calatagan: an urbanite's reflection

When I and my friends arrived at Calatagan, it was as if we descended on a new planet altogether. Come to think: we came from the city, and the sight of the sea and of the rural setting seemed to us an alien seascape and landscape. However, the pristine-appearing area is not as untouched as it wished to communicate itself.
We were told that the bounty of the waters has steadily lowered year after year. The marine life is dying because of the rampant illegal fishing operations. A fish surfaced, but dove as soon as gulping enough air to breathe underwater. I thought, maybe it was wary that we humans were among those who heedlessly throw dynamites in order to obliterate fish life, great and small, off the surface of the sea. The man guiding us lamented that the unlawful fishing activities caused the sea farmers’ income plummeting. He was smiling when he recounted how pathetic it was when he staggered onto shore one fishing time, only to offer his wife a sorry batch of slim fingerlings not even worth a kid’s meal. His smile conveyed the opposite emotion of sadness.
We produced our camera and began clicking around, shooting at best angles. From afar, a black dot sailed serenely, but it came to me that maybe it was what one fisherman told us: that foreign poachers from neighboring Asian countries must be unconscientiously cruising the ocean to haul fish from within the Philippine area of naval responsibility. Some Taiwanese ship maybe, or Chinese fishermen, rolling in laughter while taking out wriggling giants out of water while their local counterparts do not even have a decent meal to eat. The sea was inviting, and the boys were too shameless to decline the allure of the bottle-green waters. Off their shirts go, and as they bob in and out of the water, they seemed to be like the only creatures belonging to the sea. Perhaps that’s what Calatagan waters and the rest of the world’s oceans are bound to experience: when the aquatic creatures are finally no more, the lonely planet may jump onto the water to try to populate it once more, to no avail.
Sea turtles used to abound the domain, but owing to the sea hunters’ perfect game that turtles were, they eventually vanished. They maybe slow, but sensing the terrible fate they would get from humans, they gradually ran for their precious lives. They, along with other underwater creatures, must have learned their lessons the hard way when even the humans formulating laws and given the stewardship role of nature were the very creatures contributing to their increasing decline.
Onshore, we were greeted by fabulously-colored starfishes. We were free to pick them up. I wondered if they were that easy to fall prey to human hunters. Did they get to use their built-in sting to express the bitterness of their bodies for creatures who caused their ruthless disappearance? Not far away, a small group gathered at the coral formations jutting out of the sea. I gathered that these corals were actually accumulated skeletons of microscopic sea animals. Did they get hurt whenever humans stomp on them or feed them dynamites to send residing fishes thrashing into the open?
Rouge-colored seaweeds with rather hard bodies were strewn along the way. We were told they were gulamans. They were a far cry from the jellies I relish during weekend afternoons back in my childhood. They serve as alternative livelihood products for the farmers, since the natural sea resources have deteriorated anyway and fish bounty were hard to come by unlike before. We took pictures of the sturdy-bodied gulamans; they must be beautiful, soft and graceful-moving down the sea bottom.
Mangroves from not so far away showed their decrepit roots, resembling an old man’s limbs reaching out for help. The industry of mangroves looked just that: dying. Having come from an urban place, I thought they looked regular, but our guide said they looked healthier when human activities were far and between. A puddle of murky water near the mangroves reflected our faces and looking at it, we could only say sorry to ourselves.

sandaang panaginip: kontemporanyong komedya

Komedya sa makabagong panahon ang Sandaang Panaginip ni Rene O. Villanueva. Maraming elemento ng komedya ang nasa katangian ng dulang ito para magpatunay na hango nga ito sa popular na anyo ng pagtatanghal noong Pananakop ng mga Espanyol.
Una, halaw sa mga Europeong awit at korido ang naratibo nito. Walang ipinagkaiba ang takbo ng kuwentong romansa nito sa pakikipagsapalaran ng mga dugong maharlika kung saan napagtatagumpayan ng mabubuting loob ang maitim na balak ng mga masasama. Kahit pa maraming pakana ang kanyang madrasta para pagtakpan nito ang kanyang maanomalyang pamumuno sa kaharian ng Tralala, nalagpasan ni Prinsesa Yasmin ang mga ito sa tulong na rin ng pag-ibig na si Prinsipe Anshari. Maging mga Kanluraning pangalan at, marahil, ang nakapangingibabaw na Kanluraning pananaw ng kagandahan ay hiniram din ng dula para masalungat ng lutang na ganda ni Yasmin ang ordinaryong hitsura ng mga anak ng madrasta. Dahil komedya, nagtatapos ito sa isang kanais-nais na kalagayan kung saan magiging masaya ang (mga) pangunahing tauhan, gaya ng kasiyahan nina Yasmin at Anshari sa pagtatapos ng kanilang pakikipagsapalaran sa isang maharlikang kasalan. Dahil moro-moro rin ito, ipinakita sa tema ng dula ang pagtutunggali ng mabubuti laban sa masasama na ipananalo ng una, at sa kaso nga ng Sandaang Panaginip, naglaban ang batalyon nina Anshari at ng taksil na si Heneral Tulume, hanggang magupo ng una ang huli. Lamang, ang kinomisyon ng reyna na si Heneral Tulume ay mahihinuhang Kristiyano imbes na Muslim gaya ng nakagawiang pagkatawan sa mga Moro bilang walang budhi.
Isa pang elementong nasa Sandaang Panaginip ang pagtatanghal nito sa labas ng kumbensyunal na tanghalan dahil sa Cervini field ng Pamantasang Ateneo, sa lilim ng mga bituin at paligid ng mga puno at kawayanan, inilatag ang entablado at inilagay ang mga upuan ng mga manonood sa loob ng mahigit isang linggo. Dahil nasa loob ito ng pamantasan, malamang na hindi ito matangkilik ng nasa publiko, dagdag pa ang relatibong may kamahalang tiket.
Kabilang pa rin sa tradisyunal na konsepto ng komedya ang mga saplot na kasasalaminan ng kabihasnan at paniniwala ng mga tauhan, dahil mararangya ang kasuotan nila. Lamang, hindi mapusyaw kundi makinang ang mga damit mula sa mga hari hanggang sa mga prinsesa.
Nagpakita pa ng isa pang kumbensyong ang dula: ang pagmartsa papunta at pababa ng entablado. Sa umpisa, umiimbay-imbay pa ang kamay ng mga dama at nasa likuran naman ang kamay ng mga lalaki. Sa dulo, umaawit pa silang lumayo sa entablado habang naglalaro ang mga ilaw na teknolohiyang inilapat sa dula at patuloy na ipinapalabas sa isang vidiwall ang clips ng kasaysayan ng ating bansa, buwan, lambana at iba pa.
Nakita pa rin sa dula ang labanan na may angkop na musika ng pakikidigma samantalang may koreograpo pa ang paghampas ng arnis sa armas ng katunggali. Gaya sa tradisyunal na dula, mahiwaga ang paggapi ng mabubuti sa masasama dahil tinulungan ni Inang Diwatang ipanalo ang laban nina Anshari kay Tulume. Nagtapos din sa maganda ang dula gaya ng dapat asahang tradisyon: nagtagumpay ang pakikipagsapalaran ng magsing-irog na Yasmin at Anshari hanggang maisiwalat na mamanahin nila ang kanya-kanyang kaharian at pinahihintulutan ang pagkakasal nila sa isa’t isa.
Sa mga nabanggit na kumbensyon at ilang pagbabago, kinakailangang ikunsidera ang pagsasakontemporanyo ng dula. Sa bisa nito, maipapasok ang ilang pulitika gaya ng postmodernismo at postkolonyalismo upang iangkop sa konteksto ng Pilipinas. Ginamit ang postmodernong mga elemento gaya ng pastiche at bricolage upang maraming maipakitang pangyayari sa dula at sa vidiwall nang minsanan lang para sa manonood. Nakakaugnay pa ang ilan sa maaksayang karakter ni Reyna Leona na walang iba kundi ang dating Unang Ginang na si Imelda Marcos. Sa isang banda naman, ginamit ang postkolonyal na mga elemento gaya ng kulturang hybrid sa Oryental na kaharian na may Griyegong hardin pati na ng kritikong imperyalista sa neokolonyal na pagdikta ng Parachibum sa Tralala na pinautang nito ng walong milyong bara ng ginto. May Pilipinong bihis kung gayon ang isang inangkat na anyo ng pagtatanghal.
Gumalaw ang dula sa konteksto ng kasaysayan ng Pilipinas. Una nang mapapansin ang alegorya ng dula kung saan ang kaharian ng Tralala na bingi sa dusa ng mamamayan ay patungkol sa rehimeng Marcos na puno ng pasakit sa bansa, mula sa karapatang pantao, ekonomiya at kalayaang pampulitika. Mahalagang usapin na isinusulong ng dula ang unibersal na apela ng kawalang-kahahantungan ng pangungurakot at pagkagahaman sa kapangyarihan. Ang nangyaring pang-aabuso sa panahon ni Marcos ay nangyayari pa rin sa konteksto ng ating panahon. Lamang, darating pa rin ang panahon na magtatagumpay ang kabutihan kung paanong nagtagumpay sina Yasmin at Anshari laban sa mga masasamang balak at gawain ni Reyna Leona.
Sa apat na panahon ng ating kasaysayan, maraming mga bagay ang naisangkap sa dula. Mula sa prekolonyal, namana ang paganong paniniwala sa supernatural na diwata sa halip na gamitin ang kolonyal na engkantada, na masasabing iisang kaisipan lamang. Mula sa kolonyal, ang dula mismo ang namana—ang paraan ng pagtatanghal nito at ang mga elemento na parehong nabanggit na sa unang bahagi ng papel. Mula sa postkolonyal, ang pagsasaatin ng dulang banyaga ang namana—binigyan ng Oryental na kahulugan ang dula upang maibalik sa atin ang ninakaw nating imahe sa pagpupumilit ng Kanluran na ianyo tayo sa mga mamamayan nito. Mula sa postmoderno, ang pagpulupot sa mga nakagawiang kumbensyon gaya ng paglalapat ng makabagong teknolohiya at pagdurog sa mga institusyon (gaya ni Imelda o ng kaisahan para bigyang daan ang visual plurality, halimbawa) ang naipakita sa dula. Ang lahat ng mga ito ay maayos na pinagtahi-tahi para isakontemporanyo ang komedya: ipinakitang naglalaro ang mga prekolonyal na lambana sa kolonyal na anyo ng hardin; mistulang eksena ni Imelda Marcos sa mga balita ang inaarte ni Reyna Leona; taal na Tagalog ang ginagamit ng mga Europeong maharlikang may Kanluraning mga pangalan.
Ang pagsasakontemporanyo ng Sandaang Panaginip ay naging epektibong daan para pagbuhul-buhulin ang iba’t ibang institusyon at sistema sa lahat ng bahagi ng ating kasaysayan kaya masasabing higit sa nakaaaliw ay henyo ang dula.

