Creating Enchantment

I wanted to write another entry that doesn’t tackle this issue anymore, but alas, this is still what occupies my mind nowadays, and not even my socks getting wet from the rain because I found out too late that my shoe had a hole on it, was enough to distract me from crawling the internet still, to find more things being said and written about this National Artist controversy.

So I know that to everyone else outside of the art community, or perhaps even within the art community, this issue has faded and has been overshadowed by more pressing matters, whether in their personal lives or in our nation as after all, this is only a matter of an award being given to the wrong people (or maybe they’re the right people, but the awards were given at the wrong time), and not the death of soldiers at war. But as I have nothing but sadness for those people who have died, and anger at the world for letting things like that happen, I will talk more about this issue, which I feel is closer to my heart.

I am definitely not happy about how things are turning out, especially with the fact that there are less and less people who care about this. And I am still hoping against hope that this will all be corrected somehow, because it will be very sad for our history (and future too, I guess), if the National Artist Award really does become nothing more than something a president gives to his/her friends. But there is something positive that has come out of this whole thing.

The previous topics that have had a lot of bloggers typing away on their keyboards, posting all their different opinions to the world, haven’t really been all that engaging. I’m talking about the Malu Fernandez fiasco and that thing about Customs putting taxes on books. There were many things wrong with those issues, true, but what made them worse were the over-emotional mean-spirited comments that people kept saying about them. I know that it’s hard to stay objective when someone has just said that she’d rather slit her wrists than ride the same airplane with the likes of you, but calling that person a pig and saying that she doesn’t have a right to live because she’s fat and ugly, really doesn’t make you any better. I had tried to avoid the internet then because I didn’t want to see so many haters finding someone to lash their anger out on. And for a moment, I thought that I might experience the same thing this time, with this issue. But as it turns out, most of the things I have read that talk about this, are some of the most interesting things I’ve ever read.

The links I posted in the previous entry are just a small faction of a collection of the most insightful commentary I’ve read about art in our country. I found yet another one through clicking on links of different sites, and I liked it so much that I wrote this entry, just so I could share it:

Weighing in on the National Artists Controversy
by R.E. De Leon

There really are many others and I feel bad that I wasn’t able to save all of the links to them, or even remember who their writers are. But here, let me give the link to this one again:

Komikero Comics Journal

I have been reading that more than I’ve been reading my friends’ blogs these past few weeks, because it has the updates on the issue, and also interesting discussions in the comments section.

I do hope you visit it, and maybe share your two cents, too. As long as it’s not a troll-like comment, I’m sure it will be appreciated.

My wish now is for the rest of the artits and writers out there to speak up the way the others have done. I’m a little jaded so I don’t know if any amount of noise we make will make its way to people who don’t want to listen to us, but I do think that if there are others out there like me, who are at least inspired by what you have to say, and are even learning from it (honestly, I haven’t put down the dictionary since August 1, because there are just so many complicated words being used to describe and explain all of this), then I think any amount of effort you put into it will be worth it.

Sorry naman, I know it’s so uncharacteristic of me to care about this (or anything, really) pero promise, I’m not kidding, mas-stinalk ko pa ang website ng Inquirer kaysa sa Facebook page ng crush ko*, kakahintay sa kung may sasabihin ba si Conrado de Quiros about this issue. At ayan, meron na nga.

*This is actually hypothetical. Actually, wala akong Facebook. Pero kung meron man, at contact ko nga ‘dun ‘yung crush ko, malamang madalas ko nga titignan ‘yung page niya, except for these past few days, kasi nga…

Anyway, tama nang satsat. I’ll get to the topic. Seriously, I’d been waiting for articles like these because I know, that they’ll be able to articulate it far better than I can.

And honestly, I think it’s good that De Quiros set this aside, and published it only after the Cory-related columns that he wrote, because it’s now a more level-headed and objective take on the issue. Medyo nag-settle na kasi ‘yung mga pangyayari (sa public, at least. I know sa mga artist hindi pa rin, at sana hindi magsesettle until finally ma-correct ‘yung error).

So here I am providing the link to his latest column (well, as of this writing, August 12), which I think everyone, and I mean everyone — artists and non-artists + the people involved (e.g. Caparas, not that he’s going to believe any of it because his mind is closed, but you never know), at lalung-lalo na ‘yung mga walang pakialam sa art community ng Pilipinas. Para maintindihan n’yo kung bakit controversy ito.

DELUSIONS by Conrado de Quiros

Oh, and I just want to say, that if you find yourself being compared to Imelda Marcos, who we all know is one of the main reasons for all kinds of bad stuff that have happened to our country, and you find yourself being described as worse than she is, then you must be truly truly evil.**

**If you didn’t understand this comment, I’m telling you, read the column!

And here’s more. They’re older than the column of De Quiros and I guess I should’ve posted them earlier, but anyways…

From Butch Dalisay:

The Corruption of Culture
How Delicadeza Works–or Not

And one from Isagani Cruz, which I also really liked reading, because he made an excellent point, regarding the “pang-masa kasi si Caparas” issue, and brought up FPJ.

The 2009 Philippine National Artists Awards

‘Yon. ‘Yun na. Maybe I’ll update more on this later on, pero baka iwasan ko rin muna ‘yung topic. Pinagtatawanan na’ko ng mga kakilala ko, bakit daw ako may pakialam sa mga bagay na ito. Pero mali pala ‘no, dapat imbis na umiwas ako, tanungin ko na lang sila, “Bakit kayo walang pakialam?”

(Haha! Nagpaka-righteous pa’ko! Sorry na.)