. It’s as if Renault is demanding that the reader view her characters as a double vision and consider them Hellenic souls, philosophers even, imprisoned in modern bodies. I’m not sure if this is true of the rest of her contemporary fiction, though it may well be a consistent and worth exploring subtext.

October 15, 2007 | Filed Under Reviews, Books | Leave a Comment

Shintaro Kago: Panelling Experimentation and Bizarre Manga

Comics have gone a long way from single-frame editorial cartoons and the three-panel funnies on Sunday newspapers or in Bazooka Joe bubblegum wrappers. We’ve seen our favorite superheroes evolve with the times, we’ve seen the packaging transform from limited edition serial issues to fashionable trade paperbacks, and we’ve seen comics cover a wide range of topics and ideas that creators and readers of the past would have never considered as suitable for the medium.

Comic artists and writers continuously strive to break new boundaries with the art, and one of the possible ways to do it is to experiment with the way it’s presented. One of the best (and strangest) example that I’ve seen of this is in the works of manga artist Shintaro Kago. He is best known for his short work “Punctures” which was featured in Secret Comics Japan.

Mr. Kago is what you’d call an ero-guro artist — that is, he specializes in bizarre and oftentimes disturbing manga with a hefty amount of blood, nudity, gore and violence. Don’t let this discourage you: I think what I find most interesting is the way he challenges paneling conventions. The idea of paneling in comics is to find the most ideal way to lead the eye of the reader in order to communicate a story. Mr. Kago pushes this to the limit. In his work “Abstractions”, Mr. Kago even goes a step further by integrating his experimentation with panels into the story in itself by making it a part of the plot.

If you are interested in reading “Abstraction”, check this entry at SAME HAT! SAME HAT!, a blog featuring weekly reviews and commentary on manga along with an archive of translated comics for public consumption.

October 9, 2007 | Filed Under Latest, Reviews | Leave a Comment

Poetry Monday

from FOREWORD to NEW NUMBERS
Christopher Logue

If this book doesn’t change you
give it no house space;
if having read it you
are the same person you
were before picking it up,
then throw it away.

Not enough for me
that my poems shine in your eyes,
not enough for me
that they look from your walls
or lurk on your shelves;
I want my poems to be in your mind
so that you can say them when you are in love
so you can say them when the plane takes off
and death comes near;
I want my poems to come between
the raised stick and the cowering back,
I want my poems to become
a weapon in your trembling hands,
a sword whose blade both makes and mirrors change
but most of all I want my poems sung
unthinkingly between your lips like air.

October 1, 2007 | Filed Under Reviews | 2 Comments

Of multiplying books and other oddities

The more I lose books the more I gain them. It makes perfect sense in light of the fact that I am both someone who lives in a world of missing objects and an obsessive fangirl. So when one of my favorite books goes missing, I can’t stand waiting for it to show up again (as it inevitably does) — I rush to the nearest bookstore and buy it.

The first case of doubled books occurred with Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. I had (still have, to be honest) an unreasonably overwhelming love for that book, since the first time I read it I was in mad unrequited love with someone I referred to in my mind as The Young Poet. I lent my copy to a friend, forgot I had lent it, panicked when I couldn’t find it, and promptly bought two copies (two, because there were two different covers). I managed to give one copy away, though, when my friend returned the original copy and I realized my mistake in time for my Young Poet’s birthday.

Currently I have two copies of Fitzgerald’s translation of The Iliad; I hid one in my brother’s closet so my shelf wouldn’t look too silly. The duplication, however, was not my fault but my brother’s, who refused to be contented with my copy and brought home a new Iliad the day after his old one went missing. When I asked him why he was so insistent on the Fitzgerald translation (as opposed to the one I had, Rouse’s translation), he said, “It’s more macho.” I guess you could say a lot of things about males and egos based on that statement, but then again speculating about what kind of guy feels incomplete without a book is much more interesting.

We used to have two (technically, three) copies of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, because for a long long time it was my personal bedtime story book. If I couldn’t sleep I’d grab the book and read about Theseus and Perseus and Thetis and Metis and Ariadne and Arachne and… you know, all these people — until the sun came up. It didn’t guarantee me more sleep, but at least it was better than just staring at the ceiling in the dark. One time it fell under my bed while I was sleeping (this was during the time I slept curled up because of the pile of books sharing the bed with me) and after some keening and wailing I went out and got a new copy. When I wouldn’t share it with my brother he stomped off and bought one for himself. Come RoDCon we donated that copy because my brother had worn it to bits. More…
Read more

September 21, 2007 | Filed Under Reviews, Books, Reading | 2 Comments

My MIBF Experience

By Jon Salazar

I have always gone to the Manila International Book Fair for five years now. This is because we were
asked to go there by our superiors and we roam around for just a couple of hours to “look out for the latest book releases and developments in book publishing” (the other phrase for checking out the competition).

This year, I thought of doing something different and see the book fair in a different light. So I volunteered again for Read or Die, a group of individuals who love reading and promote it with such fervor. The organizers of the book fair wanted to make the book fair a literary event and not just a venue to sell books. I think it was a great idea so I agreed to give my time for them.

I can say I appreciated the event even more. It was also good to see that there are still a lot of young people out there who are fond of reading. The event used to be filled only by adults or with very young kids that tagged along with them. I think the efforts by these year’s organizers and their partners (especially Read or Die) to make the event reach out to young people was a success.

