Antifaust is the personal website of Dr. Mic Agbayani.

Antifaust

What does “antifaust” mean? Well, the word obviously owes its origin to the legend of Faust or Faustus, the 16th century occultist who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for limitless knowledge.

I encountered the neologism “anti-faust” in an essay I read in college. To be honest, I did not fully comprehend the psychobabble and pomo meanderings of that particular piece of drivel, but the word appealed to the my fascination with the bizaare. For me, the word conjured up the image of the unrepentant charlatan and necromancer of folklore. Not the Faust of Marlowe, Lessing or Goethe but Faust stripped of rationalist-humanist trappings, devoid of the tragic dignity infused by modern thought. “Antifaust” — to me — represented a negation of brazen apostasy and an opposition to quackery of any kind.

The Author

Mic is a shameless Filipino übergeek who dabbles in graphic design and creative writing. He occasionally complains about being overeducated but always takes advantage of any opportunity to flaunt his academic credentials. He spent his elementary and high school years at the Ateneo De Manila University, where Jesuits taught him big words like “neologism” and “apostasy.” He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, where he momentarily served as a staff writer and cultural features section editor for the Philippine Collegian. Along the way, he picked up more big words like “teledildonics” and “heuristics.” After putting up with another five years of academic torture and enduring countless sleepless nights, he was conferred a medical degree via the UP College of Medicine - Philippine General Hospital. He doesn’t usually refer to himself in the third person.

Contact

email: mjagbayani [at] gmail [dot] com

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