Textbook Dialectics
History is not just that class you took in school. It doesn’t belong to stuffy historians imposing their views. It is more than a litany of dates, names, and events that you’ll forget soon after watching an hour of Discovery Channel. Global history, thanks to social media, is something that you are part of. It is texted in your tweets, felt in your blogs, and heard in your opinions sent to CNN’s iReport. Technology has made it possible for everyone to be spiritually there at that moment. As early as 9/11, asking “where were you?” and “what did you?” in any event had become the global mindset. Even miles apart, there is a growing gut reaction to either comment, pray or donate at least as part of this connected consciousness. Silence and apathy are frowned upon when history isn’t about harsh statistics but the feelings of one community.
Literature is part of this movement in time. Amid the books aiming to make a mark in the last Manila International Book Fair, Anvil Publishing has a set of titles that set themselves apart. These are books that concentrate on events as a shared human experience. They reveal that each moment is different for each individual. They teach that we all have to gather and share these facts, figures, and feelings to learn and grow past our own biased memories to seek out the truth together. Thus, shaping our minds to realize that history doesn’t belong to a single author of a text book. History is then something that we have to reclaim because we were in it. It isn’t his story. It is our story.
Memories Washed Away?: After the Storm, edited by Elber Or
This anthology of Ondoy stories aims to capture the sense of trying to figure out what we can learn from a tragedy. So, what did we learn? From essays by Mar Roxas and Jim Paredes, Ondoy did wash away all pretenses of society. The rich discovered that they had more heart than cash in their wallet and skills to contribute to their fellowmen. The poor learned how incompetent the government could be in these times. We all discovered that people are more valuable than our valuables. After the Storm stirs it up all again for us as aptly said in its introduction to not forget because “Forgetting just means we learn nothing.”
A Bad Romance: Mondo Marcos, edited by Frank Cimatu and Rolando B. Tolentino
Like any romance, there is the good, the bad, and the ugly aftermath. Mondo Marcos recounts the Filipinos’ affair with Marcos. The relationship was intense so the anthology is a mix of art inspired by what you would expect from a jilted lover. There are poem pieces, fragments of fiction, and and intimate essays. Gabe Mercado remembers the good by humming a piece on YC Bikini briefs that packs a wallop. Others cheer Daimos, Voltes V and Chicks to Chicks for being diversions from reality. The bad is something that we all know. Disappearances, bombings, and the start of the brain drain. The ugly, like any break-up, is reminiscing with bitter spite. The anthology picks on Marcos’ cult of personality. The poem “Defrosting Ferdie” touches on this nicely by giving martial law babies the joy of remembering the melting face of a dictator. The process of recovering from a relationship can be seen only as cruel but Mondo Marcos reminds us that coming out still resilient can be so bittersweet.
Rizal’s TMZ: Looking Back, by Ambeth Ocampo
This is a republished compilation of Ambeth Ocampo’s early essays to make our national heroes more human. We learn who were the playboys and who left this life with scandal. There is also a bit of trivia such as the origin of names like Malacañang. It could mean either the rich live there, a place of bad spirits, or the grass growing in that area. Take your pick. Ocampo is just delighted you are interacting with history.
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