More on Libraries
I was looking forward to having more opportunities to write on this blog during my two-month vacation here in Wellington. Alas, I find myself having less control over my time than I'd hoped. Not having easy Internet access also leaves me out of the loop, so I'm afraid I'll be late passing on the news about many different things.
Still, there are some remarkable advantages to not being "wired." One of them is, I get more time to think. And right now I think one of the many, many things about my New Zealand visit that I'm grateful for is access to a public library. I'm there at least twice a week, and in-between raiding my uncle's private stash, I forage in Upper Hutt and take home some titles that I'm sure I wouldn't easily find in the places I frequent in the Philippines.
For me, the Upper Hutt Public Library is, quite simply, a little slice of heaven. It's been a while since I was last able to visit a decent library - in fact, the last time was over four years ago, when I was doing research for a certain writing project, and I was able to enter the University of the Philippines' Main Library again.
Every time I step through the doors of the Upper Hutt Library, though, I'm bombarded by conflicting emotions. One of them, I was surprised to find, was guilt. I keep thinking about certain people back home who would love the gorgeous selections - I have yet to email a certain friend about the extensive Dragonlance collection there, another friend about the newer Iain Banks titles, and someone else about the surprising number of Storm Constantine's non-Wraeththu books. Hell, I even took pictures.
And I feel like I don't deserve to be there. I no longer set aside a sizeable amount of my earnings to books, and while I do love to read I don't dare call myself a bibliophile anymore. I know other people - aspiring writers like myself, only more passionate and more talented - who would kill for the chance to be in the presence of so much quality reading material.
Yet I'm the one who's here.
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Two Ways to Write Science Fiction, and Some Announcements
1. Mia and Charles both recently made posts related to writing science fiction:
- More Notes on Science and Writing - Mia shares what she sees are possible angles for good science fiction stories. An abridged version of this entry may be found at the Read or Die blog. Share your own ideas!
- Writing Science Fiction - Charles tells about how the heart of a science fiction story is not actually the science. I find this essay comforting, because while science fiction fascinates me the most, I don't think I can write hard science to save my life :P Not right now, anyway!
Some Links
1. Not related to Philippine spec fic per se, but Chris Garcia writes interesting things about the possibilities of fostering a love for science fiction among Hispanic readers, in "Building Science Fictionistas."
2. Charles starts a vote and recommend new stories meme. Not being up to date on a lot of works published this year, I'm afraid I can't participate - but I'd sure love to know which works everyone else nominates.
Banzai Cat has already posted his recommendation. Anyone else?
3. Kenneth of Philippine Genre Stories says that in the next Manila LitCritters session, there will be a critique session for 3 stories from PGS3. In the same entry, he asks if we could bring up examples of stories that we like (or don't like) that may fall under "Philippine" fiction, speculative or realist. Read his entry here.
4. Dean and Nikki Alfar post the Philippine Speculative Fiction vol. 3 TOC. My story "The Singer's Man" will be there. And no, it is not what I consider to be a "Filipino" speculative story :)
I've already expressed my gratitude to the Alfars over SMS, but I'd like to do that again here. Maraming salamat po, Sir Dean at Ma'am Nikki!
“Filipino” Spec Fic: We’re Nowhere Near Done Talking About This
What I love about email and blogging is that you have enough time to talk, not like in real life where the one who talks the most wins, and winning means hogging everybody else's air time. Here we can all present our sides and explain ourselves better.
So I'm going to try and explain some of the points I previously made, and analyze some of the trends I've noticed. Again, I'm not trying to represent a group or way of thinking here, I can only speak for myself. This is how I view the nature of Filipino spec fic, and I'm happy to know that some people share my views, but this doesn't mean I'm imposing it on others. I just hate having words put into my mouth.
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If All the Stars Were Suns: the Layman’s Sci-Fi
Mia of Miamor has written a lovely post saying we should write more science fiction. She says in the comments that she's working on two SF short stories at the moment. I'd sure love to read them when they come out :D
Her post just got me thinking. A long time ago (years, more like), I was asking the Phil SF and F mailing list why they think science fiction isn't a hit in the Philippines. I think I said something along the lines of "maybe it's because science instruction here sucks" and people presented some convincing arguments to the contrary.
