Story & photo by Rizal Raoul Reyes
IT was the right question posed to a wrong person. That, at least, is how US-based writer Ninotchka Rosca replied when sought for tips on how to become a good writer. I’m not exactly a good model for young writers, especially women, Rosca said during a forum on February 28 at the Kamuning Bakery. For her, it starts by being a bookworm.
“There is no way to become a good writer if you are not a good reader,” she said, adding that she came “from a generation, which did not read a book of just one author.”
“We read bodies of literature and the entire library. This was the tradition I carried.”
Of course, according to Rosca, an aspiring writer “have to write.”
“Afterwards, you say you want to be a writer. You are or you are not. Write is an active verb. You have to write.”
Rosca cited Cao Xueqin’s The Dream of the Red Chamber and Karl Marx’s Das Kapital as some of the books that greatly influenced her way of thinking. “We read it, Gary [Olivar], two volumes of Das Kapital,” referring to the former spokesman of President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo.
Her hard work paid off as her second novel Twice Blessed won the American Book Award in 1993. Furthermore, Rosca’s short story entitled Epidemic made it to the 1986 Best Short Stories in the United States.
Asked about what she thought of the current Philippine political realities, Rosca pointed out that it was “kind of paradoxical for Filipinos to exercise their democratic right” stressing the opposition does not also represent a good alternative because “you have to vote for the dictatorship.”
In essence, it was a timely message from Rosca to Filipinos, especially to large group of millennials who have been enamored on the so-called golden days of martial rule. “If the dark side wins, we fail as a people, and I am not excluding myself,” she pointed out.
Although Filipinas have distinguished themselves on several endeavors in the local and international arenas, Rosca urged the women in the country to continue the struggle to liberate them from several forms of exploitation.
“I am very upset that we continue to sell our women in various forms such as labor export, sex tourism and cyber child pornography. Shame! We’re supposed to be a Catholic country,” she said. “We need feminism urgently to stop exploitation of Filipinas. We also want to know when will the people who violated and tortured our women during martial law be punished.”
Furthermore, Rosca urged Filipinos to study the origin and consequences on the violence committed against women. The one-time youth activist at the University of the Philippines pointed out that perception that men have the sexual right and access to the body of women came during the Spanish colonialism.
Rosca enlightened the audience, particularly the young ones, and the young once with other controversial topics, like divorce and abortion, stressing that it is not only religion that prevents these from being introduced in the country.
“It is not just Catholicism per se, but because divorce is useful to the ruling class of this country. People are not allowed to get these rights. Usually, people go overseas to get a divorce. That means a divorce court will not have jurisdiction over property, so the divorce court could not decide on the division of marital property. That is beneficial to the ruling class and they marry foreign women,” she said.
According to Rosca, divorce is “also a woman’s issue.” “Because of divorce, you can demand alimony, child support, division of property, etc.”
Rosca also vented her ire on some sectors praising Filipinos as resilient during disasters. “For me, it’s an insult to be called resilient.”
She said she hates the word resilient “because no one is taking responsibility for the typhoons and coal plants.” “I prefer that our people be angry and demand the right to survive.”
Aside from the laurels she achieved in literature, Rosca said she is equally proud of her other two achievements: “ I am proud I am writing the truth about our people and writing the truth about our women.”
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Rizal Raoul Reyes is a correspondent of the BusinessMirror. Like his story online via the BusinessMirror Millennials Universe (BMMU) Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Millennial-Universe/435594193285671. Follow BMMU on Twitter via @millennial_U or Instagram (type Millennial Universe). E-mail comments or story to millennialuniverse@yahoo.com and the editor at dennis.estopace@gmail.com.