Essay: Publishing Favors the West

As a writer--and reader--living in the Philippines, I want to talk about publishing, and how it favors the West (i.e. the US/UK).

Print:

Right now, print is the dominant form of publishing. For a lot of people, it's not a "book" if it's not printed, even if it's self-published. So it's important that I first tackle this topic.

First, there's the "Big Six" publishers. Guess where they're based and who their primary audience is?

They're able to leverage the English language--right now it's probably the closest we have to a universal language--and that would seem like it's a two-way commitment but that's not the case. US- and UK-published books finds its way to bookstores elsewhere: India, Asia, Australia, etc. The reverse isn't necessarily true, even if Indians, Singaporeans, and Filipinos write in English. Don't even get me started with translation (or at least the proportion of work that gets translated from English, as opposed to English).

This, in turn, feeds the cost-effectiveness of offset printing: because bigger publishers have a larger base of readers, they can also afford to do large print runs, which in turn means lower-per-unit costs. A lot of US-published books, for example, are cheaper when compared to locally-published books using the same material, dimensions, and number of pages. (If you're wondering why local publishers don't have Advanced Reader Copies or ARCs, it's because they can't afford to do a separate print run.)

There's print-on-demand, but as far as my experiences with local print-on-demand services go, they're not as flexible as their US counterparts. It's nothing compared to the services provided by Lulu or Lightning Source. One of our prominent local Print-On-Demand companies for example is Central Books, and their packages start at a minimum of 50 copies.

There's the issue of the price of the book: for US/UK retailers, they might pay for shipping (depending on their agreement with their distributor), but they're certainly not paying to ship it across an ocean. And yet, at least here in the Philippines, local bookstores manage to sell import books lower than their US/UK Suggested Retail Price (SRP). Objectively, import books are cheaper here, but relatively, they're not. Minimum wage is around $8.00/day. You can do the math on the discrepancy there, and how much it's really costing a Filipino to invest in a book. (Sadly, the reverse isn't true: books from the Philippines sent to the US isn't cheaper but more expensive.)

It can also lead to a problem of public perception. Import books get their own diverse shelf categorization: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Romance, Horror, Science Fiction, etc. Local books get one shelf: Filipiniana. I can tell you now which shelves tend to be visited by Filipino customers, and which are less frequented.

Oh, and guess what, a lot of countries don't have their own Amazon store. We can forget about free shipping. And have to deal with, uh, expensive shipping costs. (The books might get taxed, but that's a policy of individual countries.) And forget about 2-3 days of receiving the book, or even a week. It takes a month to order a book, at least using conventional means and without costing you an arm and a leg. Americans cite Amazon as one of the most popular online bookstores. The rest of the world uses Book Depository, because it gives the illusion of free shipping (my only qualm with Book Depository is the huge carbon footprint it leaves, mailing you packages one book at a time).

eBooks:

Now for a lot of people, they'll see what I've written above and think that eBooks are the solution. After all, the problem of print is its geographical logistics and its associated costs.

But you're mistaken, at least if we're talking about the major publishers. (Independent publishers can do their own thing such as sell books on their own website, but there's honestly a huge disproportion to people who shop for eBooks at individual authors and publishers vs. a huge retailer like Amazon or iTunes.)

First off, there's the affordability of eReaders. Remember what I said about $8.00/day minimum wage?

Second, even if I could afford an eReader, is it available locally? There are no problems obtaining an iPad here (but remember, the latest model gets released later than the US) but it gets trickier if you're aiming for a Kindle or a Sony Reader.

I won't even mention the dilemma of figuring out how to use the device. But figuring out a way to legally purchase a book is. Not everyone has a credit card or PayPal account.

Or better yet, the major retailers won't sell to me.

For example, here's what the US iTunes store looks like (click to zoom in):

Here's what the Philippines iTunes store looks like (click to zoom in):

Even if the author and publisher wanted to sell me books, they can't, unless it's an App. Because Apple won't allow it. At least not without the workaround of obtaining a valid US billing address, credit card, and using prepaid iTunes cards to make purchases.