ang post-kolonyal sa sandaang panaginip

Sapagkat hindi na maisusulat pang muli ang kasaysayan, inangkin na ng mga bansang kolonyal gaya ng Pilipinas ang pulitika ng Post-Kolonyalismo. Sa kabila ng karahasang dinanas ng mga bansang kolonyal dahil sa kasaysayan ng pananakop, ginamit nila ang Post-Kolonyal na kalagayan upang mabuo ang pagkakakilanlang binasag ng kolonyal na karanasan. Naisainstitusyon man ang mga kaisipang Kolonyal, tinapatan din naman ito ng mga kaisipang Post-Kolonyal upang tuligsain ang imaheng binubuo ng Kanluran sa kanyang Iba.
Nabibilang sa mga kaisipang Post-Kolonyal ang institusyon ng Panitikan, kung saan kauri ang dulang Sandaang Panaginip ng batikang manunulat na si Prof. Rene Villanueva. Makikita sa mga elemento ng komedyang ito ang maraming katangiang Post-Kolonyal. Isa itong pamamaraan ng manunulat upang bawiin ang ninakaw na identidad sa pamamagitan ng pagpapakita ng alternatibong imahen ng nasakop.
Una na sa mga ito ang mga tauhang ginagampanan ang mga tungkuling maharlika sa konteksto ng Kanluran. Pangalan pa lamang nila, inangkat na: Alexander, Leona, Carlos, Yasmin, Anshari. Dagdag pa, reyno at reyna, prinsipe at prinsesa sila na pawing mga Kanluraning konsepto ng mga pinuno sa halip na gumamit ng katutubong pangalan ng dugong mahal. Kahit may mga katutubong pangalan at katawagan naman, ang paggamit ng mga angkat na ngalan ay tanda ng hindi-basta-matitibag na markang kolonyal na hindi naman lubusang makabubura ng pagka-nasakop. Samantala, Post-Kolonyal ang katangian ng mga tauhang makipagtalastasan sa isa’t isa gamit ang katutubong wika sa kabila ng kaanyuan nilang maka-Kanluraning konstruksyon ng mga dugong bughaw. Gahum man ng Kanluran na hubugin ang Oryental ayon sa maka-Kolonyal na hulmahan ng una, gahum naman ng Oryental ang panatilihin ang pagkakatutubo nito sa pamamagitan ng mga lantay na Pilipinong kaisipang supernatural gaya nina Inang Diwata at mga lambana sa halip na gamitin ang Kanluraning engkantada o nayadas. Kahit na kolonyal sa kaanyuan ang mga nagsisiganap, sa esensya ay Post-Kolonyal sila dahil hindi tuwirang nasira ng pananakop ang pagkatao nila.
Litaw na litaw pa rin ang Post-Kolonyal kahit sa tagpuan. Pinaghalo ang kalinangang Oryental at Oksidental sa pamamagitan ng bahay-haring hitsurang katutubo na katambis man din ng harding may mga moog na ginanyak man din ng Sibilisasyong Gresya. Gayundin naman ang pamanahong tagpuan sapagkat nagsimula ang dula na nanganganib nang bumagsak ang kaharian dahil sa patung-patong na mga problema ng mga naghihirap na mamamayan gaya ng taggutom at pangkabuhayang pag-aaklas at nagtapos na may panibagong buhay ang mga tao sa pagkawala ng imperyalistang taga-Parachibum at ang tuta nitong manunuba ng sandamakmak na bara ng ginto.
Post-Kolonyal din ang banghay sapagkat gumigitaw dito ang kaisipang imperyalismo at diaspora. Ang pagkakautang ng walong milyong bara ng ginto ng kahariang Tralala sa kahariang Parachibum ay isang ‘di-direktang pananakop ng huli sa una: hindi man tuwirang sakop ng Parachibum ang Tralala, hawak naman ito sa leeg sapagkat dinidiktahan naman ng Parachibum ang Tralala sa taning ng pagbabayad ng utang. Diaspora naman ang paglalakbay ni Yasmin una patungong Timog at pangalawa sa gubat patungong Parachibum dahil kinakailangan niyang umalis sa kaharian ng ama para tumulong ayusin ang mga gusot na pinagdaraanan ng Tralala. Ang presensya ng post-Kolonyal na mga kaisipang ito ay ang mga masasamang epekto sa bansang kolonya ng pananakop dahil nga birtuwal na walang kalayaan pa rin ang bansa at masakit mang iwanan ang bansa sa gitna ng paglubog sa kumunoy, napipilitang mangibang-bayan sa ibayong dagat para makaiwas sa problemang internal.
Sa pagsasama-sama at pagtatagisan ng mga motif sa kuwento, hindi lamang Post-Kolonyal ang dula kundi Post-Moderno pa dahil sa bricolage at pastiche ng mga pangyayari sa kasaysayan gaya ng “edifice complex” ni Imelda Marcos, sa panitikan gaya ng madrastang masama kasama ang mga anak na hindi kagandahan, sa sayaw gaya ng koreo sa arnis ng armada kapwa ni Anshari at ni Heneral Tulume. Ang paghahalu-halong ito ay dili iba kundi ang mga kaisipang hybridity at alterity kung saan sa pagkakakontamina ng kalantayan ng banghay, wala nang kasiguruhan ang pagkakakilanlan nito. Hindi ito purong Filipino, pero sa kabila ng samu’t saring pagkakahawang kolonyal, mapangingibabaw pa rin ang natitirang sarili.
Pati tema ng dula, Post-Kolonyal din. Ang sagupaan ng mabuti at masama sa dula ay masasalamin sa katutubong taguri rito: moro-moro. Dito, nagsasagupaan ang mga Kristiyano at mga Muslim, at dahil nakaiibabaw ang Kristiyanismo para sa mga Kanluranin kaysa sa mga barbarong moro, nagtatagumpay lagi ang kabutihang kinakatawan ng Kristiyanismo. Post-Kolonyal ang labanan sa pagitan ng armada ni Prinsipe Anshari at ng kay Heneral Tulume dahil nagtagumpay ang mabuti laban sa masama sa isang dulang inangkat mula Europa ngunit binigyan ng panibagong trato ayon sa pagkakagawa nito rito sa Pilipinas. Binigyan ni Villanueva ng Filipinong mukha ang Europeong komedya.
Panghuli man ang konteksto ngunit puno rin ng Post-Kolonyal na katangian ito. Gamit ang screen flash, iba’t ibang bahagi ng kasaysayan ng Pilipinas ang ipinakita, simula ng masakop ito ng mga Kastila hanggang masakop ng mga Amerikano hanggang okupahan ng mga Hapones nang panandalian noong panahon ng giyera hanggang maibalik sa pamamahala ng mga Amerikano. Mahalaga ang mga panooring ito sa konteksto ng dula bilang alegorya sa kalagayan ng bansa: naghihirap ang Tralala (Pilipinas) dahil sa pagkakautang nito sa ibang kaharian (EuroAmerica). Nananagana sa pangungurakot ang reyna (Imelda Marcos—siya ang alusyon kay Leona na isang waldas na pinuno ng kaharian) sa kabila ng pagkagutom at pagdurusa ng mga manghahabi ng Timog (mga mangagawang Filipino). Hindi maiiwasang ikritiko ang alegoryang ito dahil ang pananakop ang nagsilbing mitsa sa pambansang paghihinagpis. Kung hindi pinakialaman ng Kanluran ang Pilipinas sampu ng mga kolonyang bansa, katutubo sana ang gumitaw na kultura rito at hindi kakalakalin ng mananakop para sa pansariling kapakanan.
Sa produksyon makikita ang pagtatagni-tagni ng sandaang panaginip sa Sandaang Panaginip dahil sa nakahihilong presentasyon ng mga tauhan sa entablado habang sa gilid ay nagpapalabas din ng iba’t ibang clips ng pambayang kasaysayan, ng kalikasan at iba pa. Sa Post-Kolonyal na perspektibo, tinuturingan ng sandaang panaginip ang pangarap ng daan-daan, libu-libo at milyun-milyong Filipino na matagpuan nila ang kani-kanilang mga sarili sa kabila ng pagkakasakop na dahilan ng kontaminasyon sa pagtingin natin sa ating mga sarili. Sa pagkakatupad ng sandaang panaginip na ito, wala nang duda na tanggalin sa sistema ang ituring ang sarili bilang Amerikanong kulay kayumanggi, pagiging utak-Stateside at pagkakaari ng malay-kolonyal. Kaisa tayo sa mga manggagawa at mga tauhan ng dula na sa pagkaresolba ng mga suliraning pang-ekonomiya at pangkaharian, mas magiging malapit na ang kaganapan ng pagkasarili at tugma ito sa proyekto ng Post-Kolonyalismo na pagkakaari ng identidad na iba kaysa sa pinapalitaw ng nanakop. Sa pagkakakilanlang ito, hindi basta aliping kolonyal ang Filipino kundi may dangal sa kanyang sariling lahi, kasaysayan at kalinangan. Sa puntong ito, hindi rin basta nananaginip lamang ang mga Filipino.
Mabisa ang Sandaang Panaginip para palutangin ang konseptong Post-Kolonyal sa isang bahagi ng institusyong Pilipino. Sa pamamagitan ng dulang ito, ibang anyo ng Iba ang makikita: hindi naisasagilid ni nawawala, bagkus ay muling aangkinin ang sentro upang mabuo muli ang sarili.

