‘THE BEST FILIPINO SHORT STORIES OF 1927 flooded with manuscripts from almost every part ofthe Islands. The easonis this: desire to see one’s name in print, and thus gain popularity’ However human ehis may be, we fel cha ths vain impulse is unpardonable. Fog, sake of seeing his name in print is not 2 young person who writes just for the : n Teal weer; unfortunately he is just one who thinks he writes, zent examination of the shore During the past year I have made a diligs stories published in local magazines and periodicals. I read them carefully, and, although it is true that 95 percent or more of these are pure, unadulter. ated literary trash, yet itis wise to state that the short story in English has improved considerably during this brief period of time. Since the beginnings of our short-story writing in English, what has been its dominant note? To wit: if all the published stories could be transformed into individual organic masses and each [has] a tinge of its own, and if all were paid at varying and not altogether low rates. Loreto Paras received PIS per story from the Philipines Herald Magazine; P25, if the story was to be published in a special issue. ("But at that time, you know, a policeman could survive on 'P30.00" [268])) ‘Casiano T, Calalang remembers being paid ® 20-50 for his stories, “depending on worth” (16). Arturo Rotor recalls receiving P'S from Sampaguita for his first shore story but giving P30-50 a story a8 editor of the Philippines lerald Magecine (189). However, although the amount was generally sufficient for the likes of Rotor and Paras, beginners, and lesser-known writers apparently were being paid less, as can be inferred from an article by T Inglis Moore: “And they [shore stories] will ge better if writers were paid better. A writer will certainly take more pains wich his story ifhe knows he can get fifty pesos fori then [sc] if he is only getting five” (“Filipino Literature in English: A Few Impressions,” Philippine Mapecne, January 1931, 511). The picture was not so rosy in poetry. Several of the writers Featured in The itr and His Milieu say that poets were minimally compensated, if at all. Says Rotor, “We thought that poets did noe need to eat. Probably (A. V. H.] Hartendorp [editor ofthe Philippine Magazine] was the only one who paid them” (189). Luis Dato remembers ‘receiving P10 for his poems; Bienvenido Santos in the same interview with Dato says hhe got PS. ("I chink that cells the story” (35]). N. V. M. Gonzalez, however, recalls that a poem was paid 5 by the Pl Free Press when “you could get a pair of Gandara shoes for'?2.50 and undershirt for P-20 each’ (“The ‘Beautiful Development” of che Short Story,” Philippines Free Pret, 30 August 1958, 38). See Villa's EYES column “The Scene: Thank You But Not Very Much” (Philippines Daily Express, 4 April 1974, 4), for his view on the writer's remuneration. 3. The appearance in the late 1920s and the 1930s of a numberof articles on writing and publishing indicates how modish short-story writing was. See, for example, Arturo B Rotor, “Tribulations of Short Story Writers,” Philippines Herald Mageginc, 7 August 1927, 7-9; Martin Garcia, “Writers Are Made—Not Born,” Graphic, 25 September 1929, 45: Carl N. Taylos, “Something about Technique,” Literary Apprentice (1930): 55-67; Robert}. 36 artnetTHE BEST FILIPINO SHORT STORIES OF 1927 | has been asserted several times by wellemeaning persons that the Filipino short story in English is devoid of literary qualities." Truthfully speaking, the ‘majority ofthe stores published are so, altbough there are afew that are no. This absence of literary qualities in our short stories is due to several causes. In the frst place, there is the youthfulness of our writers. They are young and have just started to write; they do not possess enough background | of age and experience to support them faithfully in their literary endeavors. Secondly, they are writing in a foreign tongue. This needs no explanation, Thirdly, these writers are in a hurry to rush their stores into print. Ths third phase requires a little analysis. Ie cannot be said that the low quality of stories produced by our writers is due to commercialization. In fact, writers are very pootly paid. There has been but very lie awakening on the part of the publishers and the editors with [regard] co authors’ remuneration.