PREFACE
Asked for his bio by the encoder, Edel E. Garcellano, could only text that he lives with his family in Quezon City, along with Kayenne their cat who recently lost his brother Bugsy. His preface completes whatever is worth knowing about his authorship.
PREFACE
So there, the book “Fashionable Nonsense”, by Sokal & Bricmont who cracked the academic joke that post-modern intellectuals have ignorantly abused scientific theories, turning everything into narratives. It is like a cadaver on his table, & waiting to be opened while his mind races toward his useless anger that having only one subject to teach so far this semester would mean technically having a capuccino once a year! That’s a major disaster for any bourgeois pedant, haha! He still begs for crumbs from the establishment while his former students are fucking around in cosmo style, raking in moolah, & worse, taking up creative writing courses because they think, they type, they shit, & therefore they have something to say?
It was summers ago when they – the future of his past – hoved into view but as quickly dissolved among the waves. He thought what madness was that but he felt idiotically theatrical. Anyway, he is now looking at a fiery red horizon where voices from the distant bank echo & as suddenly as the sounds mute into sheer sighs, the faces at the end of the ocean melt into dots, slowly beading into one rugged line of cloudy shadows. The moon quickly rises, & its soft stream of light turns everything into apparition.
Something he knows has been irretrievably lost: What is it he can’t put his finger on?
Is it sadness? Everyone is in the business of it. Is it despair? It’s just a jive if you ain’t got the money.
But isn’t he deep into the professorial crap of “connecting with the young?”
The young turks have aged, but somewhat contaminated by the very ways of First World living. Worse, he has known some die at the hands of fascists who keep multiplying & keep coming back like those Hollywood zombies. Everything is a hassle game, it seems, where bogeymen become bigshots & licensed texters of the muse: This is the fashion these days. A Ph. D. in poetry? The poem itself is the final arbiter that makes & unmakes poets.
& so this blog.
xbrain said,
May 19, 2007 at 6:42 pm
xBrain
Nice Story..keep it up
Tara said,
June 27, 2007 at 4:25 am
What can I say? I think this (preface) is precise… hehehe
For someone who ranted about being slow on technology, I think you definitely caught up. I love the site… This definitely rocks… I can’t say though if it’s “you” yet. But the words… Ha! They remind me so much of how things were 6 years ago… they were good memories. 
edel said,
June 28, 2007 at 8:23 am
where are you? please contact me, egarcellano@yahoo.com
Dell said,
August 8, 2007 at 10:51 am
Hello sir, nice to finally see (read) you again. Kahit na wala na akong churva sa Peyups. Your site is actually refreshing. Por dat more power!
PS: Beso
jen said,
September 16, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Sir,
Pwede po ba namin gamitin yung tula nyong “Icon” sa teaser namin para sa JMS Lecture Series? Salamat po.
JPaul said,
October 7, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Kamusta na po kayo?
JPaul
leo laurente said,
October 21, 2007 at 3:05 am
i guess nothing can be more “establishment” than the legal profession so i’m getting a great kick in the nuts reading just the preface to your site. it’s been nine or ten odd years, and a lot has changed since last we sat in your cw 140 class.
know though that more than the critical thinking (what the f__k is that?!), more than the intellectual rigour (not rigor mortis, thankfully) more than all the critiques you shared on our work and the world in, and most especially outside the classroom, what we (well, i, but i can speak pretty acurately for by peers) will remember the most is your admonition for us to just keep even a little part of that person who cared/struggled/was indignant inside, even while we plod along the wasteland of corporate conformity and intellectual death that is the “real world”. As you aptly put in the foreword to Lingua Franca’s first attempt at a journal, “patuloy lang kayong sumagwan sa ilog ng buhay”.
