The Manila Review’s critical mass

MANILA, Philippines - The masthead of The Manila Review includes such venerable names as Sheila Coronel, Ambeth Ocampo, Criselda Yabes, and Miguel Syjuco; joining those of esteemed academics Resil Mojares, Caroline Hau, Jojo Abinales, and Vicente Rafael, as well as young talents like Bobby Benedicto, Nicole Curato and Carina Santos.

It’s a publication set to explore intergenerational dialogue, cultivating a passionate atmosphere for intellectual exchange, and it’s sure to change the way Filipinos perceive cultural discussions.

With the launch of The Manila Review today, Supreme spoke to editor-in-chief Leloy and managing editor Mara Coson about their first outing. They talk about the Philippines’ intellectual landscape, reaching out to younger audiences, and finding their identity.

SUPREME: What’s the void that The Manila Review wants to fill, especially in the critical landscape?

LELOY CLAUDIO: A lot of criticism is, “I like this, I don’t like this,” which is okay, you need that, but criticism is not just meant to ape consumers, to make a choice whether or not I want to spend P350 on this ticket or book. The reviewer is kind of an historian of the present because whenever somebody reviews a book, he is in effect writing the intellectual history of that moment, or at least a good reviewer does that. I think that’s the gap that we’re trying to fill.

What should people expect from The Manila Review?

LELOY: The current review is divided into features that are broadly providing commentary on intellectual trends, reviews, and commentary. What binds them all together is that they’re all trying to comment on intellectual trends. When we do a review hopefully it’s not just telling people that this cultural artifact is good or bad. Hopefully, what it’s doing is making a broader commentary about the socio-cultural milieu from which it emerges. For example, Mara’s piece in the upcoming Review is about three films that came out in Cinemalaya, that’s ostensibly what it’s about but in reality it’s making a broader point about how we deal with the upper class in Philippine cinema. We do tell people if we like something or we don’t, but that’s not the main point.

How did you guys make sure that you’re veering away from the “old fogies running a publication” perception that people usually associate with reviews?

 Mara COSON: One of the big ideas that we’re pushing for The Manila Review is this intergenerational aspect, which you don’t get in our influences like the New York Review of Books or London Review of Books. Parang we’re proactively creating this intergenerational dialogue. Half our masthead is under 30 and half is over 30. I guess in a way it can also feel young but at the same time, you can also respect the publication.

 LELOY: And meron din kaming gambit, if we make it look young then younger people will start reading authors like Carol [Hau, senior editor], Vince [Rafael, contributing editor], or Ambeth Ocampo  [contributing edtitor]. Usually, how do you read them? They come out in academic journals like Philippine Studies, they’re writing 10,000 word pieces; doing it the way an academic would do it. The piece that Carol did for us is a 2,500-word piece and it’s funny; it talks about how people review books here and [design director] Carina Santos made it look great. So what’s gonna happen is that hopefully [we’re] gonna get a lot of younger people now taking interest in their work. That’s what I’m looking forward to.

MARA: I just want to clarify to everyone that a lot of people think that The Manila Review is just for academics or for people who are into reading critical stuff. That’s actually not the case. It’s sort of just intelligent reading. It’s quite engaging, I think for a reader who wants a little bit more than what he usually reads on what they pick up in newsstands. People should think of it as more of a cultural reading more of than academic reading.

LELOY: There’s no jargon in this issue. I promise you that. Anybody who was tempted to use jargon, we restrained them immediately. This is something that I’m looking forward to because a lot of these people when they write academically parang you know that they’re capable of writing for a broader public. [Maybe] the opportunity just hasn’t presented itself. And a lot of them can write for a younger public, as you’ll see. The way that Carina has packaged it for a younger audience and the way a lot of these authors have written without jargon, I think people are in for something new. 

 MARA: We’re not saying we’re the first ones to do something like this. We’re not saying everyone’s doing it wrong that’s why we started it. I personally feel we’re just adding on to what could be a strong tradition that we may have lost in the last few decades. 

LELOY: There is a tradition that began with people like Rizal and La Solidaridad. They were doing a lot of reviews. Of course, in other countries, you really have a robust book reviewing culture. In London alone you have TLS and LRB, those are just the major ones. Then there are reviews associated with major universities.

How do you think your first issue established your identity as a publication?

MARA: In terms of publications we’re like an indie band. We started with Artiste Connect, pooled our own money, no corporate sponsorships of any sort.

LELOY: We sold totes! (Laughs)

MARA: Yeah, we sold totes! Our launch is in a special tea and coffee shop. At its heart it’s a community project in a way — we’re not trying to be big and glossy or we’re gonna trample everyone. It’s a community project because that’s what we want to be. We want to create discussions with people and not be like “This is what we want to say and no one should argue with that!”

LELOY: In terms of content, I think it establishes the identity in the sense that we have giant reviews. I think nobody does that. The preference was to review three things simultaneously and in order to force people not just to talk about a single topic or overly focus on the form and the narrative of one cultural piece but to really say what these three things have in common and what do they say about the Philippines. Yun yung pinakamalaki. I’d like that to be the heart of Manila Review.

MARA: Just to stress, it’s not for academics. It’s more open than it looks. In 50 years, you could look at it and say, “So this is what people were thinking at that time.”

Aside from the write-ups, what are the other features of The Manila Review?

MARA: At this point just discussions and videos. We can’t really dream big with limited funding. 

LELOY: Back to Mara’s indie band analogy, we’re only as good as (our) last gig or release. We can only bank on what we have. Hopefully we’ll get good reception. If we can get the funding that we need, it can get bigger. But we’re happy to run it as a small publication. We were never under the illusion that this will become massive. It’s really for a select audience, only a couple of people will really gravitate towards The Manila Review but hopefully that will be a dedicated audience so that’s okay.

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Read The Manila Review online at themanilareview.com or join them at the launch of their first issue at 3 p.m. today at Craft Coffee Workshop (Broadway, Quezon City next to Big Sky Mind) to grab a limited print run of the review.

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Tweet the author at @donutjaucian.