6 posts tagged “books”
The historian writes and educates others about history, but he also has another obligation to the public: to retell the story of history as accurately as possible and to police others into upholding these same standards. In Inventing a Hero, Glenn May does exactly this; he is informing the public about a crime against history: the fabrication of the Filipino nationalist “hero”, Andres Bonifacio.
In his book, May explains how Bonifacio is more than just a historical figure to the Filipinos: he represents Filipino nationalism itself. This was moreover due to the re-creation of his character by Manuel Artigas, Epifanio de los , and Jose P. Santos—historians who fabricated information and doctored documents about a man who was otherwise a blip on the Filipino War for nationalism; it is Aguinaldo and the other illustrados deserve more credit for their work in the Filipino nationalist movement.
However, the story of the illustrados would be capable of capturing the hearts and minds of the Filipino people; the illustrados were typically wealthy, well-educated individuals; your average Filipino was not. May continues by relating the re-creation of Bonifacio to other historical figures, such as George Washington, Thomas Jeffersion, Buffalo Bill, Father , and others. These historical figures—though all a paragon of some ideal—be it truth, intelligence, perseverance, or nationalism—are creations that the average person can relate to; most came from middle- or low-class backgrounds and were forced to work for their wealth or education. Bonifacio was the poor son of a mestiza mother, who peddled fans to support his family—and unlike other Filipino historical figures, Bonifacio did not have wealthy family to bail him when he was in trouble, nor did he have an expensive formal education in a European nation to rely on. Furthermore, there were very few written records about Andrés Bonifacio, which made him the perfect candidate for posthumous recreation.
The myth of Bonifacio was first propagated by the historians de los Santos and Artigas, both of whom clearly had a nationalist agenda; as May writes, their goal was to "...inform Filipinos about their glorious recent past, to promote national pride, and to do some of that by rescuing Andrés Bonifacio from obscurity" (34). Personal and political biases were what motivated Ricarte to piece together his own fabrications about the life of Bonifacio. No matter what the motivations, Bonifacio was crafted into their paragon of nationalism using the same methods: unreliable resources and badly doctored documents.
Before Artigas, de los Santos, and Ricarte began their fabrication of history, there was little written about the hero Bonifacio, and as a result, little for them to work from. A great deal of the information these historians documented were never cited. Those few details that had been were from questionable sources. Valenzuela, who de los cited, was "notoriously unreliable about details" and often changed "his story from one telling to the next" (33). Letters were forged and transcriptions were doctored to make them appear more legitimate.
Furthermore, historians cited one another, both spreading and legitimizing misinformation propagated by the historians that came before them. Ileto sourced an article allegedly written by Bonifacio via ’ biography of the man; no copy of the magazine the article was published in has ever been found and it was never explained where or how he acquired the text.
Though all of May’s allegations are highly substantiated, Bonifacio had already been established as a hero within the Filipino community. Many Filipinos were reluctant to accept that their hero had been almost completely fabricated by the historians who wrote about him; Bonifacio scholars refused to accept that they might have been studying from fraudulent documents. Many were highly suspicious of May’s motivations. Many believed that Inventing a Hero was an attack on Bonifacio and Filipino history.
Inventing a Hero was anything but; in his text, May attempted to promote a more accurate understanding of Bonifacio and Filipino history. He is doing his job as a historian by policing other historians and upholding them to the level of scrutiny as any other historian. May’s own willingness to use beloved American historical figures (such as Buffalo Bill, George Washington, etc.) as examples of instances of re-creation clearly shows that his motivations are anything but nefarious.
But even years after this book’s publication, things remain the same in the ; despite evidence to the contrary, the Filipino people still revere Bonifacio as a hero; the damage has already been done. We can only hope that with the publication of other books written by Bonifacio scholars like May, all Filipino people will in time come to embrace their heroes for what they are—and not for what they have been invented to be.