But readers should rejoice right? I mean previously, only the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada had access to Books. Last week, Apple opened it to 26 new countries in Europe. The world has an estimated 196 countries.


Amazon has different kind of problems. As a consumer, I have to deal with the ambiguous $1.99 international Whispernet surcharge (you're still paying it if you download it from your computer). Granted, this doesn't apply to each and every country outside of the US (Australia isn't affected by this anymore for example), but it's there.

As a publisher, I have an entirely different set of problems. There's taxes for example. But a bigger concern is their tiered pricing that, well, favors the West.

You see Amazon has two tiers for pricing of eBooks: you can get 70% royalties if the book is priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Otherwise, it's 35%.

Except even if the book is priced between $2.99 and $9.99, you won't be getting 70%, because:

Basically, your buyers need to be in one of the following countries in order to receive 70% royalties:

• Austria
• Canada
• Germany
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• United States

Otherwise, it's good old 35%.

Which is great if all my customers are from the US or the UK. But if you're a Filipino buyer? So not only am I being charged $1.99 extra, the publisher's royalties are halved just because I don't reside in a first-world country?

So will eBooks be the great equalizer? They could be. Just not in the ecosystem of Apple or Amazon, unless majority of my customers reside in the US/UK.

Essay: Fiction, Speculative Fiction, and The Philippines

I was planning on discussing the local social push (not a review as I haven't read the book) of Moondogs by Alexander Yates but as I was deliberating about the subject, I discovered what I really wanted to talk about isn't specifically the author and the book per se, but the phenomenon of "international publishing" (one example is the ability to order books from the US/UK but not from other countries) and how this shapes the Filipino reader/buyer's mentality.

The short answer is it's complicated.

For the longer answer, read on.

Yates released his novel, Moondogs, under Doubleday (an imprint of Random House, one of the Big Six) earlier this year. Now as a speculative fiction reader, this is one of those books that would have flown past my radar as it wasn't marketed as a speculative fiction book despite elements like a cigarette-smoking rooster (no relation to Elmer) or a group of soldiers with superhero-like powers (again, I haven't read the book and basing this on feedback and reviews). It all seem fantastical, or at the very least probably falling under the label "magic-realism" but marketing it as Fiction will probably garner Yates more sales in the long run. Which isn't really a new argument as it won't be the last speculative fiction book shelved under Fiction (nor is that necessarily a bad thing).

However, there are other considerations. It's set in the Philippines for example (again, I'll leave it to others who have read it to judge whether it counts as cultural appropriation or not). To be fair to Yates, he's spent 15 years of his life here (including high school).

On one hand, it's possible to interpret it as a foreigner writing about the Philippines and that's not new either, whether it's Robert Heinlein (honestly, Starship Troopers's protagonist is superficially Filipino, but by virtue of being identified as a Filipino, it's enough to attract the attention of local genre fans) or Neal Stephenson (I haven't read Cryptonomicon but friends who've read it are thrilled at his depiction of the country).

On the other hand, we can embrace Yates as one of our own, a Filipino by culture if not by heritage. And how different is that from some of our expat writers like Jessica Hagedorn or Miguel Syjuco who were raised here before migrating elsewhere? Which isn't to say that their writing is any less Filipino, just a different kind of Filipino. (And to add more confusion to the mix, it's also a different dynamic when an expat who's never been to the country writes about it, or encounters the Philippines for the first time as an adult.) Again, this isn't anything new or unique.

Recently though, there's this push from National Bookstore--reaching out to local book bloggers--to help promote Yates's local book tour (there was also another one at the Manila International Book Fair together with Samantha Sotto and Andy Mulligan). (And not to single out Yates but this essay could easily have been about Mulligan and his novel Trash.) Again, bringing in foreign authors for book tours, while not a frequent event, does happen: Lauren Kate was in Cebu a few months ago, after a successful tour the previous year. Or Neil Gaiman's three visits to the country. But in the case of Yates, here's an author published by a major publisher, writing about the Philippines, getting marketing support from the biggest bookstore chain in the country, with a decent reader turnout during the event.

