When Wendy Dumps Peter Pan and Creates Her Own Neverneverland

I know this is running quite late. And I know it’s not a very good example. But hey, if you have to check n (no. of blogs) plus x (no. of exams and critical papers from other classes) within y (the given limited time) multiplied with the effort you have to expend dealing with z (no. of pathetic arseholes who have nothing better to do than meddle with other people’s lives), you’ll understand.

But enough of the excuses and let me just get down to it. I have yet to write about my insights of Hidalgo’s “The Tale of the Spinster and Peter Pan.” And before I forget, one of the reasons why I procrastinated on writing about this text is my disappointment with the report. [Collective gasp: What report?!] Yup, hindi nakapag-report para sa text na ito. Sayang, maganda pa naman sana. Tapos hindi pa nagbasa ang klase ko. Aach. Sarap magmura. Oo, magmura, dahil tao din akong naiinis.

Anyway, among the list of texts in the PHILLIT syllabus, “The Tale…” is my most recently read story. I had to read it as an exercise in formalist criticism, around 3 months ago, in a class taught by Ma’am Jing Hidalgo herself. I knew, as I read it, that there are glimpses of her own life here and there (of course, that is quite inevitable). Seeing that movie in my mind where the character is Ma’am Jing herself, makes me wax nostalgic for old films like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” or “Casablanca” or “Sabrina.” Of course, for the record, Ma’am Jing is happily married, has kids and an active (as I see it) social life.

The story runs on irony. The woman writes for beauty and lifestyle magazines when her life is itself devoid of such frivolities. She fosters a flourishing career in writing romance novels when in reality she scores zero in that department. Her interest and imagination is finally, truly perked by this magical creature—the guy who sings for a rock band—and I suspect she really did fall for him. Or at least, she yearned for him. In the end, she (as well as we, the readers) gets a reality check when Peter Pan turns out to be some jaded guy with a dirty mind trying to make some money by pimping himself. Very crude.

Because the story is so beautifully written—an essential characteristic of tales—one might be led to think that the character is “kawawa naman” all throughout. But I look back on other stories, back to Ms. Mijares in “The Virgin” and Pilar in “The Corral” and I definitely think that this spinster babe is better off than those earlier two. Why? Because in the end, no matter how miserable the situation seems to be, the spinster had a choice. She chose dignity and she stood by her impervious ideals (no matter how unrealistic they were for a woman living in the city).

And it was a choice she made indignantly, deliberately, gracefully.