READING

AND
REVOLUTION
What do you know about the
publication of Noli Me Tangere
and how it affected the
Philippines?
Do you think that novels in the
Philippines are as important as
they used to be when Noli Me
Tangere was published in 1887?
Are people still inspired by
novel?
What is it about reading long
texts, such as short stories or
novels that makes it different
from reading tweets and
Facebook status posts? What is
the importance of literature for
the Facebook generation?
 Family Tree
Map your family tree. Try to find out who
your relatives are as far back as your
great-great-grandfather, if possible. Draw
your family tree, and beside the names of
your relatives, make a sketch of historical
events that happened in their lifetime. Is
it possible to trace your ancestors from
the time of Rizal before 1898?
• In a short one-page essay. Imagine what
life of your ancestor would have been
like during the Philippine Revolution.
Judging from your family tree, create an
educated guess. Do you think he/she
would have been a Spaniard, a Chinese,
or a Filipino? Would he/she have been
from the upper class or the lower class?
Imagine what his/her life would have
been like during that time.
When people write about Noli
Me Tangere in the history books,
they always mention how Andres
Bonifacio was inspired to
revolution, and that it was the
ideological fire that forged the
Katipunan.
According to the poet and writer
J. Neil Garcia (2011), before Rizal
wrote Noli Me Tangere, there was
no real concept of Philippine
nation; that the novel was a “myth-
making project,” a means of
imagining the special communal
fantasy that was the nation.
• When Rizal wrote the Noli,
the concept and dream of
the Philippine nation was
born.
• When you think about it, it
is interesting that the seeds
of Philippine nationhood
came from a novel.
• Although some people may
say that literature is not
important, during those times,
literature was important
enough for people to imagine
a nation and be willing to fight
for it.
In the excerpt of Gina Apostol’s novel The
Revolution According to Raymundo Mata, the
“revolutionary act of reading” is explored
through the eyes of a young man, a high
school student from the Ateneo. Reading it
makes you imagine what it would have been
like to be alive during those heady days of
revolution. In this excerpt, he reads the book
Noli Me Tangere by Dr. Jose Rizal, which was
given to him by his friend, Father Gaspar, a
Filipino priest.
THE REVOLUTION ACCORDING
TO RAYMUNDO MATA
(EXCERPT)
BY GINA APOSTOL
1. Why did Noli Me Tangere have
such a big impression on the
narrator? Could you relate to the
narrator’s experience of reading?
Why or why not?
2. What does the line, “ Art is a
reproach to those who receive it”
mean? Should art be a reproach?
Should we relate art to society?
Explain your views.
3. When the narrator says that
the act of reading was historic
act, what did he mean? Do
you think this is true even
today?
4. During those times, do you
think you would have been
moved to fight against the
government after reading novel?
• Given this excerpt, what do
you think is the importance of
literature to society? Is this still
applicable today?
Why is the Noli Me Tangere, a book that was banned in the
past, now a required reading in Philippine schools? Why did
the Catholic church go against making Noli a requirement?
Do you think there should ever be a time when
certain books should be banned? Why or why
not?