Fairy Tale for the City by Estrella Alfon (Short Story)

Fairy Tale for the City is a controversial short story by Estrella Alfon that provoked a lawsuit for obscenity from the Catholic League of the Philippines in the 1950s. They condemned the story which was about a young man's initiation into sex. Many of her fellow writers rallied around her but this didn't have an effect on the court's decision. Alfon went to court and lost. She was found guilty but was given a presidential pardon in 1957.

Many believe that this experience compromised her freedom as a writer. Alfon was also deeply hurt by the fact that some of her contemporaries sided with the Catholic League of the Philippines. She was never the same writer ever since. The writings of Alfon pre-lawsuit are very different from her post-lawsuit output.

I haven't read the story yet. I can't find a copy of it online. So if anyone out there has a copy of the story, can you please send it to me via email? Here's my email address: thecordilleransun@gmail.com. Thank you very much.

All I can find online about the story is a paragraph/excerpt posted on the Quiapography website.

This is Quiapo now, and Quezon Boulevard is the asphalt he treads on, the church square his area of noise and people, and the rigodons of pedestrian exchange the stream he breasts and becomes part of. So many people, so many cries. Hawkers bent on warding off temporary hungers, shouting sitcharon-ale? lumpia-lumpia. Balut! Flowers make a riot of color in the balconies of the patio, and black net veils hanging from poles add a somber background note. So many people, forming sluggish streams, sluggish streams bearing the rushing griefs of so many people rushing to meet their fates or trying to escape them. Smell of the city, the fragrances and the smells of estero and azucena flowers, asphalt and carbon acrid in the sun, and lead dust from many printing presses crinkling the nostrils and tickling the throat, and the gravy-rancid-oil smell from many restaurants. A little pause brings in another punctuation: the spilled vinegar from the bottle of the sitcharon man, bearing with it the pungent smell of crushed red biting peppers, and then the cheap colognes from the bargain counters of the city stores, worn by the sweating women and the pomaded men, serving only to accent the smell of armpits heavy with hair and the pantaloon briefs of women still reeking with love. A baby toddles across the square, a woman runs after it to pick it up, and Amado recognizes also the smell of saliva dried and not completely wiped away.

The Spider by Isabelo T. Crisostomo (Short Story) - Quick Analysis

This story by Isabelo T. Crisostomo won the Best Short Story Award of the Arizona Quarterly at the University of Arizona in 1957. It's a simple tale with not much of a plot. It's a story that borders on nostalgia. It revolves around a boy whose daily life revolves around finding and taking care of spiders. If your childhood included playing with spiders and having them fight on a stick, this is a story you can relate to and fall in love with.

The Characters

1. Renato - A boy who finds a huge spider (his biggest yet) which becomes his source of immense pride.
2. Edita - Renato's younger sister.
3. Victorina - Renato and Edita's widowed mother.
4. David - Renato's playmate in school.

Summary

Renato had the fortune to find a large rust-colored spider at a dapdap tree near his school. The spider became a great source of happiness and pride for the young boy. He kept the spider in a matchbox and fed it daily with flies he caught. The spider also became a source of envy for a lot of his friends and classmates at his school. One day, one of the boys, David, challenged Renato for a match between their two biggest spiders. Renato's spider easily won the match. Although his spider won the match, Renato realized that he was tricked by David. His spider got completely bloated after eating David's spider.

Renato got worried when his spider's belly failed to shrink even after days of not eating anything. He soon learned why. One morning, he opened the matchbox to check on his spider. The spider's belly shrunk but the matchbox was full of the spider's eggs. Enraged by the sight, Renato threw the spider aginst a beam where it instantly died with a splat. The scene was witnessed by his younger sister and mother.

Here's an excerpt from the story:

They left the tree he had climbed to get the spider and walked home. It was a leafy, squat dapdap tree that stood near the sari-sari store where the rod curved sharply toward the school. He had seen the spider the other day at twilight while walking home from the store and had known then, seeing it silhoutted against the paling afterglow of sunset spin its web to build a house, that is was a giant male spider and his heart had drummed against his breast with joy. The other boys, particularly David who always had the biggest and fiercest spiders in the school, would envy him for it. He knew their mouths would water upon seeing it, like - - like those of dogs at the sight of food - - and he was dizzy with joy. They would no longer tease him for keeping small spiders - - the cowardly and puny gagambang-bahay - - not anymore.

And going home, he decided to keep anyone else from knowing about his having seen it: he must get it first alone. But when he woke up early the next morning to go to the tree he found that Edita was awake and he had to take her along.

