Literary

In Miguel Syjuco’s acclaimed novel, Ilustrado, the “enlightened” ones have taken on a modernized form.

During the 19th century, ilustrados were originally known as men who bore radical ideas of liberalism and nationalism in the waning years of the Spanish colonization.

But today, the ilustrados are the “balikbayan” or repatriate Filipinos, like the author himself who after leaving his motherland in search for greener pastures, still chose to write for truth rather than to write the “truth”.

Reaping awards such as the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize and Palanca Grand Prize, Ilustrado opens with the protagonist venturing into a fictional in-depth investigation of the life of his mentor and friend, Crispin Salvador.

IT’S POETRY on wheels.

In an unconventional mix of love for literature and the environment, Instituto Cervantes, together with Renato Redentor Constantino and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), launched the “Berso sa Metro: Jeepney Poetry Tour (La Poesia Viaja en Jeepney)” last April 17, a poetry-reading event which made pit stops at various bookstores in the metro via electric jeepneys, an innovation of the iconic Filipino transport vehicle ran by electricity and does not require gasoline to fuel its engine.

A Different Bookstore in Bonifacio High Street, Powerbooks at Greenbelt 3 in Makati and Mag:Net Café in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City were the three stops of the route which served as venues for the readings.

A hiss curling around
the ears, cutting the dirty
beige façade of a building.
Tonight, I use gunmetal grey—
a fast color for this city, this canvas
where flowers shoot
from the barrels of Remingtons;
where empty theaters,
smoke-blackened gates,
and half-burnt bath-tile walls
are robed with layers of
stickerpaperstenciled murals
in paintaerosol.

IT WAS exactly like my first day in the University.

The air teemed with that familiar awkwardness as I entered the room, yet the fellows seemed to know what they were there for - their heads high despite the imminent critiques they would have to endure for the next few days.

For the past ten years, UST held an annual National Writers Workshop, where only two to three fellows were Thomasians, the rest coming from other schools.

But this time, the workshop was exclusively for members of the Thomasian community—students, alumni, faculty members, and non-teaching staff – and I was one of them.

IT’S NINE in the morning and Wide-hipped Neighbor is starting the didactics on her husband, who most probably has just woken up. We heard last night that he was once again laid off a construction job. Word has it that he drove the loading truck towards the site’s barriers and into the street, filling the air with drunken laughter as he did.

And here goes Fred, two hours late for work. He’s staring at the ceiling, fingernails scratching his left palm, ears shut from the children’s squeals, from Old Maid’s attempts to shoo them away from her gate, from the repeated honking of horns at the nearby road. I lie here, staring at his profile, but he doesn’t mind. He looks at ease just lying there on the crumpled bed sheets.

Lovely women
clad in animal skin
strut the streets
with phony smiles
and painted faces.

Clever men with
crooked schemes
play games, perform
magic tricks.

They vanish
as their prey
rummage through
empty purses.

Sleek rides
strike
in intense speed.
Red, green and amber
do not mean
the same thing: ‘Go!’
But she can’t tell.
She moves ahead,
never knowing what hit her.

Azer Parrocha

DOZENS of FXs have passed you by. You’ve been waiting by a lamp post along Roxas Boulevard for half an hour. The sun has set and the multi-colored lights are on. People are walking to and fro staring at your Hawaiian polo-shirt as they pass A bronze-skinned boy with a gap between his front teeth snickered and gave you the loser sign. You sighed and checked your watch. It’s 6:45p.m. Your cousin’s recital is about to start. You are so stubborn. You shouldn’t have gone to Siargao.  

WITH social issues constantly pressing in on people, it is expected, even natural, to escape.

Writer Carljoe Javier justifies the need to get away from the busy world in his work And The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth (Milflores Publishing Inc., 2009).

A dozen essays for a dozen reasons to be good looking and famous, And The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth describes the current condition of a luxurious culture through the author’s experiences.

In “Life of the Party,” Javier introduces himself to his readers as a person who still experiences the problem of prepubescent boys when it comes to socializing, especially with girls. He says he fears people would think he is boring the moment he opens his mouth to talk.

WHILE scrubbing away dirt stubbornly etched on my ankle, shouts were heard reverberating across the hallowed walls of the bathroom. I stopped midway from scrubbing and turned the faucet off.

“Damn it! I allowed her to stay and I’m still the one who doesn’t understand?”

“I just wanted you to talk to her, to make her feel at home. She is still my daughter.”

I can hear the sharp scrape of a chair against the wooden floor as I sense my dad stopping her from doing any more damage to the house.

“I’m leaving!”

A small suitcase was left opened on the bed. Hoarding a good number of clothes enough for three days away from home, she stuffed them all inside, zipped it, all the while occasionally glaring at her husband.

THERE was a time when “middle-aged techie” was an oxymoron.

Three-time Don Carlos Palanca award winner Jessica Zafra shows the readers the face of the comfortable future in the latest installment of her Twisted series, Twisted 8 ½ (Anvil Publishing Inc., 2009). With twenty-seven essays that describe how technology has shaped the mindset of today’s society, Twisted 8 ½ uses the experiences of the author to show how “Generation X” has been so different from the generation of her teens and twenties.