The LitCritters on Philippine Speculative Fiction

I attended the LitCritters’ talk on speculative fiction on the first day of the Manila International Book Fair armed only with my trusty WinX notebook and cell phone camera, so I’m afraid I wasn’t able to get any clear shots or recordings. But I’d like to share what I learned there, and I hope I’ll be able to present my notes in an orderly fashion, because a lot of interesting things were said.

I’ve also taken the liberty of linking to some of the recommended stories, so you can read them online. If there are any that I missed, please feel free to comment with links to them, and I’ll add them right away.

The speakers were Dean Alfar, Nikki Alfar, Vin Simbulan, Kate Aton-Osias, Alex Osias and Andrew Drilon. They each spoke of the different forms speculative fiction in the Philippines could take.

Dean Alfar opened the talk by defining Philippine speculative fiction as “the literature of the fantastic.” It is fiction written by Filipinos that asks “What if?” or “How about if?” This sort of writing has not always been welcome in “serious” literary circles, he said, since traditionally, all other stories seem unimportant compared to “realistic” stories.

But while writers are being taught to write fiction that matters, young people (writers and readers) want what matters to them. There is now a decline in the number of Filipino readers, because of the need to prioritize what we read.

Dean said, We are products of the stories that we read. We love to keep ourselves informed, so we tell each other stories and we listen; this is especially noticeable in the provinces, where telling stories is a treasured pastime.

Vin began by introducing modern fantasy. He defined modern fantasy as ancient myths and legends set to a modern, fantastic, self-coherent setting. Modern fantasy, he said, has spawned subgenres that have no equivalent in traditional lore. Examples of such subgenres are contemporary fantasy, epic fantasy (e.g. Tolkien), young adult fantasy (e.g. JK Rowling), historical fantasy, etc.

Dean Alfar suggested that fanfic writers among the young Internet-ready population of the modern age are actually promising fantasy writers.

Nikki Alfar then left her seat at the panel and sat closer to the audience, in order to better talk about myths, folk tales and fairy tales. Myths evolved into folk tales, she said – teaching stories evolved into fairy tales, peasant tales evolved into stories told in nobler languages. She further said “there is no such thing as a ‘retold’ fairy tale.” [My notes blurred at this point, but I believe she said there are only fairy tales told in a way that is “transgressive of moral reality”? Apologies if I got that wrong, corrections are welcome at any time.]

Nikki gave some examples of modern fairy tales in classical Philippine literature:
1. “May Day Eve” by Nick Joaquin
2. “Summer Solstice” by Nick Joaquin
3. “The Dust Monster” by Gilda Cordero-Fernando
4. “The Level of Each Day’s Need” by Gilda Cordero-Fernando

Dean pointed out that women writers are mostly the ones who tell fairy tales, and not for a female audience. He challenged more male writers to break the mold.

Then it was Alex Osias’ turn to talk about science fiction. He defined it as “the literature of change.” It could be change of any kind – scientific, societal, etc – as long as it involves fantastic or scientific speculation.

Alex said there are a couple of things you must take into consideration, if you want to write a good science fiction story:
1. Timeline – is your story set in the near future? Or the past? Does it involve time travel?
2. Society – the kind of society you want to build matters. Is it a Dystopia? A Utopia? (Incidentally, Alex said, there seems to be a dearth of fiction showing the Philippines as a utopia. There is an “issue of verisimilitude” regarding imagining the Philippines as a superpower.)
3. Location – is it Earth-based? Is the story set in space?
4. Science – what kind of science do you want to apply for your story? Hard science (existing science or science/technology that is close to completion) or soft science (science that has yet to be invented)?

Alex suggested some Philippine-made works of science fiction to check out:
1. “The Apollo Centennial” by Greg Brillantes
2. “Character Encoding” by Baryon Posadas
3. “Turtle Season” by Timothy Montes

Dean said science fiction demands “an almost perverse sense of verisimilitude.” For the most part, fiction written about the future of the Philippines is pessimistic and somewhat depressing. He suggested that more writers try imagining the future Philippines in a more positive light.

