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Salvador Ponce Lopez (May 27, 1911 – October 18, 1993) was an
Ilokano writer, journalist, educator, diplomat, and statesman.
He studied at the University of the Philippines and obtained a Bachelor
of Arts degree in English in 1931 and a Master of Arts degree, also in
philosophy, in 1933.
Lopez was the president of the University of the Philippines from 1969
to 1975.
Lopez adds that writers who use only language for its beauty are like
“a decadent as those who stubbornly confuses literature with
paintings.”
Lopez described Villa as “the one Filipino writer today who it would be
futile to deride and impossible to ignore ... the pace-setter for an entire
generation of young writers, the mentor laying down the law for the
whole tribe, the patron-saint of a cult of rebellious moderns.” (Source:
Wikipedia.com)
Villa believed that poetry is “written with words, not ideas.” (Source:
Wikipedia.com)
“Art for art's sake” condenses the notion that art has its own value.
First surfacing in French literary circles in the early 19th century, it was
a reflex of the Romantic movement's desire to detach art from the
period's increasing stress on rationalism.
“Art for art's sake” was an important impetus behind the development
of abstract art and Abstract Expressionism.
Source: theartstory.org
Anguish and optimism made proletarianism seem not only possible but
crucial.
Source: Japanfocus.org
He finished his law degree in Manila and became the youngest editor of
El Renacimiento, an extreme nationalist newspaper.
Dean Worcester, the Secretary of Interior and the Chief of the Bureau of
Non-Christian Tribes, sued Kalaw and his publisher as the American
believed he was the subject of the scathing editorial. The two Filipinos
were found guilty and were ordered to pay Php 60,000.
Years later, Teodoro Kalaw would reveal that he had never even written
the editorial. It was his fellow journalist Fidel Reyes.
Source: wikifilipinas.org
Lopez states that there are two paths a young writer will have to face,
“Indifferentism and the other misanthropy.”
On the other hand, Lopez describes writers who “suffer from cynicism
and misanthropy” as people who have “a profound and sensitive
spirit.” These writers experienced a life event that made them question
their long-held view of the world. Nevertheless, having just a” profound
and sensitive spirit” is not enough; it must be paired with an
“undeviating principle” or “indestructible faith.” People can only know a
thing’s true value when it has been taken away from them.
For Lopez, the writer must abandon the ‘the ivory tower of pure
literature.” He must allow himself to be swept by the “social and
political currents swirling around him.”
Émile Zola risked his career and more on 13 January 1898, when his
"J'accuse"[6] was published on the front page of the Paris daily
L'Aurore. Émile Zola's "J'Accuse" accused the highest levels of the
French Army of obstruction of justice and anti-Semitism by having
wrongfully convicted Alfred Dreyfus to life imprisonment on Devil's
Island.
For Lopez, a great artist must have “greatness of heart and mind and
soul.” A writer can only develop his emotional, spiritual, and intellectual
qualities through life experiences.
http://linglithumanities.blogspot.com/2014/09/notes-on-literature-
and-society.html