vampires: an undying tale of the undead

Vampire legends hark back for millennia and are a leitmotif of cultures the world over. They come in various forms, from the vampire foxes of Japan to the half-woman, half-winged serpent Lamia of Greece to the red-eyed, green-or-pink-haired monsters of China to our very own manananggal, which is a half-woman from the waist up, with bloodshot eyes and disheveled hair.
Vampire stories in Western Europe were originated from the less sophisticated, more rustic and more “barbaric” Eastern Europe, where Far Eastern (China, Tibet and India) myths on vampires were transported via the silk route bound for the Mediterranean.[1] Long before the Irishman Bram Stoker capitalized on the vampire legends in coming up with the monumental novel Dracula and long before the familiar vampires of today got transmogrified in film and literature, the Asia-originated stories were already widespread along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans, Hungary and Transylvania.
Vampire hysteria erupted in the 17th and 18th centuries when Eastern Europeans claimed seeing deceased relatives walking about and attacking people.[2] Lots of graves were exhumed; their corpses burned and staked. These rumors jumped to adjacent Europe, creating scholastic speculations on such monsters as well as literary and artistic buzz. While the superstitious Eastern Europe lived in fear of the bloodsucking count residing in his mountain castle, the “civilized” Western Europe turned the lore on its head and sharpened the great divide from the eastern region with the moneymaking vampire-inspired artworks.
Western Europe shares the modern depiction of the vampire as blood drinking, returning from death, nocturnal human predator and others usual with the Eastern European myths. Contemporary inventions include the donning of evening clothes, tall-collared capes, bat transformation, among others. Meanwhile, certain elements of the ancient tales like the spreading of poppy seeds or millet at the tomb site in order to have the vampire count seeds instead of preying on humans, have been scrapped from modern retellings in fiction and film.[3]
The Iranian-related Slavs including Russians, Bulgarians, Serbs and Polish have the most numerous vampire folklores in all the world. The Church Schism in history influenced the development of vampire myths: the Roman Catholics considered incorruptible bodies as saints whereas the Orthodox, to whom the Slavs belong, believed these were vampires.[4] The conflict between pre-Christian pagan traditions with those of Christian’s resulted in the origin of vampire lore. According to Slavic folklore, vampirism might be caused by being born with teeth or a tail, being conceived on dreaded days, irregular death, excommunication, inappropriate burial rites, among others.[5] Meanwhile, preventive measures included affixing a crucifix in the coffin, putting millet or poppy seeds in the grave for vampires were fascinated with counting or staking the body. A vampire might be lurking in the neighborhood if there was death of cattle, sheep, relatives, neighbors, if bodies seemed alive with new growth of hair or fingernails, if the corpse was puffed up drum-like or had blood on the mouth and if the body had a reddish complexion. It can be destroyed by staking, burning, beheading, repeating the funeral rituals, throwing holy water on the grave and exorcism.
On the other hand, Romanian vampire myths are only variants of those of the neighboring Slavs. They are named Strigoi, meaning screech owl or demon or witch.[6] They emerged from persons born with a tail, born out of wedlock, who died before baptism or who died an unnatural death, who were the seventh offspring of the same sex in a family, who were the children of salt-deprived pregnant women, who were stared at by a vampire, and who were witches.[7] It was but natural that to be bitten by vampire meant being condemned to a vampiric life after death. That person would be noticed when the family or livestock were attacked. Holes in the earth, an undecomposed corpse with reddish face and one foot in the corner of the coffin were telltale signs of a vampire in the grave. Distributing garlic in church and checking who did not eat it can enable one to discover a vampire. To prevent a person from turning into a vampire, the caul of the newborn must be removed and ruined before the baby could consume it; meticulous preparation of corpses, putting a thorny branch of a wild rose by tin their grave, and placing garlic upon the same.[8] Much like its Slavic counterpart, the Romanian vampire variety may be destroyed by driving a stake through their body or shooting a bullet through the vampire’s coffin.
Greek vampire lore was popular that Aegean country during the nineteenth century. Instead of being cremated, Greek corpses are buried. Three years after, they are hauled out of the grave. The bones from rotten bodies are collected by the relatives, poured into a box and washed with wine and consecrated by the priest. Incorruptible bodies would cause a panic stemming from the vampire belief. Not unlike the Slavic and Romanian variety, the causes of such Greek vampiric tragedy were numerous. The dead must have suffered excommunion, curse by the father, or solitary when death arrived for him. Across Greece, other reasons include a feline jumping over the dead body, eating of meat coming from a sheep slayed by a wolf, incomplete baptism rites, conception during a significant religious observation, curse by a supernaturally powerful person, commission of a terrible crime, attack by a vampire when still alive, among others.[9] What was weird was that only Christians were thought of to anguish over this misfortune. Generally, this type of vampire is believed to be hard to distinguish from the living and could elude detection. Nonetheless, in some parts of Greece, they were easy to recognize. They glow in the dark of Mount Pelion, they were hunchbacked and grew their fingernails long on the Saronic Island, they had long canine fangs like wolves and they often ventured during nighttime and during the daytime, as in Amorgos.[10]
Bats cannot be dissociated from the modern day idea of vampires. The 16th century Spanish conquerors initially made this link when they noticed the similarity between the animals’ feeding habits and the mythical vampires.[11] The association became stronger over time when fiction writers portrayed bats as bloodsucking creatures, a notion that got its seal of verisimilitude when Stoker fictionalized bats as vampiric monsters.
Prior to the 18th century, vampires did not exist in the imagination of the British people. The blood predators came to the attention of the British Isles in Particular and Western Europe in general when a vampire scare in Eastern Europe became a major fanfare, so blown out of proportions that authorities were even dragged into the search and annihilation of vampires. This scandal directly spawned England’s present-day vampire legends. Because of the controversy, Western scholars seriously looked into the affair instead of shrugging off their shoulder over what was supposed to be their poorer European counterpart’s superstition. Two items that were considered were an outbreak of vampire attacks that erupted in East Prussia in 1721 and another in the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1725-1734.[12]
Two of such cases coming from the controversial vampire accounts featured Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole. At the age of 62, Plogowitz died but returned frequently begging for food from his son. The son refused and was found dead the morning after. From then on, Plogowitz came back to the village, attacking neighbors who died from blood loss. Anoher notorious case involved Arnold Paole, a former soldier turned farmer who had been preyed upon by a vampire and who died while haying. His death was the beginning of a series of deaths in the neighborhood, suggesting that the ex-soldier must have been preying upon his village people.
The two cases were very well documented. Government officials examined the incidents and the corpses, churned out reports and, afterwards, published books regarding the Paole case and disseminated about Europe. The controversy lasted a generation. The problem was aggravated by rural folks having an epidemic of vampire attacks and exhuming bodies all around. Many scholars said vampires did not exist—they cited reports to premature burial, or rabies which causes thirst.
Nevertheless, a well respected French theologian and scholar by the name of Dom Augustine Calmet came up with a intricately thought-out treatise in 1746 which claimed vampires did exist. This had relative influence on other scholars during the rage.
Consequentially, Austrian Empress Marie Theresa called for her personal physician to investigate. He reported that vampires did not exist so the Empress implemented laws prohibiting the opening of graves and mutilation of bodies. This halted the vampire epidemics. However, everybody was knowledgeable about vampires by then and it took only a matter of time before authors would mine the stories and would metamorphose the vampire into something different and much more accessible to the public at-large.
Western Europe struck gold when the vampires of Eastern Europe were introduced in the weird literature and popular culture of the modern world. It was commonly believed that Lord Byron introduced the vampire theme to Western literature with its mention in the epic poem The Giaour, but his personal physician, John Polidori, wrote the original vampire fiction The Vampyre using Lord Byron as distant basis of the story’s bloodsucker.[13] The character, named Lord Ruthven, is the foremost of the much-romanticized vampires. Mary Shelley’s phenomenal Frankenstein, which also ran a parallel monster theme, was inspired from the ghost story contest generated by the buzz hounding The Vampyre. Among the earliest literary attempts dealing with the archetypal monster include Christabel, an unfinished poem, and Carmilla, a lesbian vampire story with Sheridan Lefanu as author.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been the prototype of the vampire character in popular literature the past 100 years. Victorian Europe with its widespread tuberculosis and syphilis seemed to have been lashed by the harsh depiction of vampirism as a devil-instigated illness and the underlying elements of sex, blood and death. The Balkan king from whom the name was taken was rumored to be bloodthirsty in a way war-freak rulers relished bloodshed of their enemy state’s people.[14] The vampiric association stuck then since Stoker wrote about the fictional Dracula.
The persistence of vampire legends seems just an archetypal inscription in the human race’s collective unconscious. These myths come to us in life-like depictions as our way of keeping in touch with our primordial ancestors that encounter strange creatures in their dreams and lives. Also, they answer psychological issues that need to be addressed, such as conquering fear despite a formidable nemesis. Meaning, we have yet to see blood-and-flesh vampires who perform real vampirism rituals in order to perpetuate their undead lives. The closest vampires come to reality is the vampirism symptoms seen in pathological cases of porphyria sufferers who are anemic and, as treatment, blood drinkers and criminals who cannibalize on their victims. In viewing Western and Eastern European folkloric history, it seems to me that the vampire concern takes on a political angle as the poorer Eastern Europe is presented as backward and, therefore, irreparably barbaric for subsisting in superstition despite the advent of modernity. On the other hand, Western Europe is presented as the elegant Other that has too many modern issues to address to take vampire legends seriously. By subverting the onslaught of the vampire hysteria, Western Europe cultivated the vampire creature in order to benefit out of it. The persisting Great Divide between these two Europes is only a microcosm of the technological West and the exotic East, wherein all the standards of the true, the good and the beautiful are set by the West for the Orientals to follow. In a sense, the West in general (the Western Europe in particular) sucks vampire-like on the resources of the Other in order to sustain its parasitic self.

Bibliography:
Barber, Paul. Vampire, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality. New York: Yale University, 1988.
Florescu, Radu R. and McNally, Raymond T. Dracula: Prince of Many Faces. Boston Little, Brown and Company, 1989.
Frost, Brain J. The Monster with a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature. Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1989.


[1] Frost, Brain J. The Monster with a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature. Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1989, p. 7.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Frost, Brain J. The Monster with a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature. Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1989, p. 15.
[4] Barber, Paul. Vampire, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality. New York: Yale University, 1988, p. 49.
[5] Ibid, p. 50.
[6] Frost, Brain J. The Monster with a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature. Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1989, p. 23.
[7] Barber, Paul. Vampire, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality. New York: Yale University, 1988, p. 56.
[8] Ibid, p. 59.
[9] Barber, Paul. Vampire, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality. New York: Yale University, 1988, p. 71.
[10] Ibid, 74.
[11] Florescu, Radu R. and McNally, Raymond T. Dracula: Prince of Many Faces. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 119.
[12] Florescu, Radu R. and McNally, Raymond T. Dracula: Prince of Many Faces. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 156.
[13] Florescu, Radu R. and McNally, Raymond T. Dracula: Prince of Many Faces. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 88.
[14] Florescu, Radu R. and McNally, Raymond T. Dracula: Prince of Many Faces. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, p. 4.

the god in the artist

There is a god in every artist. This is what the films Being John Malkovich, Shadow of the Vampire, 8 ½ and Gods and Monsters convey. The structure and substance behind these films as well as all manifestations of the arts portray the genius that the artist is. The director, being the Supreme Being behind the film, possesses the freedom to create what he has in mind, and can pull it off especially for arts’ sake. The actors, while merely players, have the same liberation to interpret their roles. As such, an artist oozes with originality, and this is shown in all films. In Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich, Craig Schwartz pursued his puppetry even as he did not get paid well for his art. In fact, at one point of the movie, he got a beating from an irate father while he performed on the streeet. When a secret office portal led to the consciousness of John Malkovich, a Hollywood actor, Craig was so empowered that he seemed god-like in getting in and out of Malkovich’ body. This power got the better of him that he permanently occupied Malkovich’ body in order to taste fame as an actor and, still in pursuit of his first love, as a puppeteer. Jonze as a director is another manifestation of the artist as god, since he was able to come up with a unique movie with actors that were barely recognizable, departing from the conventions of Hollywood films many of which forego substance over form. In Shadow of the Vampire by E. Elias Merhige, F. W Murnau agreed with a real vampire, Schreck, to give the monster the leading lady as food, in exchange of a realistic performance. Murnau figuratively became the film’s true monster by pursuing his vision and feeding his crew, staff and his own humanity all for the sake of getting immortalized via his art. As a god-like being—the director—Murnau demanded blood to complete his filming, very much in the same manner as vampires nourished themselves. In 8 ½, the artist suffers some kind of block on top of his insecure relationships with women. In effect, he had nothing to say to his demanding producers but said it anyway. This statement puts the artist in god-like mode since even at the extreme poverty of the imagination, he can articulate something: that he is empowered even when he has none. Far from his protagonist, the director has a slew of things to say, from mid-life crisis, lust, parental memories, childhood, hatred for women, among other topics. In Gods and Monsters, homosexual director James Whale was shown to be the god of his filmmaking career. To go with his godness, the aging Whale was still active despite attacks of strokes. His time of shining in Hollywood was marked by absolute freedom as a creative worker, producing films that were unforgettable. At the forefront of these films were Frankenstein and Bride of Frankstein, which obtained life after creation, much like when the Frankenstein monster acquired life after a triumphant operation by Vincent Frankenstein. When people interpreted his movie, their reactions range from amusement to horror to ludicrousness, but what was important was that the artist as God was able to transmit his message in his films through the intercession of the monster.
The abovementioned films tell that the artistic process is the making of a genius. It is the most salient form of man’s use of his God-given talent. In a loose extent, man practices his godlikeness whenever he engages in the artistic process. In Being John Malkovich, Malkovich got to see what was on his own mind when he entered the mysterious portal leading to his own consciousness. What he saw in his mind was a whole lot of his replicas mouthing “Malkovich…Malkovich…Malkovich.” As such, he has seen his ego, the seat of man’s deity-ness. Being an artist, Malkovich populates his ego because for himself, he is the god. In Shadow of the Vampire, Murnau decided all alone what to happen in his film, even if it proved disastrous, if through this disaster his vision would be fulfilled. He allowed the vampire to drink the blood of the film’s cast and crew for his art’s ultimate purpose. He was the god of his film. In 8 ½, the film about an artist who had nothing to say is a stroke of brilliance of the artist who made this film as a means of saying he had something to say unlike his film’s character. In Gods and Monsters, the artistic process remains generally vivid to the gay director despite the onslaught of age, which says so much of the genius that Whale was notwithstanding the silver hair.
The films as a statement of the artistic process tell that should there be an artist in me, I can nurture it for the god in me to emerge. Art is a product of liberal expression, so I see that the god in artist is really privileged to say what one wants without having to apologize for it. I want to effect godlike traits because the artistic process occurs in a genius, and with what talent one has, one is capable of transforming the world.

