Wordflay

Theater critic Gibbs Cadiz’s anecdote about an otherwise attractive prospect’s unfortunate handling of subject-verb agreement, which he related in his most recent blog post, had me chuckling for a while when I first read it. As someone who breathes and lives with words on a daily basis (especially now that I work as the writer/editor of a new travel-related publication), I can totally relate to his experience. I can’t help it; I have long been very sensitive to how English is spoken or written. And mind you, not only writers and editors acquire this sensitivity. Ask any good English teacher around and he or she will tell you how they struggle checking through tower after tower of their students’ reports and terms papers, bad grammar and all.

Incidentally, this reminds me of a very short story a friend, BJ Patiño, had written. The story, titled “Missing an ‘S’” (first published in Sleepless in Manila), has an English teacher reading a suitor’s love letter while on a break from checking papers. Here’s the highlight of that letter:

“I am happy to know you. I care you.”

Hilarious. Even more hilarious, perhaps out of fatigue, the teacher graded it with an F.

Another friend related a story one time, about a friend of hers who, during a pretty good fuck, heard the apparently ecstatic guy exclaim: “I’m going to make love to you twinty times a day!” Something snapped in the girl when she heard that, and she reacted by totally pulling away from the startled guy. She was that turned off.

That’s not all. I heard this one from a friend from the theater, wherein she overheard a conversation between two friends while riding an elevator. It went something like this:

PERSON 1: Ano ba ang difference between confirmed at confeermed?

This friend of mine thought this person was joking, until she heard the other person speak:

PERSON 2: Pag confirmed, ibig sabihin hindi pa sigurado. Pag confeermed, sigurado na iyon.

Unbelievable, isn’t it? I laughed when I first heard it, and so did my other theater friends.

And finally, I have an older female colleague—an advertising executive—who calls prospective clients (hotels, resorts, etc.) every morning at the office. There is one that she calls to fairly frequently, and until very, very recently she would start by saying:

"Good morning. Is this Discovery Suites (pronounced suits)?"

I had to keep my mouth shut every time she pronounced “suit(e)s” for fear I might correct her in a tactless way. Sigh. Thank God she learned how it say it properly.

Babbling about "Babel"

Resty O. very recently posted in his blog about Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Oscar-nominated Babel and how he hated it. I, for one, loved it and told him so in that post’s comments section. In reply, he listed his complaints about the film, and though I may disagree with many of them I still respect his opinion. I thought about commenting back and address each of his complaints, but I decided to share instead my post about the film in an Oscar-oriented site:

“Anyone who has watched Amores Perros and 21 Grams might agree with me that González Iñárritu, like most auteurs, is one filmmaker with a clear point of view. Many may find his constant use of non-linear storylines and editing challenging, even annoying to endure. And the fatalistic mood that permeates his films can be a major turn-off to some viewers. But these are all part of his style and also reflect his worldview. Some may accept or reject him and his films as a result, which is all right.

I've always believed that the best films, in one way or another, push the possibilities of cinema as a medium further, and of the Best Picture nominees I've watched so far only Babel qualifies. I think no one will dispute the film's ambition and scope, and González Iñárritu and scriptwriter Guillermo Arriaga should be credited for that. Imagine, four thinly interconnected stories happening in three continents, unfolding in five different languages! That's quite a feat. As the critics have already pointed out, the film's title strongly suggests linguistic miscommunications and misunderstandings, but that's not exactly what Babel is all about. What is it about, really, is how these contribute to disconnections--physical, emotional--between parents and children, in some form or other. We see this in the film: the Moroccan boys withholding information from, even lying to their family and the authorities; the Japanese businessman trying to connect with his deaf daughter who, in turn and in her own way, tries to reach out to other people, and so on. Isn't it any wonder that the director dedicated the film to his children at the end?

True, the insights Babel offers are not really new, but González Iñárritu's filmmaking style presents them in a different way. Granted, his direction is not completely flawless, but given the film's ambition and scope I'm willing to cut him some slack. And of the Best Picture nominees this year Babel is the one that comes across, to me at least, as very "now," reflecting where we were (or are) in 2006. Some may argue that Babel's storylines are outlandish, but the same can be said for many of Pedro Almodovar's movies. The bottomline is that they work, and very compellingly so. Some may disagree with me on this, and that's OK.”

And another Babel-related rave: Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi are very impressive, especially the last two. They really deserve their nominations.