When the purple settles

I already really regret not having blogged after reading the play but before the class discussion bc my views of the play have already totally changed!! Note to self: blog first impressions right away...I find that this happens to me a lot - that I will read a novel or play or poem and analyze it to the extent that I can without getting very far and then when I am able to analyze it in class/with a teacher I begin to understand the writing on such a different level that I appreciate it so much more...(ie Remains of the Day - thought that book sucked until I realized that there were so many literary devices and things that I just hadn't understood on my own).

But anyways...When the purple settles....I really think this was one of the most cracked out plays I've ever read...I definitely look at Prof Tanglao-Aguas differently! But I really respect how he attacked all the issues in the play, that instead of shying away from the difficult issues of rape, torture, pain, abandonment, colonization, family issues, etc....he really just went at them and used as much sexuality and vulgar language as was needed to show all of the pain that really accompanies these issues. In class we talked about Sor Lucy Pera and I realized that I had not understood at all what he/she was in the play. First of all, I didn't realize that it was supposed to be played by a man being a woman - is it supposed to be obviously a man? What does this mean? Why is it a man playing a woman? Does this have anything to do with Sor Lucy Pera also being Lucifer - the Devil? The Devil is often portrayed as a man, so maybe the character is supposed to be played by a man playing a woman to make the audience question why we see the Devil as manly....in the same way that people question why God is portrayed as a man. So I understood that Sor Lucy Pera was evil but I didn't see that he/she was the Devil. And why does she particularly pick on Junior? She is determined not to let him write his script the way he wants to. And why is he/she so obsessed with sex? Maybe it is a continuation of the way that the Philipino people are constantly being 'raped' by other countries for cheap labor and products...bc in the play Sor Lucy Pera is constantly raping different people and it seems to be the only way to distract him/her...through sexual distractions (ie when Momma puts on the George Hamilton mask so that Junior can write the story the way he wants...this part was very amusing and sickening...pretty much the entire play is amusing but sickening). I think that's all for now but I will definitely post more bc this play is supadupa complex.