reconstruction: the next big thing

In my ENG103 class (Critical Writing), big isms were introduced and re-introduced to me. Theses isms are the paradigms by which most scholars and academician use/d to interpret the existing phenomenon in the social and cultural world. Of all these, Marxism and Feminism may be the two most popular and most misinterpreted and abused isms as to how people view economy, the changing sex relations in the workplace, the dynamics of domestic and public politics, the exchange of goods and even pop culture. On the basis of representation, on packaging and images, these two seem to have influenced greatly the mindset of people, women or men, third world citizen or not.

But then there are still other isms which place secondary (i believe and it seems) in terms of popularity, but not necessarily in their values. Structuralism (the simplest meaning of which is the study of structures and how these structures affects interaction in different fields), post-structuralism (there is still structure but there is a question on what is the supra-structure already, which is the center), post-modernism (a view of a centerless and fluid society, no more structures) and post-colonialism (a study of the ideological battle as an extension of the physical regime of the colonizers to the colonials- later on post-colonial which are mostly third word societies)

These isms emerged in a certain timeline. Though the timeline may not be definite and may overlap, it is helpful at least to know the 'time' and the environment by which these ideologies existed so as to better understand their worth as meaning-maker. Marxism emerged as an ideological interpretation and response to the emerging powers of capitalism. Massively famous in the twentieth century, the ideology still holds a place in the current social status because of the continuous flourishing of the market economy. Feminism, in the midst of liberal thinking and seemingly and loosely equal status of men and women in the society, continue to find its relevance in interpreting how the supposed and perceived equality is still subjugating women in different areas of living such as the workplace, the home and politics.

Postmodernism and post colonialism interestingly are gladly welcome in the discourse with their piercing and relevant view of today's matter. In international relations, education and others, post-colonialism becomes one of the tools in analyzing how the colonizers ideologies permeate the institutions of young and developing democracies such as Philippines that have been under the rule. Postmodernism is one controversial ism. It the ultimate deconstruction to the people's search for structure: the material, stable structure that everyone has tried to establish in the process of civilization. Structuralism, post-structuralism are still in the process of finding the structure and deconstructing it in the process. it seems to be a continuum even which unless a new ideology appears, will work like a DNA with two strands of helix bind together.

However, as people become fed up with the entanglements that these isms provide the society, the next expected big step is a search for a new tool for analysis, a new ism that reveals part of the reality that people experiences both in daily life and the bizarre. In the times when change and development seems to be the battlecry of everyone because of the dysfunctions that emerge from the old rule, the questions seems to be: What is that ism that will explain the emerging phenomenon of development and re-development, of change and unchanged.

New ISM

I don't think this is new at all. I've read a lot about this already like the need to ____ the narrative paradigm, the need to ____ the social order et cetera but I haven't' read any full text that pertains to this as a new paradigm by which social concepts can be interpreted. I'm talking about the word RECONSTRUCTIONISM.

allow me to elaborate on the concept. As the word implies it means " constructing again" or an "attempt to provide a construct from trhe already lost one." it is a direct response to structuralism, post-structuralism, and postmodernism, the three isms that are poblematizing the center and the idea of a structure. So why is there a need for a reconstruction when the society seems to be enjoyng a ceter-less and structure-less world (at least in the ideological level)? where people does not have to consult anyone and can easily tell for themselves what is and what is not. Where everyone is a source, not just a mere receiver, where everyone has a say and can claim credibility to whatever they say.

apparently, the fun of the centerless world seems to also be its flaw. Postmodernism may argue that flaws are relative, its contingent upon something but when we talk of reconstructionism, it argues that the already existing ideologies fell short at explaining the reality and has, in a nutshell, provided minimal understanding to the world order there is.

reconstructionism is an attempt to rebuild the order that needed be rebuilt, to regain the center by which people seem to have forgotten to exist, to renew the convention lost at the memory of the people who once thought it necessary.

it is an attempt to reconcile the the supra-center to the "other centers" which subcultures and countercultures created as a form of deviance to the general order. But how is it done. i say that there needs to be a mapping, a plotting of the existing ideologies linked to the source by which it was made. The idea is to regain the center, the absolutes by which social order has been achieved in the first place.

But the question remains: What is the center anyway?

This need not be answered. For the supracenter and the suprastucture does not exist. What only exist are conglomerates of centers which, by lieu of human agreements are approved of to be centers, not just mere constructs of deviance. These conglomerates of centers exist in different units of the society. The process of reconstruction always starts with a revolution, the recognition of the shapelessness and fluidity and its flaws. From there stems the need to reconsider the worth of the existing order and the realization of its worth and unworth will lead to the other process of Reconstruction. Questions will be asked, solutions will be tried until there emerge a map, a network where everyone is linked and connected. it will mean the emergence of the networked society we once were.

The process of Reconstruction is difficult. Others may say its impossible, but situation will require of it, a phenomenon will trigger its necessity.

