Dogeaters And Popular Media

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Dogeaters and Popular media The first thing that I noticed on picking up the novel was the illustration on the cover. Its graphic nature and hidden symbolism intrigued me and further enticed me to read it. This and the title Dogeaters however gave little away to the nature of its content. Without any prior knowledge of the author Jessica Hagedorn and no idea of what to expect, I embarked on a journey that proved to be an extremely interesting and enjoyable reading experience. The artist Papo De Asis was born in 1949 the small town of Dumangas, Iloilo, Philippines. He lived in the political turbulent era of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, similar to the period setting of the novel. In protest of the dictatorship, Papo became an activist and as a result, his art began to take on political meaning. The painting on the cover of Dogeaters, named Polemics of Life features a mishmash of seemingly incoherent images which together, form a work of art that inherently exists a deeper meaning. This to me undeniably mirrors the novel in both context and form. Fragmentation in the novel can be seen immediately after the first chapter where the story jumps from the upper class Filipina girl, Rio’s first person perspective narrative in Love Letters to the third person view of the financial giant, Severo Alacran in King of Coconuts. This continues as a multitude of colorful characters are introduced to the reader. The ill-fated politician Domingo Avila, his daughter, beauty queen turned rebel Daisy Avila, the male-prostitute Joey Sands, movie stars Lolita Luna and Nestor Noralez, movie star wannabe Romeo Rosales and many others, their stories continue to bombard the reader without showing any hint of connectivity. This fragmentation is further aggravated by the author’s use of different forms of communication, mass media or otherwise, in her writing. Quotations,

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