When the World Ended I Was Thinking About the Forest by Glenn Diaz

An unconventional book by award-winning author Glenn Diaz. It was published by Paper Trails.

Braided essay that weaves two things:

1. A narrative of a love story that ended in a break up set in Los Baños.
2. An exploration of the idea of the forest in Filipino literature, history, and politics.

What makes this work different:

• Experimental use of numbered paragraphs.
• Published “work in progress”

It’s a hybrid essay, a braided one that interlocks a narrative of Glenn’s romantic relationship with an LB-based artist he only identifies by little details, such as that he had an old home at Forestry and that he has transitioned to curation, and a trek-like wandering on the subject of forests. This is the personal essay—perhaps the essay—at its best: meandering, trying to create a path through the wilderness. Among the subjects he encounters in the ? are the forests’ relationship with agriculture, colonial scientific forestry, kaingin, the NPA retreat to the forests, forests in Rizal’s writings, and LB’s Department of Forestry.

Structure

P - Personal S - Social S+P - Combined

1. S+P
2. S
3. S
4. P
5. S
6. S
7. S
8. S
9. P
10. S
11. S
12. S
13. S
14. P
15. S
16. S
17. S
18. S
19. S
20. S
21. S
22. S
23. S+P
24. S
25. S
26. S+P
27. S+P
28. S
29. S
30. S
31. S
32. S+P
33. P
34. S
35. S
36. P
37. P

References

Diaz, Glenn. When the World Ended I Was Thinking About the Forest. Paper Trails Projects, 2022.