blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Dr Jose Rizal died so that people can read books! One of John Steinbeck's less known essays but perhaps the most remarkable is the one entitled "Some Random and Randy Thoughts about Books" which came out in his collection of Americana essays in "America and Americans". The prescient Steinbeck foresaw a day where there would be no reason why there should be books but he bravely predicted that there will still be books. This was the subject of my 2007 blog post on books and libraries being obsolete . Steinbeck who lived through the Depression, World War II and pre and post war totalitarianism as a reporter knew that books are the most subversive but magical thing our species has ever created. In fact he writes that in these oppressed countries, people don't ask for food first (since dictators make sure no one is hungry at first) but books. "A book is somewhat sacred" Steinbeck writes, because they invariably TELL THE TRUTH. People will distrust ...

I am reposting my 2006 essay on the burning of books, any kind of book, holy, secular or even heretical Do we have to repeat the same mistakes that have caused millions of human lives? Holocausts begin with the burning of books but if a holy book is burned this time, could a book be enough to stop it? [A pastor's plan to burn the Koran was canceled due to global condemnation] When Books are Burned There is something very sinister with a book burning, an evil that is worse than murder. The world first realized the horrors of what the Nazis were to unleash in Europe when they burned books. A renowned American writer who wrote a biography of Anne Frank rightly placed these events in their proper context. The Holocaust started with a book, (Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, a book infinitely more evil and lie filled than the “Da Vinci Code”) continued with the burning of more books, then the burning of millions of men, women and children and ended with a the publication of a bo...

I have to thank Nanay's (Soccoro Ramos) National Bookstore (NBS) for making available decent books at affordable prices. I'm not advertising NBS but the truth is my bibliophilic generation is truly "Laking National". When we were much younger, only NBS had carried good books in many of its branches. True there were other more specialist bookstores with fine books like Erehwon, Bookmark, Solidaridad and Popular, these bookstores were located in faraway Makati and Ermita (I lived in QC) or in the case of Popular just off Avenida Rizal near the Rathaus beerhouse. The first two bookshops are defunct, Sionil-Jose's Solidaridad is still around and Popular has moved to a trendier location on Quezon City's Tomas Morato near the Boy Scout roundabout. When I was an undergrad, a lefty friend of mine and I would take public transpo to get to Popular since this was the only place where we can read "commie" books. This is where I got my whole edition of Marx's...

Garry Wills, an ex-Jesuit seminarian, masterful political historian of Nixon and Roman Catholicism wrote a series of controversial books in recent years. These are "Papal Sin", the apologetic and still noncorformist "Why am I Catholic?", "What Jesus Meant", "What Paul Meant", "The Rosary" and "What the Gospels Meant" Common to all these books is that they skewer Catholic stereotypes. While I believe that Wills is still largely on the orthodox side of the fence (hey he ain't a Jefferts-Schori Episcopalian!), he does make good Lenten reading. BTW the books (except the latest tome on the Gospels) are on sale at 50 pesos each at National Bookstore. I believe that they are too "heretical" for Pinoy Catholic tastes that NBS had to put them on sale. For I believe that Lent means skewering traditional Catholic stereotypes. In "Why am I Catholic?" Wills argues that Papal primacy evolved as the Spirit moved the...

I just came from this year's installment of the book fair at SM Exhibition Center at the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City. The book fair has been held in MegaMall, the World Trade Center, and now at the SMEX. But the SMEX is much smaller than the WTC, thus it felt a bit crowded. The usual bookdealers were there and they cater to the academic sector. But the university presses had a good selection of works by Filipino writers. This suggests that even with the high inflation rate and the economic crunch, publishers still are upbeat. This is evidenced by the crowds that were buying books. The National Historical Commission (NHC) booth is a history bibliophile's dream. Aside from books by Gironiere, Rizal, Del Pilar,Mabini and Sinibaldo de Mas, the NHC recently reissued Patricio Mariano's translations into Filpino of Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo . These early translations of Rizal's novels are in itself literary gems. In my family's library, we h...

Sometimes I spend good money on philosophy books. This is a lasting legacy of I having taught at Ateneo de Manila! If the Catholic Knight puts the sword on the "tyranny of relativism", theoretical physicist, Alan Sokal skewers the relativists in his latest tome, "Beyond the Hoax: Science,Philosophy and Culture" Sokal made history in 1996 when he sent a paper entitled "Transgressing the boundaries:Towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity" to a respected journal "Social Text". The paper passed review and got published. The problem is the paper was a spoof of gobbledygook proportions. Sokal wanted to expose the silliness of the academic Left and the social constructivists which he believed would be best served if their intellectual underpinnings had a dose of reason. In the so called science wars, the realist Sokal took to battle, postmodernists. Nonetheless, I find Sokal's chapter on "Cognitive Relativism in the Philosophy ...

