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This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

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Monday, December 05, 2005

entry arrow5:45 AM | Where's the Humor in Pinoy Lit?

An excerpt from Butch Dalisay's blog:

I've often remarked on this strange feature of our literary landscape, so far removed from our everyday reality as a people: the crushing humorlessness of much of our literature. We are a laughing, smiling people; we laugh even in the worst of times and the most perilous of moments as a nervous reaction and as a coping mechanism. We have had great comedians like Dolphy and comic heroes like Juan Tamad -- dunces, tricksters, kind-hearted rogues, characters who survive by their wits no matter what. But when we write novels, it's as if we were confessing to a priest or preaching from the pulpit instead of confiding in one another; our words suddenly acquire a numbing solemnity, a high seriousness that may yet be Jose Rizal's most enduring and yet also most paralyzing legacy to his successors.

I remain convinced that fresh comic insights -- instead of belabored iterations of the sadness we already know -- are the key to the revitalization of our literature, and that comic sufferance, not tragic suffering, may yet be the best nexus between Philippine literature and politics.

May be why Bob Ong's books are quite popular. And who can forget the funny stories of Alejandro Roces?

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