Revolution

According to
Raymundo Mata
Gina Apostol
About the text
Revealing the glimpse of the Philippine
Revolution and the Filipino writer Jose Rizal
emerge despite the worst efforts of feuding
academics in Apostol’s hilariously erudite novel,
which won the Philippine National Book Award.
Gina Apostol’s riotous second novel takes the
form of a memoir by one Raymundo Mata, a half-
blind bookworm and revolutionary, tracing his
childhood, his education in Manila, his love
affairs, and his discovery of writer and fellow
revolutionary, Jose Rizal. Mata’s 19th-century
story is complicated by present-day foreword (s),
afterword(s), and footnotes from three fiercely
quarrelsome and comic voices: a nationalist editor,
a neo-Freudian psychoanalyst critic,
and a translator, Mimi Magsalin.
In telling the contested and fragmentary story
of Mata, Apostol finds new way to depict the
violence of the Spanish colonial era, and to
reimagine the nation’s great writer, Jose Rizal,
who was executed by the Spanish for his
revolutionary activities, and is considered by
many to be the father of Philippine
independence.
The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata
offer an intoxicating blend of fact and fiction,
uncovering lost histories while building
dazzling, anarchic modes of narrative.
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Gina
Apostol
Gina Apostol was born in Manila and lives in New
York. She went to college at the University of the
Philippines and earned her MA in writing from Johns
Hopkins University. Her first novel, Bibliolepsy, won
the 1998 Philippine National Book Award for Fiction.
Her third novel, The Revolution According to
Raymundo Mata, is a comic historical novel-in-
footnotes about the Philippine war for independence
against Spain and America in 1896. Her latest, Gun
Dealers’ Daughter, recently won the PEN/Open Book
Award and will come out in paperback this fall. She is
currently working on a novel about the Philippine-
American War, William McKinley’s World.

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Stimuli

Answering the pre-reading questions:

1. What do you think were the reactions of the various people in the
Spanish times upon reading the novel “Noli Me Tangere”?
2. Do you think that reading the NMT nowadays is as controversial
as reading it then?
3. If you had lived in the times of the Spaniards, and someone
handed you the novel, would you accept it? Would you read it? Why
or why not?
4. If you would, what would you do with the book after?

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“
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(Excerpt)

“ ◈ It was a bolt – a thunder bolt. A rain of bricks, a lightning zap. A pummeling of

mountains, a heaving violent storm at sea – a whiplash. A typhoon. An
earthquake. The end of the world. And I was in ruins. It struck me dumb. It
changed my life and the world was new when I was done. And when I raised
myself from bed two days later, I thought: It’s only a novel. If I ever met him,
what would my life be? I lay back in bed. But what a novel! And I cursed him,
the writer – what was his name – for doing what I hadn’t done, for putting my
worlds into words before I even had the sense to know what the world was.

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“
◈ That was his triumph – he’d laid out a trail, and all we had to do is follow his
wake. Even then, I already felt the bitter envy, the acid retch of a latecomer
artist, the one who will always be under the influence, by mere chronology
always slightly suspect, a borrower, never lender be. After him, all Filipinos
are tardy ingrates. What is the definition of art? Art is reproach to those who
receive it. That was his curse upon all of us. I was weak, as if drugged. I
realized: I hadn’t eaten in two days. Then I got out of bed and boiled barako
for me.

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“
◈ Later it was all the rage in the coffee shops, in the bazaars of Binondo.
People did not even hide it – crowds of men, and not just students, not just
boys, some women even, with their violent fans – gesticulating in public,
throwing up their hands, putting up fists in debate. Put your knuckle where
your mouth is. We were loud, obstreperous, heedless. We were literary
critics. We were cantankerous: rude raving. And no matter which side you
were, with the crown or with the infidels, Spain or Spolarium, all of us, each
one, seemed revitalized by spleen, hatched by the woods of long, venomous
silence. And yes, suddenly the world opened up to me, after the novel, to
which before I had been blind.

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“
◈ Still I rushed into other debates, for instance with Benigno and Agapito,
who had now moved into my rooms. Remembering Father Gaspar’s cryptic
injunction -  “throw it away to someone else,” so that in this manner the
book traveled rapidly in those dark days of its printing, now so nostalgically
glorious, though then I had no clue that these were historic acts, the act of
reading, or that the book would be such a collector’s item, or otherwise I
would have wrapped it in parchment and sealed it for the highest bidder,
what the hell, I only knew holding the book could very likely constitute a
glorious crime – in short, I lent it to Benigno.

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Guide Questions:
◈ Why did the Noli Me Tangere have such a big impression on the narrator? Could
you relate to the narrator's experience of reading? Why or Why not?

◈ Have you ever felt the same about a book that you had read? What book was it?
Why did it leave such a huge impression on you?

◈ What does the line “Art is a reproach to those who receive it” mean? Should art be
a reproach? Should we relate art to society? Explain your view.

◈ When you read about how so many people were affected by the novel, what was
your reaction? Do you think a book can ever elicit such a strong response in the
Philippines?
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Guide Questions:
◈ When the narrator says that the act of reading was a historic act, what did he
mean? Do you think this is true even today?

◈ During those times, do you think you would have been moved to fight against the
government after reading the novel?

◈ They say that the act of reading gives people more empathy and makes them more
critical and reflective. Do you think this is true?

◈ Given this excerpt, what do you think is the importance of literature to society? Is
this still applicable today?

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Guide Questions:

◈ Why is the Noli Me Tangere, a book that was banned in the past, now a required
reading in Philippine schools? Why did the Catholic Church go against making the
noli a requirement?
◈ Do you think there should ever be a time when certain books should be banned?
Why or why not?

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BIG CONCEPT
Group Task

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What to do:

a. Using a chart, b. Draw a conclusion

compare the role of about the
NMT during the
significant/impact of
Spanish time and the
role of NMT in the literature through
present time. times.

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THANK
S!
Any questions?
You can find me at @ rome asis
(messenger) &
romelyn.asis@csjdmnshs.ph.education
IN 2 OR 3 COLUMNS
Yellow Blue Red
Is the color of gold, Is the colour of the Is the color of blood,
butter and ripe lemons. clear sky and the deep and because of this it
In the spectrum of sea. It is located has historically been
visible light, yellow is between violet and associated with
found between green green on the optical sacrifice, danger and
and orange. spectrum. courage.

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A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND
WORDS

A complex idea can be

conveyed with just a single still
image, namely making it
possible to absorb large amounts
of data quickly.

17
Want big
impact?

USE BIG
IMAGE
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USE CHARTS TO EXPLAIN YOUR IDEAS

White Gray Black

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AND TABLES TO COMPARE DATA

A B C

Yellow 10 20 7

Blue 30 15 10

Orange 5 24 16

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MAPS

our office

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OUR PROCESS IS EASY

first second last

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LET’S REVIEW SOME CONCEPTS
Yellow
Is the color of gold, butter and
ripe lemons. In the spectrum of
visible light, yellow is found
between green and orange.
Yellow
Is the color of gold, butter and
ripe lemons. In the spectrum of
visible light, yellow is found
between green and orange.
Blue
Is the colour of the clear sky
and the deep sea. It is located
between violet and green on the
optical spectrum.
Blue
Is the colour of the clear sky
and the deep sea. It is located
between violet and green on the
optical spectrum.
Red
Is the color of blood, and
because of this it has
historically been associated
with sacrifice, danger and
courage.
Red
Is the color of blood, and
because of this it has
historically been associated
with sacrifice, danger and
courage.
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THANK
S!
Any questions?
You can find me at @username
& user@mail.me
CREDITS
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