Under Western Eyes
“The country was on the slide, in the mire, had teetered on the brink of the crater so long no one suffered from vertigo any more. They were a nation as blasé as steeplejacks and as irresponsible as crows. Three hundred years in a Spanish convent and fifty years in Hollywood had not proved an ideal apprenticeship for the technological exigencies of the modern Asia. That witticism was a world-class coinage, about the only first-rate thing the nation had ever inspired—one or two pugilists and all the entertainers apart—Boyet would think in gloomy moments. A more vulgar way of putting it would be that he found himself the citizen of a country that had been gang-raped by Dagoes for coming on four centuries and then put on the Yankee titty, or worse, for half the modern one.” – Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard by Timothy Mo
“Randy has gotten into the habit of reaching Intramuros by cutting through Rizal Park. This is not a direct route. The direct route passes over a no-man’s land, a vast dangerous intersection lined with squatters’ huts (it is dangerous because of the cars, not the squatters). If you go through the bark, on the other hand, you only have to brush off a lot of whores. But Randy’s gotten good at that. The whores cannot conceive of a man rich enough to stay at the Manila Hotel who voluntarily walks around the city every day, and they have given him up as a maniac. He has passed into the realm of irrational things that you must simply accept, and in the Philippines this is a nearly infinite domain.†– Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
“The eyes that blink back at you are puffy and red from weeping, but aside from that, your reflection reveals nothing untoward beyond the usual surprise at your Philippine demeanor. In all these years, you still have not gotten used to it. Thanks to your mother, who was mostly Welsh, you managed to avoid growing one of those flat-bridged noses that cause all Philippine women to look like tomboys, even those with truckloads of black lace bras and two thousand pairs of high-heeled shoes. Your crisp little nose is your mother’s gift, but everything else—your skin, your hair, your eyes, and mouth—came over on the gene boat from Manila Bay.” – Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins
“The nameplates above the windshields had been one of the last revelations. Extraordinary that he could have known ‘Dragon Punch Lady’ ran the length of Edsa, or ‘Future Shock’ ran from Makati to Bicutan, but that he’d never wondered who the dragon punch lady might be, or what shock the future had in store. Extraordinary to live in a country that teemed with carefully thought-out messages, brightly emblazoned on huge plastic strips, that almost nobody ever bothered to read. Maybe this was why the owner of ‘My Secret Lover’ felt so confident about letting his secret out.†– The Tesseract by Alex Garland
October 10th, 2006 at 17:57
I’m struck by the fact that foreign fictional commentary is so turgid and barely readable.
The problem with being in love with that voice in your head I suppose. A good formula for eventual obscurity that.
October 10th, 2006 at 20:12
Funny that I learned from Alex Garland that we were once- for a short period a part of Blighty. Never read this from history books. Maybe history is just not my cup of tea.
‘In 1762 the Brits occupied Manila, only returning it to our control with the 1763 Treaty of Paris. The British were also great empire builders. Personally, I respect the fact that they were strong enough to take the Philippines from us.’ Don Pepe paused. ‘And anyway, they only had it for a year or so.’
Bloody bastards.
October 10th, 2006 at 21:19
jessica, safin is writing on the atp blogs. http://www.atptennis.com/1/en/blog/current_safin.asp
October 11th, 2006 at 03:56
hey that’s us! haha.. quite approximate descriptions, actually.
October 11th, 2006 at 11:38
Ahah! This one still tops. “The monkey can sing.”- Mariah Carey on Regine V. I know, I know, this one’s a take on just one particular citizen but, hey, considering her status, this very well could have been a sweeping opinion of… us?!
Next would be this – “Manila is a city of cockroaches.” – Claire Danes.
October 11th, 2006 at 11:39
It’s so weird — I was just reading Vintage Didion and her three-part essay on the workings of New York City (“Sentimental Journeys”), which led me to think, no one’s done anything like this before for Manila. And somebody should, you know, because in my entire 26 years of existence, of living here, I can’t pinpoint an identity for this crazy place.
October 11th, 2006 at 12:29
River Wild: I don’t pay attention to that Mariah-silly-person. But you are correct. We are all monkeys.
October 11th, 2006 at 12:34
Um, oh and yeah, you might be interested in reading this on Stephen Colbert from New York magazine. And then watch a few of Borat’s deleted scenes. Makes you realize how much they have in common — um, am I making any sense?
October 11th, 2006 at 14:28
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/104.1/mcenroe.html
Of course, the best question is, “How do we see ourselves?”
October 12th, 2006 at 11:37
who would direct this movie?
martin scorsese or carlo j. caparas?
October 12th, 2006 at 17:09
um here‘s the colbert link. sorry for the spam. feel free to not post. just, you know, it’s an interesting read.
January 10th, 2007 at 03:57
Am in the middle of “Shalimar the Clown”, where Abubakar Janjalani is a character, along with the Abu Sayyaf. Somehow I don’t feel like finishing the book; I don’t know how to handle political Rushdie.
BTW, if you’re ever in Copenhagen and need a place to crash in, look me up.