The power of literature is such that it can change the course of history, like the novels Noli Me Tangere and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. There is an indefinable something in books that even their authors couldn’t have created. I learned this firsthand when I read Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs. It was spooky, sinister and thoroughly enjoyable at the same time.
The plot alone will perk all your senses: a young woman is tasked to obtain information about a serial killer from the most intelligent and brilliantly incisive sociopath that ever lived.
Here are the dramatis personae:
Clarice Starling is an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but she’s young and inexperienced. Buffalo Bill abducts women, and he kills them and takes their skins. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a psychiatrist with an intelligence that is immeasurable by any standards known to man, but he eats flesh – hence the media-dubbed “Hannibal the Cannibal” – and he’s confined in the maximum security prison for the criminally insane. Now their paths will cross, and nothing will ever be the same again.
It would be misleading to think of The Silence of the Lambs as your common garden-variety psychological thriller. You’ll get thrilled – but ponderous as well. It is so thought-provoking to the point of enabling the reader to see the situation from a deranged person’s point of view. It doesn’t mean you’ll go crazy, mind you. I wouldn’t call it The World According to Psycho, but it’s alarmingly near the area.
Who, after all, is really insane? The people who are overpowered by their desires, or those in power who manipulate others like puppets in a string?
The psychological highlights are the encounters of Clarice and Hannibal deep inside the prison, giving you claustrophobia and reminding of dungeons where monsters reign.
Paradoxically, the reason why it’s so hard to catch psychotic criminals, according to Lecter, it’s that there are too many psychiatrists giving conflicting interpretations of behavior. A person’s every action and motivation have been labeled and compartmentalized that even the line between right and wrong has become just a matter of one’s perspective – or prejudice.
Is insanity a crime? That is one of the many questions the book asks by inference. Is an insane person absolutely evil and a threat to society? Let’s take Hannibal: he has committed murders – not to mention eating his victims -- but he was instrumental in the capture of the serial killer Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill, on the other hand, is not necessarily the devil incarnate because he loves his dog.
There is enough ambiguity in The Silence of the Lambs that even if you already know who the good guys are supposed to be, you find yourself hesitating to take sides unconditionally. There is, for example, the vengeful prison director who cares only for publicity, and the lady Senator who bent the rules and betrayed Lecter. Then again, you really can’t blame her because her daughter – the latest victim of Buffalo Bill – is in mortal danger.
The cast of characters in The Silence of the Lambs is a microcosm of human nature. There are heroes and villains but they are all flawed. Nothing is black and white. Everybody has a dark side, but everybody is also potentially good, even the criminally insane.
Somebody once said that nothing is original under the sun. I think it was Mark Twain and he probably got the idea from somebody else.
In novels, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the inspiration for Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot – he said so himself – but that’s where the comparisons end.
The Master of the Macabre infuses new blood (pardon the pun) into the vampire genre. It all started with the morbid dinner-table question: If vampires infest a small town in the middle of nowhere, would the authorities find them?
The answer is apparently a chilling "No!" as vampires invade the town of Jerusalem’s Lot before the citizens even knew what hit them.
Stephen King is not the greatest literary phenomenon in the 20th century for nothing. Salem’s Lot is a feast of vampires – both literal and allegorical. Evil comes from without and within.
One of the most thought-provoking scenes is the battle between the vampire and the priest. Father Callahan was defeated and the vampire told him why – because he doubted his faith. King highlights the lessons we tend to forget at out own peril: no demons can conquer us from without unless we let ourselves be conquered from within.
The King of Horror – a baseball fan – throws another curve-ball at our complacency: the guy who saves the town (the neighboring towns, at least) is an outsider and was unapologetically treated as such. Ben Mears is a writer who rented the abandoned Marsten House. It raised the eyebrows of the locals but it turns out that the haunted house was already rented to somebody else. It also turns out that the occupant is the vampire himself.
Stephen King summons us to his world of make-believe like a supernatural Pied Pier, but we go nonetheless because we want to believe. Conjuring up a terrifying atmosphere has become an art in King’s deft hand. When the delivery man unknowingly takes the vampire’s coffin – while the night was falling – we want to scream until we’re reminded that we are safely away from the action. But we keep coming back.
Stephen King’s vampires are easier to kill than those of Anne Rice’s. For one thing, a wooden stake driven into their hearts can actually turn them into dust in the wind like the fellow from Transylvania. But it doesn’t necessarily render them less deadly.