Pakita ka naman sa mga LF gatherings sir, miss ka na namin.
tyn borja said,
December 13, 2007 at 1:12 am
hi sir! nice to hear from you in a pseudo kind of way. your preface is vintage edel - which i sorely miss - now that i’m too caught up in the rat race. it’s been what, 7 years?!!? it’s good to know that you’re still churning out nuggets of wisdom to upstarts like us like you used to. miss u po and keep ‘em coming.
Idetrorce said,
December 16, 2007 at 2:18 am
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
Melina said,
December 20, 2007 at 4:27 pm
very interesting. i’m adding in RSS Reader
Edel said,
December 21, 2007 at 7:28 am
Tyn,
Nice to hear from you, too. I see you’re as lovely as ever.
Edel
leighkeiruff said,
January 2, 2008 at 9:47 am
Magandang araw. Nakabasa na po ako ng mga naisulat niyo. Bakit po mahirap basahin mga sinusulat nyo? Pumutok ugat ko sa utak. hahaha. Pero ayus naman. Atsaka tanung ulit, may planu po ba kayong tapusin yung “Maikling Imbestigasyon…”?
Edel said,
January 4, 2008 at 9:22 am
Salamat sa tangkilik. Balang araw kapag may panahon. Ito ay mabilisang pagsulat lamang. Iyun na lang siguro.
charm valenzuela said,
January 7, 2008 at 6:26 am
sir edel! malapit na ko maging duktor! i know this isn’t the proper venue, but i just had to drop in and say hello. 4 na taon na yata mula noong huli tayong uminom nang sosyal na kape na magkasama. how can i contact you sir? i’ve changed my cell phone number more than once in the last four years. i’m regretting not keeping in touch… i do hope everything’s well with you. i haven’t forgotten, i’m to be your personal doctor someday. =)
Edel said,
January 9, 2008 at 10:12 am
Charm,
You’ve made the right decision to be a doctor. My e-mail is egarcellano@yahoo.com. I’ll give you my cellphone number there.
machina said,
March 12, 2008 at 10:48 pm
bakit ho hindi na kayo nagpo-post sir? Tsaka kung may marerekomenda po kayong magandang basahin. salamat
edelgarcellano said,
March 16, 2008 at 8:54 am
Just posted the latest. I don’t know what to recommend. Das Kapital?
Jen said,
March 18, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Hi Sir.
Kumusta na po?
edelgarcellano said,
March 25, 2008 at 5:16 am
Jen, kitakits na lang. I-text mo ako.
Sentro de grabedad said,
April 4, 2008 at 1:15 am
haha. das capital? subukan ko po. naisip ko mas contemporary sana.
edelgarcellano said,
April 4, 2008 at 9:06 am
Nadine Gordimer is one hell of a good writer. Ty. Just kidding about Das Kapital, really.
Pasyon, E.C. said,
April 18, 2008 at 4:44 am
haha. we recently formed a reader’s circle, the maginhawa book club. eco’s how to travel with a salmon is our first book. hope it’ll match gordimer.
tuloy tuloy lang tayo! happy
beatrix guilas said,
April 21, 2008 at 7:16 am
dear sir edel,
mukhang mas mabilis pa kayong macontact dito kesa sa email, hehehe. sana po’y ‘lumikha’ (?!) na rin kayo ng fiction. lagi po akong nagbabasa dito, pero as always, mahirap ka talagang lubusang maabot, hehehe. sana nga po pala may comment akong makuha from you. mahal nga po pala magpa-courier ng libro, kaso wala naman po akong kilalang pwedeng magdala ng copy ng book sa UP para sa akin. so heto na lang po, i posted the preface to the book on my blog. thanks po sir, and please please write more fiction? hehehe. i’m trying my best to locate copies of your fiction books. haay. looks like i’m bound for the palanca library -drat! hehehe. ito po yung preface dun sa aking libro:
http://beatrixpg.blogspot.com/2008/04/foreword-to-book-on-critical-theory-and_15.html
salamat sa lahat sir, sana makadalaw ako sometime soon sa UP. ingat kayo at hello kay tita chats.
-trix