Status Updates From The Revolution According to...

Part 3 contained the moment the book had been building towards and it was executed so well. This has been one of my most pleasurable reading experiences so far. Subplot involving the scholars is intriguing.

Done with Part 2. Journal entries more structured as it goes about Mata's time as a student in Manila. Lot of laughs still. "He was tall, muscular, and comely", referring to at this point, mythical Rizal. Love the perspective of someone who was initially sidelined from the revolution.

finished part 1 of 5. with the form and pace this is going, i'd prefer spreading my reading throughout this whole month. getting a lot of laughs out of the footnote bickering but the themes aren't hooking me in just yet.

We have a little less footnotes in the third part, which makes it easier to get into Raymundo Mata's perspective. That said, I find myself getting lost at times within the diary entries, as he tends to go on these different tangents. though his enthusiasm for meeting Jose Rizal was infectious; him wondering if it's okay to bring a copy of his book to autograph stood out here. And him escaping with a manuscript?

It seems like Raymundo's time in Manila is filled with interesting antics. One thing which stood out was his sexual deviation, along with how he encounters Jose Rizal's work for the first time. The journal entries near the end of this part show his excitement towards meeting him, only to hear he got arrested. Yet the footnotes still remain paramount here.

For some reason, the intro is a bit clearer than the actual contents of Raymundo Mata's diary. Maybe it's because of the excess of footnotes which accompany each entry, but there's definitely an intellectual conflict in terms of how to interpret his legacy. Especially considering the multitude of languages spoken in the Philippines! Though I'd appreciate a bit more to focus on Raymundo's story...