art as sacrifice

E. Elias Merhige’s Shadow of the Vampire, Bill Condon’s Gods and Monsters, Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, and Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich are a testament that being an artist entails doing ultimate sacrifices for the love of the art. Filmmaking, like any other artform, is such a rigorous process, and it is not uncommon for me to be hearing directors, scriptwriters and actors raving about their product as one done in an extreme labor of love. As the offshoot of their respective makers’ creative juices, these films are no less than the artists’ children and, as such, are bestowed with extraordinary devotion and treatment.
For instance, in Shadow of the Vampire, director F. W. Murnau (John Malkovich) went the bizarre length of hiring a genuine vampire (Willem Defoe) in filming his horror film Nosferatu. Apparently, the director was this serious in his craft that he should be willing to endanger the lives of his whole crew if only to achieve verisimilitude in his film. On the other hand, Gods and Monsters recounts the last months of the life of a gay director (Ian McKellen) whose horror masterpieces, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, attained eclipsing qualities. As a Hollywood director, Whale—in a true artist fashion—practiced extreme freedom in his filmmaking career. As a result, his two aforementioned works not only upstaged all other works but also gained so strong a life that he, their creator, cannot even control how these films should be remembered. Based on Gods and Monsters, it occurred to me that an artist, for the love of the craft, has to make the sacrifice of losing control of his own works once they get consumed by the interpreting public.
Meanwhile, 8 ½ is the story of a director (Marcello Mastroianni) who was problematic over what to say in his next movie and his affairs with several women. The former problem reflects the sacrifice an artist has to make after having possibly exhausted all his creative efforts in his previous works. It happens: just when an artist is in the process of producing the most brilliant piece ever to spring out of his head, he realizes not only the second-best status of his immediate past work but also the fact that he might fall clueless of what to do next.
Lastly, Being John Malkovich tells the account of an actor (John Malkovich) whose body got usurped by someone else, thereby leaving him zero control of his own mind and emotions. As that someone was an artist himself (John Cusack), he was willing to sacrifice—at the expense of the body’s owner—transferring from his body to another in pursuit of fame in the field he loved but perpetually failed in, puppeteering. Being John Malkovich afforded Craig, the puppeteer, to achieve huge popularity since Malkovich was well-known, being in universally-renowned Hollywood. In the same vein, being John Malkovich resulted to his being estranged from his bisexual wife (Cameron Diaz), a reality that said so much about the sacrifice of solitude an artist must undergo in seeking for his stardom’s fulfillment (although he was living in with the Maxine character in the movie, the artist was virtually all alone, all lonely at the top).All these films say that the artistic process is so complicated that at the work’s ultimate destination, sacrifices litter along the way. Sometimes, the end justifies the means; sometimes, not.
In Shadow of the Vampire, the director gets his due via his immortalization through his art, but not without having practically fed his whole staff to the vampire as well as having sacrificed his own humanity for the realization of his artisitic purpose. In Gods and Monsters, Whale’s Frankenstein works got interpreted in many ways from hilarity to terror to ludicrousness, although for the director himself, these reactions were possibly not the ones he was expecting but came about as a result of his works’ acquisition of life. In 8 ½, the artistic process is presented as a struggle from which one must be able to untangle himself. Director Guido’s exertion of effort to liberate himself from being dried up temporarily or permamently is one such manifestation of that struggle, but the film director himself joyfully indulges in the fact that he is unlike his character in that his creative makeup is not sterile, proven by the production of 8 ½. In Being John Malkovich, the road to Craig’s renown was paved with sacrifices, as on his way to succeeding as a puppeteer, finally, he had to use a host, be estranged from his partner in life, and live a life of hypocrisy as the world knows him to be Malkovich, not as himself. In the long run, he can be said to have emerged unhappy after all.
These films’ statement on the artistic process points to my life as something not unlike art: it is inextricably linked to sacrifices. My life, although I may not be so focused on it, is a continuous production of artform, from this reflective essay to other pieces which I come up with as school requirements or as personal articulation. Either objective entails sacrifice on my part: time, brainpower, sometimes capital, but it is an ultimate joy when the destination proves favorable, as when I get good marks or when I feel satisfied with my work. The artistic process can be a pain along the way, but can be a glory in the end.

a narrative analysis of virginia woolf’s the death of the moth and n. scott momaday's the way to rainy mountain

In "The Death of the Moth," Virginia Woolf used the narration of one’s personal experience in order to develop the thematic process of creation. She tells of a moth flying from one side of a window pane to the other and back, until the moth lays down on the window sill in the long run. After sometime, she witnesses the moth attempt to move anew but then, it moves sluggishly and awkwardly. A trial at flight frustrates the moth, its descent causing it to fall on its back, until the moth struggles to turn itself right by clawing at the air. Just as the moth is dying, Woolf sees the moth succeed at righting itself and then, it ceases from moving as its death strikes inescapably.
Woolf’s narration which resembles a conversational speech attempts to present the battle between life and death which, upon closer inspection, is both pathetic and dignified—pathetic since death will always triumph despite the stubborn desire to live and dignified when death is stared at winkless, like the moth dying nobly on its feet. Sounding existentialist, Woolf tells of a symbol—the moth’s sacrifice—which is a necessity to the consummation of the creative process for artists like her. Her personal narration brings about the working of the imagination and everything this machination springs from: the human aches and happiness, deepest desires, terrors and anxieties, emotional attachments. As she comments on the moth that “lay most decently and uncomplainingly composed,” the creative process is completed, the moth being the work of art.[1]
There is also pun intended for the use of the verb compose (to mean the end of the moth’s striving) which may likewise be defined as to create something musical, artistic or literary.
This cycle of moth’s life and death is of course symbolic of the creative process in that Woolf manages to provide survival out of a tragedy. Through her narration, there is suggestion of creativity vibrating into life, the movement of intense concepts arising from an artist’s consciousness, the abrupt awakening of a mind discovering areas of creation never before explored. Holistically, the moth represents the nonstop strivings of the human brain to inchoate something from confusion: in all likelihood an artist’s general plight. The moth image is potent enough to assist Woolf into narrating/opening a room on her artistic process.
Like "The Death of the Moth," N. Scott Momaday’s "The Way to Rainy Mountain" also involves narration of the personal experience of the author to show the process of creation, this time of Momaday’s individual identity inherently tied up to his Kiowa people’s philosophies, remembrances and experiences. The author begins by returning to Rainy Mountain, “[a] single knoll [that] rises out of the plain in Oklahoma, north and west of the Wichita Range” which belongs to the Kiowas and which “is where Creation was begun.” His journey back home has for a reason a homage to his late grandmother.
The author poetically explored his personal Kiowa world in the latter part of his essay, wherein he told his people’s summer reunions in his grandmother’s house, the gossips among women, the “frequent prayer meetings, and great nocturnal feasts.” He would also regal with stories of playing outside with cousins, of eating, the singing and laughter of people, of laying down with his grandmother as the wind stirred and frogs croaked downriver. In the end, the author heads for the Rainy Mountain to take vigil at his grandmother’s grave after a night of communing with the familiar place that is his home.
The narratives involved in the two essays use the idea of the talking voice[3] to narrate both author’s personal legends. In the process, the theme of creation becomes evident: for Woolf, the process of creation for an artist while for Momaday, the creation of identity. It is noteworthy that while the two essays involved a discussion on death, the aforementioned theme of creation gives the death some sterling quality: the death of the moth fulfills the unsettling flowering of the imagination, while the death of the grandmother is an event that compels the author to return to his Kiowa community and embrace his Kiowa self.
Woolf solely used her conversational speech in developing the theme in The Death of the Moth. In contrast, Momaday also uses local storytelling and formal scholastic narration besides the personal narration to create a three-voiced narrative of his construction of Kiowa identity. The first part of The Way to Rainy Mountain has the author narrating the Kiowas’ mythic history using the colloquial storyteller’s voice. He told of the time his grandmother was born, when “the Kiowas were living the last great moment of their history.” The Kiowas lived undisturbed as a tribe until they were overthrown by a military trackdown. Their legend has it that “they entered the world through a hollow log,” and the mythical voice of Momaday’s Kiowa ancestors handed down their centuries-old oral tradition, translated and transcribed until such time the myth is spoken by the narrator. Their legend boasts of “kinsmen in the night sky” in the embodiment of seven sisters who would comprise the sever stars of the Big Dipper when a tree brought them there to escape their bear-metamorphosed brother.
In the middle part of Momaday’s essay, the narrative voice shift to that of a local historian’s, when the narrator tells of the extinct rituals the Kiowas performed when his grandmother was still very young. The Kiowa Sun Dance involved decapitating a buffalo upon the medicine tree in the Washita River atop Rainy Mountain Creek. It was a dying tradition because buffalo were nowhere to be found, and the demise of which was accelerated by the dispersing tactic of Fort Sill soldiers. The Kiowas would remember July 20, 1890 as the day their faith was killed at the enormous bend of the Washita River.
While Woolf has one dominant existential voice narrating in her essay, Momaday remarkably recreated a journey in a triple narrative style: the colloquial, the formal and the poetic.[4] The interoral narrative[5] by Momaday develops his intensifying Kiowa identity consciousness because of the mythic and historical bind that connects his present-day narration of memories and self-construction. The idea of traveling in his essay manifests the important narrative flow of his personal legend.
Woolf’s existential narration reveals her deeper self recognized more in her essays such as "In Search of a Room of One’s Own." She seems to tell that the moth has the fervent desire to live, only to meet the ultimatum of death. She saw it flying helplessly until its inevitable life sacrifice. This, Woolf seems, is a perception of life as futile and void, as only a reprieve of something inescapable to everything with life.[6] Even the images of the world outside the window—the plowed field, the black net-like birds gliding midair—spawn an uneasy feeling of gloom. The moth is seen as a creature pointlessly attempting to gain freedom it will never approximate, and decides that the moth is pathetic.
More than the existentialism that Woolf seems to regard her life with as the doom of being secluded by life and her impending decline as a writer would overrun her, the narrative in The Death of the Moth seems to comment on the masculine oppression prevailing in her time and even before which renders the struggles of women—the “moths,” so to speak—stunted. The symbol of the moth batling against death is likened to the feminist movement wherein Woolf is one of the earliest icons. The women attempt to protest the formidable glasswall set by masculine authority. Even as they are victimized by patriarchy through slim opportunities at proving their intellectual capacities, the women try to fly to liberate themselves. There are setbacks as may be symbolized by the failure to spread their wings (their might), by the slow, awkward movement brought about by macho bondage, by the seemingly senseless clawing in the air to be able to right themselves from landing on their spine, but all these become nothing when one realizes the heightened degree of determination to strive, even to face death in full dignity.
Meanwhile, the multigeneric narrative voice in The Way to Rainy Mountain sounds just as pure and determined in its creation of the identity. It may be that the Kiowas’ golden time has faded away with the assault of a repressive state apparatus that is the military, but the Kiowas’ preservation of their sanctuary has hardly contaminated the lives of its descendants that include the author. Momaday’s ability to sustain the Kiowa in him and the construction of his Kiowa identity by virtue of his evocation of personal myth, history and experience may also qualify as a people’s struggle to keep its culture. Outside forces may be too cruel to infiltrate the Kiowas with modernity, marginality and other forms of colonization, but their postcolonial tradition lets them survive with nobility. To the present days, Momaday continues the journey of his people’s striving to remain a legendary Kiowa by being a Kiowa himself.
Both The Death of the Moth and The Way to Rainy Mountain were able to show parallelisms of cycle of life and death and evidence of constant struggles but, most importantly, both present the thematic process of creation. The moth’s death is to the artist’s crystallized imagination what his grandmother’s demise is to Momaday’s journey to identity-construction.Through Momaday’s, Woolf’s essay has shown how an idea comes alive in an ironic twist of life sacrifice.