Now brother and sister walked up the bamboo stairs as quietly as they had stolen out much earlier. The sun was coming up, peering over the santol tree in front of their house, and they tiptoed into their room. Renato knew their mother was occupied in the kitchen and he whispered to his sister: "Let us pretend we are still asleep and wait for Inay to wake us up."

Photo: Matt Crane, Getty Images

Magnificence by Estrella D. Alfon (Short Story) - Critical Analysis

Magnificence is a short story by the Cebuano writer Estrella D. Alfon (1917-1983). It's one of the stories contained in her short story collection Magnificence and Other Stories (1960). It's a controversial story because of the topics it tackled.

The Characters in the Story

1. The girl - She wasn't given a name in the story. She's seven years old.
2. Oscar - The girl's older brother. He's eight years old.
3. Vicente - A young bus conductor who offered to tutor the two children on their Math and English assignments.
4. The mother -The mother of the two kids. She wasn't named in the story.
5. The father - The father of the two kids. He wasn't named in the story.

Summary of the Story

Vicente, a young man who worked as a bus conductor during the day, offered to help a young girl and her brother with their Math and English language assignments. On evenings, he would go to their house and over a huge study table, he would help them solve fractions and mull over language phrases. He also bought them pencils which were all the rage at the siblings' school. However, it turned out that there was a dark motive behind Vicente's kindness and gentleness towards the two kids. One evening during a tutoring session, Vicente tricked the boy to leave the room and then proceeded to molest the girl. The mother caught him performing the deed. Angered by what she saw, the mother slapped Vicente a good number of times and drove him out of the house. The story ended with the mother tucking in her daughter in her bed.

Why did Estrella D. Alfon title her story "Magnificence"?

I'm still wrestling with this question. But I can offer my current theories on it. Take note that Alfon used "magnificence", a noun, and not "magnificent" which is an adjective. If she used "magnificent", we could theorize that she was describing one of the characters - the girl, the boy Oscar, the mother, the man Vicente, or the father. If she had used "magnificent", I would've inferred that she was referring to the mother. After all, she was magnificent in her role protecting her children and punishing their abuser. But since she used "magnificence", I would say that Alfon was describing the mother's actions - her magnificence in protecting her children and punishing their abuser. Not much of a difference, I would say. But those are my thoughts on the matter.

What is the theme or meaning of the story?

As far as themes are concerned, Magnificence touched on several themes - child abuse, effective parenting, absentee parenting, and predation. Vicente is the embodiment of the themes of child abuse and predation. The mother represents effective parenting. And the seemingly unaffected father represents absentee parenting. Some readers suggest that the story also highlights gender roles in Filipino families - the mother is often the one performing hands-on parenting while the father is just in the background making money and putting food on the table. I can see it and it makes sense.

What's the personality of Vicente?

I find Vicente to be a bit of an enigma. He is young and he works as a bus conductor. But he is also smart. He knows his fractions and English language more than enough to tutor two grade school pupils. And the fact that he knows how to bribe and groom the two kids to get what he wants means he has a working brain. The gears in his head are working very well. He also knows that what he's doing to the kids is wrong and immoral. He cowered in shame and fear when he was caught by the mother.

What's the moral lesson of the story?

The world is not always what it seems. People are not always what they portray themselves to be. Don't give your trust too easily. Sometimes, when people are too kind for seemingly no reason at all, there has to be some motive behind it. Such a motive can be either good or bad. In the story, the motive was bad and disgusting.

Why did Alfon write Magnificence? What did she want to achieve?

Only she knows why she came up with the story. Maybe she wrote it to warn people. Maybe she wrote it to tell people to be not to trusting. This question is like asking "Why did Vladmir Nabokov write Lolita?" I can't recall if he ever said anything why he wrote a novel with such a controversial plot.

Some Big Shots Have Been Using Me: a Poem by Cirilo F. Bautista (Critical Analysis)

This is a critical analysis of the poem Some Big Shots Have Been Using Me by Cirilo F. Bautista (National Artist for Literature). This poem appeared in The Likhaan Book of Poetry and Fiction, 2006 (University of the Philippines Press).  

Some bigshots have been using me
for target practice. They call it Preparing
for Progress. I ask that my taxes be reduced,
bang goes my left ear. I demonstrate
against police brutality, bang go
my fingers that hold the placard. Floods

and lahar carry my patrimony
to oblivion and bury my town:
I ask the mayor for an old pair of shoes,
wham go my feet flying into
the garbage can. I beg for cheaper rice
to energize my mouth, wham break my teeth

like ice-cubes falling against the floor.
Democracy is a tiresome habit —
I have to stand erect or it will fail.
There is no coffee break for the honest.
My stomach grumbles for lack of food,
ping goes the light bulb of my mind

and darkness devours the empty kitchen.
“Keep quiet, keep still,” they hiss at me
as they feed bullets into their anger’s
chambers. Some bigshots have been using me
for target practice. O if they would only
shoot straight and hit me in the heart for a change!

