{"id":15,"date":"2006-06-20T03:53:14","date_gmt":"2006-06-20T10:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssff.philsites.net\/?p=15"},"modified":"2006-06-20T04:08:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-20T11:08:00","slug":"the-lack-of-a-middle-ground-in-philippine-speculative-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/2006\/06\/20\/the-lack-of-a-middle-ground-in-philippine-speculative-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lack of a “Middle Ground” in Philippine Speculative Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

First of all, expressing my gratitude for a mention<\/a> in the Carl Branson Society Blog<\/a>, moderated by members of the CBS Steering Committee.<\/p>\n

Then, getting to my first essay here. Feedback would be very welcome.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

I was reading Paul Theroux’s Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China<\/a> and a passage there struck me: “No one writes about the future in China. We hardly think about it. There is a little science fiction, but nothing about the future.”<\/p>\n

We note that the book is copyrighted 1988, and there have been major literary revolutions all over the world since then, but I had to think it was funny that the Philippines is stuck in that exact same state. In this modern world where the Internet, MMORPGs and works of fantasy abound, Philippine future fiction is still in its infancy.<\/p>\n

Future fiction is only an offshoot of speculative fiction, which is a fairly new genre in this country. And as a new genre it has difficulty flourising in a local media which is fraught with dichotomies. For example, we have the “highbrow” speculative fiction and graphical works rendered in English, and then we have the local “fantaseryes” in Filipino, which combine folklore based loosely on local and foreign traditions, with tried and tested soap opera formulas. The audience is trapped between these two extremes – and worse yet, they are trapped as an audience, unable to express the ideas sparked in them by the things they watch and read.<\/p>\n

Are there any avenues for speculative fiction among our young writers, our aspiring speculative fictionists? Are there local magazines, comic books, even movies that discuss speculation, not purely escapist fantasy? Are there enough awards that encourage speculative fiction writing? Are there any speculative fiction writing competitions and journals open to non-Tagalog or English speakers?<\/p>\n

Without the proper avenues for discussion and study, even the most passionate of our bright-eyed young dreamers will lose interest. Their ideas won’t get any coverage anyway, so why bother?<\/p>\n

I believe the lack of encouragement is even more pressing than the lack of avenues. Even while fantasy is deeply ingrained into the local culture, practical matters take precedence. Filipino creative writers, in particular, operate within a firm tradition of social realism<\/em>, and unless they mask their works in satire, a speculative work runs the risk of being labeled “escapist.” Filipinos in general are already underrepresented in international literature, and any attempt to portray the social situation in any way besides “how it is” is considered by traditional fictionists to be fanciful and frivolous.<\/p>\n

Note that when there is a call for speculative fiction works, or contests, there is a true cornucopia of submissions… but after that, what? Where are the people who submitted their works? They’ve retreated into their homes and their everyday lives, hiding their ideas and fiction away, only to resurface the next time they are summoned.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, it was asked in the Philippine Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Guild<\/a> why there was virtually no science fiction in the Philippines. It was established that it was because the Philippines did not have strong foundations in science education. And this is still the case.<\/p>\n

Local educational bureaus, such as the DECS and DOST, may aspire to encourage more young specialists in fields of science and technology, math and science education in the Philippines remains uncompetitive. What’s worse, the reality is that specialization in English is the ticket to fast employment – from the BPO operations within the country’s borders, to the jobs available overseas.<\/p>\n

One may argue that specialization in English would enable one to have more time to pursue a literary career, but the guilt associated with writing “frivolous and fanciful” things may in fact further inhibit our young people from exploring their options. While young people may write such original things for their own enjoyment, they will be loath to show them to others, for fear of being called a number of things – not the least of which is “copycat,” as that while this genre is still being delved into, young writers are still discovering their influences. So it is that it’s only when there is a new avenue for publication or recognition that people exert the effort to create, and perhaps even to submit.<\/p>\n

But all over the world, writers young and old are exploring this exciting new genre. While they aren’t hampered by lack of encouragement and lack of avenues, speculative fiction writers in the Philippines are.<\/p>\n

Another, more tangible factor that inhibits the growth of speculative fiction in the Philippines, is the high cost of production. Publishing in the Philippines is a high-risk endeavor, as purchasing literary works is admittedly low on the priority of the people of this country, with their stable 92.6% literacy rate.<\/p>\n

I find it entirely too easy to believe that the lack of a “middle ground” – which welcomes and encourages fresh input from the audience – in Philippine speculative fiction does not call for a quick, haphazard solution, but rather a grassroots approach to solving the problems that inhibit the growth of the genre in the first place. If this is not solved, the deterrents may well persist, and the tragedy is that even if speculative fiction in this creative, imaginative, multilingual country cannot be stopped – in the end, it may not find fertile ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First of all, expressing my gratitude for a mention in the Carl Branson Society Blog, moderated by members of the CBS Steering Committee. Then, getting to my first essay here. Feedback would be very welcome. * I was reading Paul Theroux’s Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China and a passage there struck me: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-transparent-header":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philsites.net\/specfic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}