In "Inferno," the fourth part in Harvard art professor Robert Langdon’s adventures, one of the characters goes through "the gates of hell" in Manila.
The description of the city is from the first-hand account of one of the fictional characters, the messianic Dr. Sienna Brooks.
Brooks, who has been working with humanitarian groups, went to the Philippines for a mission to supposedly feed poor fishermen and farmers on the countryside.
She expected the Philippines to be a “wonderland of geological beauty, with vibrant seabeds and dazzling plains.”
Upon setting foot in Manila, however, Brooks could only "gape in horror" as "she had never seen poverty on this scale."
She said her “dark depression” flooded back, with pictures of poverty and crime flashing through her eyes.
“For every one person Sienna fed, there were hundreds more who gazed at her with desolate eyes,” the book read.
One after the other, the book described chaotic Manila: "six-hour traffic jams, suffocating pollution, horrifying sex trade."
The book described the sex industry as consisting mostly of young children “many of whom had been sold to pimps by parents who took solace in knowing that at least their children would be fed.”
“All around her, she could see humanity overrun by its primal instinct for survival…When they face desperation…human beings become animals,” the book read.
The book went on to detail a turning point in Brooks’ life. “I’ve run through the gates of hell,” she said.
Traumatized, Brooks “left the Philippines at once, without even saying goodbye to the other members of the group.”
