#ode to nothing

[eugene-domingo]

ODA SA WALA (2018) | dir. dwein balthazar

[ourlittlesister2015]

Oda sa Wala (Ode to Nothing; 2018), dir. Dwein Baltazar

[syringavulgaris]

Gregory Orr, Some of its Qualities, from “Ode to Nothing”

[syringavulgaris]

Gregory Orr, The Journey, from “Ode to Nothing”

[andquietrollsthedawn]

Ode to Nothing | Oda Sa Wala | Dwein Baltazar | 2018

[minimoonstar]

Watched/read

Some books this time. I don’t know why it’s harder for me to write a few lines about each book I read; maybe just lack of practice.

Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie: the phrase that came to mind was that it was a pleasure to read a space opera that’s fundamentally about adult concerns - you know, like the impact of hegemonic colonialist violence on language, haha. Leckie’s prose is more understated than, say, Delany or Banks or Leguin, but I liked what she did with the narration; particularly how the flashy/fun “distributed POV” stuff (hire a good editor for the eventual Amazon Prime series!) disguises the slow reveal of how unreliable, or rather non-human, One Esk is in other ways. She asks you to think hard about the connotations of “civilized,” so you never think about the connotations of “favorite.” Anyway, I found the genderless society very natural, because biological sex (eg childbearing) was irrelevant to the plot, there’s no set roles or stereotypes or discrimination at play, and as a fanfic-practicing bi I just imagined the characters however I pleased, and sometimes switched them around.

From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death, by Caitlin Doughty: a funeral services director travels the world to find examples of post-death practices unlike those in North America, whether elaborately offbeat or movingly sensible - which is which being a question of what one is used to. This was chockablock full of TILs, though all over the place as focus and structure go: the major thesis seems to be that greater intimacy between the living and their dead has a healing purpose, or at least a demystifying one. Pyres strike me as baller, and composting as peaceful, but keeping mummified relatives in the house is a bit tip end of the bell curve.

I thought of this book while watching Ode to Nothing, a drily funny Philippine film about a sadsack woman of a certain age who runs a funeral parlour with her widower father, and is deeply in hock to the local loan shark. One night, she’s brought an unidentified hit-and-run corpse, and begins to think of it as a good-luck charm. The pace is slow and could easily have been draggy, but the photography has a nonjudgmental tactility that draws one in: one can practically smell Sonya’s sleepy town, the warm torrential rain, her dusty house - I mean that as a compliment, even though she keeps dead people in it.

All Systems Red, by Martha Wells: novella-length, also features a 1st person POV cyborg protagonist. This was more straightforwardly a “planetary away mission” type of adventure, held together by the sarcastic-comedic tone, though the world building isn’t jokey. Rather than Leckie’s aim of actually reproducing an AI POV, the viewpoint here felt metaphorical, for the kind of person who at one point in their life identifies more with robots in fiction than humans - young, in other words, but relatable.

[goombastomp]

Fantasia 2019: 'Ode to Nothing' Review

Marietta Subong delivers one of the best performances of the year in the art-horror hybrid from the Philippines.

[goombastomp]

Fantasia 2019: 'Ode to Nothing' Review

Marietta Subong delivers one of the best performances of the year in the art-horror hybrid from the Philippines.