Now that I've done a lot more thinking (and talking to Mia and other SF enthusiasts), I've come to another conclusion. It's not that our science instruction isn't up to par... it's just that SF is inaccessible. There's little enough SF written by literary writers, and even less in pop media. While we do have mecha anime, some sentai shows and Zaido to look forward to, shows that actually emphasize scientific phenomena and discovery were historically few and far between.
Why don't we have more of it? What are we scared of? Let's set aside the commercial concerns of the media bigwigs for the moment... why don't those of us who have the time and the resources write more science fiction? Why do we tend to say "I'd like to try writing science fiction/crime fiction/magic realism, but I'm afraid I won't be able to write it well."
Why do we even say things like that at all?
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Links and Announcements
First off, congratulations to Miss Kristin Mandigma! Her short story "Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-realist Aswang" is now out as the October 2007 feature on the web-based Clarkesworld Magazine.
[ Check it out! ]
A few days ago, we got an announcement from Kenneth that the esteemed Butch Dalisay of the Pinoy Penman was writing a blog post about "Filipino" speculative fiction. I'm only too happy to link to it now:[ Filipino-ness in Fiction]Kenneth has also put up scans of the blog post as it appears in the national broadsheet the Philippine Star. Check out his post for those, and for some choice quotes. Speaking of Kenneth - I'd just like to remind everyone that the deadline for submissions to the Philippine Genre Stories' Christmas special is ending in a few days. October 5, people! Unless um, I missed an announcement about this? I sure hope not. I like to think I have four more days to cram XD Interested parties may check out PGS' submission guidelines.
I kind of slid out of the blogosphere a while back, so I missed some earlier (2005-2006) blog entries raising the issue of whether or not spec fic written by Filipinos should strive to reach a local audience. I spotted a few posts during a casual Google search today and thought I should post them here, if only for my reference: [ Philippine Speculative Fiction (or Phabulism) ]by The Kawanga Kid, circa July 2006. [ Salamanca and Other Matters on Philippine Literature ] by Dirg, circa Dec 2006. This is mostly an excellent review of Salamanca by Dean Alfar (which I haven't read yet I'm sorry to admit ahahah but I WILL!). It's a great post with lots of food for thought, such as the following passage:
A few days ago, we got an announcement from Kenneth that the esteemed Butch Dalisay of the Pinoy Penman was writing a blog post about "Filipino" speculative fiction. I'm only too happy to link to it now:[ Filipino-ness in Fiction]Kenneth has also put up scans of the blog post as it appears in the national broadsheet the Philippine Star. Check out his post for those, and for some choice quotes. Speaking of Kenneth - I'd just like to remind everyone that the deadline for submissions to the Philippine Genre Stories' Christmas special is ending in a few days. October 5, people! Unless um, I missed an announcement about this? I sure hope not. I like to think I have four more days to cram XD Interested parties may check out PGS' submission guidelines.
I kind of slid out of the blogosphere a while back, so I missed some earlier (2005-2006) blog entries raising the issue of whether or not spec fic written by Filipinos should strive to reach a local audience. I spotted a few posts during a casual Google search today and thought I should post them here, if only for my reference: [ Philippine Speculative Fiction (or Phabulism) ]by The Kawanga Kid, circa July 2006. [ Salamanca and Other Matters on Philippine Literature ] by Dirg, circa Dec 2006. This is mostly an excellent review of Salamanca by Dean Alfar (which I haven't read yet I'm sorry to admit ahahah but I WILL!). It's a great post with lots of food for thought, such as the following passage:
This year’s fellow of the Dumaguete National Writers Workshop, Dominique Cimafranca, once shared his sentiment on this matter. He said that Philippine novels don’t have the preference for readership by the Filipinos, because they lack the element of entertainment, which is a very important ingredient for any novel. He said that Filipino writers aim more on writing to earn praises from literary critics rather than on writing to entertain general readers. This could be one of the explanations why the only Philippine novel that most young Filipinos know are Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.Professor Emil Flores also has an interesting take on speculative fiction in popular television. I wish I could better tie this up with what I wrote above re: non-Pinoy influences in Pinoy pop media, and a post I made earlier re: telefantasyas as spec fic influences, but I'm afraid typing up this post exhausted me. Anyway, this is a much more interesting read than anything I could put together: [ Sugod Mga Sugo: Speculative Fiction in Filipino Popular Television ] by Prof. Emil Flores, via Panitikan.com.
