Jolography Retconned: Poems

by Paolo Manalo, Kris Lanot Lacaba (Afterword)

Paolo Manalo's debut collection Jolography received the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature and the UP Diliman Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging Likha ng Sining. Described by National Artist F. Sionil Jose as "poetry that is transcendental, with music and nationality," the book explored an extraordinary approach to Philippine poetry that used transliterations and code switching to reach its imaginative utterances. More than a decade later, Jolography

Genres: Poetry

107 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Filipino poet who teaches at the College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines-Diliman. Author of poetry collections Happily Ever Ek-ek (2019) and Jolography Retconned (2020), and the poetry pamphlets E is for Epal (2018) and Posthumous (2024). For a time he served as the literary editor of the Philippines Free Press.

Reviews

[Jade Capiñanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second edition of Paolo Manalo’s poetry collection “Jolography,” first published in 2003. I haven’t read the first edition, but according to the blurb of this new edition the majority of its contents are new and revised, which explains the “Retconned” in the title.

I first encountered Manalo’s work, specifically the titular poem “Jolography,” back in college, sometime in 2014 maybe. And at the time, as someone whose grasp of poetry was pretty basic (Neruda and Lang Leav), I found his work disorienting, but in a satisfying way. Just read the first six lines of “Jolography” to see what I mean:

How dead you child are, whose spoiled
Sportedness is being fashion showed

Beautifuling as we speak. In Cubao
There is that same look: your Crossing Ibabaw,

Your Nepa Cute, Wednesdays
Baclaran, “Please pass, kindly ride on...”

Transliterations, Taglish, conyospeak, etc., inhabit Manalo’s work, leading to musical neologisms that can only be deciphered if you speak both English and Filipino, as well as their varied registers. (Isn’t it the task of the poet? Whenever Shakespeare couldn’t find the right word he just invented it.) Each language presents not only a specific consciousness but also a unique world, so just imagine the kind of world(s) Manalo creates via the linguistic transgressions and inventions he does in this poetry collection.

But what I like most about this collection is that its contents never shy away from alluding to “high” and “low” cultural references, often in the same breath. And they are funny. Here T. S. Eliot meets Jhepoy Dizon (“The Love Song Remix of Jhepoy Prufrock Dizon”), James Joyce meets Yoyoy Villame (“Si Finnegan”), Robert Frost meets Kris and Bimby (“Kris & Bimb,” after “Fire and Ice”). In “Sigaw ng Kurimaw Romantiks” Manalo summons Blake and Keats and Coleridge and Wordsworth to gush over the SexBomb Girls.

I totally enjoyed the entire book, except maybe for a few poems where I felt Manalo went too serious (“The Little Cancer Cells,” for example). Not that humor isn’t serious. It is. I just think that humor, or the author, shouldn’t take itself, or themself, too seriously. I relate to this book on a deeply personal level too. Not that I’m a big fan of SexBomb Girls, which to be clear is nice and wholesome, but it’s just that Manalo’s aesthetics/poetics is something I’ve also explored, as someone who’s been writing for some years now. Reading the poems in this collection, I did not only appreciate them—I also agreed with them. I felt like I’d found an ally. Someday I want to do to TWICE what Manalo did to the SexBomb Girls.

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sinong mag-aakala na mabubuhay tayo ng ganito.

As in a chain-smoke gone astray
As in a face-lift gone aray."

Puno ng galak sa posibilidad ng wika ang librong ito. Itinuon dito ni Manalo ang kanyang panulaan sa magiit na pagpilipit ng mga dilang Pilipino sa wikang Ingles upang maiakma ito sa karanasang Pinoy. Sa gayon, magilas na pinagtambal, pinaghalo, at pinagbangga ng may-akda ang Ingles at Tagalog sa "Jolography Retconned" hanggang magkasira-sira ang inaasahan natin sa "wastong" gamit ng wika at makabuo siya ng kakaibang pamumutawing nakahuhuli sa ugnayan at tagisan ng Ingles at Filipino sa dilang Pinoy. Hindi nakasulat ang libro sa Ingles lang. Madalas, hinala ko, hindi mauunawaan ang kaniyang mga tula ng taal na Ingleserong hindi lumaki sa Pilipinas. Wika mismo ang paksa ng libro at matalinong pinaglaruan ni Manalo rito ang salpukan ng iba't ibang anyo ng wika—mula pagbaybay, pagbigkas, hanggang pagsasalin—upang makalikha sa naghahalu-halo nilang pilas at retaso ng mga tulang maaari pala. Anupa, bibihira ang ganitong koleksiyong may himig na magaan at mapagpatawa nang dahil sa mismong gamit sa wika. Masayang basahin ito. Nakakatuwa.