[1] In Critical Essays on Virginia Woolf, p. 209
[2] In http://weblog.burningbird.net/archives/2003/03/28/death-of-a-moth/
[3] In The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, p. 91
[4] In Notes on Contemporary Literature, p. 6
[5] In Oral Narrative Traditions, p. 272
[6] In http://www.h2os.org/writing/living_to_die_or_dying_to_live

tell god's people

The signs of the times have spoken: the end is getting near. The predicaments are pulling down the Philippines in a quicksand of desperation. All the aspects of Philippine life are mired in grave issues in which we are all trapped.
Our political situation gets uglier each passing day. We have yet to solve the controversial cheating allegations of the previous national election, but here comes another election out to prove how personal interests are more valued over party loyalty, much less national recovery. Candidates previously identified with warring factions now sleep with the enemy. It takes no leap of the imagination to point out that instead of advancing political unity, they are all but advancing their own naked selfish motives to acquire power and wealth first by using each other, and ultimately by using their position to engage in graft and corruption.
Meanwhile, our economic situation paints an ironic picture: the government boasts of a stable economy, but millions of Filipinos comprising the masses are getting poorer and, therefore, hungrier. Some families claimed reducing their two meals a day into just one, sometimes, rather frustratingly, none at all. The rich are getting richer with their capitalistic and commercialistic tendencies, and their need to stabilize financially gets the better of their social conscience, so out they make more money at the expense of their laborers who barely live decently with their pittance of a salary.
Our social situation remains a series of scenes straight from a bad dream: a burgeoning population that can barely sustain itself with even the most basic needs of food, shelter, clothing and medication, a general crime rate that only holds on to a miracle to decrease, and a public perception that is everything but hopeful. With people growing more frustrated with the ultimate arrival of social justice that shall wipe out class, gender, age, educational and religious discrimination, the society will soon throw itself into chaos.
Our cultural situation is terribly endangered, with our heritage slowly being scrapped to give way to neocolonialist policies. We frown over local delicacies and beg for McDonald’s; we rip off American television shows and Hollywood films and feed them to the public that looked down on “inferior” local productions; we send our people away on a labor exile without so much as a flinch as to who will be left teaching our ignorant children, curing our sick people, building our national infrastructure.
Finally, our religious situation is at risk of pulling the country apart, for the Christians and the Muslims remain indifferent to one another despite the efforts of mutual understanding. The Christian community is itself demonized, with confessed members either backsliding or converting to New Age phenomena. The lure of material things, from money to sensual pleasures to social influence, makes us forget our spiritual priorities, and soon our faith in God will be irreparably damaged.
These, my fellowmen, construct the face of our current hell on earth. Long before we fall into the fiery depths of boiling sulfur and raging mud, we experience all of these right here, right now. General distraction traps us all in these problems, and we know what we lack but are too distracted to desire change. Wake up, my brethren; it’s not too late. Our return to oneness with God is all that’s begged by these helpless situations. God’s Holy words have emphasized it: that prioritizing our spirituality will produce a domino effect of goodness in our lives. It’s about time to let God reign in our midst, for what tribulations shall we find ourselves in when God’s on our side?