Alex agreed that there is an imbalance in the representation. He asked that anyone who would write “optimistic” future fiction for the Philippines could provide an answer to the question: Where would the verisimilitude come from?

There was also something about writing pirates in outer space. But I’m afraid I failed to note down the context…

Then it was Andrew’s turn. He defined horror using Douglas Winter’s definition: “Horror is not a genre; horror is an emotion.” Andrew said that the Filipino ghost story is a big thing: there are a lot of publications, and a lot of readers, especially in the grade school crowd!

Andrew said there are many types of horror, including dark fantasy, splatterpunk (his personal favorite) and erotic horror (Dean’s personal favorite :P). He suggested some reading materials in the horror genre:
1. “The Vampire” by Lakambini Sitoy
2. Likhaan publishes horror stories
3. UP Press has a compilation of horror stories

Dean pointed out that horror is so far the most marketable speculative fiction genre in the Philippines. “Pinoys like to be scared!” There is a strong tradition of horror in the country. He went so far as to say the genre is “more alive than undead.”

Then Kate’s turn came. Like a true teacher she strolled right into the audience in order to better tell us about slipstream fiction. She defined “slipstream” stories as “stories that break boundaries.” Slipstream, she said, is supposed to “embody the weird as natural,” by evoking emotions that we have now.

The genre accepts all kinds of fiction that crosses over into other types of fiction. She believes the only two genres that cannot mix are “erotica fiction” and “fiction for young readers.”

Kate recommended three examples of slipstream/interstitial/surrealist fiction:
1. Cesar Aquino’s fiction
2. “Heartbreak” [sp?] by Ian Rosales-Casocot
3. “Letter from a Social-Realist Aswang” [sp?] by K. Mandigma

Dean added that slipstream “confounds bookstores.” It is difficult to classify them, so you may find certain slipstream titles in unexpected shelves. He recommended the works of Jeffrey Ford (specifically “The Girl in the Glass”), Tim Powers and Jeff Vandermeer.

Then the LitCritters brought up another subgenre of speculative fiction: magical realism. Dean pointed out that even before the Latin American writers popularized magical realism, Filipino writers like Nick Joaquin were already incorporating it into their fiction. “There is a social realist ‘thud’ that they feel in their heart of hearts,” Dean said of magical realist writers. “Magic realism is a technique, a way of looking at things. Like domestic realism, it can be adapted. The writing of Rosario Cruz Lucero (Feast and Famine: Stories of Negros, Herstory) was also recommended.

When everyone has spoken, Dean expounded on the “realist credo”: 1) Write something that’s never been written, or 2) Write something that has been written, but in a different way. He elaborated that the LitCritters – and perhaps many other speculative fiction writers in the Philippines as well – do not hate realism. In fact, they incorporate a lot of realism in their stories. Realist stories are important, he said, because they reflect the hopes and dreams of the Filipino people.

Dean also said the newer Internet-ready generations are quite well-read. They have more friends online than they do offline, and they have been exposed to many different kinds of literature – but not enough of Philippine literature. He hopes that the generation to come is “still Filipino somehow.”

If any writer wants to get to the young, they must speak in the language that could be appreciated by the young. Dean also endorsed stories that would be cultivated as “pantapat” or equivalent to popular Western stories, such as Star Trek, because this is what we are interested in. There is no active writer, he pointed out, who does not read. And their influences become evident in their writing.

Finally, Dean said “Let us not forget that Pinoy speculative fiction needs to be literary. There has to be a story. There needs to be structure. Because otherwise it’s pointless.” This is a good time for Filipino readers, as well as Filipino writers, who aim to make their mark in world literature. “I cannot find any reason why we cannot. We SHOULD. We HAVE TO.”

All in all, a very enlightening talk. I really wish more people had been there to witness it.

Mia has posted her impressions of the talk at the Read or Die blog.

Right after the talk, I headed over to Anvil Publishing‘s booth and got myself a 3-issue pack of the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories. I’ve been looking for these forever, so I was really glad to find them!