Manananggal turns 21
Manananggal Terrorizes Manila and other stories. The first edition has the black and red Rorschach bats cover art (uma-Eye of Sauron) by P.T. Martin, Raya’s dad. The second edition has the tabloid cover art by Joanne de Leon. The book was published by Anvil in 1992 and 97 and is now out of print.
If our books are our descendants, then our eldest spawn has just graduated from college. Ayyyyyyy we’re ancient.
All we ever really wanted to do was write short stories. And novels, essays, maybe plays, but mostly short stories. We’ve been scribbling since we were 8 and publishing since we were 12. First we wrote pretentious movie reviews for the school paper (We imitated Pauline Kael), then pretentious editorials, and the summer after high school we started doing features and interviews for local magazines (We read Rolling Stone a lot). We could actually pay for our college tuition with the money we earned from writing. (You can’t do that anymore. Tuition fees at UP have rocketed but magazine fees have not changed appreciably in the last quarter-century.)
The advantage of freelancing from an early age is that you learn to view writing as a profession and not a romantic fancy. (In the Philippines, where writing is one of the “Walang pera diyan” fields, writers are often viewed as romantic martyr-idiots. Unless they’re in the pay of politicians, in which they are admired and reviled as cunning hacks.) Hey, Shakespeare wrote for money.
The disadvantage of freelancing from an early age is that you learn to view writing as a job and forget why you love it. Ideally, we write for ourselves. In order to make a living, we have to write for a paying audience. When you’re hammering out a thousand words a day in order to pay the bills, it’s hard to maintain your enthusiasm. Hey, Shakespeare wrote for money, but he could be as Shakespeare as he wanted. (The owner of the Globe Theatre didn’t tell him to use smaller words or go easy on that iambic pentameter.)
We learned to write stories by reading stories; our early models were J.D. Salinger (Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey), John Cheever (the fat red book), Irwin Shaw (the fat blue book), Scott Fitzgerald (The Rich Boy, etc), W. Somerset Maugham and Woody Allen (The Kugelmass Episode and The Whore of Mensa). After starting and abandoning hundreds of stories, we finally finished a short story in our second year of college. It was based on our high school experience, and we called it “Through A Time Warp, With A Paddle”. The title, which is probably the only good thing about it, references two of our obsessions of the time: science-fiction and The Great Gatsby (the last line).
Having gotten over that first story hump, we spent the rest of college writing uncontrollably. We wrote during class, outside class, in the library; every conversation we had was material. It was like being possessed. All but four of the 15 stories in our first book, Manananggal Terrorizes Manila, were written when we were in college. We wish that would explain why they’re so awful but no, they’re just awful.
Nearly all the characters in those stories started out as people we know and ended up being us. We typed the drafts, had them photocopied, then carried the copies around in a fat yellow folder that we asked our classmates to read. Our classmates were our first readers and they were very kind, even when we were clearly bonkers.
Being read by other people is a terrible experience: you are completely exposed and defenseless. There’s no way around this. It should be a terrible experience. You should feel exposed and defenseless. If you think you’re brilliant from the get-go, you’re probably delusional. If you don’t feel exposed and defenseless, then you haven’t put yourself out there. You’ve risked nothing.
Later, one is capable of feeling like a genius and a cretin at the same time. Life is full of contradictions.
After college we put the folder of stories away and went to work. We continued to write stories. The year 1991 had an apocalyptic feel to it: it was just after a major earthquake, war was looming in the Middle East, Mt Pinatubo erupted, we had moved into our first apartment. We wrote a story about that time and submitted it to a foreign magazine. It was rejected. The returned manuscript was sitting on our desk when we saw a call for entries to the Palanca Awards. What the hell, we said, no one will know. But we got amazingly lucky. Never underestimate the role of randomness in human affairs.
So we had 15 stories and one Palanca Award. Okay, we laugh at awards whores and people whose profiles begin with “multi-awarded” (and “world-class”), but that one prize was really useful. Because of it, Karina Bolasco of Anvil Publishing discovered our existence and asked us if we wanted to publish a book.
Manananggal Terrorizes Manila was published in 1992 as part of the Contemporary Philippine Fiction line, along with new works by Butch Dalisay and Charlson Ong. The book launch was held at National Bookstore in Shangri-La Mall (was it September?). We were over an hour late to our own launch because there was a shoot-out somewhere that caused a massive traffic jam on Edsa. Oddly enough we have no memory of the launch itself.