patayin ang lalaki

Anu-anong mga makabaklang subersiyon laban sa patriyarkal na sistema ng lipunan ang mapupuna sa maikling kuwentong “Lalaki” (Nasa Ladlad 2: Anthology of Phlippine Gay Writing. Pasig: Anvil, 1996) ni Honorio Bartolome De Dios?
Sa pamamagitan ng tekstuwal na pagsusuri ng “Lalaki,” isisiwalat ang samu’t saring manipestasyon ng pambaklang pag-aaklas kontra mga panlipunang inhustisyang iniaanak ng kulturang macho at homophobia. Ang mga subersibong kaisipang ito ang ipinapahiwatig ng may-akda na mahalagang susi para mapaalpas sa pagkakakulong—mapalaya—ang mga baklang biktima ng iba’t ibang diskriminasyong patriyarkal.
Tubong Marilao, Bulacan si Honorio Bartolome De Dios na kakapanalo lamang ng unang gantimpala sa katatapos na Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature 2004 para sa maikling kuwento niyang “Etong Bayad, ‘Sang Kalayaan Lang.” Ang ngayon ay nakabase sa Meycauayan na si De Dios ay naipagpalimbag na ng University of the Philippines Press noong 1998 ng antolohiya ng mga maikling kuwentong may paksa ng kabaklaan, ang Sa Labas ng Parlor, kung saan kabilang ang akdang “Lalaki.” Giniya ng iba’t ibang karanasan mula sa seminaryo, sa mga pinagtrabahuang non-government organization, at sa State University kung saan nakapag-workshop siya bilang fellow sa Institute of Creative Writing, marubdob na tinalakay ni De Dios ang sensitibong tema ng pambaklang subersiyon sa harap ng represibong ideyolohiya ng patriyarka at ang kaakibat nitong homophobia.
Nabuo ang akda sa panahong umaatikabo ang rebolusyong sekswal at ginigiba na ng postmodernong homosekswal ang pasaway na pader ng tradisyunal na machismo at modernong heteroseksismo. Dito sa Pilipinas, nakapaglabas na ng erotika ang mga Filipina sa pamamagitan ng Forbidden Fruit, at sumunod na rin ang panitikan ng mga bading sa pagkakaimprenta ng Ladlad 1 at 2 (at ang papalabas na Ladlad 3), mga pangyayaring hindi inaasahan kalahating siglo na ang nakararaan matapos makasuhan si Estrella Alfon sa paglathala ng umano ay pornograpikong Fairy Tale for the City.[1]
Masasabi ngang buong tapang na ang paglaladlad ng mga bakla upang bawiin ang inagaw na karapatang lugar sa lipunan, at isang testamento ang akdang “Lalaki” sa katapangan ng bading na baliktarin ang lamesa upang wasakin ang mga kumbensyonal na paratang sa mga badaf[2] bilang duwag, ‘di makapananakit, malalandi, sex pervert at iba pa. Sintomas ang akda bilang patunay na gaya ng sinumang inaping biktima ay kaya nitong maghiganti at panahon na para kitlin ang mga isteryutipo sa kabaklaan[3]upang mabawi ang lugar na pinamamayanihan ng mga lalaki gayong para ito sa lahat.
Walang pangalan ang lalaki na siyang sentro ng atensyon ni Arnold, ang pangunahing tauhan. Tama lang na hindi siya pangalanan, dahil isa na itong paraan ng rebelyon sa patriyarka kung saan ang babae, ayon kay Maxine Hingston, ay “no name woman” kung paanong nakasunod sa second sex ni Simoun de Beauvoir ang mga bakla bilang third sex. Samantalang maaaring ang lalaki ang tinutukoy sa pamagat ng akda, tugma rin ito sa mga bakla dahil higit sa anumang machong paniniil ay lalaki rin ang mga bading. Sa umpisa, sinabing “kaupisina [ni Arnold] ang lalaki…[at] naramdaman [niyang] ganito ang kahihinatnan ng mga pangyayari” (p. 221) na ang lalaki ay kakapit sa kanya na isang bakla. Gayunpaman, “umasa pa rin” siya dahil “wala naman[g] pagpipiliiang masyado” (p. 221) lalo kung tutuusin ang konteksto ng bakla sa Pilipinas na ang hanap ay tunay na lalaki, iba sa Kanluraning homosekswal na puwedeng magmahalan ang kapwa bakla. Sa pagngiti ng lalaki kay Arnold, gumanti siya ng isa ring ngiti dahil “wala naming masama” (p. 222) kahit pa ang pagngiti sa kapwa lalaki ay nagbubukas ng posibilidad na mapagkamalang bakla. Kinaibigan nga siya ng lalaki, kaya bilang kabayaran sa pagkakasama niya sa homososyal na institusyon ng kanyang barkada ay kinailangan niyang “mag-blow-out” (p. 222). “Sanay…[a]t hindi [niya] ito first time” (p.223), ang mapagsamantalahan ng mga lalaki. Sa iba’t ibang mukha ng lipunan, naiisahan ng mga lalaki ang mga bakla: nagagatasan ng pera, naiinsulto nang walang katwiran at dahilan, naaagawan ng mga pribilehiyo dahil lamang straight ang oryentasyon nila at hindi maluwag ang restriksyon sa mga bakla.
Naging serye ang paglibre-libre ni Arnold sa lalaki at kabarkada nito, kaya sinuklian naman nito ng mabuting pakikitungo, isang pagkakalapit na pagbibintangang abnormal, imoral, o simpleng sekswal kung sa konteksto ng lipunang umaayaw sa homososyal na ugnayang hindi naman sa militar, pulisya o seminaryo. Minsang yayain nitong makitulog na siya sa bahay nito sa Recto, sa taxi ay naging “close na close” (p. 224) sila sapat para maidantay ni Arnold ang braso sa hita ng natutulog na lalaki at, sa pag-aakalang magiging kahalayan ang simpleng dantay, pabastos na binantaan ng taxi driver si Arnold ng “Day, huwag dito sa taxi” (p. 225) gawin ang lampungan sunod ang makahulugang pag-iling na nagpapahiwatig na ang mga bakla ay hindi makapagpigil sa kalibugan kaya ‘di karapat-dapat igalang. Sa pagtawag lamang nito ng “Day” kay Arnold ay iniinsulto na ito dahil ang Inday ay pambabaeng pantawag at hindi naman kinakailangang ang isang bakla ay magnanais na maging babae.
Sa kuwarto ng lalaki kung saan nagkalat ang mga tanda ng tipikal sa patriyarkang komodipikasyon at obhetipikasyon ng mga babae (Playboy magazines, mga puta sa Quezon Avenue), lumitaw na may homophobia pala ang lalaki dahil minura nito ang kapatid na baklang “hanggang panaginip, ayaw [siyang] tantanan“ (p. 226). Kasalanan para sa macho ang kabaklaan kaya turing ng lalaki ay “nagbiro pa ang tadhana” (p. 226) nang maging binabae ang nag-iisang kapatid. Gayunpaman, hindi kumbensyonal para sa kapatid nitong bakla ang drug pushing, isang napakapeligrosong trabaho na maiuugnay lamang sa mga tunay na lalaki at hindi sa mga binabae. Ang paggamit nito ng kanyang parlor bilang front ng pagtutulak ng shabu ay pahiwatig na matapang din ang mga bakla, dangan nga lamang at hindi paborable ang ganitong trabaho, bakla man o hindi. Hindi nadadalaw ng lalaki ang kanyang kapatid, bagkus ay mga pinsan nilang bakla lamang, patunay na sila-silang mga bakla ang aasahang magdadamayan. Higit sa “bangungot na ‘yon” (p. 227) ng lalaki ay bangungot din para kay Arnold ang ironiya ng pagkahulog ng kanyang baklang loob sa isang homophobic na lalaki. Ilang beses ding lumitaw na homoerotiko ang ilang bahagi ng akda sa pagpapakita ng lalaki bilang senswal na kaakit-akit—tugon ng awtor sa obhetipikasyon naman ng lalaki sa perspektibo ng bakla.
Minsang napasakay pauwi ng Monumento si Arnold ay nakatabi niya ang isang mamang “ni hindi tuminag” (p. 227) sa pagkakaupo upang sakupin ang pandalawahang upuan sa bus. Kung hindi pa siya nakiusap na umusod ito, hindi pa siya makakaupo. Simboliko ang pangyayaring ito sa kasalukuyang sitwasyon sa lipunan ng lehitimong lalaki sa patriyarka at sa mga ‘di-tunay na lalaki. Ang mundo ay dinodominahan ng mga macho at inietsa-puwera ang mga bading. Dahil ang sitwasyong ito ay hindi nag-aanyaya ng katarungang panlipunan, may mga katulad ni Arnold na isasaboses ang kanilang hinaing at hangaring bawiin ang puwestong nararapat sa kanila. Ang hindi kumibo, may implikasyon ng pagpayag na magulangan. Pagkaraang magkomento hinggil sa pangit na patakarang ito ng pananakop at pagsasantabi, nabuo sa isip ni Arnold ang dalawin ang kapatid ng lalaki, ang baklang si Archie. Madali siyang dalawin dahil may kakilala siya sa Kampo Crame, ngunit kung bakit niya “dadalawin ang isang taong nakakulong dahil sa drugs, hindi…naman kaano-ano, ni hindi…pa nakikita sa tanangbuhay” (p. 227) ay ang pagkakapareho ng kapalaran nila sa mukha ng panlalamang ng mga may pribilehiyo kaysa kanilang nagkataong alanganin ang oryentasyon.
Nonlinear ang kuwento kaya nagbalik-nakaraan din sa panahong hayskul si Arnold at ang kagustuhang makapag-uwi ng karangalang Kadete ng Taon ay hindi natupad. Manapa, nahuli siya sa isang entrapment kung saan ang company commander niya ay inakit siyang hawakan ang pagkalalaki nito at nang mailawan sila ay idineklara nang “nanggapang ng commander si Arnold” (p. 229), bagay na nagdulot ng malaking kahihiyan sa pamilya. Samantalang siya ang biktima, gumana na naman ang dobleng patakaran ng lipunan dahil siya umano ang gumawa ng unang hakbang para gahasain ang commander. Nabaligtad ang sitwasyon dahil kung mailalagay siya sa balag ng kahihiyan gaya ng panggagapang ay hindi nga naman siya karapat-dapat bigyan ng medalya. Nabugbog pa siya ng kanyang tatay at ipinaalaalang siya ay lalaki at hindi babae. Sinagot naman ng nakatali at hinahagupt na si Arnold na hindi nito kailanman inilusyong maging babae, kung paanong lahat ng naliwanagang bakla ay nangangarap na maging tootoo lang sila sa kanilang baklang sarili at hindi ang umasang maging ganap na babae o maging tunay na lalaki. Kahit pa phallogocentric ang paghawak ng tatay ni Arnold sa kanyang pagkalalaki bilang paalala na “hindi [ito] kepyas” (p. 234) at “ang gamit nito ay sa babae lamang” (p. 235), hindi rin naman pinagkatandaan ni Arnold iyon dahil nagpatuloy siya sa pagiging bakla hanggang magkatrabaho—isang pagtayo laban sa mga lalaking may delusyong mapapahuma nila ang kabaklaan ng mga bakla kung gugulpihing mabuti para iwaksi ang endensyang maging binabae.
Minsang nagkausap sina Arnold at ang kaupisinang si Edna, naitanong ng babae kung bakla ba si Arnold. Sa sagot nitong mawawalan siya ng trabaho kung aamining ang totoo, masasalamin ang diskriminasyon sa mga bakla sa propesyonal na industriya dahil lamang sa oryentasyon. Samantalang dapat na protektahan ng batas ang karapatang pantao ng mga bakla sa kahit anumang uri ng diskriminasyon, nagbibigay-komento ang may akda hinggil sa kahungkagan ng awtoridad dahil maraming bakla ang nakararanas ng panlilibak, pang-iinit at pagkawala sa trabaho kung matunugang kumukulot ang boses o pumipilantik ang mga daliri nila. Sa huli ay sarili rin ng mga bakla ang tangi nilang maasahan. Pinapapag-ingat nang doble ni Edna si Arnold sa pakikitungo nito sa lalaki dahil hindi malayong isailalim din siya nito sa diskriminasyon. Sa puntong “parang walang nangyari[ng]” (p. 231) sigawan at komprontasyon sa pagitan nila ng lalaki nang nagdaang araw, pinalampas na lang basta ni Arnold ang pang-aabusong patriyarkal dahil gumagana ang palsong kamalayang dapat magpailalim sa lalaki dahil “isang simpleng bagay lang ang nangyari at hindi…na kailangang palakihin pa.” (p. 231) Sa mga mata ng mga taga-opisina, ang bakla ang gumagawa ng gulo kahit pa ang lalaki ang gumawa ng eskandalosong pagsigaw-sigaw.
Sa pagdalaw ni Arnold kay Archie, nakita ni Arnold kung gaano kalaki ang pagmamahal at pagmamalasakit ni Archie para sa kuya nito, nagpapahiwatig na ang mga bakla ay may kapasidad na magmahal kahit pa ano ang lagay ng kanilang oryentasyon, isang pagbaliktad sa kaisipang wala silang alam sa pag-ibigmalban sa pakikipagtaliksakung sinu-sinong lalaki. Dito rin mapapansin kung gaano katalas ang tinatawag na gaydar sa pagitan ng mga bading: alam agad ni Archie na bading si Arnold dahil sa pagdikit-dikit nito sa lalaki. Totoo kung gayon ang “it takes one to know one.” Gayunpaman, pinapapag-ingat din siya ni Archie dahil “kahit sinong bakla, dapat nag-iingat sa pakikitungo sa kahit nasinong lalaki,” kahit pa sa kuya nitong maaaring kilalang-kilala niya. Ang paulit-ulit na babalang ito ay parunggit sa abusong ginagawa ng kulturang macho na mananagasa kahit sino upang manatili sa posisyon ng kapangyarihan sa lipunan. Nang tanungin ni Arnold ang binatilyong nagsuplong sa kanya sa mga awtoridad, nalaman nitong “ginawa siyang kabit nu’ng arresting officer na lumusob sa parlor” (p. 232) ni Archie, patunay na ilusyon lamang ng mga tunay na lalaki ang kadalisayan ng mga homososyal na institusyong gaya ng pulisya o militar. Ang pulis na kinabitan ng binatilyong shabu user ay isang baklang nakontamina ang sinasabing purung-purong panlalaking institusyon. Hindi kapani-paniwala ngunit may balintuna ng katotohanan na may mga baklang pulis, pari, sundalo at iba pa, at kaya ng mga bakla na pumalaot sa mga propesyong inaakalang pang-macho lang. Sa pag-alis ni Arnold sa kulungan ay lalo niyang naramdamang “pareho [silang] nagulangan ni Archie [at] pareho lang [silang] biktima” (p. 232) ng patriyarkal na opresyong patuloy na nagkakait na pantay-pantay na pribilehiyo sa lahat ng kasarian. Hindi tuloy maiwasan ng iba na maging eskapista (gaya ng pagtira ng cough syrup at damo noong hayskul bilang pagrerebelde nilang mga bakla sa lipunang ayaw silang intindihin at tanggapin) dahil ito ang nakikita nilang paraan para mag-alsa sa sistema ng paniniil na tanging machismo lang ang makagagawa laban sa mga ‘di-macho gaya ng mga bakla at babae.
Noong magdiwang ng kaarawan si Arnold, nadarang ang dalawa sa kanilang pagkalasing at may namagitang sekswal sa kanila. Nang muling gumawa ng pasigaw-sigaw na eksena sa opisina ang lalaki hinggil sa paglalagay umano ni Arnold sa kanya sa kahihiyan, iginigiit nito kay Arnold na lasing siya at wala sa tamang huwisyo kaya niya nagawang pumatol, gayong alam ng bakla na gnusto nila pareho ang nangyari. Dahil ang anumang sekswal na kaugnayan ng isang lalaki sa bakla ay magdudulot ng insulto sa pagkatao, nagkakaroon ng homophobia ang lalaki at ikakatwirang “libog lang ang lahat sa kanya at wala namang kahulugan…Lalaki siya at hindi…dapat umasa” (p. 235) ang baklang maitutumbalik ang nararamdaman niyang pag-ibig para rito. Umabot pa sa puntong naipahamak ang karera ni Arnold matapos na mabigyan siyang misconduct warning ng kumpare ng lalaki na nagpipilit sabihing nilasing lang ni Arnold ang lalaki at nalibugan lang ito kaya pumatol. Sa ganito ay iniipon ng mga lalaki ang lahat nilang maikakatwiran para huwag ituring ng iba ang homosekswal nilang ugnayan sa bakla bilang manipestasyon na rin ng kabaklaan sa kanilang machong-machong sarili. Hanggang sex lang umano ang lahat at ang ginagawa niya ay parte ng pagiging “barako” (p. 237). Lamang,alam ng mga bakla na may mga lalaking nasisiyahan talaga sa relasyong homosekswal at sa kasiyahang ito, dumadausdos na sila sa kontinuum ng kabaklaan taliwas sa ideyang hindi mababahiran ng dungis ang tunay na lalaki.
Nagkaroon ng kabuuang subersiyon ang kabaklaan laban sa patriyarka sa pagtatapos ng kuwento kung saan sa pagbibigay ng tulong ni Arnold sa lalaki ay nagawa nila uling magsiping. Sa unang yugto ng sex trip nila ay nagpapakumbaba lang si Arnold sa lahat ng gusto ng lalaki ngunit nang ipinagpilitan nito ang inaayawan ni Arnold na anal sex, pinuwersa niya ang bakla upang magawa ang gusto. Naging artikulado man ang bakla sa paggiit ng pag-ayaw niya, pinilit siya ng lalaki at sinadista. Dito na nanlaban si Arnold dahil nasaktan siya, at sapat ang pananakit na iyon ng lalaki upang humulagpos ang pagrerebelde ng bakla at wakasan na ang tahimik ngunit nagdurusang pagsunod sa lalaki. Sa puntong ito ay nagawa pa ng lalaking murahin at insultuhin ang sangkabaklaan sa pagsasabing “aayaw-ayaw…pa, [pero] ang galing…namang tsumupa” sabay yaya na “[i]tuloy na” ang pagniniig at “’wag nang magkunwari” (p. 239). Namamali ang lalaki sa pag-akusa sa bakla na kapag ginagahasa ang bakla, hiniling nilang mangyari sa kanya iyon, na atas ng kutob-machismo na gusto rin ng bakla ang pamumuwersa kaya wala siyang karapatang tumanggi. Pagdating sa sukdulan kung saan itinuloy ni Arnold ang pagpapaligaya sa lalaki, hindi na matatapos magsalita ang lalaki dahil ang bakla na ang dodomina sa huling pananalita, pakita na lumamang na ang bakla sa lalaki at papatayin na niya ang lahat ng mga istiryutipo at makalumang pagtuturing sa mga bakla. Sa pinal na aksyon ng panananaksak sa lalaki, pinapatay ng bakla hindi lamang ang lalaking naghahawak ng mali-maling kaisipan kontra mga bakla kundi ang lahat ng mga negatibong imahen ng bakla sa utak ng lalaki, ng mga barkada nito sa opisina, ng taxi driver, ng eskuwelahang nilayasan niya matapos ang entrapment sa camping, ng kanyang ama, at ng lipunan sa kabuuan. Ngayong “patay na ang lalaki” (p. 240), naisakatuparan ng biktimang bakla ang isang makatarungang paghihiganti laban sa patriyarkal na opresyon at namumuo na ang unos na magliligalig sa normalisadong ideyolohiya ng machismo sa lipunan.
[1]Dalisay, Jose. The Filipino Short Story in English: An Update for the 90’s. Nasa Filipiniana Reader. Legasto, Priscelina P., Ed. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Open University, 1998.
[2]Garcia, Neil. Philippine Gay Literature. Nasa Performing the Self: Occasional Prose. Quezon City: UP Press, 2003.
[3]Remoto, Danton. Introduksiyon ng Ladlad 2: Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing. Garcia, Neil at Danton Remoto, mga Editor. Pasig: Anvil, 1996.