Vampires are more lethal than ghosts because they infect their victims to become just like them. It’s like level marketing but your investment is your life and your product is death. Apply that to Jerusalem’s Lot and what you get is a town populated by the Undead.
What you don’t know won’t hurt you because ignorance is bliss, that’s why vampires hypnotize you. The enemy feeds on your fear, but they are at their most powerful once they take away your will. That’s a traditional belief in folklore – and also a lesson in life.
There is a tradition of dismissing horror stories as mere popular entertainment. But that’s exactly the point: tales of the supernatural are popular precisely because they entertain the general public. This elitism can give literary critics a bad rep. That Stephen King is a first-rate writer is no question. The trouble is that his novels are too famous – right in the smack of the mainstream.
About two or three generations of teenagers and young adults grew up with King’s books such as the phenomenal breakthrough novel Carrie, the cult-favorite The Dark Tower trilogy, the epic The Stand, and of course, Salem’s Lot. Stephen King has become synonymous with terrifying bestsellers and prodigious output, averaging two major thousand-page wonders a year.
Even before John Grisham and Michael Crichton entered the scene, King was already writing successful novels that are instantly adapted into becoming successful movies, like the critically acclaimed Misery starring James Caan and Academy Award Winner Kathy Bates. Salem’s Lot has also been turn into a movie and was recently revived as a U.S. TV miniseries.
Adaptations, however, can never compete with literary works because the imagination of the readers takes the driver’s seat while going full blast with whatever the author springs up from his magic hat. When you visualize a situation where your neighbor is trying to suck your blood, you get really intrigued about what happens next. Only a top-class writer can do that to you.
One of the positive developments in the aftermath of the Philippine-American War is the official adoption of English as medium of instruction in the public schools. After the hostilities, Filipino and American educators got together and agreed that a common language is essential in unifying a nation divided by a plethora of dialects.
Jose P. Laurel, in his classic essay The Glorification Of A Common Inheritance, pointed out that although a national tongue alone does not constitute racial identity, “Unity of language is unquestionably a binding force of utmost importance.”
Salvador P. Lopez, in The Future Of Filipino Literature In English, wrote: “We shall have more contact with the rest of the world. During this period we shall negotiate for trade, for security, for a neighborly living with the rest of mankind. At the same time, we shall be expressed more fully to the currents of universal culture. And as we continue to absorb the elements of this culture, we shall be better be able to contribute to the stream.”
A New Generation
Philippine essays developed side by side with Philippine journalism. The introduction of the language ushered in a new generation of English speaking readers and thus, a growing demand for materials in that language. American publications eventually gave way to Filipino-owned magazines and newspapers.
Campus organs served as the spring-boards for the growth of Philippine literature in English. It was instrumental as well in exposing the younger generations to the rudiments of the new lingo. Some of the noteworthy school publications were the Literary Apprentice and the College Folio of U.P. and the Quill and Argonaut of U.S.T.
After college, the works of these students graduated to the Sunday magazines of the metro dailies and other magazines. Publishers and editors saw how literary sections generate interest and consequently increase circulation.
Prominence and Professionalism
In the same way that British and American essays matured through such magazines as Spectator and the Courant, so has Philippine essay gained prominence and professionalism in several pre-War publications. Among them are Herald Midweek, Expression, Dear Devices and Philippine Magazine, an influential monthly edited by A.V.H. Hartendorp, which featured essays, fiction and poetry of the highest order.
In 1939, the Commonwealth Literary Contests, the first state-sponsored literary award, was established. And during the Occupation, the Japanese sponsored Review and Pillars solicited censored literary works. Some writers were forced to conform to the accepted political thought and thus, freedom of expression, which is a fundamental concept of good writing, was tortured to submission.
Mastery of the Language
It was after the Liberation when Philippine literature in English in general and Philippine essay in English in particular achieved a rennaissance, showing a mastery of the language that was uncanny. In the words of Leon Ma.Guerrero, in his essay What Are Filipino Like?: “Our adaptability, or imitativeness, like our family system, is largely self protective.”
It was during this time when the Philippine American came out with some of the finest literary talents in the country. Another welcome development in it’s wake is the payment of the then staggering amount of one hundred pesos for each article. The incentive fueled the growth of professional writing. Unfortunately, the magazine folded up after a year.
