 May araw po sa kanilang lahat. Pumusta kayo riyan? Narito ulit ayo para si Isapang Kabanata ng Kultura, Sining at tiba pa, isang programa ng TV UP. May araw po ang ating Kabanata ay tungkol sa contemporary Philippine fiction. A topic today is contemporary Philippine fiction and we have with us a very distinguished panel of some of the most exciting fictionists in Philippine literature today. Mga manongulat po sila ng fiction sa Pilipino at sa Ingles. At sama ko po sa Kabanata nito, of course ang aking co-host, Ang Makata at profesor na si Neil Garcia. Magandang araw at magandang araw sa ating mga panawihin. Sisi mula natin ulahat sa... Tapakilala. Tapakilala sa ating mga guests. This time I've asked them to introduce themselves. So we begin with... Mike Luna. Ako po si Luna, sikat Kleto. Madalas ako ipakilala bilang anak na Roheryo Sikat at Ellen Sikat. Pero ngayon gusto ko ipakilala ang sarili ko, bilang sarili ko. Ako po ay nagsusunat ng novela, mga dula at mga sanaisay. At nagduturo ka rin? Duturo rin po ako sa malikahing pagsuda sa Departamento ng Pilipino at Panitikan. Okay, si Nikki naman. Hi, I'm Nikki Alfar. I write speculative fiction in English. The rest of the time I do marketing and corporate copywriting, which means I write fiction all the time. And we go to the end. Dean, the other Alfar. Hello, I'm the other Alfar. I'm also a writer of speculative fiction. I have several short story collections, a novel and a book for children. And Nikki and I are also editors. We put out anthologies every year. And you run your own business, right? Oh yes. And I run a couple of businesses. One of them is a design agency. So yes, that is what puts food on the table. We get it. My name is Gabriella Lee. I teach at the Department of English and Comparative Literature. I also write stories for children, young adults, and also speculative fiction in English. And newly married to another writer. And I just got married a few months ago. Thank you. Okay. Magadangaraw ako po si Vlad Gonzalez, guru ako sa Departamento ng Pilipino, ako kasi Mamluna, naisuslat ako ng Senaisay, mga kuwento sa Pilipino, tapos ito mga nakataang tao naisuslatin ako ng Dula, saka nagsasali ng Dula. At nagtuturo rin sa UP. Nagtuturo ka ng kulturang popular at panitikan sa Departamento namin. Sa kuleo ng Atter Literatura. Maraming salamat. Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat. Ang unan nating tanong ay relevant and pertinent to your introduction, particularly for the Alfars who introduced themselves as writers of speculative fiction, and the others who didn't quite identify the mode that they write in. The first question is, do you identify as a realist or a speculative writer and what are the implications of that identification in regard to the elements of fiction that you work in? Character, setting, plot, et cetera. Saka bago nyo detalihin lahat yan. Pakikuento na rin kung bakit? Asama nyo nang kuwento. Bakit kumasok ay sa fiction? Bakit di poetry, drama, ang particular na appeal, a challenge na fiction? Yes. Sige confession time. Nung una ako natuto magsulat, ang naging training ko ay sa Dula, sa play writing. You were a speech? Yes, I was a speech and drama major. So ang naduro sa aking, si Wilfredo Maria Guerrero, si Freddie Guerrero. And I fell in love with one act play but apart from that, napaka avid and voracious reader ko kasi kahit nung bata pa lang, ang paborito ko na ang fantasies, science fiction, horror, yung talaga, tapos tapansin ko growing up na wala masyadong ang fantasy books authored by Filipinos. So at a certain point na nga ako sa sevili ko na someday, susulat din ako ng ganon. Tapos nung medyo tumandatan na ako na kita ko na may parang movement sa mundo na nangyayade. Ang tawag nila speculative fiction. So speculative fiction is an umbrella term that we use to describe writings that are under the genres of fantasy, horror, science fiction, interstitial fiction, weird fiction, yung mga wala. Nung start... So non-realist sila lahat? The easiest way noon is to define them as non-realist. Pero ang pangit naman ng definition of using a negative. So ginamit namin yung umbrella term na yan. Tapos nag-start ako ng... nag-start ako magsulat ng ganyang uri ng mga kwento. Nag-papas ako ng submissions abroad at tatatanggap naman sila at napapublish siya. So sabi ko, kung kaya ko, dapat kaya natin lahat. So nagsimula kami ninyiki nung 2005 ng Philippine speculative fiction anthology siya. Nag-call for submissions kami. Open sa buong Pilipinas at kung sino mga Pilipino kung sa ang dakoma ng mundo. And we were pleasantly surprised kasi we got over 200 entries kaya itung volume one pala. Right now we are on our 11th volume. We've had a best-of courtesy of UP Press and ang dami-daming mga young writers na dito sila pumapasok. Itong ginagamit ang stepping stone towards literature. Kasi napapansin nila na may mga constraints kasi yung realism. One of the dictums kasi na they tell me is we have to write what you know. It has to be true. It has to be real yung ganyan. With speculative fiction, they think na hindi ganon. They think na you can just be imaginative. But later they also realize that it still needs to be anchored in truth. And that's a beautiful epiphany as they grow as writers. Kasi all fiction actually is speculative. That's the truth of it. So yun. So that's a good summary. So speculative fiction has meant both a commitment to truth but also the flight away from truth, from the real. Kasi renewable word dito yung imagination ng mga young writers. A lot of young people, they feel constrained by what they are taught. And gusto nilang, umabot sa ibang planeta, sa ibang world, sa ibang future or what. But they also realize as they start writing, they start growing, na they realize na hindi mo pedin ikaila ang pagka-Filipino mo, ang pagkakonsern mo sa pagkatao at sa nation mo, kahit na imaginary world pa yung sinusulat mo. Okay, let's hold that. That's a great idea, Dean. Let's hold on. And move on to... No, that question actually applies to all of them. Yeah, but let's not get stuck on spek fik muna because not everybody here probably does that. So let's just ask them how they got into fiction first. Okay, okay. Okay, so I started writing... I was actually a poetry major when I started my education here especially. I'm a creative writing graduate here in UP. I actually had the privilege of having Sir Neil and Sir Butch as my teachers in poetry and fiction. But I wrote primarily poetry. So fiction to me was kind of like a playground. I didn't have to take it as seriously because I thought that I would be writing poetry for a very long time and that was the serious genre and so fiction was my playground kind of thing. And then I also started writing realist fiction. But two things happened. One was I started working for Dean in my early 20s and he was the one who told me you should submit to the first Philippine speculative fiction anthology which I did and it turned out that I enjoyed writing speculative fiction more than any other types of fiction. And so that was most of what I was doing in my early writing career. However, now as a teacher I find the value in both realist and speculative fiction genres particularly in teaching students how to write fiction, any type of fiction. And I feel that that was what I kina kwanda ni Dean earlier in a learning curve so to speak was something that I actually traversed. And I came to the same or to a similar conclusion which is that all fiction is speculative. And now on the concerns of the writer and how they deploy those concerns using any type of fictional constraint whether it is realist or speculative. I think the idea is that it is always based on the craft or the process of your writing and that is where I think to a certain extent teaching and learning about writing is most valuable because there's a form of guidance which I received when I was a student and now I'm hoping that I am imparting to my students. Okay. Ikaw naman glad. Medyo kamokadin sa kaila mas nakakapitin ako sa sinabi ni Gabi ang pagkokwento ay lalas sa umpisa. Kasabi ito ng mga unang kanalasa ko sa pagdodrawing nagdodrawing ako na mga continuations of episodes ng cartoons na tatapos na gumagawa ako na mga nagdag-dag na drawing sa mga bedtime story na pinaman sa akin mula sa mga second hand na libro ng mga tita ko. Ang dalago ba na rin siya kailang gabating ang anak? Okay, 82. So 1982. Okay. Medyo ilang dekada na nakaraan. Tatlo, tatlo na dekada. At nung 80s ususamin yung pinapasan kami ng mga Jack and the Beanstalk. Mga usual na picture books. Ginugupit ko fangasya kasi gumagawa ako ng collage kasi mas may fascination ako dun sa mag-invent ako ng dag-dag na story. So ay, guys, yung summary nung umpisan na akong pag-o-kwento ay interesado tagadun sa yung idea ng yung mag-invento ng mag-o-mundo ano yung mga kasunod. Kaya nga eventually nung nagkuleo ko nag-along naka-interesa fan fiction, may existing narratives mo di-invento. Medyo journalism yung focus namin ng high school at kaya rin pumunta ako sa pag-o-kwento kasi parang sa Miss St. Anthony sa Nubaliche, sa Kanuwakan. Para pag-rebelty ko yung dun sa fact-based, walang masyadong imagination dung sa journalism at least yun ganoon siya nung high school yung bawal daw maglaro bawal mag-invento sa storytelling o fiction ako na nakakit dahil, kasi pwede pala maglaro, pwede mag-invento. Eventually nung nagkuleo nag-balikay ang balsula kasi ako sa UPD Liman, dun na kumasokin element ng responsibidad mo sa litunan. Naging guru ko si Na Juncos Reyes, Eli Kib, si Mamluna eventually naging guru ko din nakalipat ako. At sa department namin laging may emphasis sa, niga lang realism, social realism and may pressure sa amin na, kahit anong gagawin namin kwento, may pagsasabos sa mga nasasakilid at sa umpisan na aking writing process ng palayo, lagi kundala yun na minsan, parang bagahay, minsan hindi at gaya ganoon na bagay tiladin at tinggabi, eventually na tuturin ako na, pwede pala maglaro sa mga usaping sa litunan na tingin ko yung mahalaga na negotiables pero pwede pala maglaro sa, yung fan fiction o, minsan fantasy napansin ko na yung body of work na gagawa may tendency mag-focus sa may pag-realistico pero yung absurdo elemento na mga realistic yung pangyayari at may pagkilling din ako, nag-aggravitate ako sa mga nakakatawa parang sa aking practice parang may negotiables na, siguro mami ako na mga papahagi na mga paksa pero pwede rin maglaro dun sa yung pang mga sa treatment sa treatment hindi bawal magpatawa hindi bawal magpantasha kong ting science fiction ang baka mami ang pag-usapan natin yung sa philitino parang ginagawa pero yung nga, laging tingin ko ang pag-okwento ay experimentation yung siyosubokang kong i-embody ang saka-salo ko yung sa A.T.T.T. Okay Salamat Kailuna na tayo ako naman journey into fiction paano ba? A playwright na nagsimula di ba? Simula paniwanag ko lang kung bakit ko nagusuhan ng dula tapos pano kung napunta sa pag-okwento nung kulehiyo ako I was a Jordan student and I remember Louis Beltran asking us to write leads on the board baliw na baliw ako dun sa process kasi dapat nagsistik ka dun sa what are the facts What, when, where, how, when So, yung hirap na hirap ako nung tapos sabi ko parang hindi ako para dito sa Jordan So, nag-shift ako napunta ako sa phil nagahanap ako ng isang area na kung saan pwede yung magsalita ang mga tao mailig ako makinig sa mga conversations hindi ako masyadong nagsasalita So, sa mga lumang Ang statement ko na mga araw ay mga conversations Eventually, naging puhunan ko sa pagdusulat ng fiction kung anong sharpang memory ko sa conversations So, natuklasan ko early on na ang pagdikan ng dialog ay napaka useful sa maraming mga genres ng panitikan Hindi lang sa dula Hindi lang sa kwento kahit sa dula So, tingin ko yun yung extra na skill na na taglay ko bilang isang fictionist tungkol naman dun sa pagtatawid ng kung anong tuto o at hindi Nagkaroon ako ng kong problema dyan when I was starting out Yes, kasi na sa realist kula ko Pero eventually na na negotiate ko rin na lalo na after Meron ko mga non-realist story ulohi ka ng bulanan sa boon Oh, non-realist yun nagmumula talaga sa isang real na pakeramdam at sa real na experience pero ginamit ko lang analogy o lunsaran yung soap bubblemaking na na sa nangabaku Journey When I write kasi parang napakastructure din isip ng mga ibangkasamahan ko dito ako magpapakatuto ako in saying that every day is a struggle for me when it comes to writing kasi yung parang may pagbabalansin ng imbalances that I see around me So yun yung actually sea ball or spring ng aking art kung paano ko nababalansa yung mga bagay na yun Yung mga bagay na yun ba ay makasining lang or yung galing din sa buhay mo Mano may galing sa buhay galing sa balita galing sa mga nangyari sa ibang tao na naparang ako lang yung vessel o yung medium ng kanilang mga kuento na matagal yung process na yun kung paano ko siya na na tanggap na hindi hindi ko to kuento lagi na kuento to ng marami pang tao nung natutunan ko na maari rin yung we na yun ay collective kasi iba ang we ng na sa ingles sa atin ng sa filipino parang parang nagusulat ka sa ingles na we parang mas may license ka na maging lyrical and such pero pag-inamit mo yun sa filipino parang may bagay yun na responsibility na nagsalita ka para sa maraming tao hindi lang siya simple lyrical na strategy that's very interesting makaiba ang ang appreciation mo ng we in English and we in Filipino kasi we collective inclusive and exclusive we tayo so now Niki I think I write fiction really because I am secretly an intensely private person so I feel like it's a paradox I know right it doesn't seem like it but secretly I am in fact my being here is me stepping out of my comfort zone so I feel like I lack the raw emotional honesty for fiction or me for poetry or creative nonfiction in fiction I can explore what I think or what I've experienced what other people have experienced without needing to reveal myself quite so much what was life like before fiction how did you or outside of fiction what else do you do I attempted poetry oh let's not revisit that I can be accused of attempts at poetry but were you an English major CW CW in the English department yes but kind of a shadow in the halls because when I finished high school I went through that experience I think a lot of people go through high school and there are two or three writers in your high school you think you're brilliant okay and then you come to college and everybody's brilliant so I was kind of in hiding for a long time and eventually but this was in my 30s I found fiction as a way to express myself without quite exposing myself was this on your own or did you have to go through a game I was already married to Dean okay and I was writing but he bugged me to get it published because I would have just you know, hidden it in my drawer okay so yeah, intensely private okay in fact and I think we identify with that fiction allows you to wear masks right to venture likewise yes and you don't have to reveal who you are too much right reveals just as much as I'm comfortable with a little bit now okay that's interesting you are a speculative fiction writer as well and what's the attraction of that labeled for you I'd like to say that it's something like intellectual and well thought out but it really is the way my mind works very playful right I was writing this I decided to write a story about a friend's divorce it's like I'm going to explore the emotional connotations and all of that and it just would not work and then I finally decided the way this will work is with a zombie and it worked it worked oh okay oh very interesting thank you for all your your little stories I think we can go into other areas and ask other kinds of questions I'm quite interested in your assessment of the state of Philippine contemporary fiction what are its weaknesses what are its strengths where is it and where is it going where should it go fiction sa Pilitinas actually this question requires you to sort of reveal just how well read you are in terms of our fiction and also in relation to our neighbors also regionally, globally what do you think how are we fairing in that regard Nick and I actually have fairly good insight into this because every year we put out a call for submissions for Philippine speculative fiction for all writers who are interested in submitting in addition I usually have two or three anthology projects per year outside of that for example with Sarj La Questa I have maximum volume which is for any kind of writing not necessarily speculative fiction by writers 45 years old and under because we want to encourage the younger ones with Kenneth Yu I have with UP Press fantasy for young adults so Ibadin yung audience noon and then I recently co-edited a Southeast Asian anthology called Trash published in Malaysia but we got submissions I got submissions from all over Southeast Asia so as a matter of course I tend to read hundreds of short stories a year mostly from Philippines but when I have an international anthology I see things a lot of it is speculative fiction but I also see a realist fiction so I'm here to report that it is not dying it is not moribund that what is it? the short story form there was a time I actually bought into that I thought it was moribund I thought it was dead or dying in its death row it's the novel but we'll get into that later but short stories you have to get a stick to stop people from submitting the badly written ones but the beautiful things wow Niky and I or Michael editors from time to time they're still relatively rare I've judged in the Palauka several times we will get a short story from Sibu or from some place in Mindanao like Davao or Lanao tapos it's startling and it's from favorite talaga namin guys yung hindi namin kilala na author a new author a young fresh perspective Niky and I will get into a wrestling match arguments over do we penalize this person for grammar but I can see why the cadence is like that so generally speaking speculative fiction is doing a lot to help in the production and creation and inspiring young people so what do you attribute this phenomenon why are there so many spectic writers now the younger generations who came after Mind are mostly digital natives now so they know the internet they are open to the porosness of culture they are exposed to writing from so many nations from so many authors they can communicate to their favorite authors on Facebook they can join threads and reddits and fora on fan fiction and submit there's Wattpad that traditional gateways have collapsed and fallen you can get published now on Amazon by yourself as an e-book so people are feeling freer and so expression is coming out now it's a question about quality but that's a different discussion all together I'll ask you a minute about popular themes pero ikaw confirm ko lang kinaluna kina-blad tuto rin ba to sa Pilipino ngayon bohay ba ang maikling kuwento sa Pilipino bohay na-bohay naman ok, ikaw mo na-blad sa kaunasan ko may proyekto kami sa Cento Nangwikang Pilipino na nakaang taon na anthology literary anthology tiyan kaan may mga like na mga kuwento na magiging statement sa anong ba ang katayuan ng pagkakwento sa katula dahil magkahalo sa kaunasan na ito ang pangkalatang impression marami interesado magbigay sa mga antolohiya at tingin ko bohay na bohay ang paga-anthologize sa mga kuwento bukod doon milikhaan tayo tapos ang aktibo sa ganyan si Dr. Rommel Rodriguez Tolanto-Lentino nakansikon ng mga nakaang angkasampun taon na lang tatakda ng mga antolohiya na may ibad-ibang tema at palaging buhay ang pagsusumite at ang angagiging isyo na nga ay paano ka magtatakda ng quality control kasi doon kaya magtatalo e tama yung sabi nindin kanina na yung patnogutan kasi usually siyempre sa akalasan akading based at totoo na may lunsara na ng mga kuwento na hindi mula sa may Watt panwriters tayo may bloggers tayo at habang may pinahingitulutan minsan na makalosot minsan may ilang tatas yung kilay kasi ay may certain amount ng kalidad para sa ilang mga reviewer kasi hindi na naman editor nung excitement ng mga taon na makapag kuwento buhay naman at least niya para sa Mike Ling kuwento hindi ako siguro sa novella kung gano ka kasi hindi excited at magbigay bagaman may mga nakikita sa mga palihan meron sa palihan sa department at sa mga of course may mapikigan na may interesa independent publishing at maraming lumalabas don so mga mapikigan na sa BLTX sa Los Baños meron silang parang ganun proyek to LBcon s-publish ng mga koleksyon naman mga Sa nagbumula ito mga bagong manon nilat na yan? Sorry, sorry po yung pinagbumulan nilay. Kumin saan university-based authors to. May grassroots, merong mga freelance. Ang gusto ko lang susugan yun siy na sabi ni Vlad na quality control. Kasi hindi ko alam kung ganito rin sa pagdevote ng time para sa pag-form ng isang anthology sa Ingles. Sa amin kasi pinababalik namin yung kwento. Kumin sa nang response din nung sumulat ay, bakit ko pa siya uulitin? Parang sa kanila, sapat ng ilinabas nila yung draft. Kung kaya meron din ako susug na ang lakas ng oral tradition din sa pagsusulat sa Filipino. Na pag inayos mo, nagkakarun kayo ng kaunting debate dun sa bakit po pa inayos upang maging mas literary. Tapos tingin ko rin dapat talaga mas-aktivo ang ugnayan o relationship ng mga practitioner sa nasa academia dun sa mga nagsusulat ng makiklin kwento para lang dun sa pagpupulido ng mga styles at sa kanang mga publishable traits na dapat tagline ng isang kwento. Kasi uncompromising din dapat ang stand ng isang editor pagdating dun sa quality ng isang kwento. Hindi pwede yung parang pinaamulang, kailangan meron talaga siyang laman. At kuminsan, debaterin yan nung, ang gana-gana nung laman, yung buhay na buhay galing talaga sa Danas. Pero ang problema, yung execution, yung technique kung paano siya ginawa, kadalasan rin pumapalya sa paraan ng pag-resolve ng isang storya. Parang sapat na ibinuntung hininga kung baga, pero hindi siya pinolido para maging mas subtle o mas ironic o mas matalino ang pagkaka-big-gease ng kwento. Hindi sa, hindi sa, aking pinupulaan ang mga nagsusulat sa Filipino dahil, marami naman silang mga kalakasan din, pagdating sa material. At hindi rin ito parang panlalahat sa kanila dahil meron din naman talaga sa kanila, na Siebold talaga yung kanilang mga technique at sakayong vision. But speaking of material, Nicky, maybe you can answer this since you've been co-editing these volumes. What are people writing about? I mean, given that spekfic or even realism is just a mode, basically what's the material? What are the topics? What are the topics and how are they handling these? Well, the interesting thing in terms of the anthology of Philippine speculative fiction is we've seen when we started it was very, very young and kind of baby. Everyone was talking about love. Okay. And finding who they are and where they belong. And now they're getting into, I guess, more grown-up themes as maybe the... They've also grown up. They've grown up or the movement, as people have called it, has grown up. So we're now getting a little bit of politics in there. Okay. They have a lot of dystopias now. A lot of dystopias now. Ever since the money? Seen too many dystopias. But I think probably... Sexuality figures this? Yes. Every year there's some little bit about sexuality, although growing more. Identity politics. Right? It's clear. Lately there's been more of a thing, I've tried to... I guess the world going wild. Oh, yeah. In globalization. In speculative fiction way. So you can see that they're reflecting things that are happening in the real world, but it tends to come out as storms or alien invasions. Okay. So it's... I guess it's a response to the way they change and the way the world changes us. Okay. Yes. Can we hear from Gabby? Because Gabby will have a lot to say about this being a teacher of speculative fiction. Okay. I'd like to actually extend that discussion on dystopia because I recently had a number of students from the creative writing program at least attempt to do it in various ways. Takay-define mo na na dystopia para some of the viewers not. So dystopia is a sub-genre of science fiction or social science fiction, actually, where basically the negative things that are happening in the world are actually extended to its furthest possibility. So think of, for instance, the Hunger Games, where it actually talks about class distinctions, for instance, but it's played out in a very extended and almost absurd way where you just have the capital and then the districts, for instance. So here we have... I've had a lot of young students who talk about their exposure to, for instance, speculative fiction and also to young adults speculative fiction in particular because these were the things they read in high school. And so coming into college, this is the thing that they knew. Okay. So when they try to do it their way, it starts off as mimicking before you tell them, okay, so maybe why don't you tell it within your perspective or within your point of view, your own experiences. And that's when it becomes more interesting, I think, because that's when they start finding their voice. But I do agree with what was mentioned earlier that there has been more attempts, A, with the short story than with the novel. And I think one of the things that we aren't particularly used to is the time needed to write a novel. Because, at least coming from an academic point of view, because we teach in semesters, we can only guide the project within a certain time period. And so it's easier to deal with the short story because it's cyclical. Let's go to the short story. Gusto kari ito ng Kev Lad. Eto bang, speaking of themes, we're talking about dystopias, future worlds. Science fiction. Sci-fi. Papano ito na ma-manifest sa Pilipino? Kasi ang madalas pag iniisip na mga tao pag sumusulat ka sa Pilipino, napaka traditional na mga tema mo, kung gulisa, pag sasaka, pagawa, yung mga danyamba. May be. The question is, may sci-fi ba sa Pilipino? Papano, anong pinag-aiba nito? Ano yung mga katangian niya bilang sci-fi sa Pilipino? May mga proyekto na gailong katangisip na may pangalala. Masasila Sir Roland and Sir Romulo Divis. May anthology na, Hindi pala binabrand bilang science fiction. Napansin ko na, well, sa pangkalahatan, may poit atangkat na may appropriate yung mga approach sa mga pagsulat ng speculative fiction sa English. Pero nung sa mga nabasa akong mga, may isang poit na si Norman Wilwaico, na ang branding dapat ay science fiction, pero mas parang absurdist fiction na may anchor pa yung social realism. So tingko yung siguro di isang challenge pa nung sumang susulat sa Pilipino na may, may, minsan may hindi matakasang anchor dun sa social realism. Kasi most of sci-fi is actually a global imagination and a global citizenship already. At nga kung kait na may, may element na, may element ang future, pero pa nasaanta siya ng metaphor, nasaanta siya ng, hindi pa ma-execute yung, yung commitment dun sa, sa ginagamit na dystopia o futuristic elements, may kontipa. Fantasy may siya nitatagong pa, kasi Egy Samar nipaw, may novel spangasya. Kasi mythology natin, puro fantasy naman nyo. Tapos, sa mga anthology deputly may trend na, pagbalik sa, hindi man lagi sa nakaraan, pero dun sa inya, yung mga balon ng, kung hindi mythology yung mga kwentong bayan, may fascination yung ating writers dun sa, eto yung ngayon, ano tayo, dati, atis dun sa anthology na collecta namin last time. Tapos yung sa iba, mahirap kasing itakta dahil ang editor siyong itakta ng team. So hindi napansin pa sa angyong sa Filipino. So nimba, may call ngayon, fiction, anti-fiction. So dapat yung ipapasa mo, somehow tumotugod nukon yung pangunawa. Ano yung anti-fiction na yung? Basta nakaligi dun, anything na non-linear. So, kontiin mo, non-linear. Anti-fiction is actually fiction that is not so contrived and does not have the unity of traditional fiction. It approaches creative non-fiction. It has a looseness to it. Yung isang etology na, naloka-naloka namin ay ang pamagat yawagig sa wi. So, may team naman thatagumpay at heartbreak naman. Minsan uma- Nino din tahong talong? Tahong talong, yun ito ay comirotic stories, lag-lag panty, lag-lag brief. Tahong talong, lesbian and gay stories. At ang interesting dun ay sabi nung aming editor. Huwede nanda ba yung mga tahong talong? Yung, ang interesting dun ay sa lob ng five years, yata or three years, ang bubenta ay 15 copy. Hindi ko lang kung panong. Hindi ko lang kung packaging or promotion sa... Hindi nabasa ko rin kasi yung tahong talong. Medyo serioso ay. Yung din ay. Ang ilang ilang. We have a title like tahong talong. Dapat yung the treatment should be a little light. Yes. It sounds fun. It sounds fun. May, may something sa Filipino na, na yung yung may pagkaserioso. Na-robedo, masyalo. Kailang ang bakahin. Siguro, yung pinakamagaan na term nyo. Dagdagang ko yung paliwanag ni Vlad. May, yung sasapantahan, paano ba namin din na dali yung science fiction or dystopian element? I remember this story written by Lawrence na ang premise niya ay, may mga sick leaves pa rin, pero ang tao ay, parang, na wala na ang kailulu ay, basta, trabaho lang ng trabaho. Hindi na naga absent. Yung pathological na yung pagkakaroon ng sakit. So, doon nagbamanifes. Hindi mo siya nakikita sa mga gadgets, sa mga space age na developments, nakikita mo siyang nagbamanifes in the everyday. Yung isa rin outstanding story doon ay, tungkol naman sa pagtubunang hasang or gills sa katawan ng isang babae na madalas lumusong sa dagat para hanapin ang kanyang, makipagniig doon sa patay na ala-ale ng kanyang anak na nalunod. So, ang gusto kong sabihin ay, regardless kung merong dystopian element yan o fantasy element, umiiral pa rin yung kagingian ng isang mahusay na kwento. So, it must work as a short story first before that, yung mga elements na dystopia ba yan o fantasy ba yan, ganunang naging standard namin. Kaya, tungkol naman doon sa pagiging non-linear nito. May mga nag-attempt doon at ang mga mahusay sa larangan na yan, ay sinaal din yapan, na alanderain, kasi na nahasa na sila o napaghusay na nila yung metafictive na imagination na, siyempre, ang kwento ay hindi lang kwento na, sa sabihin mo lang ko anong nangyari. Asama doon yung pag-discourso ng lahat. At siyapan ay efektivo bilang writer ng mga dystopian stories, kasi doon sa kanyang apokalipsis, paling haga yung pagkakaroon ng mga anak na hayop ng mga ng tatlung babay na vida ng mga ikling kwento nyo. Parang sinasabi sa darating na panahon o kinabukasan ang mga hayop na ito, ang higit na mga kasi sa mga babaing na matay. Okay. So, yeah, but no, I think very clear na yung attempts at speculative fiction in Filipino, ay very strong in social content, parang at they're using the speculative mode in order to be given a metaphorical license, so actually transform these social comments into analogies, right? Yes, yes. So I think so yun ang parang kalakasan, I think that's the strength of all speculative fiction in Filipino, hindi siya nawawalan ng rootedness. Oh, yung hinahanap natin in the end, even good speculative fiction has to be true, it's there. Yes, but there's also true which is rooted in your national identity, your country, but there's also the true that is part of being a citizen of the world. That's what I'd like to ask you about. That's the different thing, yes. Yes. In your experience as both as a writer and an editor who's engaged with publishers out there, what are the strong, what are the elements of Philippine spectic stories that kind of sell best outside? That's our edge. I don't necessarily mean sell commercially, pero ano yung mga nakikitaan nila sa mga pagsusulat natin? na gusto nang mga publishers sa labas? First of all, it's a very basic level, our English. Okay. The quality of our language, how we write. And it goes beyond grammar. It's in the lyricism, it's the tone, because when you submit a story to a market abroad, kailangan maakit mo yung editor. Yeah. Diba? And these editors, they have read hundreds, thousands of stories, and you are in competition on a global stage with writers from everywhere, right? And you are not submitting to some thematic thing. Ang magsasubmit ka for the Atlantic or whatever kind of market that is. And then the things that they like are things that are uniquely Filipino or have the Filipino impression or the spin of that. So it can be anything which it's hard to tag. Sometimes, it's the manananggal, for example. That's fascinating to them. If it's a creature of the night or some supernatural thing that we own and we can write about, kasi tayo lang yung me visera na kalahati, Malaysia has na penanggalan yung mek. And tayo lang yung mek kwento, ang asinat mo, ang mangyari. Mabating body pa rin yung mga Filipino cultural element. Your lower mythology natin, it's very fascinating. I remember Neil Gaiman saying that he had he came here and he said if you're not going to use your own myth, I will. So appropriate nya. I had never seen a richer lower mythology. So meron tayong sa arsenal natin lower mythology, meron tayo nyan. Tapos meron din tayo, but the thing naman sa realistic patches, our OFW experience, our migrant workers. And all of these things, they resonate. They are not necessarily strictly the Filipino experience. But through the lens of the Filipino experience, when these things are expressed, they reach that universal status so that they are appreciated and consumed by readers abroad. But the important thing is how we deliver it. So yung pagka Filipino, which is also hard to pin down, kasi ako, I write exclusively in English, kasi I have a hard time in Filipino. But when I ask my editors na abroad what my stories why? Oh, because there's something Filipino about it. There's something different about it. But when I do a line-by-line, it's English, right? No. Because you're translating even if you are writing in English. It's just so efficient in your mind that you don't see it anymore. I'm not translating. My mother language is English. Was that your mother tongue? When growing up, that was your mother tongue. Yes. But you acquired the mother tongue here. So it's the English in the Philippines that you acquired. Yes, of course. Well, so that's already a variety of English. Yes, but it's not Filipino. So I am not translating when I write from a Filipino word. No, I think what makes a language, what makes Philippine English Philippine is that it's situated in the Philippines. So if you acquired this language here, like watching, let's say watching Sasami Street in the middle of your living room while you were being bitten by mosquitoes, that whole memory, that whole experience is part of that language. Definitely. But there are also standards of English that if you wish to compete and submit abroad, you better know your Chicago manual of style. You better know the standards going out there. You can't just rely on your idiosyncratic Filipino English, right? So those things are important when you want to submit or be published abroad. Over here as editors, Kamininiki, natutawa kami that there is also differences in how English is deployed. And that is one of the things that we were negotiating kasi Niki is a fantastic editor. And one of her traits is perfection, where has to be this kind of standard like Luna was saying. But I'm more of the school na pwedein hindi... Preserve the voice. Kasi there's a tonality and there's... Which I agree with. Because my standard really is your voice, my standard. It has to come up to a certain level of quality. But that doesn't mean we're eradicating your voice. Intelligibility. Intelligibility very much so. And just to add kasi our annuals, our anthologies, they are also geared for international consumption. So we... But I think you really should try to preserve some of that. Of course we do, we do, we do. Some of that idiosyncrasy because that is part of the selling point of this fiction. Without exoticizing our... One of the editing things we do is we say please don't footnote your Filipino words. Just leave it. Yes. We ask them to italicize them. Let's talk about another big issue here which is the observation that I've also made that we don't write enough novels. I mean we're very good sprinters. We're awful marathoners. Why is that? And this is true not just for spectaclick or anything. And if the few novels that are churned out are... there's not enough blood between the boards or they're... Oh, medy payat. Payat. Manipis payat. Bakit kaya ganun? Saks sa Pilipina ba maraim pa rin na belisa. Ah, meron na. Asparami. Asparami. In case sa English, marami rin ho. Norman Wilwai ko. Alvinyapa. R.M. R.M. Ah, makapalsumulat ng novella. Bito yung novella noon. Pero ang typical na length po na napapansin ko mga 200 250. 250 pages. Parang bihirang bihira yung 350 above. Tingin ko may kenalaman who yung parang sprinter ba yung term niya? Hindi marathon. Dun sa... unang-una para makapagsulat ka rin kailangan ay may steady source of income ka. Yes. Na... Na... Iba, tell salate. At kapag nagnunobela ka may tendency na sa practice ko na it consumes a lot of your thinking time and thinking space. So kung wala ka nung paraan, mga kaparaanan para mabalansi mo yun. May irapan ka talagang matapos yun. Much less yung makapalkapal pero pwede nyo rin sabihin ang mga ruso yung mga sinatolls hindi ba, pag nagpuprojecto sila talagang baka kapali at sa ka epic. Na naman sila ibang ginagawa. Na naman sila ibang ginagawa. At to record, di atan na makapali. Sa panahon natin yan. Daming ka kompetensyon ang panahon at sa kayong. Hindi isip mo rin kung babasain ba o... Hindi pero other countries don't seem to have a problem with that. Bakit tayo, no? I think that the novel form in general is probably a little more alien to our sensibility than the short form. Tingin ko, may kinalaman dun sa nasanay ng serialize ng panapundin yun, yun. Sa, sa Liwaiwai Tradition, halimbawa, nag-se-serialize sila runay. Tapos, nag-stagnate siya after a certain point kasi nga kailangan yung plot mo ay dagdag ng dagdag ng plot. Ang hirap noon. At sa kayong yung plot mo nang parang pasangasang paggahindi na babantayan yung takbo niya dahil na nakasalalay siya dun sa bumenta ba yung serialize structure niya? Hindi rin nakakatulong na andami natin mga diversions in terms of yung worldings sa TV, sa short film, sa yun ng po sa tingin ko. Napanggit mo yung mga economic factor. Dun sa aming panels sa art and painters, pinagusapan naman yung art as a business and a profession. Can we live off our writing now? Pwede na ba? Absolutely not. Okay. Which is why all of us have some sort of day job. Day job. Yes. And that also is the answer to the novel question. Yes. Frankly, walang benefit magsulat ng novela. Wala. Kakainin niya yung oras mo, then you need to go through the process of getting it published. Sa Pilipinas, bestseller ka na ng 1,000 units. Wala. Talaga. So you would rather spend that time on doing something else. Kung creative ang gusto mong gawin, hindi ko sinasabeng mas madali magsulat ng short story kasi mahirap din siya. There was certainly, mahakalabos ka ng ilang short story napat in the time that you write the novel. I was going to say a similar thing because in other countries there's a chance, however slim, that you'll write a novel and if it's a huge hit that will feed you for the rest of your life. Right. But that's not true here. Okay. But it could be true now. They're looking, you have these agents looking for a very good non-Western novel. And it's the novel that they look for in any other form. Yes. But I think that the chance just seems to be so much slimmer as opposed to the instant, the nearly instant gratification of, I've written a short story. People can read it now. But if we're saying people are not really writing novels in English, I think that we're kind of limiting to Filipinos in the Philippines because in the states and in England you do have people writing novels. It can't be girly. Yes. Especially in Hawaii. Especially in the Barbies is writing. Yes. Yes. Actually the number of Filipino novelists or Filipino or Philippine-born novelists that I know or actually most of them are either published abroad or are living abroad and are writing YA. For instance, Rin Chopeco, Kate Evangelista, Kendi Gorely. Yes. They're all writing YA and they're all writing outside of the Philippines. Melissa de la Cruz who is Phil Am. They're thick, right? Yeah. And they're proper novels. And then they turn out maybe one or two a year because they don't uh-oh. They don't have the baggage of the Philippine what I think Brad and Ma'am Luna was saying earlier, the idea that you are speaking for the voice of many. For them it's their voice. It's their individual voice. They're writing for a very specific audience which is young adult. So they're very aware that they are attracting a young adult audience. And whether they're writing in realist or speculative modes, for instance, Kate Evangelista writes realist love stories whereas Rin Chopeco writes horror. And they both borrow freely from Philippine traditions but also from very western traditions. Like Rin writes Japanese horror stories but she's Filipino. Kate Evangelista writes love stories and she writes replace them in France, in Rome, in London but she's Filipino. She's based here. And so these are people who write novels to a very specific audience with a very specific point of view that's not necessarily Filipino or a Filipino base. They're more global. Yeah. You need to just to compare on a global perspective because these guys these wonderful authors just to to put it bluntly. Do they write well? I think they're called fiction writers. They write well. And we met, Nick and I met Candy Gorley in San Francisco. Ang ganda na mga libro niya. So, hindi sila part of our system na let's face it, guys. We still have this distinction of the literary versus the non-literary. We were still there. At a certain point we just need to write and get over ourselves na ito yung inahanap natin na ganyan. It's so limiting. Or maybe situate this posity in our novel within the bigger picture of the fact that we are seeing so many telenovelas. They're novels. They're serialized but they're they're not literary. They're like ojavish while they're television soap operas, right? And that's going to be what would be the prospect of our fiction crossing over to multimedia forms like cinema and television, et cetera. And maybe that's a way to actually solve some of the readership or audience problem that we're seeing. Pretty good. You know why? Because our oral tradition is all about abangan ang susunod na kabanata. Which brings me to the point what is the next kabanata going to be because we're wrapping up so I'm going to ask you isa isa sa inyo what lies ahead? You can also answer that in terms of what is your next project going to be? Anong sinusulap ngayon? And try to insert a bit in that prospect of what I mean. Saan tayo ba punta? Saan patungo ang Philippine fiction? Ako sinun mo nang kahit na whatever order? Sinun mo nang punang sasagot? Sige. Di ko lang ako isaktong sasagot ko pero interesting kasi na sabihin din na yung buong fiction production ngayon ngayon. Pagpansihin din dun sa systems of patronage sa bansarating sa kasaybang bansa na maraming discussion pero nagsip ko kasi yung future din ng fictions sa Filipino nimbawa na kasalali sa pano mo sa Philippines at the very least pero yung pag ako nimbawa gusto magsulat sa Filipino may mawawala talaga do sa market ko at kaila akong dumipende sa ano yung magiging kinabukasan ng translation culture sa bansa natin pala doon. Samantala sa English bakit tayong point ni din na kahit English siya may hinahanap at interesting na yung pagalawan ng bakas masap at sa tanong ninyo interesting pa sa aking may ilang writers ng fictions na yung yun na ko cross over na natanda ko kasi Karlo Bergara na comic book artist at teater din siya tas na story writing siya nag venture into comics sa play at yung din yung next work ko sa sariliin practice siya na natanda ko kasi nabi ni Karlo Bergara yung yun yung yun bukod sa just write parang just tell the story kung saan platform mo tingin at mukhang viable ngayon sa kasalukuyan yung pakexcored ng outlets na matawid mo yung kwento mo yung ibad ibang platforms bas na sa core mo pa rin na may gusto kaitawid na kwento at yun yun may nanego-sable advo kasi sika na na tutuda mo sa kung saan bakwan saan platform nyan mapuntay di itulilang sa kain magtumigil at maging bukas dun sa pababasan noong mga bakwan lumalapas kasi marami talagang bagwan Okay, sige, salamat Gabi, anong abangan natin sa yung? Two things I think it's where we're going and also my personal interest. Number one is obviously young adult fiction. These novels these stories become a gateway to them to exploring more complex literary either books or poems and that I think for them these are the audience that we should be trying to encourage to read more Filipino works. So that's one. The other thing is because of the internet whether for good or for ill it actually provides a very effective platform to promote and to publish and also to play around with the actual form of fiction. You have things like you can now code your own fiction. You can do a choose your own adventure on your own. Yeah, na fiction. There's a lot of things to explore and that's actually what I'm looking forward to. Okay. Thank you. Sa akin siyempre yung speculative fiction yan pa din yung akin sinachampyon. Ang nais ko kasi ang mangyari down the line is makaraon na din ng Filipino language edition ng Philippine speculative fiction na hindi translation as in talagang gali original written in Filipino you may not be the best editor for that. Hindi nga talaga nung pa nang pinagusapan niya niluna na alam kong hindi ako at ako yung mag-give ng full support ko sa tao na. Give to Luna. Luna can. They already have. Katanghaka. Okay, mga ganyan. No, there's a book now called Sa Pantaha which is what speculative is in Filipino. Well, that's it's with UP Press. Okay. So just to touch on the YA, I think this will be one of the saviors of our writing. Tandaan nyo ha? Nasanay tayo ng magsulat ng short story. So after a while comfortable na tayo din kaya hirap tayo magsulat ng novella kasi long form the thought of the novelistic space par nakakatakot the more young people who read YA novels and produce that mas-masasanay sila na yun yung novella length. Ito na yung ito yung tama. So ang hope ko is down the line because of YA kasi tumatanda din tung mga young people. Pwede na din siya magsulat ng ito. But it does mean giving up on the so-called great thing yung up. Okay. Tama na yung. Salamat. Salamat din. Sige, Luna. Pagkatapos si Niki. Niki luposa. Hindi nating dapat kalimutan ang papel ng mga guru, mga pamilya dun sa pagkalabit sa mga kabataan para magbasa ng magbasa. Kasi sulat na tayo ng sulat kung wala naman nagbabasa, hindi ba. At tingin ko yung malaking kinalaman ng ano e tama ang pagtuturo e. Kasi kung maswet na ako nagaroon ako ng mga mga mahusay na guru. Louisa Maliai for one nung nasa kolehiyo ako naging teacher ko siya at na-appreciate ko yung kung paano niya pinaliwanag yung cry thy beloved country na talagang ini sa isa niya yung nakita ko yung novelistic imagination dun nung alon Alan Patel if I'm not mistaken. So kailangan na mga ganung guru e. Kung minsan bilang writer, nakakalimutan din natin yung interstices ng space na shared natin sa mga mga mababasa sa guru, paaralan, gobyerno. Magkakas samayan lahat na kung hindi natin sila kinokonsider magiging lone voice talagat tayo shouting in the wilderness tungkol dun sa the great Filipino novel and one more thing, tingin ko lang din sir wala rin yan sa haba o exceed hundi dun sa laman laman nung sinula kung ane yung koneksyon nung laman na yun sa kalooban nung nagbabasa kung paano siya mababago or kaya kung paano siya mapapaisip nito kahit dun lang sa level na ito. Alright. Nikit, you get the last word. I'm not sure it's the last word you want because I'm very happy to say I don't know what comes next. Okay, good. As an editor of speculative fiction I have the privilege of seeing many new writers all the time and I don't just mean young but like people who are economists or from all flight attendants all walks of life. Right. So I see different perspectives and I see how it evolves the form so I'm just excitedly watching the evolution and eager to see what really comes next. Great. How wonderful. Just personally I think that the future Philippine fiction is not as text but rather as cinema or as an ojo visual. But it will still require writing. There will still be some scripts somewhere there but there will be because I think also our students are becoming less literate in the traditional sense and more literate in the ojo visual sense. Please invite me to your next show on this topic. Yes. We have a next show on cinema and we will invite you. All right. Thank you very much. On that note we can wrap up. And I'll just say as we close out that there will always be old guys like me who will continue writing as we've always written but the important thing is that the writing gets done. At dito po tayong kapasalamat ating napakagaling na mga panilista ngayong hapon si Luna, si Nikki, si Dean, si Gabby, and si Vlad. Sana po ibasahin ninyong kanilang mga apda. Maraming salamat po at sasusilanda kabanata ng fultura, singing at iba pa. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.