On The 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards
How Not To Be The Next Neil Gaiman -- Win His Graphic/Fiction Awards By Being Truly "Pinoy". A quote:
“One thing we can tell you not to do is mimic a Gaiman story. We get a lot of entries that are just versions of Neil’s stories with Filipino names in it,” says Diaz.
Many have made the mistake of hewing the clichés of science fiction, epic fantasy or supernatural genres. Romulo says, “The worst ones are those with a very narrow view of what science fiction or speculative fiction represents—the wizards and the dwarves, the shades and the trench coats of the Matrix guys, the twist endings and the angst-ridden urban alienation stories. Some have a lot of the style but no substance. We need to establish a serious literary award. Not just fan fiction or a geek boy thing.” He observes, “The ones that managed to win brought something really Pinoy.”
The full article is here.
posted by pgenrestories at 10:44 AM
4 Comments:
I must point out that the first competition's finalists included an angels-and-demons bullet-time story, and an author who copied select Peter S. Beagle passages word-for-word. Diaz's stated objective hasn't quite been fulfilled yet, but I suppose that we're starting to crawl in that direction.
What tickles me is that apparently we're not relegated to the realms of Philippine mythology for our "unrealism": Kris Aquino and the perils of the local showbiz industry have both made appearances among the finalists that I've read. :)
@Sean: Hey, Sean, whatever works, right? Good luck! (if you're joining)
*Sigh* I had a samurai story in mind for the competition, but if Diaz's comments are any indication of the contest's direction, then I might have to go back to square one here...
@Sean: You still have some time.
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