- This poem is an indictment of a corrupt and oppressive government. Bautista uses "big shots" to refer to the oppressive government and the forces it uses to enact its oppressive policies. The poem is in the first person and the speaker represents the ordinary Filipino who wants equality, justice, and good governance. This Filipino is an activist, a guardian of democracy.

For the Filipino activist and demonstrator, "democracy is a tiresome habit" because he puts himself in the fire every time he raises a fist. When he calls for reduced taxes, they shoot his ear. When he demonstrates against police brutality, the police simply confirms the allegation by shooting at his fingers. When he asks for material assistance, he's met with violence. When he begs for cheaper rice, his teeth are knocked off his gums. Indeed, fighting for democracy is a heart-breaking endeavor. 

Adding insult to injury, the "big shots" only use the ordinary Filipino as a "target practice". That is they keep on hurting him over and over again but never putting him away for good. The "big shots" are nothing if the ordinary Filipino is dead. "O if they would only shoot straight and hit me in the heart for a change!" Not going to happen. The "big shots" will be shooting themselves on the foot if they do.

Elmer B. Domingo; Wikimedia Commons

Man of Earth: a Poem by Amador T. Daguio (Critical Analysis)

This is a critical analysis of the poem Man of Earth by Amador T. Daguio (1912-1966). Daguio penned this poem in 1932 when he was only 20 years old. It's one of Daguio's most well-known poems. It's been anthologized a good number of times and is a mainstay in literature subjects and courses in the country. 

Man of Earth
by Amador T. Daguio

Pliant is the bamboo;
I am a man of earth;
They say that from the bamboo
We had our first birth.

- Daguio states a fact in the first line. The bamboo is pliant in the sense that it can bend without breaking. In the third and fourth lines, Daguio alludes to the Filipino creation myth of the first man and woman emerging from a split bamboo. The two lines offer an explanation as to why we are pliant - we are sons and daughters of the pliant bamboo tree.

Substitute the word "Filipino" to the word "bamboo" in the first line and it would make things clearer. "Pliant is the Filipino; I am a man of earth."

Am I of the body,
Or of the green leaf?
Do I have to whisper
My every sin and grief?

- In this stanza, Daguio wrestles with a question. Is the Filipino comparable to the body of the bamboo tree or to its leaves? Is the Filipino like the body which is pliant? Or is he like the leaves who whisper and bicker among themselves? If you stand near a bamboo grove and there's a little bit of wind in the air, the rustle of the leaves sounds like whispers of "sin and grief".

If the wind passes by,
Must I stoop and try
To measure fully
My flexibility?

- Many readers would understand this stanza as referring to being resilient despite a challenge or challenges. I don't think this is Daguio's ultimate message. Again, he's wrestling with a question here. I think what he's saying is that if you are faced with a formidable challenge, are you going to stoop to the level of that challenge and follow it's lead? The way a bamboo tree tends to follow the lead of the incoming wind? Or would you rather defy the incursion of the wind?

I might have been the bamboo,
But I will be a man.
Bend me then, O Lord,
Bend me if you can.

- This stanza answers the question in the previous stanza. Daguio admits that the Filipino has been a bamboo in the past. But not anymore. From now on, the Filipino is going to be a man. He isn't going to follow the lead of the winds. He is going to defy them. This is why he is hurling a challenge at the Almighty - come and try to bend me...if you can. That's defiance. That's not the way of the bamboo. 

Closing Remarks

I think what Daguio is trying to say here is that being pliant like the bamboo is an obsolete way to describe the Filipino. Simply going with the motion of the winds isn't a good thing. It's time for the Filipino to be sturdy and brave. To stand against the wind. To not whisper his every sin and grief. Instead, he should shout these out against the wind.

One way of understanding a poem is to look at the time it was written. Man of Earth was written in 1932. There were a few important events occurring in the Philippines during this time. One such event was the convention between the United States of America and Great Britain delimiting the boundary between the Philippine archipelago and the State of North Borneo. It's possible that Daguio used "winds" in his poem as a substitute for the nations that took turns in colonizing the country.

(Another great story by Amador Daguio you should read is The Wedding Dance. This is a story set in the Cordillera region and featuring Igorot characters.)