...in the prom...

“…you’re in the prom now!”

At least you’re invited. Most Filipino-language writers are relegated to the patio that just happens to also be the smoking area standing around in their barongs and saya drinking lukewarm beer and talking about showbiz tsismis and smelling like ashtrays. Me, I’m bilingual, but really, I don’t care much for the prom. Yeah, I’m one of those kids.

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...already in...

“It is already in the center!”

But I ask again: why bother with the center?

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...the Palancas...

“…the Palancas…”

But really: why bother with the Palancas?

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...intellectual stutterings...

“…intellectual stutterings…”

A more friendly variation of one of my Dad’s many priceless expressions: “ngongo ang utak”.

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...pilfering...

“…retroactive imperialist orientalist pilfering…”

Which is a bit like Kael’s colonization of thought, but instead of forgetting the native in favour of the foreign, it’s more how the foreign informs the native, and vice versa.

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...the pervasive presence...

“…because of the pervasive presence and aggro PR campaign of the term.”

Even the most pedestrian, ie rude, critics of “speculative fiction” are reaping the benefits of the near-pervasive PR campaign: Karl De Mesa got UP Press to publish his book Damaged People: Tales Of The Gothic-Punk and with it proves once more that the hype should never overtake the fact.

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...are getting published...

“…are getting published in Story Philippines, in the Free Press, in Philippine Genre Stories…”

Alfar mentioned this in the September 24 talk, that there were only five regular outlets for publication – the other two being his annual antho, and Philippine Graphic - for writers in the Philippines and made it out to be a rather depressing thing, and it is, don’t get me wrong, but Alfar neglected/forgot to point out that they were outlets for the English-language writers in the Philippines. When you start to think about enumerating the regular outlets for publication for Filipino-language writers in the Philippines, it’s even more depressing: zero. Kael rightly pointed out the implications and possible ripple-effect of “speculative fiction’s” primarily English-language focus and touched upon very interesting and very depressing ideas in my head that deserve a different far lengthier post than a mere footnote to a text. But for now, I’ll give you this: I really do think that if we had a regular outlet for Filipino-language texts, and fuck how I’ve tried to provide this even for just a few of us, great things will happen. W/r/t “speculative fiction”, I think if Alfar, et al, actually went out of their way to read and study Filipino-language texts in general – Pinoy “specfic” specifically – they’ll have more answers for their issues with Filipinoness in “speculative fiction”.

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