Manananggal is no longer in print, which is a relief because 95 percent of those stories are atrocious. We’re very fond of the book, but we know what it is: Juvenilia. Stuff you have to expel from your system so you can get on with the good stuff. But what is the good stuff? We’re working on it. We think. And we’re writing short stories again, which is all we ever really wanted to do.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
July 5th, 2013 at 07:49
Happy birthday Manananggal! I think I have you somewhere in my old book closet in the old house that my dad and my wicked stepmother now calls home.
“Being read by other people is a terrible experience: you are completely exposed and defenseless. There’s no way around this. It should be a terrible experience. You should feel exposed and defenseless. If you think you’re brilliant from the get-go, you’re probably delusional. If you don’t feel exposed and defenseless, then you haven’t put yourself out there. You’ve risked nothing.”
Ha ha ha, kind of like describing “falling in love” or pining-for-sex-with-the-one-you-love-who-may-or may-not-have-ED. Anyway happy birthday Manananggal! The advantage of books over children is you don’t have to clean up their poop when they are less than 1 and you then pay for their tuition from 6 to 21.
July 5th, 2013 at 10:15
Confession time! I did a 2nd rate trying hard copycat of Portents for my junior year Filipino class (twist: baog ang nobyo). My teacher then was an “award-winning” screenwriter who must not have read you (I got a 1.25).
I enjoyed all the stories though, most of all the one w the theater actor and his barkada. And the prom of course.
We’re still waiting for your novel! No pressure :)
July 5th, 2013 at 10:51
Thank you for sharing this. (I’m still struggling with Juvenilia, hopefully it ends soon.) Anyway, happy 21st to Manananggal, who’s even older than Koosi!
July 5th, 2013 at 10:55
Congratulations!
July 5th, 2013 at 10:57
“Being read by other people is a terrible experience: you are completely exposed and defenseless. There’s no way around this. It should be a terrible experience. You should feel exposed and defenseless. If you think you’re brilliant from the get-go, you’re probably delusional. If you don’t feel exposed and defenseless, then you haven’t put yourself out there. You’ve risked nothing.”
Ang galing. Isusulat namin iyan sa aming munting kwaderno.
Hinihintay po namin ang koleksyon niyo ng mga maikling kwento. Bibili kami.
July 5th, 2013 at 11:07
I have a copy of the second edition.
I remember the engagement ring story – I hope it didn’t happen to someone in real life.
I like the first story the most – Words? Made me regret not eating the newspaper cookies in grade school science fests.
July 5th, 2013 at 11:22
I actually like that book. It was given to me as a present by my brother for my birthday. I can’t find it anymore though, shame that it’s out of print now.
My favorite was the one about the actor who does not go out of character, or is very OA, something like that, that wooed the advertising executive who got rich on toilet paper ads; I thought it was funny. Or am I combining two separate stories?
July 5th, 2013 at 11:40
I found a copy of the 1997 edition in 2007 when I bought a lot of the Twisted books. I’m really irritated with myself for not getting it then. Haven’t been able to find it since, despite searching high and low! Anyway, here’s to your debut book on its 21st anniversary . It was really great to read about how you became a professional writer.
July 5th, 2013 at 13:59
Jara: Thanks. Not a good model for building a writing career; too much randomness.
July 5th, 2013 at 14:00
jasonarriola: We don’t remember! Hahahahaha.
July 5th, 2013 at 14:01
UVDust: Hang on to it, someday it will be worth ten bucks.
July 5th, 2013 at 14:04
greeneggsnham: Huli ka! Hmmm, did we inadvertently invent the Four Weddings and A Funeral (eccentric hero, crazy barkada) formula?
The first novel was finished years ago, but it’s crap. We’ve salvaged the parts that are not idiotic and will publish them as short stories.
For the next novel: Maybe something about a band…
July 5th, 2013 at 14:05
I read it over ten years ago, back in college. I remember my favorites were ‘Scylla and Charybdis’ and ‘Portents.’ Hope you produce a novel soon. :)
July 5th, 2013 at 14:13
Rye: Yiiiiiiiiii, Scylla. Plot serviceable, writing kakadiri.
July 5th, 2013 at 14:46
Happy birthday to Manananggal! I shall now find a copy of the book and see what you deem atrocious. Cheers to expelling Juvenilia!
July 5th, 2013 at 16:36
I have fond memories reading that book. I was in college in up and it helped me in my creative writing class. I like the one with the road tripping guys the most.
July 5th, 2013 at 18:09
The more you describe something as atrocious the more I want it! :)
July 5th, 2013 at 21:40
@jessica: I liked Manananggal. I still have a copy somewhere in my shelf of older books. I haven’t read it in maybe a decade or so, so maybe I’ll re-read it and see if I can look at it through your current POV on it.
