Literature as a Dangerous Occupation

…it’s also true that a writer’s homeland is not his tongue, or not only his tongue, but also the people he loves. And sometimes a writer’s homeland is not the people he loves but his memory. And other times a

Beyond Our Comfort Zones: On Pagbutlak, Literature and Politics

Tol, pasok ako sa UP! Pano ba yan, iwan mo na kami? Malabo, wala naman akong pang-tuition. —TV commercial The lines from the above-quoted advertisement for TM touches one facet of the crisis afflicting Philippine society, a crisis that we

Miclat’s Not So Secret Revelations (Fragments from an Unfinished Critique)

Disappointing. Nothing less can describe the supposedly untold stories unveiled by Mario Miclat in Secrets of the Eighteen Mansions. Miclat’s uninspired narration of his misadventures as a youth activist in the Philippines in the late 60s and early 70s and

Monteiro Rossi’s Obituaries from Pereira Declares

Pereira’s final declaration of conscientization by the end of Antonio Tabucchi’s novel is one of the best conclusions I read in recent months. After years of apolitical indifference to the socio-political realities of his times, Pereira pens a parting piece