When Senator Benigno Aquino III became an apparent Presidentiable, many people have considered his decision to go on a retreat as “gimmickry,” not the least of which was Malacañang. Of course it’s a gimmick; as gimmicks go, it invokes the mythical and the literary. Like the temptation of Christ, for example. Or the Buddha’s quest for the middle way. Or Jurgis Rudkus hoboing it in the American farm towns (no, not the game, but Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle) before he makes it back to the Chicago stockyards and discovers socialism.
Or even Shaider entering the Strange Realm to kick Fumma ass while controlling Vavilos… not that there’s anything wrong with it, though.
