Wednesday, July 25, 2007

The Teacher as Instrumental, as Inspiration


Platinum, Ten Filipino Stories; The God Stealer and Other Stories; Po-on; Tree; My Brother, My Executioner; The Pretenders; Mass; Viajero; Ben Singkol—eight books by the same author, and counting! His productive output is far greater than this shortlist, for what I have enumerated are only those volumes of his that I have read.


Any student of literature would immediately recognize that these are the works of F. Sionil José, the foremost Filipino novelist in English, a personal favorite. Once I had the chance of attending a lecture of his on the subject “The Novel as Autobiography.” Ben Singkol had just come out of the press and after a short chat with him, I asked him to sign my copy.


At about this time last year, I found myself at Solidaridad, Sionil José’s bookshop at Padre Faura. For more than an hour I was browsing through the different titles. I bought two of his books, collections of essays—Heroes in the Attic, Termites in the Sala--Why We Are Poor and This I Believe: Gleanings from a life in literature. At lunchtime the day I bought the books I began reading This I Believe and managed to go through half of the book in that sitting. The dedication page reads: “To the memory of Soledad C. Oriel, Paz Latorena, and Juan Labrador.” Who were these persons? They were his teachers. Sionil José often mentions them as the ones to whom he is indebted, those who made him fall in love with literature. Soledad Oriel, in particular, was his Grade Five teacher who introduced him to authors like Rizal, Willa Cather and the great Miguel de Cervantes.


Sionil José is a literary giant not only locally but in the international scene as well (he is translated into 24 languages!). This skill for writing and this passion for literature was awakened in him by teachers who saw his gifts—teachers like those I encounter everyday. Long live the educator!

2 comments:

aries_arevalo_ax said...

I think that if I need to thank someone for letting us think more freely and for sparking the fire for writing, it would be our teacher in this subject of Creative Writing. "Long live Fr. Joel!" I yawp it over the rooftops of the world.

Fr. Joel, SDB said...

Thank you dear Aries! I'm simply touched when I hear affirmations like that. On the other hand, it inspires me a lot having students who are repositories of good nature, good sense and creativity. This group is such. God bless.

P.S. You'll be meeting F. Sionil Jose very soon. :)