The year 1951 saw the birth of the Philippine Quarterly, a government sponsored publication issued by the Philippine Information Council. It was accepted without question as the best quality magazine in the country in points of writing, editing and printing. It was circulated mostly abroad. However appropriations were stopped and it ceased publication after the sixth issue.
Poignant and Timeless
The classics have an unsurpassed lyrically melodious quality, like Godofredo Rivera’s Thanks My Lord: “And so I built myself a shed of green leaves at the edge of a brook. Days I filled my little heart with joy. Nights I filled my little heart in the gossamer of peace…Each night an augury. Each day a reality. How wonderful is life.” Convict’s Twilight by Arturo B. Rotor is a tapestry of the finest silk in the hands of a master weaver: “The forest…now assumes that calm that is more breathless and awesome than silence…One must pray here, if only to relieve the terrifying solitude, to stay the gathering darkness.” Fernando Maramag paints an unforgettable ode to Fernando Ma. Guerrero: “Poet and patriot of the first order, he has touched the life of his people.” And Jose A. Lansang’s Stirrings is both poignant and timeless: “Life is a placid lake of unsounded depths in a quiet valley…A fallen leaf…creases the smooth surface…Then it reverts back to it’s clear smoothness, to mirror again the pageantry of the clouds by dawn and the glorious stars by night.”
The First Test of Literature
In summing up, let us borrow once more the words of Lopez: “If the first test of literature is the test of continued growth and development, then it may safely be said that no literature written in any other language can pass this test successfully as English. Filipino writers in English have exhibited an enormous capacity for rapid growth and development and have produced a body of writing that is both competent and distinguished.”
Jose P. Laurel photo courtesy of PhilippineHistory.org. This story originally appeared in Philippine Panorama, April 1, 2007
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Beginning today, I will start all over again. They said that yesterday is a dream, today is a reality, and tomorrow is a vision. On this day, I’m letting go of the past and taking hold of the present – in order to shape and mold the future to what I want it to be.
Beginning today, I will rediscover and appreciate my uniqueness. There has never been anyone like me in all of history, and there never will be. Like in the Kenny Loggins song For The First Time, I am looking in my eyes, for the first time, I am seeing who I am. I am getting re-acquainted with my inner self – and it’s a wonderful feeling.
Beginning today, I will conquer my emotions. I shall be the master of my fate and captain of my soul. Through steady effort and God’s grace, I am achieving peace with myself and with the world around me.
Some say that success is getting what you want. In a way this is true. But I believe that real happiness is wanting what you get.
But is it possible to have it both ways? Can you be successful and happy at the same time? The more fundamental question should be: Why should happiness be separated from success? They say it is lonely at the top – but how can that be if you had been a light leading others on the way to the peak?
To illustrate, let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, there was a rich merchant named Hafid. He had the biggest trade empire in all the land. He was extremely wealthy, highly respected – and truly happy. Hafid had it all: fame, fortune and inner peace.
He even had a precious gem: a true friend. Erasmus was Hafid’s loyal bookkeeper – who was shocked when Hafid told him to distribute all his treasures to all those who had been loyal to him and to the less fortunate because Hafid had grown very old.
Hafid asked him, “My trusted comrade, is your memory of sufficient strength to recall the first command you received from me when you entered my employ many years ago?”
Erasmus remembered: “I was enjoined by you to remove, each year, half the profit from our treasury and dispense it to the poor.”
Hafid said, “Did you not, at that time, consider me as a foolish man of business?” When Erasmus admitted his initial forebodings, the merchant continued, “Will you now admit that your concern was without ground?”
So you see, the secret of success with happiness is being able to give back, of being able to share your blessings to those who deserve them.
But there are other secrets.
And those secrets are contained in ten leather scrolls that Hafid keeps in a chest in a secret room.
I have read those scrolls – and I have become a better person by gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of my true worth and my role in life.
It is because a man who has brought inspiration and spiritual affirmation to generations revealed them to the world.
This is why one of my favorite books of all time is The Greatest Salesman In The World by Og Mandino.
And so, beginning today, I will always keep in mind that the “The only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits, Good habits are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey, which precedeth all others is – I will develop good habits and become their slaves”
Above all, beginning to day, I resolve never to forget the counsel of Hafid’s foster father Pathros: “Failure will never overtake you if your determination to succeed is strong enough.”
