realistic fiction

Jan 12, '08 9:18 PM for everyone

this, according to the internet, is how my taste for literature is called. the key word here is "real". according to the wikipedia, realistic fiction deals with stories that depict subjects as they appear in real life, WITHOUT EMBELLISHMENT OR INTERPRETATION. the term is also used to describe works of art which, in revealing a truth, may emphasize the ugly or sordid. therefore, the books i read mostly deal with the ugly and sordid. HAHAHA!

i wanted to know what genre of literature i like because few people ever heard of my favorite authors. this is yet another case of: ako ba talaga e may diperensya?  so, to be a little normal over the years, i tried to read other authors. unfortunately, i couldn't get past page 10 with them. tolkien, for one. my brother has adored this man long, long before frodo came out on the big screen. when he borrowed "the lord of the rings book 1" which i stole from a booklovers' club in UP (yes, stole), he never returned it to me. <qualification: i had to steal the book because everyone in the tambayan at the time was raving about it and it's so hard to lay one's hand on it.> anyway, my brother lost the book, and couldn't find a replacement all this time. when he relocated to palawan which won't have a national bookstore anytime soon, all the more he could not replace it.

last week, i was in a bookstore and saw the entire set of tolkien on sale - a very rare occurrence, as booklovers know. so i called up my brother and asked, "do you want the entire Tolkien set?" he said, "no, thanks, i have all na. just book 1 please". but see, having the complete set of tolkien in front of you is very rare, as i said, so i bought the entire set just the same.

when i got home, i tested myself if, 20 years later, tolkien and i will finally communicate. but, except for the poem of gandalf and the poem of baggins (put into songs, by the way, by the all-time great sting of 'the police' fame), i've come to the conclusion that tolkien is really better off with my brother.  so i packed up the books for courier to palawan and grabbed the reliable edith wharton instead.

So this simple event in a day’s life got me thinking (see, I’m always thinking – can’t help it):  how come i cannot understand tolkien?  and voila! the internet tells me the info above. what's more, the wikipedia says that realism is "heavily against romanticism...." HAHAHA!  Further,  "undistorted by personal bias, realism believes in the ideology of objective reality".  and the best part is this:  "truth and accuracy are the goals of realists".   HAHAHA!

hmmm....ok, ok, so now i know where this fascination for my favorite authors comes from. i mean, i think henry james is a demi-god, but always, i get a blank look when i mention his name. each time i reach the last page of bronte, i feel tears rise to my eyes for the sheer genius i just encountered.  talent, i swear! pure, unadulterated, Godgiven talent!  But….when i'm in a group, and they talk about authors, and i say: bronte is IT, blank eyes turn to me.  always!  anyway, of the contemporary authors, i love belva plain. i was 14 when i met her, and i remember lying still on my bed, letting the tears rise, as i savored her book "evergreen". beautifully-woven words, vivid descriptions, outstanding memory! i could almost walk along andirondacks as i read her.

so, ito pala yun. it's all because i go for realistic fiction. makes sense now to me. this is how i see the world kasi. i always like to see it squarely, truthfully. even when i was young, i didn't want embellishments, interpretation. pwede ba na yung ikaw, ikaw na yan? At kung may nakatago pa na hindi ko alam, pwede ba na yung better lang? and it isn't because of any moral foundation on my end, mind you. i am just lazy to go through the whole process of games. i find the time playing games, putting up a facade, fooling each other - sayang. more than men's games (what game? they're all predictable!), the girls' games particularly bore me.  ano ba, hindi ka naman tatama sa lotto pag nagpaconservative and kind effect ka dyan sa lalaking kausap mo! even with their husbands, some women still play games. if this man called your husband cannot understand and adore you as you really think and speak, then wow, i am sorry for the world talaga.

realistic.  The best thing to do is always to be realistic. Wit.  The best thing about anybody is not his millions but his wit.  This is why the other writers i adore are oscar wilde, anton chekhov, john fowles, theodore dreiser, stephen crane.  As for ernest hemingway (once met a millionaire in cebu who never heard of hemingway, hahaha!)…wow, 'east of eden' is perfect. But his 'grapes of wrath' is what pulitzer prize is all about! i love the humor, self-derision, clear observation, and above all, such sarcasm! truly, nothing impresses me more than a smart, alaskador guy.

can't help it. the truth is so ugly and sordid that it is very, very comical. Just look around the Philippines and the comedy is there for you to laugh at on a daily basis, HAHAHA!

in tagalog, this is summarized as: BATO-BATO SA LANGIT, ANG TAMAAN WAG MAGALIT.  Or better yet, ANG PIKON, TALO!