Booklist 2006
1. Howl's Moving Castle
2. Shakespeare and Company
3. A Moveable Feast
4. Lockpick Pornography
5. 1 Dead in Attic
6. Why New Orleans Matters
7. Thank You For Smoking
8. Bringing UFOs Down to Earth
9. Bizarre Cases
10. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Psuedoscience in Archaeology
11. A Streetcar Named Desire
12. I, Jedi
13. Young Jedi Knights #1: Heirs to the Force
14. The Giver
15. Naked Pictures of Famous People
16. Fahrenheit 451
17. 1984
18. Animal Farm
19. A Clockwork Orange
20. Brave New World
21. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit
22. Contact
23. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
24. Shatterpoint
25. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
26. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
27. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
28. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
29. The Martian Chronicles
30. An Alphabet of Manliness
31. Dispatches from the Edge
32. The Great Deluge
33. Lapdogs
34. The Cat's Pajamas
35. The Power of Myth
36. The Elephant Vanishes
37. Huckleberry Finn
38. A Nest in the Wind
39. Norwegian Wood
40. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
41. Quantum Leap: Knights of the Morningstar
42. The Social World of Batavia
43. Quantum Leap: Pulitzer
44. The Elements of Style
45. The Invisible Man
46. The Naked and the Dead
I'm currently reading Inventing a Hero and Ghost Writer for the History of Modern SouthEast Asia and The Contemporary Novel, respectively. Hopefully, I'll have them done before midweek, when my responses are due for both classes.
I'm well on my way to hitting my goal of 52 books for the year.
I'm a poor college student. I'm a hand-to-mouth sort of girl. Any surplus cash I have goes straight to buying books, but lately, I haven't had the money to buy anything recreational. Nearly all of the money in my checking account went to paying for textbooks for this semester and though I ordered them all online and most of them were used, the total still added up to over $300.
I was looking to spend as little money as possible on textbooks, so I ordered from Powell's, from Amazon sellers, even from Half.com in hopes of saving a few bucks. And while all the books arrived weeks ago, my Half.com Biology text still has not made its appearance on my doorstep.
After the "estimated delivery date" came and passed, I contacted the seller; so far, there's been no response. Since I contacted them over the weekend, half.com requires that I wait two business days before filing claim. And even then, I have to wait until thirty days have passed since I made the order before there's a chance I will be reimbursed.
This was my first half.com order experience.
This Friday, I have an exam on the material in that textbook and I can't afford to purchase a new text without half.com's reimbursement and my grant check, which was only sent in the mail earlier this week.
Let's hope that my check comes in tomorrow, or save that--the biology text that I ordered. Because being an English major, Biology isn't exactly my forte...
Booklist 2006
1. Howl's Moving Castle
2. Shakespeare and Company
3. A Moveable Feast
4. Lockpick Pornography
5. 1 Dead in Attic
6. Why New Orleans Matters
7. Thank You For Smoking
8. Bringing UFOs Down to Earth
9. Bizarre Cases
10. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Psuedoscience in Archaeology
11. A Streetcar Named Desire
12. I, Jedi
13. Young Jedi Knights #1: Heirs to the Force
14. The Giver
15. Naked Pictures of Famous People
16. Fahrenheit 451
17. 1984
18. Animal Farm
19. A Clockwork Orange
20. Brave New World
21. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit
22. Contact
23. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
24. Shatterpoint
25. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
26. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
27. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
28. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
29. The Martian Chronicles
30. An Alphabet of Manliness
31. Dispatches from the Edge
32. The Great Deluge
33. Lapdogs
34. The Cat's Pajamas
35. The Power of Myth
36. The Elephant Vanishes
37. Huckleberry Finn
38. A Nest in the Wind
39. Norwegian Wood
40. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I'm currently reading Issac Asimov's Nightfall and Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man. Soon, I'll start reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Jean Taylor's The Social World of Batavia, and the Star Wars books Betrayal and Bloodlines.
