Manila Bulletin
July 28,2007
By Ronald S. Lim

Fashion Anthropology

Pinoy Dressing fuses culture, history, and fashion


Oscar Wilde once said that fashion was "a form of ugliness so intolerable, we have to alter it every six months."

Fashion designer and journalist Barge Ramos disagrees. To him, fashion is something deeper, a vehicle that can be used to highlight and preserve our culture, while at the same time, adapting it for contemporary times.

Nowhere does Barge espouse this philosophy as eloquently as in "Pinoy Dressing", the column which he penned for the newspaper Malaya from 1990 to 1995.

During its five-year run, "Pinoy Dressing" tackled a variety of topics involving Philippine fashion: From its very beginnings (weaving dating back to the Philippine Iron Age, circa 200 B.C.) to the influence of classical paintings and Philippine pop culture on fashion fads and trends. Now, those too young to read his columns have a chance to do so with the release of the new coffee table book, "Pinoy Dressing: Weaving Culture Into Fashion".

The idea for coming up with this book came from, of all people, Tony Perez, whom most people know more for his supernatural hijinks with the Spirit Questors rather than for a penchant for fashion.

"It was during a particularly busy time in my life, three years ago, that Tony told me that I should write a book," he says. "He introduced me to Anvil and that was it."

The 213-page book certainly retains the flavor of those old columns, in more ways than one. Aside from the fact that his past editor Winnie Velasquez edited this compilation, the illustrations created by fellow designer Loretto Popioco for the column also find their way into the book, thanks in part to Ramos’ penchant for keeping copies of old newspapers.

"When I first pitched this book to Anvil, they were surprised when I showed them the copies of the column that I had kept through the years," he relates. "After looking through all the articles, they narrowed it down to 70 articles."

From there, the columns went to National Book Award winner for best book design Ige Ramos, who took the book to an entirely different level.

"If you look at the pictures inside the book, a lot of them are particularly hard to find in most Filipiniana books," explains Barge. "When Ige was doing the book, he didn’t bother with the pictures that I had provided from the old Malaya columns, and did his own research. That was a good decision because Ige was able to find archived pictures that we weren’t even aware existed. He was able to find pictures that matched Loretto’s illustrations."

In some cases, some of the pictures that Ige was able to find provide an interesting look at some of the important historical figures of our time.

In the book’s introduction alone, we see a picture of Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon sporting a barong tagalog embroided with Philippine and American flags.

"You’ll never see a barong like that again, considering the current political climate," says Barge with a laugh.

FASHION, HISTORY AND CULTURE

While the book’s colorful design, stunning illustrations, and unique photographs are an immediate draw, it is Barge’s writing that ensures that the reader will be thumbing through the book for reasons that go beyond the book’s aesthetic superiority.

His fashion journalism is different from what people expect because of the emphasis he puts on the importance of history and culture in dictating what contemporary audiences are going to be wearing for the next couple of years. Take, for example, what he wrote on Philippine painters and their importance to the country’s fashion, both as an archive for stlyes long gone and an inspiration for styles yet to come:

"Nineteenth-century oil paintings by Antonio Malantic, Domingo Jimenez, and Leticia Jimenez captured the delicate needlework and embroidery on translucent handwovens and the ambience of genteel respectability and deportment. These paintings by Malantic and the little known father–and–daughter artists from Sta. Ana, Manila, showed a full inventory of the Filipina’s gala wear: the baro with the billowy, wide, open scallop sleeves of fine transparent piña or jusi, underneath which is the camisa or chemise of the finest latticework.

"By constantly viewing and appreciating the paintings of these Pinoy artists, both past and contemporary, we are unable to uncover thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams within the Pinoy consciousness. Filipino paintings are reinterpreted and presented to be worn, as bold visual graphics on oversized jackets, to wear on top of cotton-twill jeans for day or over a sleek combination of silk top and pants for the evening."

One could even say that Barge acts more as a fashion anthropologist rather than a journalist, chronicling and noting the many changes that has happened in Philippine fashion over the years. Even the way that the book is divided reflects this: It progresses from early textile traditions and ends with the more abstract topic of art in fashion.

Barge’s attention to detail and affinity for research also provides instant history lessons for the interested fashionista.

For instance, in the essay "Kundiman Inspires the Maria Clara", we are made aware of the fact that the kundiman, that quintessential Filipino song form, was named so because "the expression ‘kundiman’ tended to begin all stanzas."

