Other People's Stories || John Pesebre

We get acquainted with a lot of stories from watching them in TV and other media. We discover the elements of the stories and how these elements weave within a narrative towards an end. Ang mga stories na ito ay napaka makapangyarihan kasi we acquire their language, their goals, their purposes, etc.

Nakadevelop tayo ng construct na need natin siya.

However, puna ng isang author* nung 90s kaya daw natin gusto ang mga kwentong ito is dahil HINDI SIYA DEMANDING sa atin -- walang demand na buuhin ang kwento, sulsihin ang mga bahagi, pagsumikapan ang mga kailangang abutin. Nakaupo ka lang jan at nag aantay mag unfold ang kwento.

Our lives contain very similar (or even identical) na mga bahagi din ng kwento na nakikita natin sa mga teleserye atbp na ito. The problem is DEMANDING siya sa atin -- kailangan nyang mabuo, sulsihin, at pagsumikapan.

Kaso oftentimes we numb ourselves sa DEMAND na yan and we'd rather watch a flood of narratives on a screen and entertain ourselves to futility.

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* “Human beings are narrative animals: every culture countenances itself as culture via a story, whether mythopoeic or politico-economic; every whole person understands his lifetime as an organized, recountable series of events and changes with at least a beginning and middle. We need narrative like we need space-time; it’s a built-in thing.... The narrative patterns to which literate Americans are most regularly exposed are televised. And, even on a charitable account, television is a pretty low type of narrative art. It’s a narrative art that strives not to change or enlighten or broaden or reorient—not necessarily even to “entertain”—but merely and always to engage, to appeal to. Its one end—openly acknowledged—is to ensure continued watching. And (I claim) the metastatic efficiency with which it’s done so has, as cost, inevitable and dire consequences for the level of people’s tastes in narrative art. For the very expectations of readers in virtue of which narrative art is art.

Television’s greatest appeal is that it is engaging without being at all demanding.” quoted in Wyatt Mason, “David Foster Wallace Thought Readers Are Smart And Tolstoy Was His Role Model,” in Huffington Post; available at  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/01/david-foster-wallace-thou_n_631183.html

#AfterModernity and its postmodern schtick || John Pesebre

"[What] postmodernism means . . . is after modernism." - David Foster Wallace

Ang irony ng manifestation ng postmodernity sa ilan sa atin sa mga evangelicals ay nakita na rin ng isa sa mga icons ng postmodernity nung 90s America na si David Foster Wallace. Sabi niya, "Postmodern irony and cynicism’s become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy." And the irony is when you extend sa mga diskarte nila after magamit nila yan.  Yung tila baga mga items (ie, reason, logic, etc) na buset na buset sila sa mga critiques nila, ay yun din ang gagamitin nila to rebuild a new structure. Ganyan ang condition ng ilang naive pomo evangelicals dito sa atin. Kumbaga pipintasan ang damit mo, tapos pag hinubad mo at iwan, dadamputin niya at siya ang magsusuot.

As an example, let's take si #AfterModernity at ang kanilang pag downplay ng reason. May mga Dostoevskian "beauty will save the world" pa yan -- isa yan ang kanilang weaponries to diminish the role of reason. Paulit ulit nila yang gagawin. Buti na lang laging may nagtatanong sa kanila to clarify. Nung una hindi pa nakakahalata kaya sumasagot palagi using yung kanyang homespun logic. Pero later na realize yata kaya nag resort na lang sa sloganeering at mga pithy statements na very obvious naman na conclusion nila pero hindi na nila babanggitin yung method of inference nila. Bakit? Kasi nga kung inferential ka, nag-iinvoke ka ng logic.

Alam nila yung irony kaya maikli na lang sumagot. Walang hint ng inference. At yan ang malimit na nakaka buset sa evangelical kuno na postmodernity dito sa Pinas. Sabi ni Wallace, "a lot of the schticks of post-modernism — irony, cynicism, irreverence — are now part of whatever it is that’s enervating in the culture itself.”
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." - Isaiah 1:18

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*Schtick - a gimmick, comic routine, style of performance, etc., associated with a particular person.

