forlorn

With Buddha as the unwitting witness and potential sacrificial bull (a la Old Testament contracts), Vin and I committed to do Codename: Forlorn, a series of short stories (vignettish) in the fantasy mode set against the backdrop of despair (and guess what, it ends in tears, natch).

I've resisted writing fantasy like this for some time now because I feel that the genre is ultimately bereft of value - but that's just the jaded part of me talking. The truth is I love fantasy but in terms of good writing over the past years, well, let's just say "slim pickings" is putting it kindly.

Even the magic realist mode which has become my default style is contextualized within the framework of reality. I prefer stories that are interstitial, with a modern sensibility, because of their power to be relevant, to comment on the human condition, without having to degenerate into a questy thing or a battle against darkness or similar hogwash.

A more important thing that fantasy can do (as opposed to how I saddle it to comment on the human condition) is to provoke the sense of wonder. Magic does that (as opposed to sci-fi which projects into the future and leaves you feeling nothing). Magic should do that.

Only time and social convention have bestowed upon a chosen few fantasy books the imprint of being "literary", and thus of worth, of value, Tolkien and Le Guin's bodies of work being prime examples. Everything else, and I mean everything, is bereft. Pretty and entertaining but ultimately sound and fury signifying nothing.

And that, I suppose, is "okay".



marilao

Nikki and I are off at the crack of dawn tomorrow for the first of our mall shoots - this one at Marilao, Bulacan. I think I can take the trip - it's not so far, right?

Right.



can't we just all get along?

After playing these PC RPG games for a while, you get to thinking why everyone has to fight in the first place.

Can't we just...ignore each other?