Booklist 2006
1. Howl's Moving Castle
2. Shakespeare and Company
3. A Moveable Feast
4. Lockpick Pornography
5. 1 Dead in Attic
6. Why New Orleans Matters
7. Thank You For Smoking
8. Bringing UFOs Down to Earth
9. Bizarre Cases
10. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Psuedoscience in Archaeology
11. A Streetcar Named Desire
12. I, Jedi
13. Young Jedi Knights #1: Heirs to the Force
14. The Giver
15. Naked Pictures of Famous People
16. Fahrenheit 451
17. 1984
18. Animal Farm
19. A Clockwork Orange
20. Brave New World
21. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit
22. Contact
23. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
24. Shatterpoint
25. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
26. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
27. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
28. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
29. The Martian Chronicles
30. An Alphabet of Manliness
31. Dispatches from the Edge
32. The Great Deluge
33. Lapdogs
34. The Cat's Pajamas
35. The Power of Myth
36. The Elephant Vanishes
I really wanted to get 100 books read by the end of the year, but I'm not entirely sure I'm going to hit the triple digits before we reach 2007.
This list is composed from memory, so I might be missing a few books. It will be updated at the end of every month.
I'm currently reading Murakami's Norwegian Wood and Asimov's Nightfall.
If you have any questions about any of my reads, feel free to ask.
I have a tendency to go on book-buying sprees during the school year, only to set those books aside for the summer vacation, when I finally have the free time to read for my own recreation. I bought Anderson Cooper's book, Dispatches from the Edge, at the beginning of the summer, but because I had such a large backlog of books I purchased at Kaboom Books and Borders during the school year, I forced myself to set this book aside until the day before Anderson Cooper's signing at the Barnes & Nobles on Veterans last Sunday.
I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but the first time I heard of the book was when I caught Anderson on Larry King. An acquaintance of mine who had been forced out of the city after Katrina was a huge fan of Anderson Cooper, so I watched it with her in mind. Cooper's life was absolutely fascinating; I was surprised to discover that he had once worked for Channel One, the news network for teenagers that was played every day before the morning announcements. The interview was fascinating, and the next day when I picked up my copy of Creationism's Trojan Horse, I made certain to pick up a copy of Dispatches from the Edge.
I furiously read Dispatches throughout the night, and woke up early the next morning to get even more reading done. Unfortunately, I did not manage to finish the book before I made the journey across I-10 and to the Barnes & Nobles.
I've been to signings before; I've met obscure musicians and local authors, of course, but this was my first time going to a signing of this magnitude; I showed up well over an hour early, and still, I had to park several blocks away from the store. Inside, Barnes & Nobles employees quickly escorted us to different aisles to wait; I promptly sat down with my book and managed to finish it even before the line began to move.
After Katrina, most of my friends moved away--some across the state, others across the country, a few even moved across the world. But since then, I've met a number of fascinating people in bookstores. Gary, for instance, I met discussing Star Wars books in the science fiction section of the Barnes & Nobles off the West Bank Expressway; since then, we've become gaming buddies. I met another thirty-something at the Borders on Clearview, and we exchanged e-mail addresses. On the day of the signing, I met a pleasant couple who had purchased a copy of Cooper's book for almost every member of their extended family. The man had recently returned from Iraq and his wife was recently-pregnant; we made small-talk while we waited in line; we discussed the war overseas, Cooper's book, even names for the gender of their child (which the duo adamantly debated). It was about two hours later that our section of the line finally began to move; it took only about fifteen minutes for us to meet Anderson Cooper himself.
I furiously snapped photos as we approached the reporter, though most of them came out poorly because we were constantly moving. Cooper apologized for not being able to customize the books he signed (he had another signing elsewhere at four), and smiled as he shook my hand and signed my book.
"Could you sign this, too?" I asked, holding out a flier advertising the event. "One of my friends has been stuck up north since the storm, and she's a big fan of yours."
"Of course." Though I'm sure his fingers were calloused from the massive amount of books he signed that day, Cooper was more than happy to sign the flier. I beamed, murmured a thank you, and quickly made my way out of the store, hugging my copy of Dispatches to my chest.
Ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to be an author; ever since I first began reading at the age of three, I've wanted to write. But since Katrina, I've had difficulty pressing my thoughts into words. But after going to that signing on June 25th, my enthusiasm for writing was rekindled.
Later that day, I started chapter one of the novel I had been planning for months.
