Filipino writers get the best of both worlds

It could be the most surprising, if welcome development of late that the long expected demise of the written word has failed to materialize. In fact, we are told that there is a marked improvement in the number of books currently being produced in this country. Never mind that most of them are in English and that their authors are basically English-speaking. What is important is that the Philippine book industry is alive and well and getting better by the minute.

When the Internet revolution first hit our country with its promises of making things easy for everyone altogether, from parents to students, to composers and workers in every undertaking, the world was profuse with wonder. And Pinoys being Pinoys, we had to be the first in line for everything. Of course, the Internet had its many advantages. Parents were glad their grade school children no longer had to lug heavy books to school. Their parents simply got them iPhones and kindle iReaders. Those who couldn’t afford expensive personal desktops or laptops would go to the many Internet cafés that had quickly sprouted up everywhere.

Eventually, all new discoveries have their downsides. Students were missing classes, spending more time in Internet cafés. It was easier to pick up partners on the Internet; the drug trade also prospered. Parents found themselves wishing for the good old days at home with time for play, time for study and time for family. Slowly, surreptitiously, books started to reappear in book fairs, at the National Bookstore, the recognized leader in book production and distribution.

Precious Hearts Romances is the series of books successfully addressed to the Filipino teen market and which had been adapted into long-running teleseryes by competing radio and TV networks. We have just finished reading Paramour by writer Arielle, which we found too ambitious for its market, dealing with the international drug cartel covering Hawaii, mainland USA and the Philippines, with the love story almost an afterthought. Another observation is that the love scenes were mostly R-rated. Those familiar with the foreign model Mills & Boon have also criticized its Canadian publisher for its openness to rape fantasies.

We didn’t expect to enjoy the serious research book on spirituality sponsored by the Institute of Spirituality in Asia as much we did. Noted social anthropologist Dr. Teresita Obusan had compiled her findings in a book titled Mystic or Mistake with the focus on Quiapo and its devotees. Mysticism is associated with religious orders like the Benedictines, Franciscans and the Jesuits. In our country, Fr. Jaime Bulatao of the Society of Jesus, who is also a psychologist, has written extensively on Filipino mysticism.

Of the hundreds of religious icons to pray to, what is it that makes the Nazareno of Quiapo different? We like the observation that the devotees belong to a classless society. People from all walks of life go to Quiapo to ask for guidance. Dr. Obusan reports that Kuya Jo, a Buddhist “wants to prove the power of the Poon and become an inspiration for all.”

F. Sionil Jose is easily our favorite writer and novelist because he makes us think. The best thing about his novel Gagamba is not only its prose but that it reads like a lesson in history, painlessly and entertainingly. Of course, it was interesting to us because we were familiar with Gagamba’s environs — Ermita, Malate and the market at San Andres we frequented. We relived our favorite tambayan even after college, the era of the beatniks, the drug takers, until it was no longer in fashion, and one went in search for other vices.                       

 The use of a cripple Tranquilino Penoy or “Gagamba” who was watch-your-car boy, sweepstake vendor, and through whose eyes the novel moved forward or backward as its author wished, was a touch of genius. We got introduced to all of them, met them before they died in an earthquake, or were spared. Gagamba is, even now, a movie in our mind; we have already started casting for those girls for hire, the bad guys and the good ones and the difficult role of Gagamba.

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