Got your copy of this yet?
Got your copy of this yet?
Vicente-Ignacio de Veyra
III's Philosopher
Kings
(Two Mini-Essays, and then some)
1.
IN a stint with the National Midweek as a recurring contributor, Vicente-Ignacio wrote mini-articles for the magazine's Views/Reviews pages. Though he may feel embarrassed about the craft and innocence of most of these pieces today, there is one composition from this period that he still finds worth visiting. Here it is, with a few adaptations to present tastes!
This tackles the issue of our habitual courage to act without deep thinking on ramifications, possibilities (or should we be thankful about that at times?). Is it all from an ignorance of the purpose of studying history? This habit is almost obvious in our political affairs, most obvious among our ambitious' pronouncements of leadership, almost literally realizing the belief of many a frustrated Filipino dreamer that "this country has gone to the dogs." The piece appeared in the March 28, 1990 issue of NM. It presents its thesis by portraying the Col. Gringo Honasan-led coup d'etat that occurred late in the preceding year as a completely comic error, this thesis ultimately obliquely suggesting the truism that the funny can also be dangerous, and, finally, reiterating the prayer about how our laughter should be nervous.
After all, in this country, the wife and kids of a late dictator are later elected to Congress by those ignorant of what really happened, by those very same poor lot later exploited by a gambler-President who claimed to be pro-poor but was later arrested for duping the poor (though yet this former President continues to believe in his own pro-poor claims, as does many among the poor lot he supposedly duped). Even leftist leaders elected to Congress would soon forget to point at the magnate Henry Sy's continued mal-use of our labor force (never mind if it's mostly deriving from the 'tame' and consequently anti-union Iglesia ni Cristo Christian sect), thus syndicating the comedy into all the channels of our political and social tv. Anyway, here's that piece:
2.
THERE were once four other essays in this section. Here is Vicente-Ignacio in what looks like a virtual replacement piece, on why we had to discard those four in this section.
"These articles mainly carried what I used to believe then, that art should not be the business of government that uses tax money for its promotion. I went against the hidden rationales for such institutions as the CCP, the NCCA, and the concept of a National Artist award. My main argument was that these were all a lie and a reflection of an art not of the people these pretended to be for but merely by an elite whose individual businesses may actually not be the prime contributors to our nation's tax collection.
"Another aspect of these articles concerned itself with the politics of publishing within a clique-prone literati that leaves no room for a totally dissenting standard of younger aesthetics.
"I now happen to have a different macro-view of both these matters, despite my retaining certain facets of the old angles.
"My change of view on the first matter is not borne of any interest in an endowment or grant from the NCCA, the CCP, U.P., or any government entity; nor has this been prompted by a meditation on the possibility of being offered any such help through, say, a publishing grant. This has simply been promoted by my realization that perhaps my initial reaction was inspired by a complex combination of an overwhelming populism, a disgust at the overt patronage system I saw around me, along with a selfish sour-graping sort of angle (despite my protestations to such a reading). My later self-assessment of my point of view led me to realize that government cannot help but engage itself in the promotion of what it deems as the nation's art. It's a realization that says: perhaps our individual protestations are more towards details of a ruling clique's actions, actions which would involve sins of ommission, sins of wrong inclusion, and so on. For in the end one might not protest too much if one's interest, selfish or partisan, is drafted into this same system. For, certainly, all regimes cannot ignore the authority of manipulating a nation's art collection in the same way that it cannot ignore the demand of holding on to a Department of Education. For what would happen indeed if we leave everything to the people (or a corporate elite)? All governments must involve a modicum of elitism, if only -- at best -- to guard the populist philosophy of serving the people. For the people, one might say, and this is a lesson even the Communists have learned throughout their insurgency, likely does not have the capacity to know what's good for them (or who's truly on their side). Businessmen who practice the daily art of hype know very well that people will try to learn what any hype advises them to know, and it is government's virtue perhaps to turn this elitist influence into a pro-people program against one whose motive is sole profit for oneself.
"There will remain conflicts over a government's sponsorship of certain art, mainly on what should be up there and what shouldn't, and changes do occur through the dynamics of history. In the meantime, no one can argue -- I believe now -- that all governments need symbols and monuments, and the art each regime promotes, bad or otherwise, mediocre or great, are all a reflection of its (sometimes fraudulently populist) visions."As for the second issue, Vicente now believes that "in a country where there is neither a real publishing business nor a significant number of readers who might run to more than the number of writers there are, there can really be no significant politics involved. And even though most of these writers prefer to read foreign authors over their fellow local writers, they are all each in agreement over the café- or bar-lament that the only publishing venture out there is one that collects distribution fees from authors who pay for the printing costs of their books (in a secret arrangement called co-publishing). The lament stems from the ultimate sorry fact that these books will end up sleeping on the vanity shelves of bookstores' Filipiniana collection that is part of the national pretense that there is such a thing as a living, breathing Philippine literature. The other publishing venture of course comprises government- and university-sponsored publications that extend the pretense further, a pretense most laughable when it involves claims to a pro-people literature of local languages that are nonetheless distributed (and un-marketed) in the usual snobbish way.
"In light of all this, why write still? Because one believes in the other fact that there is a readership for each author out there, involving students, artists, teachers, ballerinas, et cetera, within our shores or outside. Maybe not enough to turn an expensive, inaccessible book into a seller, but quite enough to turn a free website into a hit."
3.
ALSO check out de Veyra's social criticism column in the e-zine Banana-cue Republic. CLICK HERE.Archived past articles for this column are HERE.
---section created May, 1999
with five essays
---section broken down to one essay Auguusttt, 2004
Copyright © 1999, 2000 War Photos Museum. All rights reserved. Readers are welcome to view, save, file and print out single copies of this webpage for their personal use. No reproduction, display, performance, multiple copy, transmission, or distribution of the work herein, or any excerpt, adaptation, abridgment or translation of same, may be made without written permission from the author. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this work will be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
LINKS TO THE OTHER SECTIONS IN THIS SITE:
home | about Vicente-Ignacio | site epigram | why "war photos"? | Vicente-Ignacio's poetry | the 4894 poetry journal | Vicente-Ignacio's mp3 song samples | Vicente-Ignacio's fiction | Vicente-Ignacio's social criticism | literary reviews | film reviews | music reviews | ads | sign private guestbook | e-mail
Links to other sites on the Web
Filipinolinks
Literature Sites
National Democratic Front
On
Sir Karl Popper
bell
hooks
Humanitas
Issues
of Postmodern Culture
The
Harvard Advocate
Slate.com
Flash
Point Journal
The
Monthly Review
The
Atlantic Monthly
The
Nobel Foundation
Amazon.com
Checked these books out yet?
