A PEN that writes

The Philippine Chapter of the International PEN (Playwrights, Poets, Essayists, Novelists) will mark its 50th year with a national conference Dec. 8-9 at the National Museum on the theme “Literature, Nation and Globalization.”

The International PEN was founded in England in 1921 by Catherine Dawson Scott, with novelist John Glasworthy as its first president. It counted among its members such literary titans as G.B. Shaw and Joseph Conrad.

PEN’s local chapter was founded by F. Sionil Jose (“Frankie”), and the initial literary conference had the eminent nationalist Claro M. Recto delivering the Jose Rizal Lecture, PEN’s premiere event, in Baguio. (I remember shivering in the cold with Lyd Arguilla, widow of Manuel Arguilla, the eminent fictionist). Subsequent lecturers included Carlos P. Romulo, Teddy Locsin, Leon Ma. Guerrero, Nick Joaquin, Horacio de la Costa, SJ, Lorenzo Tañada, Miguel Bernad, SJ, Teodoro Agoncillo, Raul Manglapus and Salvador Madariaga. This year’s guest lecturer is Jovito Salonga.

The PEN conference should find the recent arrest of journalists an interesting subject for discussion. Why? Because the PEN charter states that “members should pledge to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression in the country or community to which they belong.” The charter also states that “literature knows no frontiers, and should be left untouched by national or political passion, and that at all times, its members should use what influence they have in favor of good understanding and mutual respect.” All qualified writers, editors and translators who subscribe to the foregoing aims — regardless of nationality, ethnic origin, language, color or religion — can be PEN members.

Through the years, Frankie has been at the helm of PEN, directing its activities with spirit, imagination, resourcefulness and resolve. The PEN has been energized by such prominent literary figures as Elmer Ordoñez, Alejandro Roces, Isagani Cruz, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Krip Yuson, Bien Lumbera, Aida Rivera Ford, Juan Gatbonton, Charlson Ong, Jose F. Lacaba, Marjorie Evasco and scores more.

How Frankie finds time for his literary pursuits is a puzzle. The most prolific Filipino novelist whose fictions has been translated into 28 languages — including Russian! — he now comes out with his latest novel “Sherds.” James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly hints at Frankie’s prodigious tasks thusly: “America has no counterpart... no one who is simultaneously a prolific novelist, a social and political organizer, an editor and a journalist, a small-scale entrepreneur... As a writer, Jose is famous for two bodies of work. One is the Rosales sequence, a set of five novels published over a 20-year span which has become a kind of national saga. “In the same vein, Jan Eklund of Dagens Nyheta, Stockholm, observes that the five-novel Rosales saga is “the closest you can get to a Filipino national epic.” Igor Podnerezsky of Moscow’s Institute of Oriental Studies, points out: “In Filipino literature in recent years, the creative work of Jose occupies a special place. Jose is a great artist.” Of another work, Joseph Coates of the Chicago Tribune writes: “Tolstoy himself, not to mention Italo Svevo, would envy the author of this story (Sin). This short... scorching work whets our appetite for Sionil Jose’s masterpiece, the Rosales saga.”

One should read Frankie’s newest novel which, I quote, “is perhaps his most thoughtful and incisive comment on the Filipino condition. For all its sophisticated urban setting, it still belongs to the vernacular literary tradition, hewing ever closely to the author’s major theme — the  Filipino’s often hopeless search for social justice and moral order.” How truly the theme holds to this very day!

Despite Frankie’s singular honors — he is a Magsaysay awardee, a National Artist and the recipient of the 2004 Pablo Neruda Centennial Award — he remains “chummy” with PEN members whom he invites to the conference thus: “For old times sake, do let us meet again and thank our lucky stars that after all these years, we are still around and kicking.”