With this book, Barge says that he hopes readers will not only get an appreciation for Philippine designs, but for Philippine history and culture as well.

"Pinoy Dressing is an attempt to continue and integrate weaving culture into contemporary design ideas, in the hope of preserving past values and enriching them with new ideas for contemporary applications," he says in the book’s introduction. "It is this hidden, aesthetic wealth of the Pinoys who came before us, that has given us the heritage from which we now draw on for fresh ideas. In exploring the old and realizing the new, we rethread the very fabric of our lives."

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Read Or Die joins MIBF ‘07

Readers group Read Or Die Philippines, joins the roster of partner organizations, publishers, booksellers, and other players in the book industry at the 28th Manila International Book Fair (MIBF), the biggest, undisputed, and longest-running book fair in the Philippines, set on Aug. 29 – Sept. 2., at the World Trade Center Metro Manila, Sen. Gil Puyat Ave. corner Roxas Blvd. Pasay City.

As part of Read or Die’s advocacy in making an independent, strategic and practical contribution to the creation of a literate society, Read or Die is hosting a series of special events and workshops at the MIBF, with the theme "Ang Bagong Libro."

"We’re re-imagining the Filipino book," states Read or Die founding member Kristin Mandigma. "We’ll be focusing on new books, new writers, new literature, and new forms of reading. We want to promote reading for purpose and for pleasure, and to encourage public appreciation for all kinds of literature, especially writing produced by Filipino authors."

Read Or Die is spearheading the gathering of independent and small press publishers that will sell their books at the MIBF, at the booths of the National Book Development Board (NBDB). Together with the NBDB staff, Read Or Die volunteers will facilitate the consignment of the books, with a minimal commission to be turned over to the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP) to cover documentary and tax expenses.

Read Or Die is also one of the sponsors of the University of the Philippines LIKHAAN: Institute of Creative Writing’s literary festival Pistang Panitik, in cooperation with Primetrade Asia, Anvil Publishing, and the National Book Development Board.

Now on its second year, the Pistang Panitik runs for the duration of the MIBF (Aug 29-Sept 2) and focuses on literary the five living National Artists For Literature: Virgilio Almario, Bienvenido Lumbera, Alejandro Roces, F. Sionil Jose, and Edith Tiempo. It aims to re-introduce to contemporary audiences all their contributions to Philippine culture and the arts through commentaries by noted literary critics, performances by theatrical and poetry groups, and reader reactions.

Another special event prepared by Read Or Die for the MIBF is Stepping Out, a Literary Cosplay (Costume Play) Competition, set on Sept. 2. The contest features characters from literary works, and is said to be the first cosplay competition in an international book fair.

Read or Die will also cover the MIBF through blogs, podcasts and videos Libro.ph. For more details on Read or Die activities at the MIBF, log on to read-ordie.org/bagonglibro.

The MIBF is the only internationally-recognized book fair in the country, making it a paramount event for the book industry. For more than a quarter of a century, the MIBF has continuously contributed to the reading awareness of the Filipino people. It has become a venue for members of the book industry to address market demands – institutional buyers walk alongside bibliophiles, publishers’ representatives negotiate their latest titles with booksellers, publishers promote their books with their authors and artists – all these under one roof.

Attended by more than 50,000 people last year, and with over 300 exhibitors, the MIBF showcases the largest and most varied collection of literature, textbooks, educational supplements, general references, religious and inspirational titles, self-help books, management books, Filipiniana, coffee table books, popular novels, children’s books, art books, graphic novels, rare and hard-to-find titles, magazines, audio and e-books, multimedia, teaching supplies and services, publishers’ technology, and travel materials.

The 28th Manila International Book Fair is organized by Primetrade Asia, Inc. in partnership with Asian Catholic Publishers, Inc., Book Development Association of the Philippines, Philippine Booksellers Association, Inc., and Publishers Representatives Organization of the Philippines. It is supported by the Philippine Educational Publishers Association, Book Exporters Association of the Philippines, and the Christian Booksellers Association – Philippine Chapter. For details, call 890-0661 or 896-0682, or e-mail bookfair@primetradeasia.com

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Moro writers speak on identity in essay collection

Davao-based filmmaker and writer Gutierrez "Teng" Mangansakan II, a recognized heritage defender by the Philippine Yearbook, is giving the Mindanaoan identity the recognition it deserves.