That's not a bad thing, mind you, and I'm thrilled the Philippines is being included in fiction abroad (hopefully not at the expense of Orientalism), but there's also a point where I wonder if the author and the book is getting attention locally precisely because it's not published here (the premise of the Manila International Book Fair panel after all is "Life of a Novelist: How to Get Published by the World's Largest English Language Trade Publisher"). That raises a lot of questions: Do local authors have similar opportunities? Another is how local readers are receptive to books published locally vs. those published in the US/UK, as one of the questions posed by Filipino Reader Con was whether local readers read Filipino Literature.



There's the streak of novels by Filipino authors whose claim to fame is winning or short-listed for an international award, or published abroad: Soledad's Sister, Ilustrado, Before Ever After, etc. I'm not saying don't get published abroad or don't attempt to win prizes (and that's what I do in this blog, spread awareness of Filipino books and authors to an international audience), but as a reader, I start questioning my habits: am I reading this solely because it was recognized (either by an award-giving body or a publisher) internationally? If it didn't win any awards, would I purchase it from a local publisher and give it a chance? And to illustrate that fact, that's the appeal of Spot.ph's article on "10 Pinoy Authors in the International Publishing Scene".

I also want to point out the phenomenon of Filipino readers craving novels when a lot of local output revolves around short stories (there's also the fact that the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for novel is only once every three years instead of annually). How much is that shaped by innate preference (short stories have no appeal to some readers just as novels might not interest them) and how much is that influenced by Imperialism and Colonialism?

Related to this is the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards sponsored by Fully Booked and Neil Gaiman. I was meaning to post my reflections on the event last year but didn't get around to doing so, but here were my reservations back in 2010:

I'm thankful for Gaiman's generosity in funding and establishing the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards, yet in the bigger picture, there are downsides to his association with the awards. The first is how the awards eventually revolves around its patron. If you take out Gaiman from the equation, I doubt that the awards ceremony would draw this many people, or that the anthology would sell as much copies. It is my belief that it is for this reason that the ceremony and book launch is timed with Gaiman's visit to the Philippines (and let's face it, it is quite expensive to fly in Gaiman every time there's an awarding or book launch). On a certain level, Gaiman is aware of this problem--at least when it comes to the funding and production. In this video (at the 4:00 min. mark), he cites how he wants the awards to be more autonomous, at how it would continue on even if he wasn't present.

The second lacking that I see, as it were, is in the area of the contestants. For some participants, the biggest reward is in meeting Gaiman. Not that it's a bad thing per se, but it begs the question: if Gaiman wasn't present, would the contestants still write and submit their stories? The other problem isn't limited to this contest or publication: what happens next to these writers? There are some writers whom I see continue to submit to other publications and contests, but these tend to be writers who are active in the first place. The rest, however, seem to stop, either because there's no prize money (and I'm not saying that's a bad thing--writers deserve to be paid for their fiction after all) or because Gaiman isn't sponsoring the event. If the aim of the contest is to discover and encourage new blood, where are the new blood so to speak? Why aren't they submitting to other venues and continue writing? (Obviously, I'm not blaming the contest itself here. But the contest does tend to attract people who write specifically for the contest, and then stop altogether--or at least it seems so to me; I could be wrong, and want to be proven wrong.)

The third problem isn't a problem for me per se, but still needs to be said. The Philippines tends to be over-critical of some things, and the reason why the term "speculative fiction" was challenged by the literati here is because it originates from abroad (i.e. colonialism). So here comes Gaiman who is championing Philippine speculative fiction, and he's a foreigner. Again, personally, I'm open arms for his contribution in nurturing the local scene, but I can also envision where encouragement comes from within as opposed from without. It also says something that the local literature scene criticizes local authors who champion Philippine speculative fiction, but are mum when it comes to Gaiman.