I do agree with you. I re-read some of the older stuff I wrote from college and younger, and I cringe. Ideas are okay, but the prose can make me want to smack my college self. I don’t think I’m “there” yet even a this point in time, though. Then again, I don’t think any writer ever really will be. We just our best and write what we love as much as we can.
Oh, incidentally, Charlson Ong and Butch Dalisay were my teachers in my first two (of three) fiction workshops in the early 2000s for my still-unfinished MA in Creative Writing. I enjoyed their classes immensely, especially Butch’s.
July 5th, 2013 at 23:33
Thank you, you are very kind. You read it in writing class! We hope you found it entertaining. Two things in its favor: It’s not boring (we think), and it ticked off some angry Marxists (bonus!).
July 5th, 2013 at 23:41
Thank you for the confirmation and happy birthday Manananggal!
July 6th, 2013 at 00:10
Ooh.. since everybody is sharing Manananggal stories, I’ll jump in.
I did an interpretive reading of “Ten Thousand Easters at the Vatican” many years ago in my public speaking club. It went really well and people thought I was clever. Thank you. Hehehe.
I’m sure there are more people out there with Manananggal stories.
July 6th, 2013 at 01:20
Write na The Blanco Center Horror Stories!
July 6th, 2013 at 11:12
Ah, ito yung time na nagsusulat ka pa sa woman today at may column ka na womenagerie ang pangalan na sobrang lagi kong inaabangan nung hayskul pa ko. Pero hindi ako nakabili nung Manananggal na book. Wala kasi sa probinsya. I have several of your twisted books, though, which i bought when i started college in manila.
July 6th, 2013 at 12:14
Congratulations, Your Grace, for Your Grace’s continuing pursuit of ABSOLUTE universal domination. I actually use some of your articles in my class as assignments. My favorite is still “Generation Voltes V.” My students go berserk whenever they read Your Grace’s articles.
July 7th, 2013 at 01:07
‘_________ was here’ was my favorite.
July 7th, 2013 at 01:13
(delayed reaction) i had this book and i think it’s still in my parents’ house.. i loved it too.. it almost made me want to write short stories though i ended up writing computer code
July 7th, 2013 at 22:55
Wandering down memory lane, I have this book back in High School, and it’s still there in my parents’ house. Being a pariah back then, I must say that this is one of the books that saved me from the atrocities of High School life. I feel like I have some connections with the characters; that they reflect me which makes me feel normal again. It encouraged me to write my own stories too, and failed, and blamed my mother for not giving me porridge with cutout letters from a newspaper when I was a toddler.
I like the story about the guy with his unresolved issues to his father who recently passed away, which reminds me of my relationship with my own father. Also that story in which the lyrics of The Police song, ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’, is embedded. And who can forget that phenomenal High School Prom? But the most stirring story for me is about the 3 men driving up to Baguio to “bury” the woman that connects them. I forgot the other stories; I’m going back to my parents’ house, get this book and re-read this once again.
July 7th, 2013 at 23:19
the chronicler of boredom: Thanks. 10,000 Easters was our attempt at a Twilight Zone story. We don’t remember the original series, but we loved the 80s reboot. One of the writer-producers: George R.R. Martin. So GRRM was an influence even before ASOIAF began.
Watching so much Twilight Zone trained us to spot twists before they unfold. Hindi kami nabobola ng M. Night Shyamalan na yan. Ten minutes into The Sixth Sense, as Bruce Willis was having a too-quiet meal with Olivia Williams, our sister turned to us and we chorused, “He’s dead!”
July 7th, 2013 at 23:22
Chus: Yes, working on them.
Chus is referring to the fact that we (and Ricky) were next-door neighbors at the old Blanco Center (now Picasso Suites), only we didn’t know each other then and we lived there at different times.
Of course weird things happened. With tenants like the three of us, how could they not.
July 7th, 2013 at 23:41
lola_basyang: Yes, we were writing for Woman Today before we started college. We saw the magazine on the newsstands, took note of the address, and turned up one day with some writing samples. It was lunchtime and the editorial office was empty, but the editor-in-chief Marita Nuque had skipped lunch, and she speed-read our movie review. Then she gave us our first assignment. For the next two or three years we wrote dozens of cover stories for the magazine. After college Marita gave us our first column.
If Marita had not been as antisocial as we are, we wouldn’t have gotten that regular gig. Years later, Marita took us to a manghuhula who said, “You will receive a job offer tomorrow. Take it.” The following day Abe Florendo called us and said he was putting together the lifestyle section of a start-up newspaper called TODAY and would we be interested in writing a column. No shit, this really happened. (The manghuhula was named Gugun Garcia. She died several years ago.)
Note to self: Write a manghuhula story.