What really caught my attention this year was the Wikipinas and filipiniana.net and their efforts. Most publishers will not dare to think about paperless publishing or the idea of online publishing but here’s a book publisher who is looking ahead to the future.

My relatives also attended the last day. My sister joined the literary cosplay event (she dressed up as Death from “The Sandman” by Neil Gaiman). Here are some of the images she got: Click for pictures.

September 14, 2007 | Filed Under Reviews | Leave a Comment

Talaarawan ukol sa nakaraang 28th Manila Book Fair

Written by Airnel

Noong nakaraang Sabado at Linggo ay naglingkod ako para sa Read or Die sa 2th International Book Fair. Isa na namang karanasan ang nangyari sa akin.

Sadyang sakit ko na ang pagdating sa dako ng sobrang aga na halos 2 oras bago magbukas ang world trade center ay andoon na ako. Pero kailangan kong gawin iyon dahil malayo ang panggagalingan ko. Di kasi natin batid kung maging buhol-buhol ang trapiko galing Laguna? Ayaw ko namang mapahiya sa mga taga-ROD.

Una akong nakatalaga sa lalagyan ng mga donasyon ng Aklat. Halos 2 oras akong paikot-ikot ba binabantayan ang lalagyan ngunit tila yata mailap ang kapalaran at ni wala pang isang nag-bibigay ng kanilang lumang aklat. Maya-maya ay tinawag ako ng aking “Hepe” upang tumulog sa WikiPinas; sa paggabay sa mga nais mag-ambag ng datos sa bagong kapapasinayang website. Ginawa ko ito hanggang sa ika-walo ng Gabi.

Nagpapasalamat ako sa isang kasapi ng “haligi” ng ROD at pinaunlakan nya akong pansamantalang makapagpahinga sa kanyang tahanan. Sabagay sino nga ba naman ang magnanais na umuwi ako sa lalawigan at babalik din ako kinabukasan. Di naman ako mayaman.

Linggo. Ikalawang araw ng aking pagtulong at huling araw ng Book Fair. Itinalaga ako sa pag-alalay sa mga panauhin at tagpagsalita sa “Ang Bagong Libro” Nasiyahan naman ako at nakilala ko ang isa sa may-akda ng Pocketbook. Malaki ang utang na loob ko sa komiks at pocketbook dahil diyan ako natutong bumasa at di sa nakasayang Abakada.

Isa ring nakapukaw ng aking kasiyahan ay ang pag-alalay sa isang tanyag na makata na si Conchitina Cruz. Isang pambihirang pagkakataon na samahan patungo sa tanghalan ang isang makatang tinitingala sa kasalukuyang panahon.

Mga ika-4 ng hapon ay intinalaga naman ako mismo sa bulwagan titik “B” at dito nakapagtanong ako sa mga dalubhasa sa pagsusuri, pagsasalaysay at pagbabasa sa panitikan tungkol sa mabisang pamamaraan ng paglalapat ng pagbabasa sa pagtuturo ng Kasaysayan. Nakakuha ako ng ilang mabisang mungkahi na mabisa kung gagamitin ko sa paaralan.

Bago matapos ang palatuntunan ay nagsagawa ng patimpalak sa larong-bihis (Cosplay; tama ba aking pagsasaling-wika?) at nakita ko kung gaano kamalikhain ang mga kalahok sa pagsasadula sa napili nilang tauhan sa iba’t ibang anyo ng panitikan. Ngunit napansin ko na pawang mga tauhan lamang sa dayuhang akda ang naisasadula. May pagkakataon bang magkaroon din ng larong-bihis sa panitikang Filipino?

Isa sa pinakanakakapagod na bahagi ay ang pag-aayos ng kagamitan. Habang inaayos ko ito ay nakita ko ang mga likhang-sining ng isang kasapi ng ROD. Siya ay tila bihasa sa paggawa ng limbag (prints) at tigib ng pagkamalikhain, rikit at malalim na pananaw ang kanyang mga gawa. Matapos noon, batid ko na ang mga “haligi” ng ROD ay pagod na kaya marapat lamang sila ay tulungan. Sa awa ng diyos ay nailigpit namin ang kanilang kagamitan.

Nabanaag ko sa mukha ni “El Capitana” ang pagod kasama ng kanyang mga alagad ang pagod. Tunay nga ipinakita nila ang pagmamahal sa pagbabasa at panitikan.

Di na ako ang iisa sa maraming kusang-loob na tumulong sa ROD na umaasang mauulit ang ganitong gawain. Di ko alam ngunit masarap ang pakiramdam. Kahit minsan di ko masakyan ang kanilang mga hilig dahil sa pagkakaiba ng aming mga larangan. Nahinuha ko na ang ROD ay isang samahang naniniwala sa tunay na diwa ng pagpapalaganap ng pagbabasa at pagpapayaman ng panitikan.

Muli salamat at mabuhay ang ROD!!!

September 14, 2007 | Filed Under Reviews | Leave a Comment

Support
Libro.ph
Recently Written
Recent Comments
- jon
  It’s really hard to set aside time to read these days. Sometimes people are too busy that they only scan...
- 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
Bloggers
Categories
Mailing List
Donate