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. (more…)

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? (more…)

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:

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.

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.

[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…)