The contributions in the anthology reflect an introspective, dynamic, albeit confused generation. The writers struggle with issues of identity, religion, relationships, loss, tradition and change. The anthology presents new voices that offer glimpses of a people whose opinion, history and circumstance have somehow been stifled.

Some excerpts:

"The more I accepted who I am – a Muslim, a Maranao, and a Moro – the more I learned to accept and appreciate my name…. Learning to accept and value my name definitely strengthened my resolve to recognize and assert my identity." – What’s in a Name? by Gonaranao B. Musor

"A particularly conservative and patriarchal Maguindanaon environment could spell a great ordeal for an up-and-coming Moro diva. The prejudice against gay men is even more magnified in the context of supposedly religious Filipino society. It is in this supposed deep religiosity that I surmised that Filipinos rank among the world’s most homophobic races." - Pink is the Color of the Crescent Moon by Allyson Banga-an

"... everybody expects me to write nothing but about Maranaos or Muslims just because I am a Muslim Maranao. They always expect to read an anthropological element in my works and when they do not see one, they ask why I did not include the Maranao way of doing this or that. I am committed to telling the story of the Maranaos, my culture, and my religion but I cannot be shackled by them.... [S]ometimes I just want to write light stories about boy-girl relationship which may not be distinctly Maranao, or develop a story around an exciting plot without any regard to the ethnicity of the characters." - The Complex Path Towards My Epiphany by Loren Hallilah Lao

"As a physical and spiritual exercise, fasting or sawn during Ramadan is undeniably rigorous. But the knowledge that I am joined in this exercise by countless others makes this month bearable…. And when I break my fast, either with family at home or with the entire community at the mosque, the satisfaction of my first sip of water or piece of bread is heightened by sharing it with others." – Ramadan Musings by Zainudin Malang

"… I remind myself that piecing together the disjointed and seemingly incoherent events of my past would not make one singular memory out of them. The landscape of my childhood would always evoke distinct, sometimes opposing sentiments." – Salam! Motherland by Gutierrez Mangansakan II

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The Queen Sings the Blues off the press

Anvil Publishing, Inc. recently released The Queen Sings the Blues by emerging writer and poet Ronald Baytan.

The book brings together 47 poems written between 1992 and 2002. In this collection, one finds the queen singing with unflinching clarity about love’s fatal beginnings and fated endings, the irrefutable primacy of youth and beauty, the transience of desire, and the burden of difference in an undiscerning world. From the first impulses of love, the poems move to the different phases and faces of an othered existence, a decade’s musings on the catwalks of desire.

J. Neil Garcia, editor of the Ladlad series, offers praise for the collection: "The reader can only be blessed in the presence of such candor, the majesty and benevolence of this poet’s bravely loving and carnal imagination."

Ronald Baytan teaches literature at De La Salle University-Manila. He finished his Ph.D. in English Studies at the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 2003. He was a co-editor of the book Bongga Ka ‘day: Pinoy Gay Quotes to Live By. He is currently working on his second book entitled The Queen Lives Alone: Personal Essays.

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New Books by RJ Ledesma, pagbabago@pilipinas and Gary Lising

"Profiles Encourage: Ordinary Filipinos Making an Extraordinary Difference” edited by Anna Hidalgo and Alejandra Otamendi points toward the lives of a multitude of people living simple lives with passion, consistency and hope, who are redefining heroism and what it means to be a Filipino. The stories are those of the unknown, or at least those who deserved to be known to more citizens in our country and the world. The book is co-produced by pagbabago@pilipinas.

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Kristine Mandigma

For Read or Die members, 2007 was a year for the books. Or better yet, a year for books.

Each month provided members with new worlds to discover and new authors to familiarize themselves with. From foreign authors to local ones; from historical novels to science-fiction ones, Read or Die’s booklist for the year 2007 is enough to make any bookworm proud.

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June 2007

Narrative, fate, imagination, and death (literary or otherwise) are the themes around these selections.