Og Mandino photo courtesy of OgMandino.com. This story originally appeared in Philippine Panorama
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Life is about growing up and finding our place in this world. But it doesn’t always turn out the way we think it should, and things are not always what we perceive them to be. Bad people can also do good things, and good people sometimes do bad things, as well. These are lessons in life, and with them comes wisdom.
But what we may never know is why bad things happen to good people.
Shortly after Christopher Reeve’s accident, his three-year old son Will looked up to his mother and said his daddy can’t play him anymore. The boy seemed lost in thought and then exclaimed happily, “But he can still smile!”
It was an event that stunned the world. After portraying the Man of Steel in one of the most successful film series of all time, Christopher Reeve – Superman – became paralyzed from a sporting accident. In his memoir Still Me, he shares the pains and the joys, the agonies and the triumphs, of a man who would not give up, and he shows us the true meaning of courage, heroism and faith.
A Sickening Crash
It was May 1995, and Reeve was competing in an equestrian event. His horse, Buck, performed well at the first and second jumps. But on the third, Buck suddenly froze. The momentum catapulted Reeve and he smashed into the ground – headfirst – with a sickening crash.
“Within seconds I was paralyzed from the neck down and fighting for air like a drowning person.” For almost a week he remained unconscious. Upon waking, he found himself at the intensive care unit of the University Of Virginia Hospital. Dr. John Jane, head of neurosurgery, discovered that Reeve’s top two cervical vertebrae were destroyed.
His wife Dana was shocked to hear that there was a strong possibility that he may be able to breathe on his own again. The doctor explained that the skull was severed from the spinal column, and was pessimistic about the odds of survival.
Reeve was aghast. “Suddenly it dawned on me that I was going to be a huge burden to everybody, that I had ruined my life and everybody else’s.”
His thoughts became morbid, and suicide kept flashing on his mind.
“I’ll Be With You”
Emotional turmoil raged like a tempest within him. Reeve was deeply thankful for the family and friends who came. “But the time would come when everybody had to leave, and I’d lie there and stare at the wall, stare at the future, stare in disbelief.” In his dreams he was whole again, living a normal life. It was painful every time he would wake up, and the weight of reality would press heavier still.
One morning, he gazed into his wife and their eyes locked. He tried to speak, but the ventilator prevented him. He mouthed, “Maybe we should let me go.”
Dana started to cry. Despite the extreme agony, she declared, “I am only going to say this once. I will support you whatever you want to do because this is your life and your decision. But I want you to know that I’ll be with you for the long haul, no matter what.”
“You’re Still You”
Christopher and Dana met in June 1987. He was in a club with some friends when Dana went onstage and sang The Music That Makes Me Dance. It was love at first sight. Totally smitten, Reeve went backstage and introduced himself. He was already making a name for himself as a movie actor, so he was startled when she turned down his offer of a ride home: “No thanks, I have my own car.” Totally crestfallen, all Reeve could say was, “Oh.” Undaunted and even more intrigued, he tried again.
“I have no idea what we talked about. Everything seemed to evaporate around us. I thought to myself, I don’t want to make a mistake and ruin this.”
They began dating. He hit it off well with her parents and she instantly bonded with his two kids Matthew and Alexandra. “It filled me with joy,” he reminisced.
On April 1992, Christopher and Dana were married.
That morning when he was struggling with the ventilator, he remembered her words at the hospital: “You’re still you.”
In a flash it dawned on him. “I knew then and there that she was going to be with me forever.”
A Huge Success
Reeve was warned that he had a 50/50 chance of surviving the operation. “I lay frozen much of the time, thinking dark thoughts.” His most formidable problem was breathing. “I couldn’t take a single breath on my own, and the ventilator connections didn’t always hold.”
There were vivid moments when he would lie awake at night, apprehensive that they might pop-off anytime. “The feeling of helplessness was hard to take.”
One day, immersed in a bleak mood, Reeve was unnerved when the door suddenly flew open, and a squat man wearing thick glasses and a surgical gown scurried in and proclaimed – with a Russian accent – that he’s a proctologist and he’d do an examination now! Reeve was frightened that the drugs had addled his brain, but he then joyfully recognized the weird fellow.
It was Robin Williams!
Then Reeve did something he though he had forgotten.
“For the first time since the accident, I laughed.”