The “Filipino” in Philippine Speculative Fiction, and More Quotation Marks
I've been meaning to mention this for a while now, but I've managed to put it off spectacularly. Tin wrote a post on the Read or Die blog detailing the literary events booked for the rest of September. There are still quite a few exciting activities up, so do take a look!
In the meantime, wow - so many new posts about Philippine spec fic! But well, we're in that phase where we could always use more, I think. Off to update the list!
I've wanted to write a follow-up to my post, but it wasn't until I read Sean's post that the words came to me.When I was younger, I resented being told what I had to write. Come to think of it, I still do :D But after getting used to writing on demand, I've come to appreciate the need to adhere to certain conventions. If you're out to write something in particular, respect the rules and respect your audience. If you aren't out to write something in particular, then don't force the rules to conform to your output, saying your work falls under a certain category when it doesn't. Above all else, I've come to appreciate the need to take responsibility for what I write. Just to emphasize: I'm not telling anybody to write - or NOT to write - anything in particular. I'm just asking people to not call what they write "Filipino" if it so obviously isn't. ...Unless, of course, their definition of a "Filipino story" is similar to how it could be easily defined by an editor or a publisher - anything written by someone who positively identifies him/herself as a Filipino, whether or not s/he lives on Philippine soil. Then I'd rather they said that, instead of try to defend their right to write whatever they wanted. As a writer myself, I am certainly not arguing that point. To be honest, I personally don't write a lot of fiction that I'd call "Filipino." I mostly write in English, and I mostly write non-Filipino stories. Even when a story occurs to me in Filipino, I'm tempted to write it in English - and I admit, it's because my audience speaks and writes English. I estimate that 90% of the people I know online are native English speakers, and/or are multilingual or at least bilingual. When I read the work of the writers I admire online, I realize they don't write with any reference to their nationality as authors, and that lack of concern is what influences me. It's easier and more in my nature not to consider ethnicity relevant when I write. I don't apologize for that, and I don't expect anyone to. Also, I reserve the right to write in Filipino, or to write speculative fiction relevant to the Philippines, if I wish. When I write in Filipino, I have to be prepared not to be read, and that's fine - if a story comes to me as Filipino, I can't be bothered to translate it into English just for the sake of social responsibility or whatnot. However, I would be uncomfortable with anyone attaching the term "Filipino" to all the things I write, just because I am a Filipino writer. Everyone else is free to do so if they wish, of course, but I wouldn't support it. I am proud of my fellow Filipinos when they accomplish things, but if they themselves do not wish for their stories to be identified with the Filipino culture, then it's fine! I'm not invoking the age-old social realist guilt trip that says everything you do or say has to have Filipino references. But there is a need to define what Filipino speculative fiction is, and that's what I responded to. I'm not saying I don't think you are Filipino; I'm just saying I don't think your story is. I imagine publishers and writers would have their own concerns about how to label something "Filipino." As for myself, I realize that running a blog called Philippine Speculative Fiction, it may seem like I have double standards for what I would call a "Filipino spec fic." However, when I'm promoting on this blog, I mean to say "this is the fiction that Filipinos write." I don't mean to say "all this fiction is Filipino in nature." I encourage any and all fiction written by Filipinos, even those who aren't keen on identifying themselves as "Filipino writers." This is still my stance as a writer and as someone who maintains a blog about Philippine speculative fiction.
You know what, I'm finding it interesting that this discussion is bringing some things to light. Apparently, there are some Filipino writers who believe that speculative fiction is a refuge from any sort of pressure - that speculative fiction shouldn't be restrained by sub-classifications. It just seems kind of moot to me, since most spec fic writers define their own works by genre or subgenre - saying things like "well, this is an interstitial story" or "I was shooting for a bit of detective noir relayed with a Japanese minimalistic touch."And there are those who believe that people should set aside nationality when they're writing speculative fiction. I find that especially intriguing. So does this mean you believe that the "speculative fiction" genre discourages ethnicity? Or that works that have ethnic flavor are automatically inferior to those that don't? Does including Filipino elements in a story automatically limit your imagination? Do you think "Filipino speculative fiction" is an invalid classification? Doesn't it deserve to exist? Or would you have other ways to define it? I'd like to know.
