In the middle of the Philippines there is a large group of islands called the Visayas. All the islands are different. Cebu is famous for its mangos and beef. Leyte is famous for being the home of Imelda. Siquijor is where all the witches come from. Bohol is famous for the “chocolate hills,” which must look like some kind of chocolate, but it’s one I’ve never seen. Negros is where the sugar plantations are and also old world colonials, the kind who cut the hands off workers who displease them. There are a lot of these islands and a lot of boats going to these islands that often sink and sometimes a really big typhoon comes along (think Yolanda) and the islands sink too. In the far south is another big island, Mindanao. Mindanao is where you get stinky durian and crazy Muslims. Tourists go there to get kidnapped. Missionaries go there and bring the Bible as reading material. Also Conrad. Most Filipinos have never been there, and by Filipinos, I really mean Tagalogs, because who else are you going to be talking to?

I was spending the afternoon with Inchoy, who was working through another deluge of grading. We sat side by side at an air-conditioned coffee shop on Morato, me with my laptop and him scribbling his comments in red ink. I had written these ridiculous paragraphs in response to a challenge from Ann, who had suggested that orienting people to Philippine culture might be one way of opening the book. But I was again stymied. The identity of the Philippines was deeply subjective, and although what I had written was offensive and unfair, would anger non-Tagalogs, and ran counter to my personal opinions, it did clearly illustrate the prejudices of my circle. I wondered if I were capable of writing something less inane.

Ann had offered other suggestions. Filipino overseas workers sometimes made their way into the news, and Timicheg was, after all, an overseas worker who had met a tragic end. Or, since Gumboc’s extrajudicial killings, or EJKs, had put the Philippines back on the map, I might tie the plight of Timicheg to what was happening in the present-day Philippines. These were objectively good ideas, but I found it intrusive that Ann would want to guide me in this way, although I knew I had to make the book timely.