The operation was held on June 5, and it was a huge success. He was now able to breathe on his own.
To Last Forever
A fund-raising dinner in honor of Robin Williams was to be held that October by the Creative Coalition, an organization of people from various artistic fields. Reeve was determined to attend, but his greatest worry was the trip to New York. “It would be the fist time I would be in public since the accident in May. Would my muscles go into a spasm as they often did?”
He and Dana talked it over. They were fully aware of the physical risks, but they both agreed that the psychological benefits would be incalculable. And so the tuxedo was brought out, and Reeve braced himself for the adventure. Being strapped in a moving van was terrifying. “As we hit bumps and potholes, my neck froze with tension, and my body was racked with spasms.”
Upon arrival, he was rushed to a hotel suite equipped with a hospital bed to recuperate from the ordeal of the journey. “The whole experience was intense that I had anticipated.” Reeve was to present a special award to Williams.
On his wheelchair behind the curtains, he was trembling with fear. He had absolutely no idea what to expect. He even wished he could just simply vanish. Then he heard his name being called. It’s time.
“As I was pushed onto the stage, though, I looked out to see 700 people on their feet, cheering.” The whole auditorium shook with the intensity of the applause. The entire audience was in tears, inspired, uplifted, and grateful for his heroism. It was crystal clear: Christopher Reeve is Superman.
The ovations seemed to last forever. It was more than a tribute. It was a benediction.
A celebration of life.
Photo of Christopher and Dana Reeve courtesy of Engagements.ca Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks
Since the dawn of time, man has wrought life-giving harvests from barren soil, and stately kingdoms from jagged rocks. Only in earnest and honest labor can a man prove himself worthy to be called as such. The salvation of one’s soul lies in a Higher Power, but as Paul wrote, “Faith without works is dead.” Not ‘works’ in the sense of building a cathedral to gain Paradise, but rather, the re-focusing of the entire being to the pursuit of those actions that bring about the alleviation of suffering from those around him. As Pope XII said, “Work is not only, for every man, a means of decent livelihood, but it is the means through which all these manifold powers and faculties with which nature, training and art, have endowed the dignity of the human personality, find their necessary expression.”
A man is born and grows into manhood, and in between are the crucibles of experiences that have forged his character. A man must work, if he is to live in accordance the dictates of his conscience, and it is precisely at this point in his life that complications set in. The most fundamental is the archetypical young man who wants to be an artist but whose parents wants him to follow the family’s tradition of practicing medicine. True freedom means economic freedom. Not necessarily being rich in the Forbes Park sense, but simply having enough to be able to pursue one’s true calling free from the twin Damocles’ Sword of starvation and homelessness.
Convenient Boogeyman
On the other hand, there are people who don’t work because they can afford not to work. This is the principal reason for the steady rise of the unemployment rate. Their lifestyle is subsidized by their parents and relatives, and in the process they accumulate what economists term as discretionary income, the allocation of which is subject only to whim and fancy. It is natural to see students spending hours chatting about meaningless trivialities and mastering mind-numbing games in internet cafes. More extreme examples include those youths who have stopped schooling by choice and hook up with liquor, gambling, bad company and illegal drugs. And if budgetary constraints prop up from time to time, they bewail their lot and indulge in self-pity. And since people with essentially weak characters are obsessed with their rights but never with their responsibilities, they look for blame, and the most convenient boogeyman is the Establishment, with mass media running close to second.
Dr. Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera’s insights on this phenomenon is timeless, and today, even more relevant: “Our very concept of happiness in life is erroneous. It seems we base it on the idea of tranquility and want to conquer peace by always fleeing from the struggle from all work that signifies bodily or mental exertion. We want a carefree life…We also want lucrative sinecures so that we may be able to earn more remuneration with less work.”
The Greatest Cause
The single greatest cause for this pervasive social malaise is the avoidance of assuming responsibilities for one’s actions. Vendors ply their trade and squatters build their houses on places they know are legally critical, and when the hand of the law comes down, they appeal to the emotions of the public. Some irresponsible members of the media are only too willing to cater to their exaggerated and imagined protests about tyranny and oppression.
Politicians running for elections have mastered this technique. In their campaigns, instead of focusing on how to provide decent homes and livelihoods for the urban poor, they promise security of tenure and financial assistance in return for political support – which last exactly until voting booths close at 3PM.