I've wanted to write a follow-up to my post, but it wasn't until I read Sean's post that the words came to me.When I was younger, I resented being told what I had to write. Come to think of it, I still do :D But after getting used to writing on demand, I've come to appreciate the need to adhere to certain conventions. If you're out to write something in particular, respect the rules and respect your audience. If you aren't out to write something in particular, then don't force the rules to conform to your output, saying your work falls under a certain category when it doesn't. Above all else, I've come to appreciate the need to take responsibility for what I write. Just to emphasize: I'm not telling anybody to write - or NOT to write - anything in particular. I'm just asking people to not call what they write "Filipino" if it so obviously isn't. ...Unless, of course, their definition of a "Filipino story" is similar to how it could be easily defined by an editor or a publisher - anything written by someone who positively identifies him/herself as a Filipino, whether or not s/he lives on Philippine soil. Then I'd rather they said that, instead of try to defend their right to write whatever they wanted. As a writer myself, I am certainly not arguing that point. To be honest, I personally don't write a lot of fiction that I'd call "Filipino." I mostly write in English, and I mostly write non-Filipino stories. Even when a story occurs to me in Filipino, I'm tempted to write it in English - and I admit, it's because my audience speaks and writes English. I estimate that 90% of the people I know online are native English speakers, and/or are multilingual or at least bilingual. When I read the work of the writers I admire online, I realize they don't write with any reference to their nationality as authors, and that lack of concern is what influences me. It's easier and more in my nature not to consider ethnicity relevant when I write. I don't apologize for that, and I don't expect anyone to. Also, I reserve the right to write in Filipino, or to write speculative fiction relevant to the Philippines, if I wish. When I write in Filipino, I have to be prepared not to be read, and that's fine - if a story comes to me as Filipino, I can't be bothered to translate it into English just for the sake of social responsibility or whatnot. However, I would be uncomfortable with anyone attaching the term "Filipino" to all the things I write, just because I am a Filipino writer. Everyone else is free to do so if they wish, of course, but I wouldn't support it. I am proud of my fellow Filipinos when they accomplish things, but if they themselves do not wish for their stories to be identified with the Filipino culture, then it's fine! I'm not invoking the age-old social realist guilt trip that says everything you do or say has to have Filipino references. But there is a need to define what Filipino speculative fiction is, and that's what I responded to. I'm not saying I don't think you are Filipino; I'm just saying I don't think your story is. I imagine publishers and writers would have their own concerns about how to label something "Filipino." As for myself, I realize that running a blog called Philippine Speculative Fiction, it may seem like I have double standards for what I would call a "Filipino spec fic." However, when I'm promoting on this blog, I mean to say "this is the fiction that Filipinos write." I don't mean to say "all this fiction is Filipino in nature." I encourage any and all fiction written by Filipinos, even those who aren't keen on identifying themselves as "Filipino writers." This is still my stance as a writer and as someone who maintains a blog about Philippine speculative fiction.
You know what, I'm finding it interesting that this discussion is bringing some things to light. Apparently, there are some Filipino writers who believe that speculative fiction is a refuge from any sort of pressure - that speculative fiction shouldn't be restrained by sub-classifications. It just seems kind of moot to me, since most spec fic writers define their own works by genre or subgenre - saying things like "well, this is an interstitial story" or "I was shooting for a bit of detective noir relayed with a Japanese minimalistic touch."And there are those who believe that people should set aside nationality when they're writing speculative fiction. I find that especially intriguing. So does this mean you believe that the "speculative fiction" genre discourages ethnicity? Or that works that have ethnic flavor are automatically inferior to those that don't? Does including Filipino elements in a story automatically limit your imagination? Do you think "Filipino speculative fiction" is an invalid classification? Doesn't it deserve to exist? Or would you have other ways to define it? I'd like to know.
“Filipino” Speculative Fiction, Read: the Rambling of the Overly Simplistic
[edit: I'll be compiling other discussions on the nature of Philippine speculative fiction here. If I've missed a post, do drop me a line so I can include it.
Please read and join in!
