#reading&writing

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National Arts Month Background

The Filipino culture is known for its unique music, dances, art, and literature. In 1991, Corazon Aquino signed the Presidential Proclamation 683. This started National Arts Month, celebrated every month of February. The celebration allows fellow Filipinos to recognize Filipino talents, honor local artists, appreciate their craft, and give tribute to our history. This month-long celebration is made possible by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, or NCCA, along with other agencies. During the festival, a series of events are used to highlight Architecture and Allied Arts, Cinema, Dance, Dramatic Arts, Literary Arts, Music, and Visual Arts through Subcommission on the Arts, or SCA, across the country. The Subcommission on the Arts is the committee that represents the fine art sector of culture and encourages Filipinos to exercise freedom and promotes Filipino arts. Filipino styled art is a very compelling and interesting culture of the Philippines.  However, it is under looked and not given the recognition it deserves. Philippine art is heavily based on the Philippine’s culture, society, history, real world problems, and many more. The art of the Filipinos tend to tell a story about these topics. The stories can be seen through the forms of paintings, sculptures, songs, and literature, among other things. The most commonly used art form in interpreting a story is through Philippine’s literature, which tells the story of the Filipino culture and history through the use of symbolisms containing hidden connotations. In addition to this, Philippine literature doesn’t just inform the people about the culture, but was also able to spark revolutions and inform the people about the truth back in the past. The most famous literature compositions that have demonstrated this, is “Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo”. Nowadays, modern literature does not need to create revolutions to be considered as noteworthy. In fact, a remarkable amount of Filipino literature is seen as amazing works of art; not only in the Philippines, but also internationally. This proves that Filipino culture is something to be proud of, and that it needs to receive more attention from the people of whom it is for.

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Subterrania Plot Summary

“Subterrania” is a short fiction poem written by a Filipino named Luis Joaquin M. Katigbak. The story follows the point of view of a male character. He has a female friend named Kaye, who likes to stay in her room all the time. Most of the story is about his view on Kaye and the interactions they have together. The story starts with Kaye introducing her room as her “subterrania” to the male lead. Silence fills the room as Kaye sits, watching her TV as the narrator watches her. After a while, Kaye pays attention to the guy and they have a small friendly interaction, and he takes his leave. Before Kaye became reclusive, she and the narrator used to always hang out together. She was once a lively and outgoing girl until she decided to find her subterrania. In his next visit, he tries his best to persuade Kaye to leave her room; nonetheless, Kaye decides to stay in her room. During the conversation, Kaye explains how she doesn’t need to go outside anymore; how she has everything she needs in her room. After leaving the room, the narrator worries for Kaye. He worries if she will ever go back to her past self. He visits Kaye time and time again. In each visit, the narrator tries his best to bring Kaye outside; however, each attempt ends in failure, with Kaye expounding her love for staying in her subterrania. Months pass, and the guy has visited Kaye so much he slowly gets confused with the worlds they both live in. Before entering the room again, suddenly a thought was placed in his head, he continuously imagined how their story may end. He enters the room once more, and discovers that he has become accustomed to the darkness - the subterrania.

“welcome, to subterrania.”

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An Analysis of “Subterrania”

“Subterrania” is defined in the story as an area with insufficient light or air. This coincides with the story’s themes of isolation and influence, shown in the perspective of the protagonist. The story is centered around his friend, Kaye. Kaye is a social recluse who refuses any outside interaction, save for the protagonist. In the story, she is shown to isolate herself from the outside world, relying only on the resources in her room and the occasional visits from the protagonist. Her behavior is that of a hikikomori, which is someone who abnormally denies any social interaction. The protagonist, on the other hand, is unnamed. His role in the story is to simply narrate the events from his perspective. He is shown to constantly visit Kaye and create scenarios regarding their relationship in his head. By the end of the story, he visits Kaye a final time, only to succumb to her state of living. Both Kaye and the protagonist represent opposing ideals, with Kaye preferring the comfort of isolation and the protagonist preferring the growth involving reality. Kaye is shown to dislike uncertainty, stating that she prefers to know the underlying reasons for why everything is what it is while the protagonist is shown to lament her behavior, constantly trying to bring her out of her shell and let her grow. This contrast in behavior makes the ending much more impactful, where the main character’s ideals change into that of Kaye’s, which is implied when he says that nothing could be seen in the darkness of her room, despite clearly seeing her outline. This, will be further expounded on in the analysis of the themes.

