When I
first laid my eyes on Eros Atalia’s Peksman
(Mamamatay Ka Man) Nagsisinungaling Ako in
one of the shelves in National Bookstore, it already caught my attention. Aside
from its bizarre title and book cover—in the cover is an ugly and dirty-looking
old man with a disgusting set of teeth and has his right arm risen as if making
a promise—but what really dazzled me is the author of the book. To my surprise,
Eros Atalia is a PNU alumnus. He’s a PNUan just like me! This piece of
information gave me an instant sense of school pride. Right then and there, I
told myself that I should buy his books or at least one of his books for now. I
had planned to buy the Peksman but I was dazzled yet again to know
that he was the creator of Ligo
Na U, Lapit Na Me. Ligo Na U was
premiered in local cinemas as an independent film but I didn’t get to watch it.
So when I had the money, I bought Ligo
Na U instead of Peksman.
The
title and the book design of Ligo
Na U are also very catchy. In
the cover there’s an old man—the same man in Peksman’s
cover—and a young lady whose maybe in her late teens or early twenties who are
sitting in the street beside a poso with the kids around. The lady is
wiping the man’s foot with her hair while the kids are just watching them. At
first, you’ll think that the setting happened in a depressed area and Intoy is
the old man. But the picture was actually just a dream of Benzon—Intoy’s
unhinged pal. According to Benzon, this dream is a sign that the aliens are
going to capture the Earth. I remember that there’s a same scene happened in
the Bible where a woman washed Jesus’ feet with perfume and wiped it dry using
her hair. It’s a great design but the man shouldn’t be old because Benzon is
not old. (Yes, Benzon is the man in the cover and the girl is the girl that he
has an ultimate crush on.)
Anyway,
I read the book with full anticipation and high expectation. But to my great
despair, I was deeply disappointed. The plot is plainly simple, it was
basically about the relationship of Intoy and Jen. Intoy is a not so good
looking, not so smart, and not so rich college dude, while Jen is a beautiful
and well-off college girl. Intoy and Jen’s life intertwined when Jen had been
caught by the school guard having sex with her boyfriend during that time in
one of the classrooms of her former Catholic school. Although what they’d done
was ostensibly illegal and punishable, the school administration didn’t want to
create a bad publicity for the school so instead of expelling Jen and her
boyfriend, they just had an internal arrangement that the two should leave and
transfer to another university in their own “free will” instead.
Obediently,
Jen did what she was told to do. In her third year in college, Jen transferred
to a state university. Being as gorgeous as she is in a place where beautiful
women are endangered species; Jen grabbed every people’s attention. Boys want
to be with her; girls want to be like her. Every living creature in the
university adores her but Intoy, or so he pretended. Intoy is neither handsome
nor smart nor rich, but his indifference had been his route to get Jen’s
attention. Jen was appalled that a pretty girl like her has been ignored by a
dude like Intoy. But later on, Jen and Intoy became friends, or more than
friends. They became friends with benefits.
Jen is
very promiscuous. She goes for casual sex. She fucks around. Commonly, this
type of behavior has underlying causes, like broken family, child molestation,
or even social deprivation. But surprisingly, Jen didn’t experience any of
those. Jen grew up in a rather well-off and holistic family. In here, the
author wants to point out that whatever type of individual we turned out to be,
the society and the person’s experiences shouldn’t be blamed.
Hmm,
very humanistic, but I totally disagree with this. I believe that in some point
or another, the person’s early experiences in life are great contributors to
the individual’s total personality, and so as the environment in which the person
belongs. Jen was disturbed without second thought. She was even asking Intoy what
the ideal time to commit suicide is. I had a strong feeling that Jen was
suffering a major emotional landscape, aside from being impregnated by another
man. The sad thing is, there was no way the readers would know what was it
because the author didn’t bother to discuss it or to even give a hint of what
was going on in Jen’s life. All I know is she’s rich and gorgeous and
promiscuous—nothing more.
The
story ends without a closure because according to Atalia, the concept of
closure is just for the people who are lazy to know the real end of a story. In
fairy tales they always end the story with “They live happily ever after,” but
the story doesn’t really end there. It’s just the middle point of their lives.
Atalia said that in real life, people just come and go. That’s why in his
novel, Jen just disappeared suddenly.
I agree
that there are people who come and go in our lives and there’s really no
happily ever after, because after the marriage, new problems will surely sprout
in a couple’s life. But the point is, real life is different from fiction. We
read and write fiction because real life is vague and boring, while fiction is
made to be artistic and entertaining. Jen is just a chapter in Intoy’s life,
but that chapter must have a closure so the next chapter will flow smoothly, so
the chapters in Intoy’s life will have a sense of coherence and unity. If
Atalia thinks that closure are just for writers who are lazy to know the “real”
ending, for me, his idea is just an excuse for his own laziness in putting a
closure or at least a decent open end in his work.
Ligo Na
U is not
a novel. It’s a collection of the author’s random opinions about random issues
that disguises itself as a novel. The story—heck, it’s still a “story”—was a
roller coaster of events that has nothing to do with the heart of the freaking
“story”. It seemed like I was reading a published blog than a novel.
Another
sad thing is, there are some points of view that I can’t make sense with. Like
the one about sports. The author was saying that we shouldn’t make things
complicated. He said the basketball ring should be lowered and the court should
be smaller, yaddi yaddi yadda… It doesn't make sense because the sports are
made that way because of the spirit of the game. The complicacy makes the game
exciting and fun. No one will enjoy playing Basketball or any other kind of
sports if there’s no spirit of challenge and competition.
He said
we should come up to more “creative sports” like pataasan ng ihi, pabanguhan ng
jebs, o palakihan ng kulangot. I
doubt if somebody will agree with his ideas. Obviously because ihi, jebs, and kulangot are gross enough as they are that even
hearing those words is enough to lose somebody’s appetite. (I’m actually losing
mine while writing this down.) These crazy ideas will not sell at all, so stop
this craziness for goodness’ sake!
Throughout
the book, the author tried to sound smart and funny but he unfortunately can’t.
I can’t help but think that Eros Atalia is a certified frustrated
Bob-Ong-wannabe. His insane/irrational ideas are neither brilliant nor funny.
He is neither brilliant nor funny.