The Book Thief by Markus Zesak

Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book although she has not yet learned how to read and her foster father uses it, "The Gravediggers Handbook," to lull her to sleep when she's roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Margaret Lea, a London bookseller’s daughter, has written an obscure biography that suggests deep understanding of siblings. She is contacted by renowned aging author Vida Winter, who finally wishes to tell her own, long-hidden, life story. Margaret travels to Yorkshire, where she interviews the dying writer, walks the remains of her estate at Angelfield and tries to verify the old woman’s tale of a governess, a ghost and more than one abandoned baby. With the aid of colorful Aurelius Love, Margaret puzzles out generations of Angelfield: destructive Uncle Charlie; his elusive sister, Isabelle; their unhappy parents; Isabelle’s twin daughters, Adeline and Emmeline; and the children’s caretakers. Contending with ghosts and with a rather frightening group of living people, Setterfield’s sensible heroine is, like Jane Eyre, full of repressed feeling--and is unprepared for both heartache and romance.

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain wants to become a writer. Trouble is, she’s the daughter of a once-famous author with a severe case of writer’s block. Her family is barely scraping by in a crumbling English castle they leased when times were good. Now there’s very little furniture, hardly any food, and just a few pages of notebook paper left to write on. Bravely making the best of things, Cassandra gets hold of a journal and begins her literary apprenticeship by refusing to face the facts.

Dodie Smith, author of 101 Dalmations, wrote this novel in 1948. And though the story is set in the 1930s, it still feels fresh, and well deserves its reputation as a modern classic.

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Although Kingsley Amis’s acid satire of post-war British academic life has lost some of its bite in the four decades since it was published, it’s still a rewarding read.

In Lucky Jim, Amis introduces us to Jim Dixon, a junior lecturer at a British college who spends his days fending off the legions of malevolent twits that populate the school. His job is in constant danger, often for good reason. Lucky Jim hits the heights whenever Dixon tries to keep a preposterous situation from spinning out of control, which is every three pages or so. The final example of this — a lecture spewed by a hideously pickled Dixon — is a chapter’s worth of comic nirvana.

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July 2007

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler’s Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.

Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock

Few books are more romantic than this trilogy, nor more surreal.

The legendarily popular trilogy of books containing the Griffin-Sabine correspondence literally contains the correspondence: postcards, front and back, and letters in envelopes pasted into the book, which the reader must open and read-a temptation few can resist. Nick Bantock’s story was way ahead of the computer game Myst, with which it shares a moody allure.

Here Is Where We Meet by John Berger

One of the most widely admired writers of our time returns us to the captivating play and narrative allure of his previous novels-G. and To the Wedding among them-with a shimmering fiction drawn from chapters of his own life.One hot afternoon in Lisbon, the narrator finds his long-dead mother seated on a park bench. "The dead don’t stay where they are buried," she tells him. And so begins a remarkable odyssey, told in simple yet gorgeous prose, that carries us from the London Blitz in 1943, to a Polish market, to a Paleolithic cave, to the Ritz Hotel in Madrid. Here Is Where We Meet is a unique literary journey that moves freely through time and space but never loses its foothold in the sensuous present.

The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Barcelona, 1945 — A great world city lies shrouded in secrets after the war, and a boy mourning the loss of his mother finds solace in his love for an extraordinary book called The Shadow of the Wind, by an author named Julian Carax. When the boy searches for Carax’s other books, it begins to dawn on him, to his horror, that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book the man has ever written. Soon the boy realizes that The Shadow of the Wind is as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget, for the mystery of its author’s identity holds the key to an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love that someone will go to any lengths to keep secret.

The Etched City by K.J. Bishop

Australian author K.J. Bishop’s impressive first novel, The Etched City, draws deep from the well of dark fantasy to create a bruised and battered realm which invites comparison with Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and China Mieville’s twisted imaginings. Set first in the dustbowl wasteland of the Copper Country, Bishop introduces the battlefield sawbones Raule and her gunslinging companion Gwynn. The duo’s relationship of necessity is cemented as they flee the justice of "The Army of Heroes," a force created to put down a rebellion in which they were active participants. Wanted and destitute, they make for the uncharted Telute Shelf to find new lives amid the sprawling metropolis of Ashamoil.

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August 2007

Blankets by Craig Thompson

One of the quintessential graphic novels for "beginners", as it stands on its own in a single issue. It’s actually a sort of autobiographical piece, and both the art and the story are quite beautiful.