flawed, no less: on pygmalion

Only to a certain extent can a woman approximate perfection in a man’s gaze. In a macho society where we live and where literary production get perpetually contaminated with certain ideologies such as patriarchy, characters such as Pygmalion, Marguerite and Gwen in John Updike’s Pygmalion come fully-bodied and conspire in order to promote gender bashing.
Pygmalion, the male character in whose scrutiny the wives were assessed, reminds us of the mythical Pygmalion who, in spite of women, created the perfect woman in the form of an ivory statue. Like the misogynist of the ancient Greek myth, Pygmalion was shown to have “dislike about his first wife (Marguerite),” even as “he liked…her gift of mimicry.” This dislike was set side by side with his delight about the “liveliness in bed” of his secret mistress and would-be second wife (Gwen). In essence, Pygmalion found his wife to have fallen short of his expectation, his delusional craving for a perfect woman, which condition motivated him into remarrying in the hope that Gwen would be it. This anticipative nature of man existent in Pygmalion’s character complements the false consciousness that women are almost always flawed, and will never quite achieve fullness of person if only for the fact that they are descended from the erring Eve.
Margeurite’s sense of humor was not enough to cover for the implied bed boredom she affected her husband with. She was masterful in her mimicry-infused description, but her husband was apparently looking for more, hence his retraction of marriage vows of living together till death do they part. Margeurite was blissfully unaware that she was being cheated by her husband and the very woman she mimicked in the text’s exposition, as she was equally unknowing that she lost Pygmalion increasingly when she “would ask to have her her back rubbed and then…night after night, fall asleep.” This characterization of a woman as imperfect even as she is the wife of the man perceiving this imperfection presents the harsh reality that women can never attain the patriachal standard of the true, the good, and the beautiful.
Gwen’s “liveliness in bed” seems to realize Pygmalion’s pursuit of a perfect wife, but her lack of imagination (something that her predecessor, thankfully, did not have) ironically rendered Pygmalion to look for the first wife’s talent in his new one. Pygmalion’s twice pronunciation of “nothing” was itself a haunting of this anticipation which he tried so hard to exile. Gwen “heard…an unvoiced demand” for her to go beyond the mastery in bed, and soon had this motivation to consummate what she was expected, hence her “first imitation…of Margeurite’s second husband, Ed.” Gwen had “arrive[d] at what [Pygmalion] conceived to be proper womanliness,” a wife that was both good-humored and bed-lively. Her character “had become perfect for him” now that she willfully had herself subjugated in the measures of man’s model woman. She delighted her husband so much that Pygmalion was only too willing to rub Gwen’s back, an activity which was what wedged Pygmalion from Marguerite, in the first place. Considering the symbiosis of the expectant getting his wish granted and of the prospect fulfilling this very wish, it is no wonder.
Updike’s characters become pumped with flesh and blood in order to give justice to their presentation of the ever-anticipative men attempting to make perfect the women species, which state the women sometimes collude to. While arguably, men can never be perfect themselves, they compensate for their own flaw by fashioning a mold that women should fit in. We see this around the society, and the characterization in Updike’s text is symptomatic of this truism.

returning classical: an overview of early and high renaissance music

Renaissance, or the rebirth of awareness in ancient Greek and Roman cultures, started in Italy before sweeping the whole of Europe, with 15th- and 16th-century artists and scholars attempting to revive the knowledge and principles of the classical, pre-Christian Greek and Roman civilizations. Hence, the concept of rebirth had to do with the rekindling of human—as against spiritual—virtues. It became a desirable mission to achieve fulfillment in life, and no one looked down upon the enjoyment of the sensual pleasures and expression of human feelings. Both writers and artists had the secular and the religious for their subject matters and aspired to produce masterpieces that were appealing and understandable to humans as well as satisfactory to the Supreme Being. The Renaissance flowering in music spanned for a century and a half—from 1450 up to 1600, although its rather slow crystallization harked back to the Middle Ages, when the grandest artistic style ever attained had been in this art form.
The abovementioned revolution in perspective changed the way music was perceived as well as the manner music was composed, experienced, conferred, and distributed. The Europeans could witness statues, sculptures, dramas, and literature being restored, but ancient music was nowhere to be heard. However, there were available translations of texts by classical philosophers, poets, essayists and music theorists.
As it is, the musical rebirth is more a comprehensive cultural revolution and mindset than a particular standard of musical method. The musical alteration was so quick during the period—although at varying rates from country to country—that a singular definition of Renaissance style cannot be possible. The first noticeable intricate progress in music was during the twelfth century, when Parisian leading composers like Leonidus and Perotinus employed a metrical rhythm that imitated the stress rhythm of contemporary Latin and vernacular poems: triple time-based, using three beats each unit. This rather less euphonic music was further enriched in northern Italy about 1300, when ars nova, which used the duple time with two beats each unit, dividing long notes into shorter notes and minimally using melodies typical of troubadours of the medieval period, showed better flexibility and variety than did plain songs. The onset of fourteenth century had secular music influencing church music in more marked terms. Toward the close of the 1400’s, an international European style had blossomed from the array of compositional practice that was widespread in England and in Continental Europe. The influence of the Burgundian court caused this style to emerge primarily from the Low Countries or the regions of Netherlands, Belgium and northeastern France to the rest of Western Europe. The first century or so of the Renaissance saw the northern composers and their music ruling the chapels and courts of Italy, France, and the Holy Roman Empire comprised by Bohemia, Austria, Spain, and Germany. They started to maximize the use of canon wherein the same melody is voiced recurrently although at various times, such as the English composition “Sumer Is Icumen In.” Chords were then composed while a range of new systems of notations was devised and more instruments and secular part songs like the madrigals were invented. The novel stylistic methods created in the fourteenth century by the ars nova masters were developed further in the fifteenth century. Every subsequent generation improved the musical achievements of its predecessor, and contemporary composers rivaled each other in producing Masses, chansons and motets. The dominance of Netherlands music in the middle and later sixteenth century shifted to Mannerism, shown saliently in both secular and the predominantly performed church music. Also, it standardized much of the music of High Renaissance, showing calm temperament, ethereal characteristics and the noteworthy embodiment of the harmony present in the universe.
While the Renaissance was not able to come up with a unifying and definite musical style, the period affected many facets of European art music. Composers allowed textual structure to specify musical structure. The early Renaissance composers neglected the linkage between text and music, best exemplified by a tenor singing a French aria whereas the bass, a Latin text. Polyphonic portions were composed to be sung even as they got played in the long run and became second-ranked in importance. The composers’ search for full harmonies, melodies and associations among the voices shaped the texture of both secular and sacred works. Both sacred and secular melodies were still utilized to make single, large pieces, yet the borrowed article was spread among the voices instead of being assigned solely to the tenor. Whereas the tenor still had the dominant voice in the structure, the bass had the key role in harmony. Cadences remained to suit perfect consonances, but composers asserted for full triadic sonorities in between them. Rhythmic standardization and simplification leaned toward duple measure set by the breve (alla breve) value. The favored sacred types included the motet and the cyclical Mass. The chanson was remodeled until its texture was slowly contaminated by duplication. Mensuration and isorhythm canon, examples of concealed and esoteric structural mechanism, paved the path to transparent textures, mainly extending fugal and imitative segments and sometimes relieved by homophonic sections. Owing to such trends, composers were given further flexibility than ever before and, supported by the advent of music printing, more chances to reach out to an expansive audience. Most of these trends pervaded until the 16th century, when the musical style of the High Renaissance ushered in with a grandiosity that was not unlike the exquisite styles of the period’s arts and letters.
The 1500’s saw the emergence of native musical idioms or national styles. Advances during the period composed of developing the sacred polyphony made by composers who resided in Italy and the rise of new secular genres like lied, chanson and madrigal as the refined international style wove into the native traditions in France, Germany and Italy. Italians Arcadelt and Willaert were ispired by the humanist spirit to find a binding tie between music and text. Willaert molded music to suit the rhythms and syntax of the Italian and Latin tongues in his sacred and secular works. He even went beyond this to embody musically the significance of the textual message in his secular compositions. The changes notwithstanding, he stayed faithful to the inherited concept of modal, equality and independence of voices, diatonic counterpoint, full harmony, structural clarity and regulated dissonance. This closer association of words and music became the hallmark of the growth of fifteenth century schools of music. The fourteenth century alterations in musical style, only promising improvement from the harsh sounds of earlier centuries, became the springboard of speedy advances in the fifteenth century such that music, the last of the arts to make its presence felt during the Renaissance, achieved a major attention as an art form.
An even better relation between music and text was pursued by Vicentino, Rore, and Lasso, although they shifted the balance at least with regard to the madrigal, toward the expression of a poem’s imagery and passions, compromising a particular homogeneity and cohesion of style. Concurrently, the madrigal turned more declamatory and dramatic as composers tried to drive the point of the text to a bigger audience. During the 16th century’s latter decades, composers sought for novel means to express climactic emotions and witty conceits of modern poems: Monteverdi tried out with dissonance and new rhythms and textures whereas Gesualdo experimented with chromaticism. Meanwhile, Parisian chanson composers shied away from serious motet-like polyphony to have focus on light, tuneful, treble-dominated songs. Not a few English composers picked up from prevailing Italian trends with great enthusiasm, yet the most dominating genre to come out of the sporadic blossoming of vocal chamber music in England was the air and consort song. As the literate of the period grew interest in music, the art form became a staple in occasions such as coronations, games, baptisms, weddings, burials and fiestas.
Still on the same period, instrumental music leaped out of the overshadowing vocal music and improvisation. Music that used to be mainly vocal was now written in the accompaniment of solo instruments and instrumental ensembles. Far from the roughness of Early Renaissance music, that of the High Renaissance manifested clarity of form, dignified solemnity and tranquil emotion, and Flemish music became customized in the country adopting it, i.e. Netherlands music was modified to become German music in Germany. Dance music still reigned the scene just like in previous times, but toward the end of the 14th century, other independent genres of instrumental music compositions could be identified by their methods and operations. Originally distinguished with a specific instrument, many of these genres jumped to other instruments and to ensembles the likes of toccata, canzona, ricercare, sonata, prelude, fantasia and variations. While music with words remained the most popular to both composers and patrons, the emergence of instrumental music in the 16th century became the trailblazer of a process that will complete its rule in the centuries to come. This era was characterized by the improvement of instrumental music in terms of quantity and importance and was marked by the influential diaspora of musicians as well as the revolutionizing trait of vocal music. Classifications of instrumental music grew more distinctly. The 1600’s was characterized by keyboard composers and English lute taking the cue in instrumental writing until in the 17th century, Italian composers got attracted to instrumental music.
In retrospect, the fourteenth and fifteenth century musical style was shaped both by the appreciation for musicians and by musicology methods. What used to be a fan base of churchmen grew to include princes, nobilities, the aristocrats and government officials, accounting for the popularity of secular music during the early part of the Renaissance. Music teaching used to be centered in choir schools of main churches and cathedrals but the 1400s saw private music teachers earning a living by tutoring princes and elites. Music reached a greater effect when the fifteenth century marked the strong training in music amongst secondary schools and, to a much lesser extent, universities. The early Renaissance musical style was learned.
The absence in music of classical models seen in architecture, sculpture and literature had early Renaissance writers theorizing ancient Greco-Roman music via their ideas drawn from classical texts. This development resulted to the Platonic integration of music and words, practical examples of which were visible in fifteenth century compositions. The subject matter of musical composers, who expanded the range of harmony and of musical manifestation, can be seen through the tones, with the extrinsic world of nature and the intrinsic world of man depicted in music. The outstanding musical style progress of the period brought the Flemish composers’ inspiring influence in France, Germany, Italy, England and Spain in the same pace as other artistic styles sprang from Italy and swirled across Europe.
The success of musical experimentation during the Early Renaissance was gradual, rough and indeterminate for the most part. The Flemish countries had to give Italy its time to shine during this birthing of a radical age, subsequently having music give way to a greater flowering in other arts like painting, sculpture and literature. Music achieved equal footing with these early-mastered arts with the climactic musical expressiveness of the 1500’s, when the tedious attempts with new harmony and rhythm patterns and with developed instruments finally paid off. This particular music influenced later music in northern Europe more than did other art forms in post-1500 arts and literature. While during this age the northern Europe arts and letters were still trapped in the medieval trends, only music truly fitted Renaissance in its essential definition.
Meanwhile, parallel with the other art forms, the music of the High Renaissance led by figures like the Netherlands and Italy expressed the confidence of the period’s great flowering and the belief in universal harmony. The strain and intrinsic tension apparent in Mannerist and Baroque music were admirably untraceable in Renaissance music. All the arts, music included, had achieved enough during this rebirth to take pride in being able to rank at par with, if not surpass, the Greco-Roman classics on which they were inspired.