There is no such thing as a man forced into criminality. Poverty has nothing to do with character. A man with solid moral scruples would rather sell crumpled Coke cans to junkshops than snatch cell phones. This same principle can be applicable to everything.
In situations like the above, the most common alibi is that their family is hungry and that they’re desperate – and that is precisely the point. A young man marries even though he hasn’t yet finished his studies and his bank account is zero. He may be earning, but he ignores the fact that the costs of living will dramatically rise especially with the arrival of the children: hospital costs, milk, clothing, schooling – not to mention the ever-present bills for food, rent electricity, water and dozens of miscellaneous items. A person who does not assume responsibilities for hic actions breaks down from the pressure of these kinds of circumstances.
The “I’m Special” Mindset
An equally important factor is the ‘I’m special’ mindset. A significant segment of the citizenry actually believes their self-worth will be lessened if they abide by established protocols in society. Traffic lights and factual Statements of Assets and Liabilities are ignored with the “Everybody is doing it” mentality. No decent and self respecting person will want to engage with someone who doesn’t play by the rules. A.T.Veloro said it succinctly: “The law was made for the purpose of maintaining order in a society which otherwise would be in a state of confusion. But one is caught violating, for instance, a traffic law when the offender asks a traffic policeman, ‘Paano natin maa-areglo ito? (How can we settle this?)’ This kind of attitude has encouraged the rapid growth of fixers.”
The chief cause of this the widespread disillusionment brought about by the stark, vulgar thievery of certain law enforcers. Graft and corruption is universal in the sense that it exists in very country in the world, but in the Philippines, it has become so rampant to the point of legitimacy, reminiscent of the gangsters and bootleggers in Prohibition-era America. And it is precisely these same individuals whom the government wants to enforce the ill-conceived and unpopular National ID plan.
Sense of Inevitable Doom.
Another cause is what the late Senator Raul Roco termed ‘learned helplessness.’ Being cynical is not bad per se – ask Diogenes and King Solomon. But as in all things in the universe, ‘Balance’ is the key. Exposure to any form of propaganda should be in the context of disciplined inquiry and criticism, and at the same time, not succumbing to the false sense of inevitable doom. Reality is what we make of it, and the crucial factor here is ‘Attitude’ As F. Langbridge said, “Two men looked at prison bars; one saw the mud, the other saw stars.”
Although society’s ills are too ingrained to be eradicated in a generation, within each and everyone of us lies the ability to make this world a better place in our own little ways. Aesop illustrated this principle thousands of years ago with his fable about the thirsty crow, the half-filled bottle and the little stones. A majestric molave tree sprang from a tiny seed, and Michelangelo’s Sistine masterpiece started out as a germ of thought. The pebbles we pitch create ripples in the river of life. The inverse is equally true, and the image that arises is of those social climbers at the Baywalk who throw their trash in Manila Bay – then wail about living in a polluted world.
A Different Perspective
A man who is gainfully employed, who desires only simplicity and peace, has a different perspective in life. His sense of empowerment, however small, lifts him from despair, and offers a glimpse of a brighter and more secure future. “There is perennial nobleness and even sacredness, in work,” as Thomas Carlyle wrote. “Destiny on the whole has no other way of cultivating us.”
Character development is one of the fundamentals of good writing. Characters are more than just players in the authors’ mental theater. Readers relate to books because the protagonists reflect foibles that are universal, like love, fear, sorrow, doubt and everything else in the whole spectrum of human emotion.
Most people have encountered characters in books who have shown them new ways of looking at things and thus, enriched their lives and hopefully, made them better persons. Allow me to share with you some interesting fellows I’ve met along the way.
CRISOSTOMO IBARRA
He is the epitome of an educated man: discreet, tactful, introspective, respectful, socially aware, compassionate, intelligent, patriotic and courageous beyond words. Both a man of thought and a man of action, Jose Rizal’s hero in Noli Me Tangere is everything a gentleman should be.
HOLGRAVE
Nathaniel Hawthorne paints this boarder at The House Of Seven Gables as thus: “It was a pleasant sight to behold this young man, with so much faith in himself, and so fair an appearance of admirable powers, so little harmed too, by the many tests that had tried his mettle.”
This young adventurer had been a voyager, writer, photographer, teacher, editor, salesman, but despite his many assumed identities, “Putting off one exterior and snatching up another, to be soon shifted to a third, he had never violated the innermost man.”
