The Zobel Prize for literature

ONE of the biggest ironies of the Philippines is that José Rizal, a writer and intellectual, is the national hero in a country where most people do not like to read. Even more, many young people - such as my students of Spanish language - openly confess that they do not like to read. They do acknowledge that books are important, and they do appreciate the role of intellectuals, professors and scholars in society, but the idea of sitting alone for two hours in silence with a novel is an activity that just does not appeal to them. I do not accept the two typical excuses: books are not pricey, especially secondhand books; lack of time can't be an excuse either since Filipinos reportedly spend lots of hours on social media. As a professor of Spanish, this is one of the things I first noticed when I arrived in the Philippines from Poland. When Polish students, most of them usually readers, need to do an exercise of reading comprehension, they rarely fail; unlike here. I believe the lack of habit is the cause.

The increasing importance of visuality in the contemporary world might be a reason too. The role of literature, specifically fiction, in society today is not what it was decades ago. I have noticed this progressive decline with some anguish, as I am a professor of literature.