APWN EDITORIAL /  18 September 2005

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Philippine writing has always been global in style, themes, and aspiration.  The 19th century novelist Jose Rizal, who wrote in English, French, German, Spanish, and Tagalog, lived much of his adult life in Europe.  The English novels of 20th century Philippine PEN founder F. Sionil Jose have been translated into numerous languages; he usually writes his novels outside the country.  The Philippine texts we currently feature were originally written in English, Filipino, and Mandarin Chinese by writers with homes in the Philippines, Canada, China, the UK, and the USA.

Despite being linguistically and geographically separated, Filipino writers have managed to form a distinct community that read and appreciate each other.  The same vision has inspired writers in the Asia Pacific region to band together in virtual space, in this website that promises to bridge linguistic, geographical, economic, and ideological gaps.  Once writers become professional and even personal friends, the rest of the world cannot be far behind.

Non-writers like to despair about the economic, political, and environmental mess in which the world – not just our region – finds itself.  Writers share a common optimism, in the sense that, even if they often focus on the inhuman side of humanity, they have not given up writing.  They believe in a future, because they spend much of their present crafting words that readers will read tomorrow, when these words are published in print or on the Web.  They believe in a humanity capable of reading and understanding their words, a humanity on a level much higher than that of biological animals merely surviving or political animals merely exercising power.  They believe in a world in which language, not gunpowder, determines the flow of history.

If the world is truly made up of words, as many writers have already said, then our Asia Pacific world is alive and well, thriving in many languages and many cultures, and speaking the same language called literature.

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ARCHIVES of September , 2005