Fables: 1001 Nights Of Snowfall by Bill Willingham

A stand alone anthology based within the universe of Willingham’s award-winning series, "Fables". It’s written in the tradition of Arabian Nights, with Snow White playing Scheherazade to the sultan and using the life stories of other Fables from Fairy Tale Land as her material. Each story was illustrated by renowned artists, and the anthology itself is a great read both for fans of the "Fables" series and newcomers to its story.

It’s A Bird… by Steven Seagle

Another semi-autobiographical piece revolving around a comic artist assigned to write about the one character in the DC universe that he just can’t relate to: Superman.

Neil Gaiman teams up with the famous Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano to forge a haunting tale about one fox spirit’s love for a monk and her journey to see Morpheus, King of Dreams, in order to save him.

The Watchmen by Alan Moore

It is often said that the British were the ones who saved the comics industry during its "dark ages". If one is forced to attribute any one title to this cause, it would have to be this comic.

Pride of Baghdad by Bryan K. Vaughan and Nico Henrichon

A more recent, award-winning title that has been revered as one of the few comics that has managed to strike the delicate balance between art and journalism. This one tracks the story of a pride of lions displaced from the zoo by the bombing of Baghdad and their journey through the ruins of a strange, human city.

Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

The big fear that a lot of "newbies" to the comic scene have with picking up titles in the DC and Marvel universe is that they’ll be missing out a lot in the story, or that they won’t get what’s going on. This one, however, is an interesting standalone that depicts Jeph Loeb’s interpretation of how Two Face — one of Batman’s most dire enemies in Gotham — came to life.

Global Frequency by Warren Ellis

The miniseries that nearly inspired its own TV series. Global Frequency builts the image of a global organization comprised of the best of the best in anything and everything, along with the one enigmatic woman — Miranda Zero — who binds them all together as Earth’s last defense force against outsiders, and against itself.

Siglo: Freedom edited by Dean Alfar and Vincent Michael Simbulan

A homegrown compilation featuring some of the greatest minds on the Filipino comic scene--Dean Alfar, Vin Simbulan, Andrew Drilon, Gerry Alanguilan--as we know it. It was a great hit, and ended up inspiring a second anthology titled "Siglo: Passion".

Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan

Another homegrown masterpiece, depicting a world where chickens have the same level of intelligence as human beings and how humans dealt rather violently with it. This miniseries isn’t complete yet, but it’s bound to be a great hit in the future.

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September 2007

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

Dashiell Hammett is the earliest hard-boiled crime writer and still its master. This early work paints a bleak portrait of the American small town during the Prohibition. The nameless Continental Op tries to solve the murder of a newspaper-owner in Personville but gets caught up in the affairs of the city’s most ruthless criminals and the government officials who work for them. Hammett creates the quirkiest, most unscrupulous characters and gives them the wittiest lines. He never wastes a sentence, always honing it into something sharp and precise.

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

The title refers to a clause in a life insurance policy which allows the beneficiary to receive double of the expected amount if the insured person’s death is declared as an accident. The novel is short and fast-paced, typical of the period, but it is remarkable how James M. Cain depicts Walter Huff, an insurance salesman, and his slow, inexorable seduction into murder. Phyllis Nordlinger is the ultimate femme fatale with her capricious and irresistible beauty, more a force of nature than an actual human being.

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Tom Ripley is smart, personable and lustful of the wealth that his benefactor takes for granted. When this temporary lifestyle is threatened to be taken away from him, he takes ruthless steps to ensure his own future. Patricia Highsmith turns every Henry James novel on its head in this story of a murdering opportunist. With exquisite descriptions of Italy, Highsmith’s lush prose works ironically well in a psychological thriller. A portrait of the sociopath as a young man.

Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith

Three frozen murder victims found in Moscow’s Gorky Park plunges Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko into the search for a fur dealer exploiting Russia’s resources and also its justice system. His search for the truth robs Renko of his secure party-official life and plunges him into the unknown territory of America. Martin Cruz Smith paints a Russia during the heart of the Cold War but he never sensationalizes, never veers away from his clear, assured prose.

The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

Based on the sensational 1946 murder of a beautiful Los Angeles prostitute, "The Black Dahlia" adopts the language and sensibilities of a bygone era to tell the tale of a "psycho-sexual obsession. (The Times)" More than a murder investigation, the novel is about the history of the two cops that investigated the crime and how the spectre of Dahlia haunted their careers and ultimately their friendship. James Ellroy does not shirk from writing about violence and perversity, painting it all with disturbing elegance.

