An excerpt:
There has been some criticism [about Syjuco winning the Man Asian Prize]. Richard Lea, writing in The Guardian, expressed reservations about a prize for an "exciting new Asian writer" being awarded to "an English-speaking graduate of creative writing programs at both Columbia and Adelaide University".
"I write against Southeast Asian exoticism and books that italicise Tagalog words or place names," Syjuco says in response.
"The Filipino or Asian experience is global. To say that a novel has to be set in Asia to be Asian is completely wrong."
As for writing in English, he points out that itis the common language, the language ofeducation and government, in The Philippines amid the 50-odd dialects spoken across thearchipelago.
Australia does not feature in the narrative but the 80,000-word novel is the fruit of Syjuco's PhD in creative writing at the University of Adelaide. He says he owes a debt to the university because it offered him a scholarship that allowed him to devote himself full time to writing and gave him the "chance to fail". After a heated auction, he has signed a two-book deal with the Hamish Hamilton imprint ofPenguin in Canada, his base. Random Househas picked up Ilustrado for publication in Australia.
[...]
Syjuco cites Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Bolano, Saul Bellow and John Updike, along with Filipino writers Jessica Hagedorn, Carlos Bulosan and Bienvenido Santos, as his literary influences, but says it is time young Filipino writers looked beyond the magical realism of Latin America and of India, with its cliched sari-sagas. "It's outdated. We need to go beyond that to write about The Philippines frankly, not as people who are trying to idealise and pander to the West," he says.
Read the entire article here.
1 comments:
I haven't read this novel. But it's hard to ignore Miguel's hair-raising comments in this newspaper article. It looks like he really knows how to sell his novel, especially that it won this particular award.
But I'm curious what he means by claiming he's a traitor of his class. It's such as large claim. I guess he meant 'certain critical aspects of his class.' But "killing [the] way of life" of his class? Even Rizal, I think, didn't think about that. Perhaps he meant reforming their way of life is what he's trying to emphasize. Because if you've earned your degree at an Ivy League institution like Columbia University, that's hardly an expression of betraying your own class, but more like the other way around.
But now that Miguel's novel is getting buyers from big publication houses like Random and Penguin, I suppose he can do something with his earnings and perhaps help solve the Smoky Mountain garbage problem in Manila. That's just one example. But that is if he's really into changing or reforming or doing something highly unlikely from somebody from his class.
But there's an ambitious aspect about Miguel that can be highly useful to the future of the Philippines, especially that he comes from not only a wealthy, political family, but a political DYNASTY: He could think about becoming the next president of the Philippines.
I will certainly buy this novel; although sometimes this newspaper article feels novelistic enough. With film options for his novel's contracts, I wouldn't doubt its film adaptation would be just right around the next esquina. Now he could star in that film; then that film could boost popularity for his future as probable presidential candidate.
I think Miguel is somebody to watch, indeed.
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