She Didn’t Get Amado Hernandez

Amado Hernandez (Photo courtesy of tinig.com)

A mini-controversy has erupted in the blogosphere. It involves blogger Connie Veneracion who, in a recent column in the Manila Standard Today newspaper, trashed Amado V. Hernadez’s “Mga Ibong Mandaragit” because she, her daughter and her husband didn’t get it.

Blogger Exie Abola wrote what Newsstand has called a “cogent” response to Veneracion’s tirade (”a complete evisceration” of Veneracion, Newsstand says). Others have weighed in, but of course. There’s Stuart Santiago, calling Veneracion “lazy,” “stupid” and “anti-Filipino.” Ouch.

Our take? Connie Veneracion is definitely lazy and probably stupid.

She doesn’t understand a book that many Filipinos love — and, yes, get — and she goes ballistic. She compares Hernandez, who wrote the book in the ’60s and who’s been dead for years, to present-day writers and then suggests that writers like him should try to write books that can be easily digested and understood by the present generation. Duh?

It’s like, you didn’t understand Shakespeare and flunked your test on “Hamlet,” so you blame poor Will. Neat, huh?

In any case, the great Roberto Añonuevo deconstructs Veneracion’s rant. It’s in Filipino but she should read it. (CC Hidalgo)