NASALING na naman ang ating Pinoy pride!
Kababayans in the Philippines and from different parts of the world have been buzzing about Dan Brown (famous author of Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons) and how he referred to Manila, our beloved city, in his latest book, Inferno.
Brown described Manila as the “gates of hell” through the novel’s fictional character Sienna Brooks, who witnessed the “never-seen poverty on this scale, slamming six-hour traffic jams, suffocating pollution and horrifying sex trade.”
Pinoys are not happy, and officials in the Philippines are up in arms.
Metro Manila Chairman Francis Tolentino wrote an open letter to Brown on Thursday last week, saying that while “Inferno” is a fiction, “we are greatly disappointed by your inaccurate portrayal of our beloved metropolis.”
Tolentino said Dan Brown’s Inferno fails to acknowledge Filipinos’ good character and compassion.
While we understand that those who are outraged by this portrayal of Manila are coming from the position of deep love and loyalty for our beloved Philippines and are ready to fight tooth and nail against anyone who will dare speak ill about our country and our people, perhaps, there is a way to temper this attack instinct — by looking at the situation from a different perspective.
Dan Brown is a novelist. The dictionary defines the word novel as “a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes.”
Novelists (just like other writers of fiction) have poetic or artistic license — the liberty to deviate from conventional form, logic, fact, etc., in order to produce a desired effect.
Nonfiction, on the other hand, is measured based on its adherence to facts, truth, accuracy and fairness. These are the same standards that news and documentaries adhere to.
A writer may create his own world in his novel, or he may be inspired by events, places, people and portray a world according to how he views reality.
His own perspective determines how he creates the setting or the “milieu” for his novel.
Character and plot development are also up to the novelist’s imagination.
A novelist like Brown may be guided by research from different sources, or through his own personal experience. These first and secondhand sources shape his fictional story.
Maybe his experiences or study of our beloved city (as depicted in his descriptions:”never seen poverty on this scale, slamming six-hour traffic jams, suffocating pollution and horrifying sex trade) influenced his perception of Manila, which he creatively metaphorized as “the gates of hell.”
But truth be told, is there really no poverty, sex trade, traffic jams nor pollution in Manila?
Can we really question a person’s perception/opinion of things?
Are we also in a position to dictate how a novelist should write his book? It looks like Dan Brown’s artistic license did not interject the Filipinos’ “good character and compassion,” (as our public officials hoped he would) because it would not serve his desired effect for Inferno.
Of course, Filipinos are also entitled to their own opinion when it comes to criticizing Dan Brown’s new book. We also have the option not to patronize his books ever again.
But knowing our penchant for making a topic trend on Facebook and Twitter, and all these brouhaha that have come out of the new book, Dan Brown may have chosen the right city to refer to as ‘gates of hell” in his novel– if only to make Inferno another bestseller.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