Again, this is not to espouse burning bridges with everything that doesn't originate from the Philippines like a pre-Meiji era Japan, but these are critical questions that don't get talked about publicly. (That's not to say that the Graphic/Fiction awards didn't produce a lot of excellent work or nurtured some great talent. While we can laud its positive benefits, it's also vital to assess points of criticism.)

As far as personal practicality is concerned, I'm wondering how is it possible to draw attention to local authors, and convince Filipino readers to read their work. Dean Francis Alfar, for example, has been promoting Philippine speculative fiction here for the past few years, and let's be honest: the crowd a Philippine Speculative Fiction book launch would draw pales in comparison to the numbers Neil Gaiman attracts when he came to promote the launch of The Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards anthologies, even if the content of the books are related (of course there are also other factors to consider, such as awareness, availability, marketing, etc.).

What I mentioned above might come off as a rant, but I have reasons to be optimistic. There is the much-maligned Romance genre for example and I don't think the readership for Filipino romance books will be dwindling anytime soon. Related to that is the Chick-Lit genre and while Summit Media is expanding into the territory of mobile phones, we also have authors like Mina V. Esguerra who is self-publishing in venues like the Kindle, and acquiring a readership (internationally if not locally--see, I'm doing it too!). PsiCom is also doing well with its horror line. So it is possible to nurture a rich, local readership. The dilemma is in expanding it to other fields.

The local comics field is also doing well. I'm happy that titles like Trese and Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah have an enormous fanbase here and the tragedy is that I'm not able to really promote it outside of the country due to it being unavailable elsewhere (Andrew Wheeler describes Trese as "...some of the very best urban fantasy I've ever seen, set in a distinctive culture I don't already know everything about, with wonderfully atmospheric art from Baldisimo."). I'm really impressed with Carlo Vergara, especially how he handles gay themes in his comics, not just in Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah but even in his earlier, now out-of-print graphic novel One Night in Purgatory. Or the fact that the former is written in Filipino.

photo taken from GMA News

Perhaps the best reason to remain positive is that new books will continue to be published, regardless of whether it achieves commercial success or not, in print or electronic form. Take for example Visprint's latest release, Dumot by Alan Navarra: it's weird, not easily categorized, and utilizes both English and Filipino. I'm honestly skeptical whether it'll be as popular as some of Visprint's other titles, but I'm excited that such a book is getting published by a midsized local publisher.

And despite my criticisms earlier in the essay, I'm just as excited as any reader that the Philippines is getting written about, that we have authors coming to the country (Junot Diaz is coming to Manila!). Local readers are discovering all sorts of authors in different genres and that's always a good thing.

Signal Boosting: Speak Out With Your Geek Out

I want to plug Speak Out With Your Geek Out.

I've been a geek all my life.

For example, I love video games. I grew up during the Famicom (that's NES to you Westerners) era (although I did get to play with an Atari) and my favorite console has got to be the Super Famicom (SNES) with games like Street Fighter II, Chrono Trigger, Super Bomberman, Super Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Robot Wars (although I did own a Sega Megadrive to play Sonic & Knuckles and a Sega CD for Ecco the Dolphin). My PC also gets some love with games like Sim City 2000 (a few hours of it will give you an insight into the world's energy crisis), Maniac Mansion, and, of course, Warcraft. As to not date myself too much, I bought a Collector's Edition of Starcraft II last year (1v1 Diamond League before I stopped playing) and actively play DotA. (I still get street cred for Peggle and Plants vs Zombies right?) Oh, and Minesweeper.

Another passion of mine is tabletop gaming. I spent a few years of my life (and lots of money) on Magic: The Gathering (I started playing when Ice Age came out) and rejoiced when they released a Mountain based on the Philippines (see image above). I'd go through several Collectible Card Games (CCGs) including Wildstorms, Ani-Mayhem, Raw Deal, Warlord, Pokemon, Duel Masters, Vs. System, and A Game of Thrones (back when it was still a CCG). My gaming group plays a couple of RPGs, everything from Dungeons & Dragons, Legend of the Five Rings, 7th Sea, GURPS, Savage Worlds, and even Death Watch (I can't seem to convince them to play Houses of the Blooded or Dread). I also own a few board games, everything from Settlers of Catan to Last Night on Earth. Oh, and I briefly reviewed games over at Game Cryer and compiled tabletop gaming podcasts links (you guys should check out RPGPodcasts and Pulp Gamer). Oh, and Go (just a 9x9 though).