Throughout the story, the theme of isolation is always presented with Kaye who would have been the quintessential embodiment of isolation, had she not cared enough to interact with the narrator every time he visits. One should note that isolation itself is not much of a bad thing. Isolation, done right, allows one to evaluate and reassess their decisions, their lifestyle choices, as well as their position in life. It gives one the freedom to think for themselves, and to be able to understand themselves better. However, the kind of isolation presented within the story is the type that causes one to become a recluse to society, hidden from the face of it in favor of their own company, and no one else’s. In the story, Kaye argues that the reason as to why she doesn’t feel the need to go out anymore is because she already had everything she deems was important to her, and that her little room was better than the real world; her room, she argues, is certain. The world outside, is not. This shows Kaye’s discomfort with being unsure with life, making her immediate affinity of her subterrania much more comprehensible. Essentially, she favors her small dark room more than the outside world because she doesn’t have to deal with the surprises that come with life, which is the reason why some people decide to become social recluses.

Another theme that “Subterrania” tackles would be the power of exposure or influence. To elaborate: near the end of the Katigbak short story, the narrator mentions that, as he huddles together with Kaye in her subterrania, he can see the outlines of her face - everything from the lines of her cheekbones, to her eyes. It is there that he realizes - he isn’t supposed to see anything at all, in that darkness. From this, we can make assumptions that the narrator has gotten accustomed and has adapted to the obscurity that surrounds every surface of Kaye’s room. The question remains: How did this happen? Why has the narrator, someone who was adamant on getting Kaye to get outside her little safe bubble and back to the somber bitterness of reality, become complacent with the cloistered nature of Kaye’s subterrania? By perusing the story, we find out that this part of his ark has been long overdue. In the course of the events of the composition, we can see that the narrator is slowly, yet steadily, understanding and appreciating the comfort which the dark room gives through the interpretations which Kaye provides every time he inquires. As the story comes to a close, and with the narrator becoming more open with the idea of the hermit-like lifestyle that she exhibits, its no surprise that he can see — the narrator has now accepted her subterrania as his own, and has been successfully influenced by Kaye, whether she meant to, or not.

“...it should be impossible to see anything in darkness this total. Anything at all.“

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Author’s Background

Luis Joaquin M. Katigbak, born on July 26 1974, is a Filipino writer and music critic from Quezon City. He graduated from the University of the Philippines, also known as UP. Initially, he aspired to be a mathematician, but, in the middle of college, he realized his calling was to be a writer. As a result, he shifted into a creative writing course, BA English, from BS Mathematics. In fact, he has been writing since his childhood and had even some of his works published in his early teen years. These works have been published in Philippine Graphic, The Philippines Free Press, The Likhaan Book of Poetry and Fiction 1995/1997, and East Magazine. Since then, Katigbak has also written three book: Happy Endings, a collection of short stories; The King of Nothing to Do, a collection of essays; and Dear Distance, another collection of stories. The first two of which have been nominated in the National Book Awards. On the 20th of April in 2016, Katigbak passed away at age 41 as a result of diabetes. His most recent vocation, though, was as Senior Editor and Reviews Editor for BURN Magazine. Prior to that, he worked as a PULP Magazine/MTV Ink resident writer, a Philippine Star columnist, an Esquire Philipppines associate editor, a UP Diliman Creative Writing Lecturer, and an Office of Justice Carpio Director II. Katigbak has received a Philippine Graphic prize, a Young Artists' Grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, or NCCA, and four short story Palanca awards. These four short fictions are Dear Distance, Mico and Friends, Nico’s Flight, and the topic for today— Subterrania.