Dean Alfar: Thinking Towards Philippine Speculative Fiction 1, 2, and 3
Kenneth Yu: The Continuing Conundrum
Charles Tan: Does One Need to Use Filipino to Write Filipino Fiction?
Banzai Cat: Of Conceits and Agendas | The Plot Thickens... Like Dinuguan
Tin Mandigma: Speculating about Filipino speculative fiction]
PS: Wordpress is giving me a headache whenever I edit, so I won't be updating this post with new links anymore. Kenneth has a great post compiling all the links on this subject, though. Head on over!
I do wonder why certain people are so eager to tell the world that their work is "Filipino" in nature, just because they're Filipino. I don't think it's all that fair to say you're making a Filipino speculative story even if you're Filipino, if your story isn't about the Philippines or about Filipinos.I guess that not being of mixed blood or an international heritage, I'm in a position to see this as very black-and-white. But just this once, just for this particular issue, I don't see how that could be disadvantageous. (more…)
I do wonder why certain people are so eager to tell the world that their work is "Filipino" in nature, just because they're Filipino. I don't think it's all that fair to say you're making a Filipino speculative story even if you're Filipino, if your story isn't about the Philippines or about Filipinos.I guess that not being of mixed blood or an international heritage, I'm in a position to see this as very black-and-white. But just this once, just for this particular issue, I don't see how that could be disadvantageous. (more…)
Using Science in Your Science Fiction
Mia has written an insightful essay about treating science with respect over at the Read or Die blog. If I remember correctly, Mia has substantial academic background in physics, and it's refreshing to hear someone who is both a scientist and a talented artist talking about how to present scientific concepts to laymen, with the intention of helping them become more interested in science as a whole.
How one presents science in one's writing is especially interesting to me, because science fiction is quite possibly my favorite literary genre. In case I haven't mentioned it on this blog yet, science fiction has a special place in my heart, mainly because it translates hard-to-understand concepts into stories, familiar things that evoke all of emotion, curiosity and imagination.
I'm not saying I am good at writing science fiction or that I aspire to become an authority in it, but I especially admire people who are able to achieve that delicate balance between pedagogy and lyricism.
Just to be clear, I'm not fussy about my science fiction. I appreciate both "hard" (e.g. Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, Carl Sagan) science fiction and "soft" science fiction (e.g. Ursula le Guin, Theodore Sturgeon, Frank Herbert), and I never find it easy to compare one arm of SF to the other.
(Incidentally! I learned just recently that my definitions of "hard scifi" and "soft scifi" may differ from everyone else's - I grew up thinking "hard SF" is fiction that deals with cool hard technical stuff, such as medicine, astrophysics or robotics, while "soft SF" is fiction that deals with the "soft" sciences, such as linguistics, sociology, anthropology, and the like. I realized this when I was listening to Alex Osias define "hard scifi" and "soft scifi" at the LitCritters panel discussion during this year's Manila Book Fair, but I didn't have the confidence to try and discuss it with him at the time...)
Whatever the definition, I've long decided that "hard" and "soft" scifi fascinate me in different ways. There really is no comparison. However, "literariness" is a constant criterion. You may have a character recite complicated formulae that read like a phone book - but if the story wrapped around this character, the way this character speaks, the drama that unfolds, are all engaging, then as far as I'm concerned, you've assured yourself an audience. I shall read your phone book, and I shall enjoy it!
On the other hand, you may have a more-fantastic-than-anything futuristic setting, with highly technical notions like genetics and interspecies cell grafting haphazardly tossed about, but if I am fascinated with your central character and the world he/she/it operates in, it's not likely that I'll nitpick.
I don't really see the difference between scientific academics spouting jargon about the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background, and literary academics arguing the nature and function of postmodernism to death. Both types scare away poor timid layfolk (like myself) from liking something enough to indulge in it. Along this vein, I don't see the difference between science fiction writers who go on and on about the scientific concepts they have adopted, and non-science fiction writers who go on and on about the metaphysical value of their work, the characters' motivations, the irrelevant and extremely detailed histories of the dramatis personae, within the text! Sometimes they get away with it, but for the most part they irritate me equally.
Of course, I'm not holding the academics at fault - if they are able to make the best of their education, and if they have the skill to present their ideas in an organized, scholarly fashion, I think that's admirable too. It's just - it takes talent to weave the didactism into a good story, and most times it's not even necessary.