* And itis amazing indeed to know that only 4 percent of these receive payment. Despite this, editors’ offices are 1. See, for example, Dean Filemon Poblador, “Shore Story Writing inthe Philippines,” Graphic, 12 November 1927, 4, 9. Poblador identifies the following as the defects of the Filipino shore story: excessive imitation of American stories, poverty of themes (“love ‘making, dancing, picnicking, or suiiding, as if Filipino life presented no other phases of deeper significance”), faulty diction (“Even servants speak college Englsh.”), and predictability. Paz Latorena's reply was “We Poor Short Story Writers,” Phlippines Herald Magaine, 20 November 1927, 2. Ten years after Poblador’s article, Arturo Rotor would note that while Filipino writers had more or less mastered the English language, they still wielded dialogue awkwardly and “indiscriminately” employed “local color” (“The Filipino Short Story—Ten Years of Experiment,” Philippine Magacine January 1937, 41). See also Rotor, “Our Literary Heritage,” Herald Mid-Wck Mapecine, 10 April 1940, 1-2, 12. 2. However, according tothe wrtersinterviewed for Edilberto N. Alegre and Doreen G. Femandez, The Writer and His Miliew (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1984), writers 35 | | : 0000130 879—‘THE BEST FILIPINO SHORT STORIES OF 1927 these were mixed into one giant roll, che final tinge of the resultant whole would be some bright color. And why? Because the product is The Love Story—not A Love Story.* Love has been the ‘major ingredient all these years and, because of is overuse has spoiled the story The new writers who spring up like mushrooms simply cannot do without the love element. A story is not a story if it involves no love affairs in it. I remember that about a year ago I recommended 2 short story toa classmate. He started reading it, but after he had reached a third of the story, he gave it up and said to me, “Why, this is not a story.” And simply because the story in question has no love element in it—the story being “Hard Clay,” by Casiano Calalang, which I think is one of the three best short stories of 1927, While this passion for the love story may seem only the writers’ faule, it is equally the reading public's. It is to lament that most readers do not know how to appreciate stories other than the love story. All love stories, especially the confessional ones, they proclaim as “true to life.” Also, it must be known that the Filipino public has a weakness for flow- ery language. A writer who does not use florid words is not appreciated. ‘American fiction, for instance, is not read much locally, as they [the Filipino public] see no beauty in it, even going so far as to make the statement that American English is not good because it cannot be understood. Conklin, “Amateur Authorship,” Literary Apprentice (1932-1933): 2~4; Osmundo Sta. Romans, "Hints to Would-be Weiter,” Graph 21 September 1933, 23,50; [AE Litato], “Giving Beginners a Break,” Graphic, 1 February 1934, 10-11, 47-48, 53; and idem, “The ‘Why of Rejection Sips,” Graphic, 8 February 1934, 1213, 45,48. That readers were cager to break into print can be inferred from the publication in magazines of ltters-to-the- calito by aspiring writers asking for guidelines, advice, o comments about their works. See, for example, the “Strictly Personal" pages ofthe Grapicn 1930, especially he fellowing issues: 15 January 1930, 41; 12 February 1930, 54-55; 26 February 1930, 40. Sometimes the lecters were sent by writers alteady enjoying prne (eg, Villa and Paras) writing mock ironically about one another, See the letters entitled "She's Curious” and “Of Cabbages and Kings” in Graph, 5 February 1930, 54 and 12 February 1930, 41, respectively. For a humorous account of one writer’ fervid but feequentl foiled attempts at fame—he claims inspiration from Villa—see Care Pero Dayot, “I Write,” Philippines Fra Pras, 8 April 1933, 16. shore story about "all che eibulations—half comic, half tcagic—of a literary neophyte” is Feliciano Joven Ledesm’s “A Budding Weiter” (Graphic, 3 June 1931, 25-26, 32). 4. This observation is borne out by the fact chat the frst anthology of Filipino short stores in English is Filipino Love Storied, Pxz Marques Benitez, (Manila: Philippine Journal of Education, 1927). Vill's story entitled "Nyari” is included in the anthology. 