rosicrucians

I just saw the movie National Treasure. I enjoyed watching it because Misty and I had this conversation recently about Masons in the Philippines. We were intrigued about the ‘mysterious’ nature of the group and we thought someone should write a book about their influence in the politics of the country, past and present.

The organizational structure of the Katipunan was said to be patterned on the Masonic Lodges of which many of our revolutionary heroes were members. One of the great historical controversies concerning Rizal involved the Masons. Anyway, that conversation led me to give Misty an advanced birthday present of Umberto Eco’s book -Foucault’s Pendulum.

Which is the second reason why I enjoyed the movie, because with all the talk about Knights Templar and secret societies and Free Masons, and all these symbols like the pyramid and the all-seeing-eye and the all that stuff – I remembered how enthralled I was the first time I encountered all these in Eco’s book.

I had read the prologue of the Da Vinci Code and it reminded me of Foucault’s Pendulum, then just other day I read a review of National Treasure which said it was like the Da Vinci Code put to film, ha! They might as well have included the Rosicrucians.

The weird thing is that I don’t remember what Foucault’s Pendulum was all about, I just remember having enjoyed losing myself in the story, which means I probably didn’t know what was going on in the book most of the time.

It’s the same way with The Rebel by Albert Camus, I just know there’s a good critique of Marxism in one of its chapters, but all I remember are the words exigency and expediency…and that the book has been with Misty for over five years already, hmmmm.

Hey, now I remember all these books that are….ah….. in my friends’ safekeeping (I hope). Aying has Milan Kundera’s The Joke, of which I only know there’s this lady character who shat a lot hahaha! I think it’s fitting that I still have The Book of Laughter and Forgetting with me.

Zeena, who I haven’t seen for a long time, has three of my books that I haven’t seen for even a much longer time. Foremost is the booklet on Humanism, from the World’s Living Religions series, that turned me into an agnostic when I was in fourth year high school. I was convinced by what it said that people could live good lives even without the promise of eternal life in heaven or the threat of eternal suffering in hell. I thought that if there really was this one GOD and I would be punished for not believing in him or her or whatever it is, then it’s just my luck for being created by such a petty, selfish, illogical, hateful, arrogant, despotic and oh so childish GOD.

She also has the Pocketbook of O’Henry Short Stories, which is quite redundant I think, anyway this book taught me that many novels are just short stories with a lot of bullshit thrown in. Lastly, she has this 70’s edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women’s Health Collective (or something that sounds like that), a feminist classic which she borrowed before Gerrie, whom I bought the book for, could even read it.

Gerrie lent her cousin Riders on the Storm, I haven’t seen another copy of the book anywhere ever since. It's written by John Densmore the drummer of the Doors about the Doors, need I say more?

Gladys has my copy of Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, the funniest book I’ve read even though I don’t know how the story goes anymore. The only other book that got me laughing as much is this retelling of the story of King David, I don’t remember the title now but there’s this scene where the nervous and incredulous Moses asked the voice behind the burning bush ‘You want me to tell the Israelites that the your name is ‘I am What I am?’

My copy of Two Towers is with her sister Grace who borrowed it after she saw The Fellowship of the Rings. It’s the only book I have of the Tolkien Trilogy which I bought at a super used bookshop in Guadalupe, Makati at a time when one can’t find a copy even at the National Bookstore, so it was a treasure when I found it two years after I read the first book. It would be another year before I could read The Return of the King. Max has my copy of The Silmarillion, I hope he still has it.

I don’t know where my Utos ng Hari by Jun Cruz Reyes is, or my Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, and others I don’t even remember now. Some are lost, like Erika Jong’s Fear of Flying which I left on top of a phone booth at the MRT station in Buendia. But as Len told me, things are never lost, just misplaced.

I just hope all these books are being read by someone rather than gathering dust somewhere. Bookcrossing.com is dedicated to this philosophy that books should continue to be read, so there’s this whole community of booklovers who ‘release’ books into the world (deliberately leave books in strategic locations) in hope that it would be discovered and released again. The books have tags though so that its journey could be tracked through the website. There are some books released by members in the Philippines already.

Maybe that’s why I don’t feel so bad about ‘releasing’ my books to friends, you know, “spread the love” “share the joy” “feed the universal mind”.

Whatever.