BOOK REVIEW: NO FILTER, A Collection of Monologues about Millennials by Millennials
by Rose Churma
Millennials were born in the analog age but were nurtured by the digital revolution. It’s not a surprise that the roots of this collection of monologues came about after a productive brainstorming session on Facebook Messenger in May 2015.
A month later a team of four, dubbed The Sandbox Collective, decided to stage a theater production featuring monologues from Millennials by Millennials. Directed by Toff de Venecia, NO FILTER turned out to be a memorable multimedia experience that became a phenomenal hit – garnering critical acclaim and rave reviews.
The Sandbox Collective decided to re-stage NO FILTER in October of the same year, and the second version proved to be an improved version of the first one – “a refined but similarly raw and honest portrayal of what it means to be millennial in this day and age.”
This collection was inspired by that monologue show. It touches on the millennial experiences in love, career, technology and their self-absorption. The book contains the monologues performed in the theater experience but includes additional new pieces.
Consisting of four chapters, the essays were grouped into “Know Thy Selfie,” “Virtual Insanity,” “LOL (Lots of Love),” and “Generation Why.” A review on the book’s back cover notes that:
“Through voices coming from different backgrounds and experiences, the writers of NO FILTER explore concepts like the dangers of misinformation in the time of the internet, and a generation’s collective obsession with travel. What perhaps brings them together in this anthology is an answer to this question: What do they really talk about when they talk about themselves?”
The millennials were the first generation born without a war, so they did not have that framework of saving for a rainy day. They are also more accepting of liberal thought and distant from religion, or at least its rituals.
Baby boomer parents complain that millennials can’t stay in one job and place more value in a work-life balance over earning a lot of money or in staying with a job that they dislike.
Millennials are many things, some good, some bad and a lot in the in-between gray areas – just like the previous generations before them, and perhaps just like the generations following them. But very interesting, and this book is proof of that.
ROSE CRUZ CHURMA is a retired architect who now has the time to do the things she always wanted to do: read books, write about them and encourage others to write. Her online bookstore, Kalamansi Books and Things (facebook.com/kalamansibooks), promotes Filipiniana books and publications by Filipino-Americans. Email her at kalamansibooks@gmail.com.
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