37™~ ‘THe Best Frupino SHORT STORIES OF 1927 ‘As only the intelligentsia of the whole mass of readers knows how to appreciate the other types of stories, i is to be predicted that the love story which cannot be totally ostracized, will sill remain long with us. ‘Whar is the short story? Clayton Hamilton defoes itindiretly thus: "The aim ofthe short is to produce a single narrative effect with the greatest economy of means that is consistent with the utmost emphasis." ‘What are the tests that a good story should survive? Edward O'Brien, the American critic of the short story gives (wo: the texts of substance and of form.* The test of substance requires magnificence of subject—delicate se. lection of facts. Genuine substance is achieved only when a pulse beats through the correlated facts, however tender or brutal its chythm may be. ‘The test of form requires vitaliry of structure and literary finish. Tech. nique plays a great part here. Technaque is the method of execution in an art it ts acquired through practice eather than by study. ‘With this double standard of form and substance in mind, I have selected the short stories which, in my humble opinion, are the best of last year's crop. the Tribune, Philippine Edwcation Magacone the Woman's Outlook, the Women's Home Journal, the Nation, Graphic, and the Luerary Apprentice, In the following list it will be noted that several individual authors distinguish themselves by contributing more than one short story to the Roll of Honor. The present record covers the period from January 1927 to December 1927. “They ate “Dance of Death,” [ancaymous|; “Caldereta,” by John Philip Broad; “Hard Clay,” “Spurts of Blood,” “Supremo Andres,” “The Fallen Idol,” by Casiano T: Calalang: “The Belt,” by N. H. Guerzon; “A Great Man's Dreams,” The Music Lesson,” “The Small Key,” by P.M. Li; “Beg- gprs” “Eyes of the Man,” “Frankincense,” “His Return.” “On His Day” ‘The Bolo,” “The Warrior's Gun,” “What Price Friendship,” and “White Lice,” by Loreto Paras.” 5. Clayton Hamilton, 4 Mama ef de An of Raion (New York: Doubleday, Page and Co, 1922), 177. The seatence is italicized inthe book. Hamilton writes in a note that he used the definition in the Bookman (February 1904) and in the Raader (February 1906). 6. It would be illuminating to compare Villa's paraphrase of O'Brien with O'Brien's ‘own description of the ewo tests printed in each issue of The Bet Short Sto, 7. “Fireflies” by Pars and “la the Dark” by Rizaliana Cabreira (pseudonym) are notin this lst, but Villa lists both stories as among the best of 1927 inthe appendix of his book 38‘THE Best FILIPINO SHoRT STORIES OF 1927 honestly believe that e ” Fp y Bolo,” by Loreto Paras; “Hard Clay,” by Casiano Calalang; and “The Small Key,” by BM. L. Of these three otevj and the other from the Pilppines Hea ee ee Palen Fe Pes, ‘on to the front in the near future, Fist published in Philppins Herald Maggi, 22 January 1928 Philipine Short Stories: Bes 26 Stories of 1928 (Manila: Philippines Free Press, 1929). The “Index of Shore Stories Published in Philippine Magazines, Selected by Jose Garcia Villa, 1926 to 1934,” in Osmundo Sta. Romana, The Bast Filipino Short Stores (Manila: ‘Wrightman, 1935) and thelist of stores given three asterisks by Villain Alberto S, Florentino, comp. and ed., Mideentury Guide to Philippine Literature in English (Macila: Fiipiniana, 1963) follow the data in Philippine Short Stoves. "P.M, L." was Paz M, Latorena, who also wrote under che names “BL.,"*P.Latorena,” “Paz Manguera,” and the pseudonym “Mina Lys." The frst ewo she frequently used to sign herjouralistc articles; the third she used for the story "Her Hopeless Quest” (rape, 9 February 1929, 8-9); the last she used to sign her prose poems. According to A. E. Lixiatco's column, Villa called her “dear P'Elle” in a phonograph recording that he sent from New York one Christmas (Litiatco, “Little Things," Graph, 7 January 1937, 78). Estrella Alfon, however, recalls that Villa used to “turn away from Paz Latorena, ‘that creature and closed his eyes to Loreto Paras (refuse tolook at her’)” (Nita U. Bertelsen, “Villathe poe.is;alsohuman,” Sunday Times Maggie, 21 June 1959, 23). 39