Philippine Speculative Fiction

There’s been a fun discussion going on about Filipino-written sword and sorcery (S&S) stories. Linking to some of the relevant posts here:

Filipino Sword-And-Sorcery (at The Grin Without a Cat)
The Conan Question (at to the tale, and other such concerns)
Filipino Sword and Sorcery (at the PGS Multiply journal)
More on Filipino Sword and Sorcery (PGS Multiply)

Because of the dearth of S&S stories from Filipino writers, Banzai Cat is wondering if it would be good to open a group blog called Pinoy Pulp that would address this issue. Read his post about it here:

Conan vs Panday

A forum for readers of the Philippine Genre Stories is up!

The following is from the forum’s disclaimer, as written by Charles Tan, who co-mods along with Paolo Chikiamco:

The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories (PGS) and it’s publisher, Kenneth Yu, is not officially connected to this PGS forum in any way. No official of the Digest is a moderator of this forum, which runs independently, and retains it’s right to be such. It is, however, meant to be an online forum for discussions on PGS–its stories, authors, features, articles–as well as to give suggestions for its improvement. It is also a place where its members can discuss anything related to publishing, fiction, literary events, books, reading, and the like.

Some interesting discussions have already been generated. Register and jump in!

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. Read more

Tomorrow is the start of the 2007 Manila Book Fair. There’s a lot to look forward to! Among them is the talk on Philippine Speculative Fiction, which is to be given by the LitCritters panel in Function Room B, at 2:30 PM.

I hope to be there :) Not as a panelist, of course, but as just another face in the crowd.

This is a very late announcement, my apologies. The New Worlds Alliance, an organization of fan groups focused mostly on fantasy, science fiction and horror, has launched the New Worlds Transformed convention. The convention will run from July 9-15 and will include a costume parade (+ a cosplay competition), Harry Potter Day (check out related contests, btw!), a Story Creation Game and much more!

Admission is free, so drop by and have fun! Here’s how to get there.

Mr. Ralfy Acuña left a comment at my blog talking about his organization, the Medieval Studies Society of the Philippines (MSSP). For those who may be interested in joining, here’s Mr. Acuña’s announcement:

Greetings!

We are in the process of forming a Medieval Studies Society of the Philippines (Mediaevalis Studii Philippinarum Insularum Societas). The core members are professors and researchers in philosophy, literature, theology, history, and political science from the Ateneo de Manila University, San Beda College, University of Asia and the Pacific, and the University of the Philippines (Cebu, Diliman, and Manila campuses). The goal of the Society is to foster the study of medieval cultures from different parts of the world.

Planned activities include tours of local sites such as churches, academic lectures and conventions, exhibitions, educational outreach programs, and publications.

We would like to work with various local groups interested in topics connected to medieval culture, including C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, fantasy fiction, the Gothic, and others.

We would like to invite you to subscribe to our low-volume announcement mailing list, which you can join by sending e-mail to

mspis-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

or by visiting

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mspis/.

We’ll send updates to the list once a month, including updates to the website. (The current website of the Society is located at http://mssp.kritikon.net, but it only contains a banner. I’ll try to update it during the next few days.)

Finally, you have any questions or comments, you may write to medievalph at gmail dot com. Feel free to offer suggestions on what you want the Society to exhibit or discuss in the future.

Regards,

Ralfy Acuna

I confess I’m curious about how “medieval” Philippines will be represented here. Wikipedia says “The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the 5th century fall of the Western Roman Empire until the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 15th century,” although this is still disputed. But if we’re going by the general time frame, this would be pre-Spanish era, yes? The Spanish explorers and colonizers came sometime during the 16th century, IIRC.

Writers who lean toward a specific subgenre of speculative fiction (alternate history) could learn a lot from the group discussions. Also, history is fun!