On Becoming Filipino: Selected Writings of Carlos Bulosan Book

I'm slowly writing my responses here:

An excerpt: I have taught one of these essays, "The Writer as Worker," for my Poets of Color class. I really appreciate Bulosan's thoughts on the publishing industry, and what it means for him to be a writer, what his social and political role is as a writer:

"Why should I write about labor unions and their struggle? Because a writer is also a worker. He writes stories, for example, and sells them or tries to sell them. They are products of his brain. They are commodities. Then again, the writer is also a citizen; and as a citizen he must safeguard his civil rights and liberties. Life is a collective work and also a social reality. Therefore the writer must participate with his fellow man in the struggle to protect, to brighten, to fulfill life. Otherwise he has no meaning -- a nothing."

The above excerpt is self-explanatory. I know of writers who disagree fervently with this, the social responsibility of the writer. It's coercive, I've heard some complain, to expect writers to engage the real world and its sociopolitical realities. I don't agree with these complainers, and indeed, only potential complaint would be when the social responsibility is fettered within limited sets of aesthetics. Ultimately, I applaud Bulosan for his very clear, even defiant statement.

With "I Am Not A Laughing Man," it's this unapologetic anger at the world, or the reality of our multi-layered anger fueling our writing in such vital ways. Think Flavor Flav: "I got a right to be hostile; my people been persecuted!"

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