hulagpos tungo sa kalayaan

Sa pagtalakay ng akdang “What Shall We Do When We All Go Out?” ni Gregorio Brillantes, paano mauuri ang kuwento bilang tagasaad ng pagbibinyag sa karanasan?
Gamit ang estratehiyang testuwal na pagsusuri, maipapalagay na isa itong kuwento ng inisasyon dahil sa pagdaan ng pangunahing tauhan sa serye ng mga bagong karanasang malulusong at malulusong din niya sa kaagahan o kalaunan, ayaw man niya itong danasin o gusto.
Marami ang nagtuturing kay Gregorio Brillantes bilang isang Katolikong manunulat dahil sa kanyang mga antolohiyang may tauhang napasasaklolo sa Iglesia tuwing magkakaroon ng komprontasyon laban sa mga kondisyong eksistensyal. Isinilang sa Camiling, Tarlac, produkto si Brillantes ng Pamantasang Ateneo De Manila, isang Katolikong institusyon na siyang sinasabing malaking salik sa paggamit ng diskursong relihiyoso sa kanyang mga maikling kuwento. Bukod sa madalas niyang gamiting tagpuan ang kanyang lupang tinubuan sa Tarlac, kalimitang ginagamit ni Gregorio ang mga tema ng kahalagahan ng pananampalataya sa buhay ng tao, at ng pagbibinyag sa karanasan na sentro sa susuriing teksto, ang “What Shall We Do When We All Go Out?” (Nasa The Distance to Andromeda and Other Stories.)
Ang paggalugad sa paksa ng binyag sa kamuwangan ay bahagi ng panghabambuhay na paghahanap sa pagkakakilanlan. Sapagkat ang karanasan ng tao ang pumapanday sa kanyang karakter, ang mga unang karanasan ay nagiging mahalagang salik para mabuo ang pagkatao kung paanong ito rin ay nagiging memorable para sa taong nakadama nito. Habang marami sa mga likhang panitik ni Brillantes ang tumatalakay ng ganitong pagkapukaw ng kamalayan gaya ng binatilyong tauhan sa “The Distance to Andromeda,” hindi maikakaila na ang ganitong gawi ay pinag-eeksperimentuhan din ng iba pang manunulat bunsod ng malawakang epekto ng modernismo at, sa kasalukuyan, ng postmodernismo at ng postkolonyalismo sa bisa ng kaisipang kaakuhan, indibidwalismo o pormasyon ng identidad. Mababanaag sa teksto ang pagkilala sa mga limitasyon gaya ng ‘di-maiiwasang kamatayan o ng pagkamulat sa mabalasik na kapaligiran, at masasagot sa pamamagitan ng pagkuwestiyon kung ano ang halaga ng tao sa mundo.
May pagmumungkahi na ang identidad na binubuo ay mapupunan ng pagkakasali sa isang institusyon, isang modernong ideyolohiya. Ang pagkakaroon ng isang pagkakakilanlan kahit pa sabihing kolektibo man ay isang rasyunal na tugon sa eksistensyal na interogasyon hinggil sa pantaong kahalagahan.
Ang daloy ng kamalayan sa unang limang talata ng teksto ay nagsasaad sa ‘di-malalim na pagtaya sa buhay ng isang siyam na taong batang nasa ikatlong baitang. Magaang-magaan ang pakiramdam ng bata sa bagong bayang nilipatan nila “higit pa sa nagdaang mga bayang pinagtirhan nila [more than the previous ones they lived in]” (p. 270) sapat para “hilingin niyang mataimtim na huwag nang madestinong magtrabaho ang tatay niya sa ibang lugar [he wished fervently that his father would not be assigned to work elsewhere” (p. 271). Sentral sa buhay niya ang mag-eskuwela, maglaro, magmasid sa kapaligiran at sa dako pa roon, at sa kawalang-kumplikasyong ito sa pananaw niya, “tila baga ang buong mundo ay naging kabisado at malapit [it seemed then that all of the world became familiar and near]” (p. 272). Wala siyang napakalalim na intindihin, maliban sa foreshadowing ng mga lugar na hndi niya maaabot, nagpapatungkol sa kalayuan ng ideya ng perpeksyon dahil paparating na ang mga karanasang babago sa kanyang kapayakan. Nakatakda ngang magbago ang lahat nang isang araw, italastas ni Miss Castillo ang pagkamatay ng kaklaseng si Jaime.
Ang katotohanang ang kamatayan ay hangganan ng lahat ng kasimplehang naghahatid-kasiglahan sa kanya ay “nagdulot ng kinig ng katatakutan sa kanyang puso [brought a thrill of terror to his heart]” (p. 272). Noong unang araw lamang ng klase niya naramdaman ang pangangapa sa dayuhang karanasan, at sa kamatayan ng kaklase niya “muli niyang napagdaanan…ang damdamin ng mga bundok na ‘di-mararating kailanman [he experienced again…a sense of mountains unreachable forever” (p. 272). Hindi handa rito ang murang isip niyang nakauunawa lang ng mga karanasang nauugnay sa buhay, kaya ang unang pagkakasalubong niya sa kakambal ng buhay, ang kamatayan, ay naglatay ng “isang nagtatakang pagkagulat na nanunuyo sa kanyang lalamunan [a bewildered shock dry in his throat]” (p. 273). Ang kamatayan, sa representasyon ni Jaime, ay “dayuhan ngayon, isang kumpletong estranghero [alien now, a complete stranger]” (p. 273) kaya sa nadarama niyang paniniil ng madilim na karanasan sa lamayan ay “tumakbo siyang parang tinutugis, humihingal sa mas pamilyar na bahagi ng bayan [ran as if pursued, panting into the more familiar quarter of town]” (p. 273). Dahil bata lamang siya at malayo pa sa mga kapangitan ng buhay na maitatambis sa nakikita niya ngayong kagandahan, hindi niya lubos na nauunawaan, kaya siya tumatakbo palayo, kung bakit ang napakagandang bagay gaya ng buhay ay may kaakibat na kamatayan.
Para bang hindi pa sapat ang karanasang ito, nabinyagan naman siya sa karahasan nang madamay siya sa basag-ulo, kung saan “natikman niya sa unang pagkakataon ang alat ng dugo [tasting for the first time the salt of blood]” (p. 274). Pinalala nito ang maling pagtaya niya sa buhay bilang hardin ng rosas at dahil naramdaman niyang mauulit at mauulit pa ang inisasyon niya sa dahas, “wala nang atrasan. Makakapaghintay lamang siya, at lalaban, matindi, ngunit labag sa kanyang kalooban, kung muli siyang aatakihin [there was no returning. He could only wait, and fight back, hard, but against his will, when he was struck again]” (p. 274). Sa mukha ng kamatayan at panganib, nagsimula nang tumimo sa kanya na ang buhay ay hindi singsimple nang dapat niyang inasahan kaya “what shall we do when we all go out?” Kailangan niyang maging handa, dahil siya ay walang kakayanang pigilan ang mga bagay na ‘di-matatakasan. May pagtutol man sa puso niya ang makaranas ng kapangitan, kailangang siyang hindi maigupo ng mga dayuhang karanasang ito sa kanyang paglabas—paglabas mula sa kanyang personal na kabibe paharap sa mapaghamon at ‘di-perpektong mundo.
Ang paghahandang ito ay pinasukan ng paanyaya ng isang batang nasa ikaanim na baitang na maging kasapi ang bida sa kanilang grupo, upang makabilang dahil “kailangan mo ako bilang kaibigan [you need me for a friend]” (p. 276). Ang batang ito na siyang naging dahilan ng kanyang pagkadamay sa suntukan ay hindi katiwa-tiwala, at “isang siguradong kutob ang nagbabala sa kanya, ngunit…alam niya ang ibubunga ng kanyang pagtanggi [a certain instinct warned him, but…he knew the consequences ofhis rejection]” (p. 275). Samantalang hindi siya lubusang makapaghahanda para sa kamatayan dahil sa biglaang pagsipot nito, makapaghahanda naman siya sa panganib (na dulot ng batang nakasapakan niya, pati mga alalay nito) kung makakasali siya sa grupo ng bata at maprotektahan laban sa ‘di-patas na pagkagulpi, ngunit may karampatang presyo ang pagpasok niya rito: “limampung sentimo para sa bayad ng kasapi [fifty centavos (for the) membership fee]” (p. 276). Kahit “ang pagkalito at pagkatakot ay nagbuhol sa kanyang dibdib [the confusion and the fear knotted in his chest]” (p. 276), nagawa niyang kunin ang kanyang alkansya lingid sa kaalaman ng kanyang mga magulang upang makalikom ng pantustos, dahil ang institusyong ito ang magsasalba sa kanya at, lalong posible, ang mapagkukuhanan niya ng pagkakakilanlan. Kilala na siya ngayong ingat-yaman ng grupo gaya ng pinag-umitang amang nagtratrabaho rin sa tanggapan ng ingat-yaman ng munisipyo, at sa pagpasok niya sa loob ng lungga ng barkada ng bata, pumalaot na siya nang tuluyan sa ‘di-kaaya-ayang bahagi ng buhay: ang mapabilang sa isang ‘di-huwarang institusyong bubuo ng kanyang identidad, “walang kakayanang tumutol, bihag ng daluyong ng lakas [powerless to resist, captured by some tide of force]” (p. 277). Ang magbabarkada ay mga batang sa tingin niya ay mala-demonyo sa ilalim ng lupa at nakatatanda lang ng ilang taon sa kanya ngunit nagbibisyo na ng alak at sigarilyo, samakatuwid ay masamang impluwensiya. Gusto niyang kumawala mula sa potensyal na pagkakatulad sa kanila ngunit hindi siya papawalan hanggang hindi sinasabi ng grupo. Kahit humikbi na siya, tinampal lang ang kanyang bibig para siilin ang kanyang pag-alpas. Napatahimik na siya ng dominanteng kapangyarihan, at gaya ng kaklaseng namatay na hindi makapagsalita sa kanyang panaginip ay hindi niya maisaboses ang kagustuhang makaalis alinsunod sa pangakong hindi ipagsasabi ang lugar. Naranasan niya ngayon ang makipag-ugnayan sa mga taong masasama sa turing, at pilit siyang tumatakas dahil dayuhan sa kanya ang ganitong kondisyon. Lamang, dumating nang mas maaga kaysa inaasahan ang mga pangit na karanasang ito, sa panahong ikinasisiya pa lang niya ang mga payak na mga penomena sa kanyang paligid.
Sa karakteristikong moda ni Brillantes, nagtapos ang akda sa pagkakaroon ng “nag-iisang natitirang pag-asa [one hope left]“ (p. 278), na hindi man siya makahulagpos sa kulungang sitwasyon niya ngayon ay hindi naman siya mapansing nawala nang tuluyan ng mga kaklase, ni Miss Castillo, ng mga magulang niya, ng buong daigdig na ginagalugad pa lamang niya sa angkin nitong kagandahan. Ang pag-asang ito ang mapanghahawakan niya para huwag lalong malubog sa kumunoy ng pangit na mga karanasan. Ang pag-asang ito rin ang mag-aadya sa kanya kahit kapiling pa niya ang mga demonyo sa ilalim ng lupa. Pinakamahalaga, ang pag-asang ito ang magpapalaya sa kanya sabay sa kanyang pagsubok na lumabas mula sa kung saan siya nakabilanggo.

Hidalgo, Cristina P. Filipino Fiction in English. Nasa draft ng isang librong ilalathala ng University of the Philippines Open University, isinulat noong 2003.
Gonzales, NVM. Introduction. Nasa unang paglilimbag ng The Distance to Andromeda and Other Stories. Manila: Benipayo, 1960.