July 7th, 2013 at 23:43
wangbumaximus21: Thanks. The Voltes V theory of Marcos’s downfall was originated by Roby Alampay, now our editor at InterAksyon.com.
July 7th, 2013 at 23:49
bindlestiff: Inspired by our one day at law school. Our parents were so insistent, we agreed to attend the orientation for first-year students. And confirmed that we would run amok if we’d stayed. To our parents’ eternal disappointment. One tries not to disappoint one’s parents, but it’s her life after all.
July 7th, 2013 at 23:50
oriames: There’s no rule that you can’t write code AND short stories.
July 7th, 2013 at 23:55
huge_fox: If you’re planning to re-read that thing, keep the antacids within reach. The story about the trip to Baguio has the Police song. It’s the one that makes us want to break into the houses of people who bought the book and rip it out.
The title “Kind of Brown” we borrowed from Miles Davis’s album Kind of Blue. We wrote that story after college, when we started listening to jazz. At the time we were hanging out with a brilliant musician with an unfortunate habit common to musicians.
“This is one of the books that saved me from the atrocities of High School life” is the best compliment we’ve ever received. Thanks.
July 8th, 2013 at 00:17
Then you had that radio show with Little David. I survived the mid-90s because of that show.
July 8th, 2013 at 01:00
We were too young to have bought and kept a copy of the book, but we checked it out once or twice from the Filipiniana section of Main Lib. We liked Portents, and also that road trip story.
We obviously cannot wait for the grown-up incarnations of these so-called juvenalia.
July 8th, 2013 at 13:58
Haha yes maybe I will start writing soon.. I just came off one of those projects that try to suck my life away but I spent Saturday painting a wall mural with my friends.. Found myself buying water color late at night Sunday.. I think I badly need to use the other side of my brain.. Womanagerie! My mom used to buy it and yes that was where I first read Jessica Zafra’s short stories :). It did inspire me to write news for the school paper which allowed me to escape home economics :))))
July 8th, 2013 at 15:55
It is sad that this is out of print. I have been looking for this and Chicken Pox For The Soul everywhere and found nil.
The Twisted books and the Womenagerie and Other Tales From The Front kept me sane throughout my arduous college years. I kept on bugging my friends to read your works, they loved them, and we organized a mini-fans club. When we discussed Portents in our Philippine Literature subject, we were so overjoyed.
I first discovered your works in our library’s Woman Today back-issue compilations and was hooked. My friends and I are looking forward for your next book, whatever that may be.
July 8th, 2013 at 16:27
i have a well-read copy of the second edition. i’m only five years older than this book!
July 9th, 2013 at 14:19
I loved “What’s that in your glass” and reference “Portents” for style. The latter cautions me against having bombs explode all over a single short story. It’s an uneventful piece (read it in high school, all girls’, and unwanted pregnancies weren’t shocking) but I thought it very clever.
“Romeo et al” has a bit that cracks me up every time. Rick goes on a hamfest in a snooty party and pretends he can’t unclasp his hands. I swear I’d kill to see a scene like that in the movies (with John Hamm in the role).
You should write more short stories.
July 10th, 2013 at 20:05
I have Manananggal – the cover is a caricature of you as a sphinx/manananggal hybrid – and I think seven of the Twisted books.
The first piece I ever read from you was an essay about fast food delivery that was published in Woman Today. I was 11 I think and I distinctly remember this line about how fast food joints use so much tape you can strap a person to a chair with it. I’d never read something so accessible and everyday yet funny in a magazine before, and I was an instant fan.
July 10th, 2013 at 20:06
Oh no what I have pala is Womenagerie, I don’t have Manananggal. AY! I need to get that. Rare book na ito!
July 17th, 2013 at 15:13
Happy birthday Manananggal! I’m so proud to still have an intact copy of this book (In fact, almost all of your books from Womenagerie and all the Twisted series as well as Manila Envelope). Your books have been my travel companions since I’ve lived abroad from London and now in California. My favorite story in Manananggal is “Face in the Crowd”. There’s just something about it that I really find dramatic! Anyway, I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’m looking forward to your novel. I’ve been a fan since your Woman Today column.
October 16th, 2013 at 18:28
Hi Ms. Zafra, i think Manananggal may be considered atrocious, but once I got the chance to read it as recommended by one of my instructors, I found it really entertaining with your intelligent style and very interesting plots. I think it contains real issues that the young adults face, then and until now, and for that reason, I chose five of your short stories as source text for my thesis – presenting the character traits of the Filipino youth and the social dilemmas they face. Furthermore, i see the importance of your work no matter how atrocious it seems or if it is a juvenilia…it presents some truth to reality, that makes any literature valuable because we learn something from it and gain much from reading it…I am hoping to meet you one day, soon. God bless!