Where is the next great Philippine novel?

The often-pondered question was brought up again at the second Manila International Literary Festival, where writers, editors, publishers, agents and readers gathered to celebrate the printed word. The three-day festival was dubbed "The Great Philippine Book Cafe," after literary icon Alfred A. Yuson's 1988 novel The Great Philippine Jungle Energy Cafe. Organized by the National Book Development Board in celebration of the 15th Philippine Book Development Month, the festival featured 70 international and Filipino authors. Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo moderated an afternoon session with panelists Jose Dalisay Jr., Charlson Ong and Alfred Yuson, who exchanged thoughts on what makes a great novel. The panel was guided by questions on the next great Philippine novel. "Should it be about nation? Does it need fabulous language or crackling storytelling?" Novelist Charlson Ong says the quick answer is all of the above. "If you can have all three, I think you've got it made. In most cases we have to settle for one or two," says Ong, who recently published his third novel Blue Angel, White Shadow.

Ong's advice is that it always comes down to memorable characters. "Great works come alive time and again. They can be recycled, reinvented, made into movies or musicals. They never lose their vigor because they are finally about the fate of individuals who matter to us because they are alive to us. In them we experience our own loves, losses, legacies. A great novel is a great experience. It makes one glad to be alive," he says. Ong warns that if you begin writing a novel with the idea of nation, your project is bound to be contrived and to fail. "If you are true to your calling you will write about things that truly matter. Family, friends, lovers, the fate of your dog—and somehow end up creating a sense of community," he says. "Before anything else, be a good storyteller. Master the language of your choice. Travel the terrain within yourself. Know the nation that lives inside," says Ong. Not a country of novelists Dalisay shares his suspicion that we are really not a country of novelists. "There's not a day that goes by without us writing something. But the novel will probably be the least of our priorities. It will take a backseat to other jobs," says Dalisay, who has published over 25 books of fiction and nonfiction. His second novel, Soledad's Sister, was short-listed for the inaugural Man Asian Literary prize in 2007. Like Ong, Dalisay's advice is that writers concentrate on animating the characters instead of focusing on nation. "It's best that the nation emerges organically rather than being up there like a thesis statement. I don't think we write novels the way we write freshman essays," he says, adding that although principles, ideas and causes are important, these should be implied. "That's the way fiction works. It doesn't hit you over the head with some slogan," he says. "That's the kind of novel we would like to write, something without too obvious an agenda, something that does not declare this is going to be the next Noli or Fili," he says. Yuson agrees, saying the first objective is to fashion a narrative. "If the notion of nation grows organically, then fine. If it doesn't, that's also fine," he says. "You have to start with the characters and what they have to undergo. That's the narrative. Basically, that's the objective of any novel. Tell a story and keep your readers entertained and gripped by the narrative," says Yuson. Dalisay observes that although even writers outside the Philippines acknowledge we probably have the best and strongest material for fiction, there are a number of lacunae in the things we write about. "How come nobody writes about the sea? It's such a major factor in our lives, but it hardly ever figures," says Dalisay, who also points out that our novels generally lack humor. "They're not funny. They're dead serious. Again, maybe because of the shadow of Rizal," he says. Dalisay describes Rizal as a monkey on the back. "In terms of greatness, Rizal set the bar. He set the template for the rest of us," he says. Where is the Filipino writer? Before even talking about greatness, the more important thing to ask, however, is where in the world is the Filipino writer—a question addressed by award-winning scholar and author Resil B. Mojares in his keynote speech. Acknowledging that Filipino writers are among the invisibles in what Pascale Casanova refers to as the world literary space, Mojares notes that writing in English (even writing in English well) does not guarantee that one will be read in the world. "The Chinese and Japanese write in their own language and have a much larger international readership than Filipino writers in English have," says Mojares. "The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary," he quotes Gabriel Garcia Marquez on early Latin American writing. Mojares asks, how does Filipino writing become visible in the world? "A Filipino writer gaining international recognition or winning an international prize says a great deal about individual talent but it doesn't say anything about the national literature. Unless we can show that there is more where he or she comes from," he says. "For now the important thing is not to wonder whether we are visible to the world but to ask how truly visible we are to ourselves. It is in becoming fully visible to ourselves that I trust we shall be visible to others," he continues. The problem of visibility was inevitably raised during the afternoon session, where writers mourned the fact that there seems to be very few readers in the Philippines. "The problem isn't the lack of writing. I think it's the lack of readers. It's not as if there is this huge market out there that we cannot fill," says Ong. Dalisay adds that much of the literature taught in schools is stuck in the 1960s, and students are not getting the new material. Dalisay says that writers themselves have a lot of work to do in terms of developing a readership base. "We need to come up with study guides. We need to go out more often in forums like this, and reestablish connections to the Asian literary circuit. Our readers need to know that our authors are literally alive and can interact with them," he says. –KG, GMA News