Omerta by Mario Puzo

Made famous by "The Godfather," Mario Puzo’s final novel chronicles the last of the New York mafia families and their attempt at "legitimacy." Don Raymonde Aprile envisions for his descendants a life free from the crime and illegality his generation has been entrenched in. He is still, however, a Sicilian to the end, so he adopts Astorre and grooms him as his strongman. Destiny seizes Astorre when Don Raymonde is assassinated during his grandchild’s baptism, an act that puts in motion the wheels of revenge and death. Puzo’s style is still unmistakable, and his description of Sicily is at once cruel and loving.

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October 2007

Night by Elie Wiesel

In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel’s Night, a scholarly, pious teenager is wracked with guilt at having survived the horror of the Holocaust and the genocidal campaign that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur?

What If?: The World’s Foremost MILITARY Historians Imagine What Might Have Been

Counterfactuals-what-if scenarios-fueled countless bull sessions in smoke-filled dorm rooms in the 1960s. Some of those dorm-room speculators grew up to be historians, and their generation (along with a few younger and older scholars) makes a strong showing in this anthology of essays, in which the what-ifs are substantially more plausible.

Barefoot Gen by Kenji Nakazawa

The first volume of this classic manga recounts the bombing of Hiroshima from the perspective of a young boy, Gen, and his family. But the book’s themes (the physical and psychological damage ordinary people suffer from war’s realities) ring chillingly true today. Nakazawa, a Hiroshima survivor, effectively portrays the strain of living in this environment and shows how efforts to stay upbeat in dire circumstances sometimes manifest as manic, irrational humor. The story offers some optimism: characters perform acts of self-sacrifice for the sake of neighbors and loved ones.

The Persian Boy by Mary Renault

This book traces the last years of Alexander’s life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and gelded as a boy, Bagoas was sold as a courtesan to King Darius of Persia, but found freedom with Alexander after the Macedon army conquered his homeland. Their relationship sustains Alexander as he weathers assassination plots, the demands of two foreign wives, a sometimes-mutinous army, and his own ferocious temper. After Alexander’s mysterious death, we are left wondering if this Persian boy understood the great warrior and his ambitions better than anyone.

Gates Of Fire by Steven Pressfield

Pressfield’s first novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was about golf, but here he puts aside his putter and picks up sword and shield as he cleverly and convincingly portrays the clash between Greek hoplites and Persian heavy infantry in the most heroic confrontation of the Hellenic Age: the battle of Thermopylae ("the Hot Gates") in 480 B.C. The terrifying spectacle of classical infantry battle becomes vividly clear in his epic treatment of the Greeks’ magnificent last stand against the invading Persians.

Under The Three Flags: Anarchism and The Anti-Colonial Imagination by Benedict Anderson

This unique study weaves together the erotic obsessions of avant-garde French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans, the execution of a Filipino writer and activist, a Cuban insurrection, the assassination of President McKinley and the Dreyfus Affair in an exploration of links between the international anarchist movement of the 19th century and nascent Filipino nationalism. Cornell scholar Anderson presents his case with the zeal of a researcher uncovering hidden history, referencing an impressive range of sources in multiple languages (Tagalog, Spanish, French, German) and anchoring his study in the life stories of early Filipino patriots José Rizal and Isabelo de los Reyes. Students of anarchism and anti-colonialism will find a thought-provoking, informative study, but non-specialists will be left hoping for more far-reaching conclusions.

Brains Of The Nation: Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los Reyes by Resil Mojares

Grounded in a detailed analysis of the lives and works of Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, and Isabelo de los Reyes, the book is a richly textured portrait of a generation that created the self-consciousness of the Filipino nation. It explores the historical conditions that shaped the emergence of a modern Philippine intelligentsia and the unfinished, strange and wondrous itineraries diverse intellectuals took in engaging Western knowledge and dealing with the local realities of the country from, of, and for which they tried or pretended to speak. Brains of the Nation is a groundbreaking work in Philippine intellectual history.

The Iliad by Homer

This groundbreaking English version by Robert Fagles is the most important recent translation of Homer’s great epic poem. The verse translation has been hailed by scholars as the new standard, providing an Iliad that delights modern sensibility and aesthetic without sacrificing the grandeur and particular genius of Homer’s own style and language. The Iliad is one of the two great epics of Homer, and is typically described as one of the greatest war stories of all time, but to say the Iliad is a war story does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action and characters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth and history in the tenth and final year of the Greek siege of Troy.

