"Literature Of The Fantastic" At Filipinas--The Magazine For Filpinos Worldwide

PGS contributor Alex G. Paman, has an article up at Filipinas--The Magazine For Filipinos Worldwide: Literature Of The Fantastic. An excerpt:

Fantasy and horror movies have always been staples in Filipino popular cinema. A quick glance through the DVD rental section of any Fil-Am grocery reveals a wide variety of the most current ghost stories, martial-arts superheroes and native fables fresh off their initial broadcast in the Philippines. These uniquely Pinoy films, however, are often low budget and quickly made, imitations of current trends that lean more toward showcasing attractive leading stars than producing quality native fiction.

But away from the American superhero parodies, recycled fairy tales and derivative Japanese horror imitations, there is a growing literary movement in the Philippines that seeks to dispel the camp of pop Pinoy sci-fi. Composed of award-winning journalists, writers, artists, and editors, these masters of science fiction, fantasy, and horror are now endeavoring to make a statement within mainstream literature, taking their place among the world’s top storytelling traditions to express the Filipino imagination.

“Fantasy and horror are deeply rooted in our oral traditions,” says award-winning author Dean Alfar who, along with his wife Nikki, co-edit and publish the annual Philippine Speculative Fiction anthology. “We are storytellers and listeners. It’s in our blood.”

“It’s so exciting!” says Nikki, reflecting on the current state of the genre. “Not even slightly long ago, you couldn’t write a fantasy or sci-fi story in this country without some serious scholar popping up to say, ‘But what’s the point of that? Why bother writing such a thing if it doesn’t help the plight of the poor?’ And it was fruitless to try and point out that a well-written story can illuminate the human condition, encompassing anyone’s plight, at least as well as any social realist text, because people’s minds were simply closed to the potential of writing in alternative genres.”

Click here to read Alex's entire article.