I also grew up with comics--I started collecting singles just when the Infinity Gauntlet comic book event started. Not to be exclusively Marvel or DC, however, I did grow up with Asterix and Tintin along with Old Master Q (we called it Lao Fu Zi), various manga like Dragonball Z and Saint Seiya, and local comics like Kick Fighter Komiks. On my shelves right now are manga sets of Buddha, Old Boy, Uzumaki, Death Note, and Eyeshield 21, as well as graphic novels like The Dark Phoenix Saga, V is for Vendetta, Blankets, Asterios Polyp, Umbrella Academy, and Locke & Key. There's web comics like XKCD, PvP, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, and Order of the Stick. I also want to highlight local publications like Siglo: Freedom, Zsazsa Zaturnnah, Trese, and Elmer. I also wrote a few strips a few years back, whether it's one-pagers or for an anthology. For a brief time, I also reviewed comics at MangaVillage.

I'm a big anime fan, so much so that I create two fanzines more than a decade ago: P.Otaku Bytes and Fanime (the former even got praised by Anipike--for those who remember the Anime Web Turnpike before Google became popular). I obsessed over everything Japanese, whether it's cosplaying, model kits, attending conventions, meeting local voice actors, organizing film screenings, etc. I even worked in an anime shop, Comic Alley, and managed a mailing list or two.

I don't watch a lot of movies as of late, but I try to have diverse tastes. For example, I enjoyed the cheesy Korean action-flick Volcano High while Eat Drink Man Woman has a special place in my heart. Cult favorites include God of Gamblers and Once Upon a Time in China, and horror films like Ringu. Hero, however, is one of my all-time favorites. As for local films, I enjoyed the documentary Imelda - Power, Myth, Illusion, and I recently caught Zombadings! Patayin sa Shokot si Remington.

I'm a big fan of the Tokusatsu genre, whether it's Godzilla, Ultraman, Super Sentai, or Kamen Rider (trust me, they're nothing like Saban's adaptations, although I do enjoy Power Rangers as well). My all time favorites include Justirisers and Kamen Rider Black, although for new viewers, I'd probably recommend Kamen Rider W. Of course that doesn't mean I'm skimping out on shows like Game of Thrones or Doctor Who... (There's also web series like GOLD and The Guild)

My music taste is Japanese. Animetal. High and Mighty Color. JAM Project. Maaya Sakamoto. Megumi Hayashibara. Embedded above is the theme from Kamen Rider W.

Oh, and I love books, specifically speculative fiction. You can find my contributions at this blog, SF Signal, The World SF Blog, The Shirley Jackson Awards, SFWA...

Essay: The Dichotomy of Language in the Philippines

One of the essays circulating recently is "Language, learning, identity, privilege" by James Soriano (Edit 2: it's inaccessible now but you can check the Google Cache). It's not an original or even fresh opinion: it's a never-ending debate that's plagued by the Philippines for the past few decades (and I'm sure it's an issue in other, multilingual countries as well).

Whenever someone raises the English vs. Filipino argument, they often miss two significant points.

The first point is context and this is very important. A lot of people assume that Filipino is the de facto language of the country when it's not: it's transitioned from Spanish to English to Filipino (and sometimes, switching back to one or simultaneously having two national languages). Just look at the country's iconic (if not contentiously important) novels: Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal was written in Spanish, The Woman Who Had Two Navels by Nick Joaquin was written in English, and Bata, Bata... Pa'no Ka Ginawa? by Luwalhati Bautista was written in Filipino.

