Old Movies by Ian Casocot

I really liked Old Movies by Ian Casocot which we discussed in class this week. I think of myself as a very avid movie-watcher as such that the movies I have watched are a lot in quantity and diverse in genres. Yet I know that I still have a lot too discover. I even bought a big-ass book called "1000 movies you should see before you die". I've only ticked off about 10% of the list but at least I started already. So, seeing as that the characters in story referenced a lot of movie and movie characters, I made it to a point to research (or at least google) something when it is unfamiliar to me. Needless to say, I know that I still have a lot to learn and discover. 

Back to the story, at first I was fascinated by how Casocot narrated by the character of Jaguar. His mother is wary of him because he is sort of an unwanted child because of the circumstances of his birth. The mother, stricken with sorrow, does nothing but watch movies. I think that Jaguar or Travis is a very observant character. The shocking bit, (SPOILER ALERT) that the grandfather was actually the father of the child, was very shocking indeed since it was subtly clued in the story. But I think that the clues were very vital and shocking as well that I think that I might have clued in a little on the real deal but didn't not dwell much on it. The real issue was actually the identity of Jaguar's father. Since, I might have focused on the movie references quite a bit, I didn't notice its importance. 

I liked this story a lot. It's one of my favorites readings in our humalit class. 

Araby by James Joyce

This week, we were able to discuss Araby in class. It was a wonderfully-written story by James Joyce which is about a boy and his intense crush over his neighbour's sister. Said sister mentioned something about a bazaar and the boy, overwhelmed with desire, sets out to go to that bazaar and to get her something. The short story is about the boy's realisations.

One thing I would like to take into notice is the boy's way of noticing things around him that somehow connects to her. Like when he describes the neighbourhood, it connects to his crush. When he also describes his journey to the bazaar, the late train coming and him going to the bazaar seems not in time. The boy realizes how stupid he was for going into the bazaar when the girl just used him so she can get something. Second, how the story is not a love story, rather that it is a coming-of-age story. It is a coming of age story because the boy realizes how the girl does not like him the same way as he does. He even realizes how vain and shallow he was in the end, symbolized by the lights turning completely off in the bazaar. 

Last Order sa Penguin by Chris Martinez

This week, we had the presentations for the Last Order sa Penguin play by groups made up in our humalit class. Before we presented, I made sure I read the whole play by Chris Martinez myself so I could understand the story better. 
As I read the whole thing, I realized that as an 18 year old, I am already having the same problems as the characters did. I have already reached a point in my life where my feelings of being a teenager forever clashes with my feelings of what is there to come. My favorite character of the group has to be Tuxqs because he strikes to be the happiest but all the saddest of the group. With that, I raise an observation on why male homosexuals (or the "bakla"s) tend to be more lively and joking about compared to when we look at female homosexuals (or the tomboys). Tuxqs is the happiest because he's funny, he says the most hilarious lines like "Ako simple lang- to have a baby before menopause" which clearly has to be the funniest line in the whole play, for me. He is also the saddest because he toys with the idea that even when his friends have miserable relationships with their partners, at least they have somebody. Another funny scene attributing to this is when Tuxqs and Sweet, the flower vendor, fight out in the end of the play how which one of them have the most unfortunate situation. Sweet says she wins this category because she doesn't have anything to feed her family with, that she's "gutom" all the time. While Tuxqs argues that he is most unfortunate because he's lonely. I can see how ironic this situation is. Another observation is that it doesn't clearly say in the play whether Sweet is a male or a female but I read somewhere how Sweet Lapus himself played as Sweet in Last Order sa Penguin, which could be a clue to what Sweet's gender is, doesn't really attribute much to the play but I find it interesting.
My least favourite character, however, has to be Harlene because she is, for the lack of a better word, the most adult person in the group. She's already living in with her boyfriend which is like being married already. They're already undergoing a mid-life crisis in their relationship. Harlene says that Nico is getting old plus they're both kind of sick of each other already.
For the play, I ended up playing Tess, the character with the lesbian lover. She's confused whether she really is a lesbian already. One funny indication would be when Harlene shared an article that when you've performed sex with the same gender 7 times then you're already a lesbian. She argues "what if I have sex with a lesbian 6 times then I get to be with a man after? will I be considered a lesbian still?" and so on.


Also, for the presentation of the play, my group got to play the scene where the barkada finds out that Dyna is dating a 16-year-old "jolog". Then, they argue about the gross but equally hilarious question of which they would rather eat when given a million dollars, "taeng lasang ube o ubeng lasang tae". The question then progresses to which one they would rather have sex with for a million dollars as well; Jinngoy, Erap or Loi. I think our part is a really interesting scene because it says a lot for the characters of the play; Tuxqs, Dyna, Harlenes, Tess, Mario, without dwelling a lot about their life stories as for the other parts of the play. Even Marcel and Sweet got airtime.
Our scene ended with the characters revealing their wishes and dreams for their future selves when they were younger. My particular favorite, as mentioned before, is Tuxqs' "Ako simple lang- to have a baby before menopause."

Oedipus the King by Sophocles

This week, we tackled Oedipus the King in class in a way that was a little different from how we discussed during high school. Back then, we discussed the story by the five elements of the plot; introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. This time though, we discussed the play by Aristotle's elements of a good tragedy. In this case, we were able to point out the minemesis, catharsis, hamartia and the peripeteia. With that said, I would like to now move further to an analysis on the significant parts of the play.

