Book excerpt: A study of how biography, literary tradition, and social history intersect, showing how outstanding Hiligaynon writer Ramon Muzones reacted to the socioeconomic and political changes during his time. Considers over a hundred primary texts in order to account for the dominance of the romance mode in the Hiligaynon novel, the Ilonggo writers' attraction for the supernatural, the tradition of feisty women characters, the influence of film and the komiks, and the relationship of the novel's birth with the zarzuela's demise.