Reading and Revolution

Lesson 2- 21st Century Literature

The Revolution
According to
Raymundo Mata
(excerpt)
by Gina Apostol
The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata
by Gina Apostol
• Revealing glimpses of the Philippine Revolution and
the Filipino writer Jose Rizal emerge despite the worst
efforts of feuding academics in Apostol’s hilariously
erudite novel, which won the Philippine National Book
The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata
by Gina Apostol
• In telling the contested and fragmentary story of Mata,
Apostol finds new ways to depict the violence of the
Spanish colonial era, and to reimagine the nation’s
great writer, Jose Rizal, who was executed by the
Spanish for his revolutionary activities, and is
considered by many to be the father of Philippine
independence.
The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata
by Gina Apostol
• The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata offers an
intoxicating blend of fact and fiction, uncovering lost
histories while building dazzling, anarchic modes of
narrative.
The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata
by Gina Apostol
• Depicts the impact of reading the novel Noli Me
Tangere to the narrator of the excerpt.
• Discusses the importance of reading today in order to
understand the present.
• The influence of a novel in a reader’s feelings and
emotions.
The Revolution
According to
Raymundo Mata
(excerpt)
by Gina Apostol
 It was a bolt – a thunder bolt. A rain of
bricks, a lightning zap. A pummeling of
mountains, a heaving violent storm at sea
– a whiplash. A typhoon. An earthquake.
The end of the world.
And I was in ruins. It struck me dumb. It
changed my life and the world was new
when I was done. And when I raised
myself from bed two days later, I
thought: It’s only a novel.
 If I ever met him, what would my life
be? I lay back in bed. But what a
novel! And I cursed him, the writer –
what was his name – for doing what I
hadn’t done, for putting my worlds
into words before I even had the sense
to know what the world was.
 That was his triumph – he’d laid out a
trail, and all we had to do is follow his
wake. Even then, I already felt the bitter
envy, the acid retch of a latecomer artist,
the one who will always be under the
influence, by mere chronology always
slightly suspect, a borrower, never lender
be.
After him, all Filipinos are tardy
ingrates. What is the definition of art?
Art is reproach to those who receive
it. That was his curse upon all of us.
 I was weak, as if drugged. I
realized: I hadn’t eaten in two
days. Then I got out of bed and
boiled barako for me
Later it was all the rage in the coffee
shops, in the bazaars of Binondo.
People did not even hide it – crowds
of men, and not just students, not just
boys, some women even, with their
violent fans – gesticulating in public,
throwing up their hands, putting up
fists in debate.
Put your knuckle where your mouth
is. We were loud, obstreperous,
heedless. We were literary critics.
We were cantankerous: rude raving.
And no matter which side you were,
with the crown or with the infidels,
Spain or Spolarium,
 all of us, each one, seemed
revitalized by spleen, hatched by
the woods of long, venomous
silence. And yes, suddenly the
world opened up to me, after the
novel, to which before I had been
blind.
Still I rushed into other debates, for
instance with Benigno and Agapito,
who had now moved into my rooms.
Remembering Father Gaspar’s
cryptic injunction -  “throw it away
to someone else,”
 so that in this manner the book
traveled rapidly in those dark days of
its printing, now so nostalgically
glorious, though then I had no clue
that these were historic acts, the act of
reading, or that the book would be
such a collector’s item,
or otherwise I would have wrapped it
in parchment and sealed it for the
highest bidder, what the hell, I only
knew holding the book could very
likely constitute a glorious crime – in
short, I lent it to Benigno.
Why did Noli Me Tangere have such a big
impression on the Narrator? Could you
relate to the feelings of the Narrator’s
experience of reading? Why or why not?
 Have you ever felt the same about a book
that you had read? What book was it? Why
did it leave such a big impression to you?
 What does the line “Art is a reproach to
those who receive it” mean? Should art be
reproach? Should we relate art to society?
 When you read about how so many people
were affected by the novel, what was your
reaction? Do you think a book can ever elicit
such a strong response in the Philippines?
 When the narrator says that the act of
reading was a historic act, what did he
mean? Do you think this is true even today?
During those times, do you think you would
have been moved to a fight against the
government after reading the novel?
They say that the act of reading gives people
more empathy and makes them more critical
and reflective. Do you think this is true?
Given this excerpt, what do you think is the
importance of literature to society? Is this
still applicable today?
Why is the Noli Me Tangere, a book that was
banned in the past, now a required reading
in Philippine society? Why did the Catholic
Church go against making the Noli a
requirement?
 Do you think there should ever be a time
when certain books should be banned? Why
or why not?