A Couple Of Posts From An Exercise In Youthful Blasphemy
An Exercise In Youthful Blasphemy has two new posts on his blog.
The first post is Mistakes We Knew We Were Making, A Few Addenda. It's a follow-up essay to his post mentioned here. An excerpt:
I know my essays often read like a promiscuous Pez-dispenser of acerbic witticisms that strive towards cheap and easy bon mot-hood, but rest assured that each and every text I read and write about are given every chance to prove its point, each and every pointed proclamation is calculated and well-considered, and never driven by whatever personal issues people assume I may have. I have nothing against F Sionil Jose or Krip Yuson or Marjorie Evasco. I actually appreciate their existence as, together with Dalisay and Abad and the Tiempos and the Hidalgos, etcetera etcetera etcetera, they made me possible. They planted the trees whose fruits I regularly glutton on. They set the conditions that I am currently enjoying and/or despising right this very minute, in the same way that I am right this very minute setting the conditions that people will enjoy and/or despise fifty years from now. Unlike most people, though, I don’t confuse that appreciation for blind devotion. So when I say that it’s okay to not have Krip Yuson’s breezy blurby blessings or Marjorie Evasco’s limning reaction paper introductions in our books, it’s a pataphorical burning of effigies. In case it hasn’t sunk in, yet: when I suggested we commit “patricide/matricide,” I didn’t mean it literally, ie, we actually physically kill them in their sleep. I meant it metaphorically. It was an earnest call for maturity, rendered symbolically. I criticise them for what they represent, not for who they are. If people are given the freedom to celebrate these Fogeys as icons, people should be given the freedom to burn them as such.
This essay was also printed in the May 2, 2009 issue of The Philippines Free Press, and on that same page was a short paragraph saying that the editors of the magazine would respond to this essay in the May 9, 2009 issue. That May 9 issue is now out and available, so you may want to go get yourself a copy.
The second post is Necessary Ficciones, Part Two, Elaborations On The State Of The Nation Of Speculative Fiction. Part One was mentioned here. An excerpt:
In Part One, Dean Alfar agreed that Speculative Fiction at present is already out of the literary margins, but with lingering doubts about its sustainability outside of the support structures it is currently enjoying, the very same support structures that helped push it out of the margins. Kenneth Yu related a few truly horrific stories about some of the more myopic people he had had the misfortune of encountering both in the Academe and in SciFi/Fantasy Fandom itself, and concluded that SpecFic will always encounter marginalization in whatever form as people will always be biased against it somehow, and all that we can really do is just deal with it. I end Part One with a few questions about Speculative Fiction’s lack of a Bigger Politic, and its desire for Approval and Legitimacy and its demand to be left alone, two seemingly contradictory impulses.
The interview/discussion/debate was conducted just this March 2009, through eMail correspondence. The goal was to put to bed some of the issues surrounding the genre, i.e., the claims that SpecFic is still marginalised, and maybe effort to start new topics for further discussion and debate, i.e., the development of a functional critical framework solely for Speculative Fiction. This is Part Two of Three. Things heat up a bit towards the end.
Heh. I'd like to point out that though An Exercise In Youthful Blasphemy describes the stories I told in Part One as "horrific", and the people as "myopic", I look back now on those events with wry and amused detachment.
The National Artist for Literature under whom I studied and who told me not to write crime stories anymore is someone I respect very, very much. I learned a lot from him, and when I tempered my writing to match his curriculum and his preferences because, after all, he was the boss in the class, I did so respectfully, with an attitude of being open to learning new things from him despite my inclination to genre. I still have very fond memories of that man, notwithstanding his mild scolding to eschew crime stories. I mention in Part Two just what I would have done differently after he had told me this, if I had known then what I know now.
As for the other incident when PGS1 was released, where an award-winning member of the academe told me with some frustration in her voice that the term "genre" adds to the market confusion that the term "speculative fiction" had begun, well, that incident happened so fast, and the venue was so full of people, that a proper discussion could not ensue. So really, I'm fairly sure something healthy would've come out of a respectful exchange. At least, I'd like to think so.
As for the final incident mentioned with that single member of FanDom, well, I admit, that was pretty bad; but I'd like to point out that since that time I have made healthy relationships, and even friendships, with many other members of FanDom, and I consider a large number of them as good people who are deserving of respect. Many of them share too my drive to push reading and literacy. Local fandom is made up of many good people, and the unfortunate encounters I had with one person did not destroy my being open to other members of that group.
