We are overdoing a bit with the puns and trying-to-be-catchy catchphrases, I know, but once an advertising copywriter, always an advertising copywriter...
Over at The Pinoy Penman link, Butch Dalisay, fresh from the Man Asian Literary awards ceremony in Hong Kong three weeks ago, reflects on the state of the state of the Filipino novel, and why we don't seem to be writing more novels. Butch's own novel, Soledad's Sister, was shortlisted for the Man Asian, which was won by the Jiang Rong's Wolf Totem.
There were 243 qualified novels received by the Man Asian, only 10 were from the Philippines. More than half of the entries in the competition's longlist apparently came from India, which is not surprising, really. It seems to me that Indians have a long tradition of literary appreciation, emanating I guess from the Ramayana.
As for the Philippines, there really should be more novels coming out from the country. The very surreality of life there could provide material for a really fantastic novel, and it doesn't have to fall into the magical realism style of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende. Other (non-Filipino) writers have set their novels in the Philippines: Timothy Mo's Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard seemed to capture the absurdity and chaos and charm of the country, while The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd evoked a kind of Belle Epoque Manila, fanned by the balmy breeze coming in from the bay. He also evoked the idealistic innoncence of the people in the early days of American colonialism. Remember that guy Pantaleon who wanted to build a plane?
I haven't read Ghosts of Manila, by James Patterson-Hamilton, nor The Tesseract by Alex Garland, so I can't comment. I know the Sri Lankan novelist Romesh Gunesekera (loved Reef and Sand Glass), like Alex Garland and Timothy Mo, spent part of his childhood in the Philippines, but so far hasn't set any of his novels there.
Philippine novelists, I guess, are in some way haunted by the shadow of Jose Rizal and his two seminal novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, which helped to fan the flames of nationalism, and eventually, revolution. I'd love to read the new Penguin Classics translation of Noli from the original Spanish by Harold Augenbraum (fat chance finding it in Hijack City but Fully Booked at the Fort has an impressive selection of classics from Homer to Camus and more).
Noli and Fili we read at school as historical documents, not as literature, which was a shame. I recall the English translation of Noli by Leon Ma Guerrero as flowing, if somewhat flowery at times, wonderfully descriptive and easy to read. Rizal was brilliant at creating characters which have become archetypes, really, of Philippine culture and society. Fili, I plodded through, remembering it as dark, cynical, morose - perhaps not far from Rizal's own state of mind at the time. Still, both works are held up as materpieces of Philippine literature.
Although Butch claims that the Filipino novel is alive and well, not enough titles are in print, not enough people are writing, and perhaps not enough people are reading. It's normal for a print run to run to 1,000 copies, and that's it. Not very encouraging for both the writer and the reader.
Short stories, poems and plays, on the other hand, abound, and there are many stellar examples around. Instant gratification, I guess, could be one of the reasons why these forms are more popular among writers. Shorter lead times between start to completion to publication. They are also more compact, in terms of characterization, plot and time span, although Ian McEwan's Saturday took place in a 24-hour day.
Writing a novel is bloody difficult - it can be intense, laborious, emotionally and physically draining. Maybe it's too much effort for some writers. I personally don't write short stories. I wish I did, but can't. It's too bitin for me. Since my life continues to be a series of interwoven dramas in a long-drawn out saga, the novel seems to suit me best!
Butch tells me the deadline for entries to the next Man Asian is March 31, 2008. I don't know... should I go for it?
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