I myself am frequently tempted to go on and on about speculative concepts I find especially fascinating... but if I'm going to sound like a pompous self-important ass while doing it, rest assured I'll make a serious effort to weed out the ego from my fiction and reserve it for my blog. Unless, of course, the character I'm using as a vessel for the elaboration demands the extra infusion of ego.
As Mia had said: if you've got your heart set on involving science in your text, you have to respect it. On the other hand, you also have to respect your reader. Don't treat the reader like an idiot, and don't treat your story like a soapbox. There's a time and place for all of that, if you really must do it, but it is usually NOT the text.
I can understand if it's hard to strike a balance. "Hard" scifi buffs may criticize a certain story for not exploring the scientific concepts enough, while "soft" scifi buffs may criticize this same story for having a single awkward paragraph dedicated to explaining the new world's operative logic systems. But those who can find where that elusive middle ground is, I worship - because those are the writers who get me interested not only in the possibilities that they paint, but also in the many different processes by which those possibilities can be achieved.
They get me interested enough in highly technical concepts to read up on them. They get me rereading their stories and feeling like my heart is being wrenched out of my thoracic cavity every time. They get me wondering.
Doktor… Sino?
Only a few hours left to go before the Book Fair starts, and I get personal.
It should be no secret to my online friends that I've fallen for Doctor Who. It's my latest addiction, discovered only years after falling out with the original Star Trek series and its one hundred spin-offs. I'm grateful they continued the series with the modern youthful audience in mind. It was a lot easier for me to begin appreciating it that way, I guess.
I started off knowing absolutely nothing about Doctor Who, apart from that it's been a large part of UK pop culture. Besides the standard mindblowing, dimension portal-opening rush I get from watching/reading good scifi, it was a lot like having new windows to another culture thrown wide open. I know the UK has such a rich history, which is often delved into even in pop media, but I'm really amazed by how much the DW creative crew has been able to make of it. Ever dared to speculate on Queen Victoria's hemophilia? Or build a complicated thriller starring an intergalactic con man set in the London Blitz?
So I've been wondering, is there by any chance a petition or a project out there to adapt Doctor Who for the Filipino setting...? Not a dub-over: I'd really like to preserve the nuances of the language, as well as the important cultural references, so if DW is coming here, the episodes should be pristine.
That's really a long shot, though. American English and ways of living have been too deeply ingrained into our system. But really - if Doctor Who can't get us into UK shows, what can?
I'm actually thinking DW would be a hit here. The concept alone is highly appealing - a charming, mischievous godlike tourist traveling through space and time, righting wrongs and fighting evil, et cetera et cetera. Add a sympathetic companion and potential love interest, and you're all set!
But what I really, really like about DW is that it brings history into the forefront. It's not just about the future: it explores more than one aspect of speculative fiction. Then again we can say that about most other SF series, I think. They have to cover all their bases.
It's just that the opportunity to travel BACK in time is especially interesting for me. We have such a (to borrow a catchphrase from the Ninth Doctor) fantastic history - but with conflicting viewpoints and bad historians confusing us about the facts, we just ended up not caring. There are very few among us who honestly want to put things together until they make some sense, and even fewer among those who do are actually storytellers. It'll be dredging up old bones nobody wants troubled.
We might say that we don't care what happened before, because we're too busy surviving now - but if that were true, would we be so drawn to fantasy? Is it just that it makes life bearable? Or maybe we're just holding on for the kind of fantasy that would teach as much as it entertains?
So when I'm asking for an adaptation, I'm asking for an um. Adaptation. Kind of like Batibot for Sesame Street. Or André Lupin for well, Arséne Lupin. Yes, is this too insane?
Of course, if we can come up with a time travel series all on our own, that would be even better.
For the audiophiles out there: I will forever associate Muse's Black Holes and Revelations with Doctor Who. One only needs to give the songs a listen to see why.
Plugging for a friend: Please be sure to drop by the Read or Die booth if you visit the Manila Book Fair. I hear the booth has an... interesting setup, courtesy of talented graphic artist Leandro Polidario, who is also an old friend of mine from college.For Read or Die's schedule of activities, see Ang Bagong Libro.