An Icy Bag of Trinkets || John Pesebre

Take me to an ice-covered mountain
From where snowballs roll down
To a frozen lake below, like a set of
Marbles in the hand of a dead child.
Where the chill of the morning fog
Burns my skin, and freezes my tears
Like funny dew drops falling from
The roof sills down to a frigid earth.
There where no vultures stake out
And no bear lies in wait to ambush --
Just me and these little trinkets of pain
Rattling with the howling Siberian wind.

A Poem of Headless Cockroach in Schopenhauer's Home || John Pesebre

Just so you know
I can't weep
I can't groan
I can't hear a thing
Coz I'm a headless roach
Scornful, stinky and stuck
In this dark and damp drawer
Waiting for nothing
Hoping for nothing
But because I'm a roach
Headless at that
I cannot go to nausea
Coz I was already nausea
Before I lost my head.

Irony and #AfterModernity || John Pesebre

Among the difficulties ng #AfterModernity is that it will eventually chauffeur itself (albeit unconsciously siguro) to an irony.

May disdain sila na ang systematic theology ay Western pero pag pinagawa mo sila ng systematic theology nila, hindi sila makagawa kasi nga dahil dun sa disdain nila. Isa pa, duda ko kung makagawa nga ng theology na free from any Western influence. The hypocrisy pag sinundan mo ang train of thinking -- sa mga presuppositions, mga formulations nila, atbp -- mapapansin mo na mas Western pa sila mag isip: like yung self-designated na continental philosophy adherence nila, o di kaya'y yung commitment daw nila sa Trinity at sa mga Western traditions na kinabibilangan nila, like yung mga authors na kino-kowt nila, o di kaya yung critical theory nila. Western na western.

I mean isn't that ironic? Kaya nga sabi ko dati, "Why don't you just shut up?"

Bottom line I think it is just virtue signalling, yung maghu-hook sa moral elitism tapos gagamitin yun na stepping stone sa anumang self-advertisement when in fact they are the very icon of what they are against.

Pinoy Culture Warzone || John Pesebre

(Credit)

So I walked under a bus, I got hit by a train.
Keep falling in love, which is kinda the same.
I've sunk out at sea, crashed my car, gone insane.
And it felt so good, I want to do it again.
-- "Busses and Trains," Bachelor Girl 

"I tried so hard and got so far,
but in the end it doesn't even matter."
-- "In The End," Linkin Park

Late 80s at 90s pa nung magkaroon ng nihilistic na self-reference ang kultura. Kasabay din nito yung self-inflicted wounding ng marami sa Pinoy Goth.

Etong cultural motif na ito na usually mga kabataan nag-thrive sa postmodern bracketing na "You do your stuff, I do mine." Kaya naman yung mga Pinoy youth, would consider self-expression na championed ng awitin ng Bachelor Girl at Linkin Park as "authentic expression" -- devoid of any adult and institutional meddling.

May continuity/discontinuity na nangyari decades later. Naka survive yung self-reference, pero nawala yung self-infliction as expression of authenticity. Naka survive yung legitimacy ng conscience ng autonomous individual pero nawala yung walang paki-alaman.

Ngayon, lalo na ngayong napaka political ng Pinoy  -- naging socially aware ang pinoy sa mga political realities niya. Gusto nya nang mag absolutize ulit sa mga self-referenced rules niya. Hindi na siya nihilistic bagkus meron na siyang social narratives at tuturo siya ng mga tao o grupo ng mga tao na magdi disrupt ng narrative na yan. Ang matindi pa neto, yung katunggali nya ganyan din ang mindset.

Nag full circle kasi di nakuntento sa pangako ng kultura nung 80s at 90s.