Fiercely independent, he wants to live on his own terms, by his own rules, unshackled by the chains of tradition: “Shall we never, never get rid of this Past? It lies upon the Present like a giant’s dead body!” And when you really think about it, it’s the only way to live.
IVAN KARAMAZOV
This non-conformist young Russian is the most intellectual, the most incisive and the most interesting in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s gallery of rogues. His conversion with his younger brother Alyosha reveals stunning insights on the complexities of the human condition: “I could never understand how one can love one’s neighbors. It’s just one’s neighbors, to my mind, that one can’t love.”
One of the most celebrated chapters in literature is found in The Brothers Karamazov: ‘The Grand Inquisitor’ It is a poem written by Ivan about Christ’s unscheduled arrival in Moscow. It goes beyond being a mere chapter in a novel. It presents stunning new vistas of philosophy and history.
An equally unforgettable scene is Ivan’s encounter with the Devil. The Satanic verses alone is worth the years reading this classic.
MR. GESSLER
He is a gruff but endearing German shoemaker in John Galsworthy’s classic short story “Quality.” He is the ultimate man of character. He would not pander to people but his creations are a testament to his unmatched skills and deep devotion to his craft. In his own guttural words: “Dey get id all. Dey get id by advertisement, nod by work.”
He personified substance over form. After his death, the young man who took over his shop told the narrator, “Slow starvation, the doctors called it. You see, he went to work in such a way!...Wouldn’t have a soul touch his boots except himself. When he got an order, it took him such a time. People won’t wait…And there he’d sit, goin’ on and on – I will say this for him – not a man in London made a better boot!”
DON JUAN MATUS
In Carlos Castaneda’s Journey To Ixtlan, this Yacqui Indian sorcerer is shown to be a man of contradictions. There are certain episodes where you love to hate him, but at the same time – and when all is said and done – he’s one of the best teachers anyone can ever have. Following his footsteps means moving on to a higher level of existence and achieving a deeper understanding of the mysterious forces in the universe: Assume responsibility for your actions, Treat Death as an Advisor, Erase personal history and Live the life of a Warrior – tapping the world ever so slightly, then leaving without a trace.
BATMAN
Batman? Yes, Batman. Created by Bob Kane (sounds like Bruce Wayne), The Caped Crusader started his career in comics. Comics is a form of literature, more visual but just as valid and in many ways more immediate.
What makes a guy richer than Lucio Tan to disguise himself like a flying rodent and act like Charles Bronson? But he doesn’t kill, there’s the rub! His desperate need to avenge his parents’ murder drove him to fight crime in the abyss of the enemies’ lair: the dark, merciless city streets. But it also gave him a preternatural obsession for the sanctity of life. This inner conflict made him what he is: A super-hero – and a real human being.
THE LITTLE PRINCE
Everybody loves Antoine St. Exupery’s fox-taming, volcano-cleaning (“coz y’never know”), rose-growing little squirt. That “What is essential is invisible to the eye” altered the attitudes of a lot of people -- and he made the stars laugh too!
JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL
He’s more than a bird. And of all the novels in the galaxy, may I humbly recommend Richard Bach’s immortal classic for those who haven’t read it yet. It will change your life – or at the very least make you want to soar higher. In time you will realize a profound truth: That the only thing holding you back – is you. “Okay, let’s try level flight!”
ATTICUS FINCH
He is Jem and Scout’s father in To Kill A Mockingbird and the man who shows us what true heroism really is: standing for your convictions even if you have to stand alone.
“If this thing’s hushed up, it’ll be a simple denial to Jem of the way I’ve tried to raise him,” Atticus tell Sheriff Heck Tate, in one of the most moving scenes. “Sometimes I think I’m a total failure as a parent, but I’m all they’ve got. Before Jem looks at anyone else, he looks at me, and I’ve tried to live so I can look squarely back at him…if I connive at something like this, frankly I couldn’t meet his eye, and the day I can’t do that, I’ll know I’ve lost him. I don’t want to lose him and Scout, because they’re all I’ve got.”
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama about bigotry and racial prejudice in 1935 Alabama is more than a novel – it is one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time.
This story originally appeared in Philippine Panorama, January 16, 2005. Photo courtesy of CanMag.com. The 2Rivers Movie of the Month for May 2009 is "To Kill A Mockingbird" starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
