Booktalk, 2007 July 9

Well, it finally happened. We've been having our monthly Booktalks for a year and a half now, without fail, and so far we've always had some people come and join us. Last Monday July 9 was a first. No one came, except me, Nikki. I already knew that Beaulah couldn't make it because she was in Iloilo, but four people who were supposed to come were not able to make it as well for various reasons. Only I was able to show up. In any case, I was ready to share my book with the other three who should have come. Through this blog, I will now share it with whoever else is willing to read.

I actually brought two books – Rene Villanueva’s Bertdey ni Guido and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie. I was supposed to bring Harry Potter and The Scorcerer's Stone, but sadly was unable to finish reading it on time.

Why did I choose these books?

Aside from the fact that I enjoyed them immensely, and my daughter in her turn liked reading them, both books were translated into other forms. Guido was recently turned into a children’s play and of course Little House was a television series in those long ago days when I was in elementary school.

Let us talk first about Guido.

It is the story of how a young man, Guido, celebrates his 9th birthday in the midst of the People Power revolution of 1986. Through just a few pages, the book details how the child went from worrying about how he would celebrate his birthday in the midst of a revolution to how he eventually gained an understanding of the issues of the day. He then goes on to have the biggest birthday celebration of his life – with all the people who were in the middle of EDSA, fighting for the ouster of the dictator.

The play was written by Rene Villanueva and so was very faithful to the story. It was directed by George de Jesus and the performers were alumni of the Philippine High School for the Arts. The colors used in the production design were the red of Marcos and the yellow of Cory. The lively music of the era (Tie A Yellow Ribbon, etc.) was used and members of the audience were pulled onstage to act as tanks, as Imelda Marcos, as Cardinal Sin, as many other characters. The audience had a jolly time.

Somehow though, what was lost in translation from the page to the stage was the whole aura of the revolution at that time. On the written page, I felt sympathy for Guido, a child who did not quite understand the revolution. Onstage, he looked and sounded like a spoiled brat. The illustrations in the book clearly showed the excitement of the era. The set design did not quite capture it. It was perhaps not the script because Rene was naturally faithful to his own work. It was perhaps the fact that neither the director nor any of the staff nor the actors were old enough to remember the era, to remember how things felt and thus were not able to fully translate the excitement of the times to the stage.

Now on to Little House.

Little House on the Prairie was actually the first of a whole slew of books abut the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is the story of a young girl, the daughter of pioneers, herself an American pioneer and how she grew up in this very special era. I think Americans loved it because it was the story of their not-so-long-ago ancestors. I loved it simply because it was a good story.

The television series of course made stars out of Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson and Michael Langdon. I was only in Grade 4 or 5 at the time, but I do recall waiting for it eagerly each week, watching it, rooting for Laura through all of her travails and on occasion losing my temper over the nasty Nellie Olsen. At the age of 10 or 11, I honestly thought that the TV series did full justice to the book.

Whenever a book is translated into another form, I to push myself to see the play or the movie. Ninety per cent of the time, I am disappointed as the translated form can never be as good as the original. But still I watch them. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that theater, film, literature – all are different forms and should not be compared, even when the same story is being told. An obvious conclusion perhaps for some but not so obvious for me. Inasmuch as the movies cannot match the grandeur of the originally books, I will admit that I am happy the Lord of the Rings trilogy was made because it opened the eyes of many people to the genius of Tolkien. That the Narnia movie was produced because I love CS Lewis and I think there was jump in the sales of his books because of the movie, and finally that the Harry Potter movies were shown because I suspect that many young people learned to appreciate reading because of this phenomenal set.

Since there was no one to discuss this with last July 9, I especially encourage readers' comments to this blog.

Dominique Garde Torres
ARA, SCBWI Philasia