Firstly, the play started with the people of the kingdom rallying for the salvation of their crops from the king, which is Oedipus. It was determined in class that the style of the narrative resembled that of a detective/crime story (think Sherlock Holmes), being that it started with the problem until it uncovered the circumstances that added up to the problem of the dwindling supply of good crops. 
Second, the events that lead to the solution of the crop problem. When Oedipus sent his brother-in-law to find out why there was a problem with the crops, Creon comes back to relay that the killer of King Laius, the king before Oedipus helped the kingdom break free from a curse, had to be found and exiled. Oedipus then calls out for another hermit to help determine who the killer was. When confronted, the messenger/hermit starts with that he'd rather not say who the killer was. Since Oedipus had a tragic hero flaw of pride, selfishness and impatience, he forced the messenger to say who it was. The messenger claims that the killer was Oedipus. He gets furious and accuses Creon of wanting to usurp the crown. Creon, then logically counteracts this statement by saying that he does not need to seize the the title of being king because being a brother-in-law of the king gives him almost the same amount of nobility and also he wouldn't want it because the problems of the kingdom will be passed on to him. 
Third, Oedipus finds out the conditions that lead to the fulfilment of the prophecy. The prophecy is that King Lauis and Queen Jocasta will bear a son that will kill his own father and to wed his own mother. In the events, Oedipus then finds out that this prophecy already came true when he killed his biological father in a road rage of sorts. Then he has already married his own mother after ridding the kingdom from the Sphinx by answering a riddle, which makes him the reason of the plague of the crops. 

The play constantly puts the character's tendencies of wanting to save people to be heroic and the character's tragic flaw that is being impatient and proud. According to Aristotle, that element makes up a good tragedy. Another element of a good tragedy is a character's descent from a good life to vulnerability and vice versa. In this case, Oedipus was king and then the discovery of the fulfilment of the prophecy took place.

Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden

Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden combines two things I keep a special liking to, literature and visual arts (of which I am both a frustrated creator of). Although the combination of the works were inching more for the literature side since the poem used the Brueghel paintings to relay an imagery. 
The first part of the poem uses the painting, Census of Bethlehem, which shows the apathethic-ness of people towards the birth of Jesus as shown in the painting. The second part pays homage to the Fall of Icarus. Both paintings pointed out how people can be uninvolved towards a happening even if it is current or urgent. I am not going to dwell more about the aesthetic of the paintings even if I did say I like to appreciate paintings, I'm afraid I'm not in a mood to do so right now. Instead, I would like to discuss the meaning of the poem and how it relates to life. In the same way, with the present-day problems the country or the world is experiencing, I myself have my fair share of wanting to do something significant in order for the circumstances to change. However, I feel like I can not do enough so it may look like I don't care about current events. I believe that in the last line of the poem it is relaying that life goes on and we can't help but be affected about small things or in this case, unaffected about overwhelming matters or vice versa.

Walking Around by Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda was able to explain the horrors of materialism, suburban living and the suffocating confines of the corporate world in his surreal poem, Walking Around. The first time I read it, I thought "hey it's about a man sick of life in general and shit he's walking around town to ponder" but turns out, it was something a bit more existential. 

Pablo Neruda symbolised tailor shops and movie houses as a way for people to have fake appearances for something they are not. He was also able to point out that people were only after artificial matters nowadays thus we rely on it too much. Additionally, according to Neruda, politics and religion should be eliminated because it only causes greed and conflicts. Also, the corporate world, a matter Neruda (or at least the persona) feels strongly against, is highlighted by the lines "I don’t want to go on as a root and a tomb, alone under the ground, a warehouse with corpses, half frozen, dying of grief". Working in an office means you are always under somebody, working so hard but having the work credited for the higher people in the end. Working in an office signifies the death of being able to pursue your dreams, impossibility for intellectual growth to flourish since one is set out to focus on one specific job to accomplish. Such a waste of talent. The persona of the poem is frustrated because he wants to change how things work but higher things are working for such a system to continue. 

Even before encountering this poem for class, I have decided that I would not like to work in an office for a living. I was able to see the effects of the corporate world to my parents, their friends, family members and even from the movies. I am a part of a younger generation with an idea of traveling, sleeping 'til the afternoon for less work hours, and being your own boss, as an ideal career in life. 

But really, no one is sure of the future anyway. What if, like all the other dreamers who had high hopes for their careers but failed to make it happen, I would be forced to work in an office as well?

The city, full of paradoxical beginnings and endings, is a hell where no one can completely escape out of in Neruda's opinion. It's awfully depressing of how true this situation is. We live on, encountering bones and decaying into bones ourselves, passing by office buildings and clothes lines. We are all trapped in the system. 

Python in the Mall by Rolando S. Tinio

Python in the Mall was a really amusing poem that pays homage to an urban legend of a half-snake half-human that preys on beautiful girls in the fitting rooms of a certain department store in the Philippines. Rumour has it that the half-snake half-human creature is said to be a family member of the Gokongwei family whose names are popular for the Robinsons malls fortune.  
I looked at of how easy it was to spread urban legends during this time in the 80s without the internet which was a free platform where everything can be accessed to be learned, published and speculated upon. It could either be that people were more gossipy or they were really just more gullible back then. During class, upon taking the poem up, we also discussed the dominant sound of the poem which is "S". This symbolises the hissing sound the snake makes. Later on I learned that it also relates to a business strategy. 

Considering everything, I really think that sound is an important way to approach the readers by with the meaning of a poem. Also, urban legends are inevitable in a location where people utilise language, really. One way of looking at it is when people are bored enough, they have nothing better to do, that they want to make up myths in the populace, or when someone needs to divert a problem, etcetera.