Book Review: Kafka on the Shore

Asian writers have been keeping me interested these past few months. For a while, I found South American and Spanish novels and books pretty interesting such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and the like. For long, I've been stuck to reading American and European classics, the books often read in high school literature classes and even in HUM 1. Filipino writers gives me the feeling of pride as usual and I find relative ease in reading them. But these past few moths, Asian writers interest me a lot. Junichiro Tanizaki's Quicksand was pretty interesting, Chinese women writers gave me an opportunity to peek at a paradigm of communism from the feminine (not necessarily feminist) view. But the one Asian writers I've been reading a lot lately is Murakami, a Japanese writer.
I was introduced to this writer through his book Kafka on the Shore. It is a story of a boy(named crow) who calls himself Kafka (after Franz Kafka) who escaped from his house after the death of his father trying to find his destiny and identity. it is also a story of an old man who, in his childhood days (wartime) became a complete tabularasa after an incident which nobody can explain. The old man was a cat-finder, a man who does not have any other competency in life but to find cats. people pay him for it and it becomes an extra for his livelihood aside from the support that the govt provides him. They did not meet in the story, but they are related by a connection someone can't explain. The boy searched for his mother and ended up in a library having sex with her. It was an Oedipus Rex kind of story with a lot of complications and entanglements.
One thing pretty interesting about the book is its surrealism. it was apparent in how events after events happen with the reader guessing what the connections with these events are. it did not so much provide resolution, just an ending. An ending that seems rather open-ended and will only breed up a continuum.
I do not also know if the book can be categorized under Magic Realism, a genre in literature where there is a convergence between real reality (or actuality) and the imagined or fantastic reality thus the name Magic Realism. South American writers are very fond of this convergence and exaggerates or heighten the reality so as to make them imaginably believable at least to the readers imagination. Anyway, there seems to be hints of convergence of reality and fantasy in Kafka because things that does not happen in the real reality seems to have been incorporated by Murakami into the Tokyo and Japan reality that the people share. Take for instance the time when it started to rain fish in the middle of the streets and pavements and other things like that. Initially, a reader might not involve himself directly to the story as to believe it directly, but the poetic time where the exists seems to have permitted the mind to wander at these possibilities. And i think that this is where Murakami is great at. Expanding so much the horizon of belief as to make the whole reality that the book presents absorb the mind's capacity to imagine all over.
I also liked how Murakami developed his character so vividly. His characters speaks directly to the mind as if they are people from among us. For one, they are very ordinary. an old man, a truck driver, a boy, a librarian, an artist, a salon worker. But what makes the characters worth knowing and meeting is the fact that they endure extraordinary experiences which, when viewed individually, accounts for greater and deeper understanding of individual worth and capabilities. Plus, i loved howMurakami seemed to make these ordinary people love classical music and books and things that are really interesting.
When someone is not crazy and imaginative enough, one may not find the book interesting at all. It might even be a bore (it was too thick). It works on a very ordinary and linear plot but in the linear meta-plots exists subplots which ,when interwoven and entangled altogether, creates a grand narrative of life and the complexities of it. The wittiness and the profundity of the language makes it altogether a fun and interesting read. It's depth in horizon and scale creates a huge recall to readers who are pretty interested in the weird and strange world of imagination and reality.

the C(hristmas) Park

A common scene during Christmas season in UPLB is the installation of a Filipino representation of the nativity more famously known as Belen. It appears as a still theatre complete with all the characters the Bible narrates. Added to the facade (just this year) was the big Christmas tree. Not the typical green, plastic giant Christmas tree that we know. The tree was actually made of bamboo twigs tied together in a tall steel framework. At first glance, it appears more of a haystack rather than a Christmas tree, but now that it is surrounded with biiiig (when I say big,they're really big) colorful boxes of gifts scaled up to match the hugeness of the tree.

What's unique about Belen is that it has become a Filipino icon same with the parol (originally farol) and made Christmas a little bit more complete with its presence. The materials (usually indigent such as wood and twigs) makes it even more Filipino. The figures of the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph together with the magi, shepherds and the animals such as donkeys and cows are all carved (and I'm guessing they're from Paete here in Laguna) from hardwood. A process that takes a craftsman or a professional carver or sculptor to finish. The images were carved into perfection. A perfect representation of the Western, stern looking images 9so dull and so lifeless with their brown varnish.

i can't blame everyone who take a minute of their time to visit the installation and snatch a phone camera or a digicam out of their pockets to capture the lifeless images beside their perfectly smiling faces, overshadowing the images and reducing them into mere wood. I too have had some pictures with the scene as a background and it's amazing how, in the midst of modernity and continued capitalism, Filipinos, even the young ones still enjoy the the labor and craft of our craftsman and take time viewing and enjoying the scene in the middle of a concrete pavement and towering concrete buildings that has become the student's infrastructure ever since they came in to UP Los banos.

What is rather amusing about the installation is the fact that nothing of its images seem to look like us. The infant Jesus is a complete foreign looking baby with its limbs reached up anybody who wish to touch it. The Mary I know in the Catholic tradition of grandiose tradition of procession looks more Western than ever. The angel hanged up in the kubo is a cherubim which I usually see in souvenir shops either made of glass or breakable ceramic materials. Except for their borwn-ness, one can instantly say that the figures are all but Western, nothing seems to make them Filipino at all.

That's why, even if at the very start of the construction I did not like the idea of a brown tree, I liked the tree more than the belen. The towering representation of a Western symbol became Filipino and speak of Filipinoness. It reminded me of haystacks in Amorsolo paintings that has become the sign of harvest and good produce. It has become the center of every barrio fiesta and celebration thanking God for the harvest and livelihood for the year.

Semiotics speaks to us of how things mean in a given context. semiotics tells us that an image can explain the rationality behind an aesthetic which assumes a cultural value. The tradition of belen making, carving and Filipino craftsmanship, bring forth by the Christmas season should be mindful of the cultural scene and roots they wish to represent. amidst the modern lights and the color of Christmas emanates the real classic that Filipino craft is and will be.