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November 2007

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

In this timeless tale of two mortal princesses — one beautiful and one unattractive — C.S. Lewis reworks the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche into an enduring piece of contemporary fiction. This is the story of Orual, Psyche’s embittered and ugly older sister, who possessively and harmfully loves Psyche. Much to Orual’s frustration, Psyche is loved by Cupid, the god of love himself, setting the troubled Orual on a path of moral development.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Joining the rich literature of runaways, Kafka On The Shore follows the solitary, self-disciplined schoolboy Kafka Tamura as he hops a bus from Tokyo to the randomly chosen town of Takamatsu, reminding himself at each step that he has to be "the world’s toughest fifteen-year-old." He finds a secluded private library in which to spend his days-continuing his impressive self-education-and is befriended by a clerk and the mysteriously remote head librarian, Miss Saeki, whom he fantasizes may be his long-lost mother.

Meanwhile, in a second, wilder narrative spiral, an elderly Tokyo man named Nakata veers from his calm routine by murdering a stranger. An unforgettable character, beautifully delineated by Murakami, Nakata can speak with cats but cannot read or write, nor explain the forces drawing him toward Takamatsu and the other characters.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece is an ironic parable on power and its corruption, on good and evil, and on human frailty and the strength of love. Featuring Satan, accompanied by a retinue that includes the large, fast-talking, vodka-drinking black tom cat Behemoth, the beautiful Margarita, her beloved-a distraught writer known only as the Master-Pontius Pilate, and Jesus Christ, The Master and Margarita combines fable, fantasy, political satire, and slapstick comedy into a wildly entertaining and unforgettable tale that is commonly considered one of the greatest novels ever to come out of the Soviet Union.

The Once and Future King by T.H. White

The whole world knows and loves this book. It is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot; of Merlyn and Owl and Guinevere; of beasts who talk and men who fly; of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad. It is the fantasy masterpiece by which all others are judged.

Not exactly re-tellings, but two fairy tale collections that deserve mention mention are The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye by A.S. Byatt and A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories by Robin McKinley. Byatt’s writing is very beautifu. As for Knot… it’s marketed as young adult literature, but you could easily do away with the "young adult" label because the stories are wonderful, bringing together well-rounded characters and fresh twists on the traditional fairy tale.

Children’s Choices

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Neni Sta. Romana Cruz

Children of two seasons: poems for young people

By Lara Saguisag

Illustrated by Hubert B. Fucio

Anvil Publishing, 2007

The best thing about this new collection of 20 poems is that they do not rhyme and have little need to. This should disprove the popular notion of students – and teachers - that poetry needs to rhyme, leading them to go off churning out school assignments of forced rhymes so easily produced, never mind that all meaning is lost.

Even without the familiar end rhyme formula, these poems will delight the readers who will read them aloud (and what’s poetry without the oral quality?) and will discover the consistent rhythm of words and charming concrete images.

Among these: “my face mangoed and sticky”, the tarsier of the “wide-circle eyes that wear a look of constant surprise”, “our sweat smells wild, like wild earth…” Most certainly, qualities of poetry more essential than the overrated and revered rhyme.

The first poem, “Two Seasons” ends with: “… children are always out/soaked in summer heat/or dancing in monsoon rain./They play./They laugh./They bloom.”

Amusing is “Church” which portrays a typical child’s restlessness at worship. She has to endure the “stiff collar of her dress”, notices the choirboy asleep, and passes time by counting “the people wearing blue”, whispering her ABCs backwards twice over, sits up when her Papa notices her. “Then I say ‘Amen’.”

The next best thing, of course, is that this is a rare, if not the first attempt to produce a book of poems deliberately written and meant for children. Aside from folk rhymes and stories in verse, the field has no tradition to speak of.

What may be disconcerting is the way Grandma’s speech and the flavor of dialect is captured. Words are repeated and to accommodate everyday talk, conventions of language are ignored.

Poetry is said to be closest to children’s speech patterns because of their shared economy of words and musicality of language. Saguisag successfully demonstrates how enjoyable and seemingly effortless poetry can be.