Guest Blogger: Paulino Lim, Jr., "Preface to a Work in Progress" - Sabong

Dear Readers,

Our Guest Blogger is Paulino Lim, Jr., whose new anthology, SABONG, is forthcoming. Dr. Lim says Sabong "comes from the log of a lifetime voyage of teaching. The stories conform to Edgar Allan Poe’s idea of the short story as an artistic composition controlled to produce a single unified effect. The “Etc.” section sheds light on the fictional elements, as well as history, language and philosophy."

The book has two parts. The first part collects some of his short stories, such as "Sabong," "Heart of a Banana," "Nurse Rita." The second part has essays such as "Finding Your Voice: The Bilingual Writer's Dilemma," and "Diplotic Consciousness of Overseas Filipino Writers." 

Paulino Lim, Jr. is professor emeritus of English at California State University, Long Beach. He has a bachelor's and master’s degree from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA). He was a Fulbright lecturer in Taiwan, and visiting professor at De La Salle University in Manila for more than a decade. He received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant at Indiana University, spent a sabbatical at Göttingen, Germany, and was the first prize winner of the Asiaweek Short Story Competition of 1985.

He is the author of a scholarly monograph, The Style of Lord Byron’s Plays. His other published works include: two short story anthologies (Passion Summer and Other Stories, & Curaçao Cure and Other Stories); a quartet of political novels (Tiger Orchids on Mount Mayon, Sparrows Don’t Sing in the Philippines, Requiem for a Rebel Priest, & Ka Gaby, Nom de Guerre); and two dramas (It’s All in Your Mind, & Ménage Filipinescas).

He shares with us "Preface to a Work in Progress."

 

Preface to a Work in Progress

Writing complements teaching. Like its predecessors, this anthology comes from the log of a lifetime voyage of teaching. The ports of call were: high school teaching at the Divine Word Seminary in Quezon City, college teaching at San Beda College in Manila, university teaching at California State University, Long Beach, and teaching seniors and fellow retirees at the Osher Lifelong Institute (OLLI), also at CSULB. Other ports included a sabbatical at Göttingen University in Germany, Fulbright lectureship at National Central University in Taiwan, and visiting professorship at De La Salle University in Manila.

The English courses taught range from technical to creative writing and from literature surveys to literary criticism.  The assignment included the supervision of baccalaureate students teaching in middle and high schools to fulfill a credential requirement. Courses prepared for OLLI include: “Confessional Poetry of the English Romantics,” “Stage Drunk: Intoxication as a Dramatic Device,” and “Graham Green’s Fiction in Film.”

The stories conform to Edgar Allan Poe’s theory of the short story as an artistic composition controlled to produce a single unified effect. Two works began as short stories but morphed into other forms. “Deus ex Vulcanus” emulates a twitter text. The original dialogue for “Fiends in the Philippines” now stands as a one-act play. The “Etc.” essays shed light on the fictional elements, including: subject matter (“Fictionalizing Contemporary History”), philosophy (“Heidegger and Poetry: Via Literatura”), poetics (“Zen and Literary Criticism”), belief (“My Childhood’s Faith,”), and language (“Finding Your Voice: The Bilingual Writer’s Dilemma” and “The Obscurity of a Learned Language: English and the Filipino American Writer”).

The final essay, “The Diplopic Consciousness of Overseas Filipino Writers,” describes the psychological kinship of Filipino writers and workers living abroad. It was presented at the Ninth International Conference on the Philippines at Michigan State University in 2012. 

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PRAISE FOR

PAULINO LIM JR.

“What we have in Lim is a writer of raw power and sensitivity.”

World Literature Today

“Paulino Lim Jr. explores with indefatigable energy the role of the intellectual in Philippine society.”

Pilipinas

“Lim has done a masterly job of using fiction as a literary criticism of social, political and religious situations in the country.”

Philippine Studies

“[Lim’s fiction] attempts to re-examine our past history in the light of our changing consciousness of the true meaning of our ideals and struggles as a nation.”

Philippine Panorama

“Lim is a master in recreating a milieu.... As expected, Lim gives us a spellbinding story that is hard to put down.”

Philippine Star

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This is all for now,
Cecilia