So, click on the above links and get reading! :)
The first post is Mistakes We Knew We Were Making, A Few Addenda. It's a follow-up essay to his post mentioned here. An excerpt:
I know my essays often read like a promiscuous Pez-dispenser of acerbic witticisms that strive towards cheap and easy bon mot-hood, but rest assured that each and every text I read and write about are given every chance to prove its point, each and every pointed proclamation is calculated and well-considered, and never driven by whatever personal issues people assume I may have. I have nothing against F Sionil Jose or Krip Yuson or Marjorie Evasco. I actually appreciate their existence as, together with Dalisay and Abad and the Tiempos and the Hidalgos, etcetera etcetera etcetera, they made me possible. They planted the trees whose fruits I regularly glutton on. They set the conditions that I am currently enjoying and/or despising right this very minute, in the same way that I am right this very minute setting the conditions that people will enjoy and/or despise fifty years from now. Unlike most people, though, I don’t confuse that appreciation for blind devotion. So when I say that it’s okay to not have Krip Yuson’s breezy blurby blessings or Marjorie Evasco’s limning reaction paper introductions in our books, it’s a pataphorical burning of effigies. In case it hasn’t sunk in, yet: when I suggested we commit “patricide/matricide,” I didn’t mean it literally, ie, we actually physically kill them in their sleep. I meant it metaphorically. It was an earnest call for maturity, rendered symbolically. I criticise them for what they represent, not for who they are. If people are given the freedom to celebrate these Fogeys as icons, people should be given the freedom to burn them as such.
This essay was also printed in the May 2, 2009 issue of The Philippines Free Press, and on that same page was a short paragraph saying that the editors of the magazine would respond to this essay in the May 9, 2009 issue. That May 9 issue is now out and available, so you may want to go get yourself a copy.
The second post is Necessary Ficciones, Part Two, Elaborations On The State Of The Nation Of Speculative Fiction. Part One was mentioned here. An excerpt:
In Part One, Dean Alfar agreed that Speculative Fiction at present is already out of the literary margins, but with lingering doubts about its sustainability outside of the support structures it is currently enjoying, the very same support structures that helped push it out of the margins. Kenneth Yu related a few truly horrific stories about some of the more myopic people he had had the misfortune of encountering both in the Academe and in SciFi/Fantasy Fandom itself, and concluded that SpecFic will always encounter marginalization in whatever form as people will always be biased against it somehow, and all that we can really do is just deal with it. I end Part One with a few questions about Speculative Fiction’s lack of a Bigger Politic, and its desire for Approval and Legitimacy and its demand to be left alone, two seemingly contradictory impulses.
The interview/discussion/debate was conducted just this March 2009, through eMail correspondence. The goal was to put to bed some of the issues surrounding the genre, i.e., the claims that SpecFic is still marginalised, and maybe effort to start new topics for further discussion and debate, i.e., the development of a functional critical framework solely for Speculative Fiction. This is Part Two of Three. Things heat up a bit towards the end.
Heh. I'd like to point out that though An Exercise In Youthful Blasphemy describes the stories I told in Part One as "horrific", and the people as "myopic", I look back now on those events with wry and amused detachment.
The National Artist for Literature under whom I studied and who told me not to write crime stories anymore is someone I respect very, very much. I learned a lot from him, and when I tempered my writing to match his curriculum and his preferences because, after all, he was the boss in the class, I did so respectfully, with an attitude of being open to learning new things from him despite my inclination to genre. I still have very fond memories of that man, notwithstanding his mild scolding to eschew crime stories. I mention in Part Two just what I would have done differently after he had told me this, if I had known then what I know now.
As for the other incident when PGS1 was released, where an award-winning member of the academe told me with some frustration in her voice that the term "genre" adds to the market confusion that the term "speculative fiction" had begun, well, that incident happened so fast, and the venue was so full of people, that a proper discussion could not ensue. So really, I'm fairly sure something healthy would've come out of a respectful exchange. At least, I'd like to think so.
As for the final incident mentioned with that single member of FanDom, well, I admit, that was pretty bad; but I'd like to point out that since that time I have made healthy relationships, and even friendships, with many other members of FanDom, and I consider a large number of them as good people who are deserving of respect. Many of them share too my drive to push reading and literacy. Local fandom is made up of many good people, and the unfortunate encounters I had with one person did not destroy my being open to other members of that group.
So, click on the above links and get reading! :)
posted by pgenrestories at 1:29 PM
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