"Jolography Retconned" by Paolo Manalo (University of the Philippines Press, 2020)

8/10

Mga Paborito kong tula:
Peksman
Echolalia
Jolography
Coñotations
The Dead on Facebook
Maraming Namamatay sa Maling Koala
The Love Song Remix of Jhepoy Prufrock Dizon
Chora
Super Idol
The Trying Hards
Of the gun painted
Yours, Etcetera
Can Afford
The Little Cancer Cells
Si Finnegan
Take Macbeth Away
D'votional
Haiku Denims
Wala Akong Masabi



8/10

[Meeko · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

This book intrigued the hell out of me. I thought it was just another poetry book. But then, when I was scanning the pages and I suddenly flipped on the page for Notes. I asked myself why would the author explain his work to the reader? And then I read the first poem. And it clicked! The writer should definitely leave some notes for the readers. If I hadn’t scanned the book and immediately read the first poem, I’d have no choice but to put this book at the bottom of my shelf. No kidding.

But what will keep you reading this is how brilliant Manalo managed to put together Pop Culture and Literature into his works, forming this unconventional poetry that at times don’t make sense but is beautifully constructed.

I really want to love this book because I had so much fun reading it but a lot of the poems got lost in translation to me, literally. It’s not how it’s constructed or the language he used, but the references included in the book. I am familiar with some but majority of the references from where he got the pieces were all alien to me. (Yes, even though there are notes on the last part of the book.) It also showed how vast his knowledge on literature AND pop culture is, then and now.

Manalo pushed the boundaries of writing poetry in Tagalog and English with this one and undeniably, it gave birth to this one-of-a-kind invention to modern literature.

[Inverted · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a "retconned", I expected this to slap harder. Since the OG hit nearly two decades ago, I thought this collection would be a linguistic expansion of the hailed proof of concept, perhaps doubling down on high/low as a poetic framework.

Connoting a mapping of jologs as poetic voice, Jolography has a singular and exhilarating premise that got a bit flippant in practice. The lowbrow moments (such as in "JHemLeT, PhRinZ op JHenMark!") are often overwhelmed by a textbookishness that mocks wholesale these street-utterances, one of the supposed life sources of this rehashed collection.

This one-dimensional take on jologs as poetic possibility constricts Jolography, exposes it as operating on just a small band of academic faux-registers (vs. say something inclusive / Whitmanesque). Its exhaustive formalistic maneuvers sometimes feel like someone keeps punching down, keeps kicking around a dead horse.

[Nico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mahalagang maipakita ang paglaya ng mga salitang natatakpan sa pagmamakata. Sa tingin ko naging aktibo ang presensiya ng mga salita lalo na ang Filipino at English tandem at taglish na naging parte na ng ating kultura.

Ang pagbabali ng mga nakasanayan o ng mga inihain sa ating mga "dapat" ay dapat lang dahil magbibigay ito ng iba pang perspektiba sa kung ano talaga ang tungkulin ng isang makata at manunulat sa panahong ito.

Hindi ko man makuha nung una ang ibang reperensiya (pero may notes naman haha), sa tingin ko naman naging makulay ang bawat tula.

[Mx. Andy Feje · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly may ilang poems akong ‘di naintindihan heheh dami kasing reference na kailangan alam mo/nabasa/napanood or at least narinig mo para mas maappreciate ang mga tula rito. Pero gustong-gusto ko yung part 2. Tawang-tawa ako. Meron ding napa-what the fvxk ako literal habang nagbabasa, kasi maganda. Dami lang sigurong filler poems for me

[ebag · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. yoyoy villame and james joyce in the same poem is frying me brah
2. ophelia singing michael learns to rock tanginaaaa
3. “some say the world will end in Kris, / some say with Bimb.”
4. T.S Eliott Smith, P!nk featuring Auden, Rainer Mariah Carey, Jhepoy Prufrock Dizon.
5. “how dead you child are” being translation of “patay kang bata ka.” 😭

[Eron Bituin · Rating 4 out of 5]

dfpp prof: ang wika ay dinamiko

paolo manalo 2003: jolography hehe

paolo manalo 2020: jolography retconned 🤙🏼