This is an updated, extended, and more,
say, indulgent version (with shameful-shameless plugs as parenthetical remarks)
of my year-ender
column article for Materials, for Preposterity published last 28 December 2017. More
details about some sort of milestones, with hyperlinks. -TA
The
series of “previews” (part translation, part summary, part review as noted in
the last three column articles) shall end with Bomen Guillermo’s “Kawayan”
(2007/2017) and Emiliana Kampilan’s Dead
Balagtas: Mga Sayaw ng Lupa at Dagat (2017). Incidentally, the first two
previews were fueled by fire and air: text’s
terrorism and author’s
sentimentalism, flickers that can either be blown by the wind into puffs of
smoke blending with the atmosphere or into flames of arson causing alarm; while
the last two were weaved by earth and water: peasants’
komiks and scholars’
scripts.
Before putting my feet back on earth allow me to hover a
bit. Pardon my indulgence, as the next paragraphs serve as my brief entry to
the infamous essay-writing contest that shall crowd newsfeeds come the end of
the year of the fire rooster:
