Fitting Square Pegs in Round Holes

Was mulling what bhex had written recently in her essay about local speculative fiction and how it was trapped in a 'middle ground':

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.

Moreover, she attributed the lack of science-fiction in our stories due to less than strong foundations in science education.

However, charles offered a different perspective:

I do think there is a reason for the scarcity in science-fiction, but it is not due to lack of education more than a lack of interest. Aside from the social-realism slant of our would-be literati, I think Filipinos have never shaken off the fantastical influence of our culture.

It's true that there is a dearth of local science-fiction stories in what is a booming field worldwide. For example, accounts of non-western science-fiction in China (an LJ-account that unfortunately seems to be out-dated) and India can tell us that SF seems to be alive and well in those countries. Hell, even checking out jp's blog will tell you a lot about the state of the genre in India. On the other hand, vin seemed to confirm the lack of SF locally when he lamented the fact that when he asked for stories for his recent dragon anthology, he noted there was almost no science-fiction subs. Fortunately, Dean's first volume of Philippine Speculative Fiction Anthology had at least one or two, if I remember correctly.

But as I've admitted before, I have a preference of stories involving the irrationality of the fantastical over the rigorousness of science and it seems to me that bhex and charles (partially anyway) seem to concentrate too much on science-fiction as opposed to its other siblings. I thought both of them had it right but I was wondering: speculative fiction is a triumvirate, isn't it? That is, science fiction as well as fantasy and horror. So what's wrong with having a fantastic Philippines?

In other words, granted that there's also a near-dearth of speculative fiction in local markets due to the almost-fanatical adherence of local literati to social realism, what's wrong with siding with fantastical stories over science-fiction? In fact, charles explained it best when he cited sociological factors like religion and pop culture as one of the swinging points for writers:

Seeing how the fantastical plays a big role in our culture combined with how we seem to take present technology for granted, a hybrid between fantasy and science-fiction seems more likely to occur rather than a pure science-fiction story.

Even Philippine literature's links to the fantastic cannot be denied as the eminent Cirilio Bautista explains about the magical realism in his review of Dean's novel:

Popularized by South American writers, (magical realism) fuses history with imaginings to configurate a situation that verges on the fantastic. The technique is almost made to order for the Filipinos who, like the South Americans, possess a consciousness which is a source spring of the unusual and the grotesque. Our geography and climate encourage extreme imagination. The influences of native religions, myths, legends, folktales, and epics have not been dimmed by the pressures of colonization and advent of modern technology. In fact, this consciousness gains energy by adjusting to western thoughts and gadgets. It accommodates imported realities without surrendering what it considers sacred and inviolable.

This is not to say that science-fiction should not be written by local scribes. However, as charles points out, science-fiction is more than about the science. Rather, science-fiction is also about the story: the characters involved, the sociological effects of a particular development, etc.

In other words, if we're to apply science-fiction to a local setting, I think we're setting ourselves up for a fall in trying to apply the theme of hard SF (i.e. the focus on natural or technological sciences in a particular story) in the Philippines. It would be better if local writers would think in terms of soft SF, i.e. the focus on human characters and their relations and feelings, while de-emphasizing the details of technological hardware and physical laws. Also important is the use of 'softer sciences' (like philosophy, psychology, political science, anthropology and sociology) in our stories.

Personally, I think writing science-fiction stories in the Philippines is akin to fitting square pegs in round holes. Though Metro Manila is so urbanized and cities are cropping throughout the whole archipelago, we-- even us born-and-bred city-slickers-- still have not taken the native-ness out of our blood such that we feel an almost-atavistic call in our souls when confronted by the rural wilds. And this comes out in our stories-- as Bautista calls it-- as "unusual and grotesque."

Furthermore, though writing science-fiction stories in the Philippines is not impossible, I do think-- speaking as a writer-- there is a thin line to cross before the story loses its local taste in favor of the SF touch.

Now on the matter of bhex's topic about the lack of market for local speculative fiction, that's a post for another day...