State of War

Exiled activist and writer Ninotchka Rosca opens the State of War with a heightening festival in the Island of K. In here, she puts the characters Anna, Eliza, and Adrian in the crowd of dancing people chanting, "Hala bira! Hala bira!" With the chaotic and almost surreal atmosphere of the carnivalesque Ati-Atihan, Rosca has already established a certain sense of tension and conflict that would likely build up and explode in the final part called the Book of Revelation.

In The Book of Acts, we can consider the festival as a symbolic coming together of various classes in the society. Like in carnivals, everyone is given an equal opportunity to participate in the merrymaking. It is interesting to note that even the spectators and tourists are later on involved in the endless dancing and singing. Anna, for instance, although unfamiliar with the choreography, somehow found her own niche and felt like she was dancing the patterns of her life. Thus, it is implied that Rosca also wants her readers to get into the text and take hints against the obscure escalation of events.

Bakhtin as cited by Kettner (2011) defines carnivalization as "a feast of becoming, change, and renewal." In addition, Kettner reiterated that in carnivals, "the poor become kings and queens, rogues become princes and, therefore, the hierarchical structure of society is altered through laughter and mockery."

In the State of War, we can see that there is hardly a line that divides people in the Ati-Atihan. Soldiers and rebels alike drink and roam the streets, real ladies and transvestites with their ostentatious garbs join the dance, farmers dress like warriors, the rich and poor activists plan side by side, and visitors and natives make themselves dirty. In this carnivalesque scene, we see Kettner's notion that boundaries are dissolved. Thus, it could be regarded as a distinct feature that foretells a fast-approaching revolution where every player steps into a level playing field.

The novel's festival is dubbed as "the festival of memories" and "a singular evocation of victory in a country of too many defeats." Unlike other feasts, as one character observed, the Ati-Atihan that Eliza and her friends are currently witnessing breeds a sensation of insidious rebellion.

State of War is about a festivity owned by no one yet a carnival for everyone. The celebration became the meeting ground of our characters who happen to be related by blood yet fate refused it to be discovered. Only when these characters learn of their past will they be saved from committing the same mistakes again. The rebel Guevarra was right when he said that he will just keep on meeting the same people in this cycle of life because prior to being strangers, they are all akin.

Also in the book, children are heard singing, "Ferdinand Magellan, the crazy old coot; took five ships and circumcised the globe." Instead of circumnavigated, circumcised became the buzz word! The lines in the song somehow made sense because Magellan, driven by his ambition, really did try to circumcise the colonized lands and impose his ideal "cultured" ways to what he regarded as "native."

When you get to read the book, the story is not linear in structure (so it's quite hard to read) and is often interrupted by fantastic tales and historical episodes (see The Book of Numbers). State of War is told in a manner that usually confuses readers at first but we could take this style of complicated reading as a metaphor for the complex and ever-changing identities of our people through time. Hence, the carnivalization of our social system was fulfilled in the opening ceremony but it has also guided its readers into a redeeming end.

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