Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas (Bob Ong)

DAVID, Lexter King S. Title: Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas Author: Robert “Bob” Ong - Entirely fictional (Pseudonym of Author)

Genre: Creative Fiction

Style: Written in informal Filipino, colloquial and contemporary, it has a conversational tone, a simplistic structure, but an unorthodox system 

Content: Satirical takes on topics of Religious Faith, God, Creation, Theism, Atheism, Polytheism. The book is divided into chapters namely Veny, Geran, Depot, Ventocoseuss, Tuis, Gynottul, Holts which are all a rearrangement of the seven deadly sins, with every subject of the conversational and anecdotal delivery of its essence pertaining to Envy, Anger, Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth in the context of the Phillippine state and society.

My review will be comprised of discussions regarding the book’s main points by giving general to specific lines or phrases from the author that would emphasize its value in the criticism of society and assessment of our beliefs in the paradigms of pragmatic essence and principled based logic. I would also explain the potential of this book to find success outside the Philippines if translated in a particular method, but even if it would only be translated to English, as long as the simplistic style and unorthodox undertaking of the author and the book remains, its topics are still a matter that would allow any reader to better understand the influence of Faith and Religion through its humorous and serious takes.

For a book that costs about 280 pesos more or less, and consisting of 171 pages, I would proudly say that the book is worth every peso, and with every page turn, you would at least get a few laughs here and there or even wisdom at times. To this day I still have my own personal copy of the book which I bought around 2012 in the National Book Store, I had no idea what the book is really about, I only bought it because its quite cheap, and I have a liking to its color, solid matte black. I also took it as an opportunity to finally read a Filipino informal book or novel during a period when the age of online books and virtual libraries barely even started. For an 11 to 12 years old kid, the book was easy to follow, everything was in Filipino, and even though it discusses the concept of sins and the concepts of Heaven and Hell, there wasn’t a time that I felt stagnant through reading it. Now, if you’re going to search it on google, you would easily access digital and online copies of it and even reviews and criticisms of it are scattered everywhere.

For a country like our’s, that was occupied by colonizers. You would see the influence that both the Spaniards and the Americans posited towards us the Filipinos. For instance, we are a mostly Catholic country that has lots of Churches and Saints, traditions and norms that we follow ever since. Another is our exceptional love for basketball, a sport which has united us, and even with our short statures, we symbolized that a bunch of David’s can beat Goliaths at any time as long as that ball keeps on rolling and the clock keeps ticking.

An excerpt from the book covers all this…

< ‘ >: Ba’t ka tumatawa?

<.--.>: Tingnan mo naman magdasal… humihiling na panalunin ko sila sa sa basketball game

< ‘ >: O, ano namang masama do’n?

<.--.>: ‘Yun din ang hinihiling ng kalaban nilang team e!

<.--.>: Ngiyahahahaha!
< ‘ >: Hahahahaha!

Our notion of belief in God can be at times demanding and opportunistic, that people would just pray without doing anything. Anyone can be guilty of praying that they want to get rich or they want to win, or that they want to pass an exam or get something. According to the comedic approach of the entity in the book, it would have been more helpful, if all of these people asked for strength, courage, perseverance, or any values to get what they wanted, instead of just simply praying. These kinds of discussions that touch upon questioning our concepts and engages us with the reflection of our morals are all throughout the book, and most of them are totally translatable to English without losing much of its sense or direction.

Our worship practices and our own subjective and objective understanding regarding our world and our existence have always been faced with debates of faith and science. From the time we are all born until our own death, we have always wondered if whether our God is the real God, and if it is not just God but Gods, if everything in the Bible, Qu’ran, or any kind of religion was ever real, and if so where is the ark of Noah, how many partners should both men and women have? Or questions that ask whether we should give money to Church, whether it should be separated to the State, is there really Christmas or not, is reincarnation true? Did humans come from a lineage of apelike ancestors? Is there even a determined glorious purpose in life and does life exist on other planets?

To clarify, no definite answer was ever given to the questions as stated above. All of these inquiries were just discussed briefly in the book. However, asking these questions in of itself already allows readers to explore their own and the belief of others, instead of just letting be or accepting things without a deeper form of understanding. 

<.--.>: Pero bakit ka sumuko?

< ‘ >: Dahil magulo. Masyadong maraming misteryo. Maraming walang kasagutan. Ayoko ng gano’n!

<.--.>: Kaya iniwan mo ang simbahan?
< ‘ >: Oo. Hindi ko matagalan ang mga ipokrito!

< ‘ >: ...At ayoko rin naman ng buffet katulad ng ginagawa ng iba

<.--.>: Anong buffet?

< ‘ >: Mix and Match sila ng religious pratices.

< ‘ >: Sinusunod lang nila ang mga paniniwalang akma sa panlasa’t pamumuhay nila, tapos yung iba binabalewala na...  o pinapalitan naman ng tradisyong galing naman sa ibang simbahan

< ‘ >: Anu’t-ano man, pare-pareho pa rin silang ipokrito’t makasalanan!

This kind of literary work has its own potential to stand its own ground alongside greats and giants that went through the test of time. It’s easy to digest comedic and tragic oriented content of searching for the truths, proof, or explanations, of whether we are affected if God exists or not, or all of us already have predetermined fates or that everything we do is always based on our own will are all relevant issues that must be discussed in a global perspective. Links to Digital Copies: https://pdfslide.net/documents/bob-ong-ang-paboritong-libro-ni-hudaspdf.html https://pdfcoffee.com/bob-ong-ang-paboritong-libro-ni-hudas-pdf-free.html