I just came from the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Fulbright Program in the Philippines. My mom and sister were also there being Fulbrighters like myself. The creme of the creme of Pinoy academia, arts, sciences and intellectuals were there.Ex National librarian Dr Serafin Quiason was as bubbly as ever on a zillion topics most of them dealing with Queen Gloriana. Ateneo VP Tonnette Palma Angeles were there too. National artists Napoleon Abueva (sculpture) and F. Sionil Jose were moving through the cocktail crowd. My mom knew both men since she was a librarian. Abueva was dean of Fine Arts at UP and that college was then on the 3rd floor of the Main Library building. Abueva designed the Fulbright award trophies. Sionil Jose was and is still at 85 promoting reading. My mom introduced me to Sionil Jose by simply stating the truth. "My son has read all of your books! In fact he has all copies of your books." Sionil Jose repliedand smiled "My condolences. ...

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin , the French Jesuit preist, palaeontologist and evolutionist who is remembered in science for correctly interpreting the evolutionary significance of Peking Man is the subject of a science biography by Amir Aczel entitled " The Jesuit and the Skull ". While Teilhard's science credentials are impeccable, he is best remembered in his attempt to integrate Catholic belief and science in a mystical way. For doing this,Teilhard was not allowed to publish any of his works when he was alive. The Jesuits and the Vatican ordered the embargo. The Teilhard science bio is one of the recent books that have been published looking at the relationship of science and faith. Many of these books were written by Jesuits, the most notable are those by Guy Consolmagno SJ. While Aczel (a non Jesuit and a Scientist) tried to deal with the same subject and tried to capture the two sides of Teilhard's life,he so fails miserably. Aczel unlike Consolmagno did not have ...

Books! National Bookstore oftentimes has surprises on sale. The bookstore we first can remember (recall that mom bought cartolina, notebooks, crayons here when we were bright eyed pupils) has over the years diversified its selections, especially books. During cut price sales you can find classics. After all where can you buy interesting science books like Tim Flannery's "Weather Makers" at around PhP 400 each? or Amir Aczel's science biography of Teilhard de Chardin "The Jesuit and the Skull" at PhP 700? or Pedro G Ferreira's "The State of the Universe" at PhP 300 ? Best of all Arthur I Miller's tome on how black holes were hypothesized and observed in "Empire of the Stars" at PhP 299! The books can be had in some branches but one has to go through the pile of cut priced books. To do this one needs lots of time. The branches at Greenbelt, Rockwell, Quezon Avenue and Katipunan across Ateneo has very good finds. That's why I sta...

Depending on the style of prose, history books are fun in the past two weeks, I borrowed books on the medieval age. From the library, I borrowed books on the Crusades. Christopher Tyerman's God's war : a new history of the Crusades is the latest opus (1023 pages) on the subject. The book has a new view on the significance of the crusades on the West, now that it has to face the challenge of Islamic militancy. The new interpretations shoot down the post-colonial view that the Crusades were Europe's first colonial enterprise. Post WWII Crusade historiography downplayed the religious impulse that drove this movement. Tyerman's book is a literal and academic heavy read. Robert Payne's "The Dream and the Tomb" is a more novel-like treatment of history. Payne's historical works include biographies of Stalin. Mussolini and Hitler as well as histories of Islam and the medieval Catholic Church . His Hitler biography is acclaimed. You may ask why Payne ...

In http://www.baratillo.net there is a link to an interesting feature predicting the loss if libraries and books go the way of the dinosaurs. Since many of us are so dependent on the internet for information, we might think libraries and the books that are found in them will be obsolete. The feature writer lists 33 reasons why the library will remain. The 33 reasons appeal to practicality and barely to pleasure. But as early as 1946, Nobel Literature laureate John Steinbeck bravely predicted that the book would prevail. In his essay "Some Random and Randy Thought about Books", Steinbeck lists down the pleasurable reasons why we like books. The erotic analogy was obvious, for the writer actually bares him/herself in his book and the reader has to uncover the writer who exists in the pages through the characters. Perhaps that is why the aphorism "books are alive" is apt. And this is the reason why when someone burns a book, it is like killing a person. Book burn...