There is the belief that one language is "more Filipino" than the other but we have to understand that history is dynamic and constantly changing. English (together with Pilipino) might have been the vernacular during the Martial Law era when English was the National Language while Filipino the common tongue during the Cory Aquino administration when English was replaced. It would also be important to note the evolution of the language, as there was a time when Filipino exclusively used the abakada alphabet with just 20 letters, but how modern Filipino has expanded that repertoire into 28 (with letters c, j, v, etc. making the cut).

And while it's true that one language is used more often than the other in a particular context, you also have to ask where. I'm from Metro Manila so the common language I used every day is English and Filipino. But that's not necessarily the case in other regions like Visayas and Mindanao. There's a lot of dialects being used that's not represented by our National language (and another never-ending point of contention). To those who don't subscribe to the idea that Filipino is the language that best represents the entire archipelago, Filipino is as tyrannical and elitist as other foreign languages.

So when we talk about language and identity (which asks the question who we are), we also need to factor in when and where into the equation. It's not enough to say the Philippines as if there was just one Filipino experience, but clearly, generation gaps, locality, and personal experiences are all important elements.

The other point, and is perhaps the bigger problem, is our subscription to the ideology of dichotomies: something is either black or white, good or evil, positive or negative. It's a tempting paradigm, just as the concept of Schrödinger's cat at the very least gives pause to many people.

For example, as a personal experience, there's this belief that funerals and wakes should be depressing. The relatives of the deceased should be crying and mournful. While there is an atmosphere of sadness, for some family members, this is also a time of camaraderie, of seeing, talking, and empathizing with friends and relatives whom you don't often see. That's not to say you don't feel a sense of loss during a wake, but it's not the only emotion you're capable of experiencing. Both positive and negative emotions can take place simultaneously and the existence of one does not invalidate the other.

My difficulty with essays that frame the Filipino vs. English debate is that it becomes a zero-sum game where there is no room for co-existence.

Again, I've lived in Metro Manila, and as much as I'd like to say I speak in fluent English or in fluent Filipino, the reality is that most people fall somewhere in between. The mixing of both languages--"Tag-lish" as some of us call it--is natural, just as some might mix smatterings of Bicolano or Ilocano with Filipino or English (I was raised in a Filipino-Chinese atmosphere so I also encountered "Chi-Tag-Lish"). Even the recent text messaging lingo which we deride as Jejemon is a subversion of both English and Filipino so you can't get any more street-level than that.

Even within English and Filipino, the influence of one is evident in the other. For example, with English, terms like "salvage" or "the province" have a different meaning when compared to their Western counterparts. Filipino is constantly appropriating foreign words and another constant debate is the practice of colloquial Filipino vs. deep Filipino which is evident in word choices like tsapter vs. kabanata.

That's not to say there isn't any difference between English and Filipino--there is and only a fool would overlook that--but one of the prevailing ideologies is that English is an elitist (even imperialist) language while Filipino is the downtrodden underdog. My answer to such claims is that it's much more complicated than that and honestly, if you're just rooting for underdogs, there are other vastly underrepresented languages in the Philippines: they just don't happen to be national languages.

Another trend that I'm noticing--and its propaganda, based from personal experience, is incredibly effective if Soriano's column is any indication--is the English-language guilt: if you're fluent with English or if you have an American/English accent (or alternatively, if you don't speak in Filipino or do so with an accent), then you are somehow less Filipino than you ought to be. Again, this falls into the trap of dichotomy, and ignores the fact that English IS one of our national languages. True, it comes with imperialist baggage (and for the most part is the biggest contention against it), but we've also appropriated it as our own and to simply disregard it is to eschew its role in our history (both good and bad).

On one hand, I'm glad we're having this conversation. National pride and language are important matters to discuss. But my problem with limiting paradigms is that it doesn't really address the core questions that plague us. A lot of people will see this as a problem of language (English vs. Filipino) just as Soriano has framed it, but for me, the heart of the dilemma is how can we be responsible Filipinos, and that's going to be a very subjective answer. For me, it's more important to prove my virtue and nationalism through my actions and my decisions, rather than simply by the language that I speak (although that too is an integral factor) or how fluent I use it. As a writer, I recall that language isn't inherently good or evil, but a tool. There will be times when one language is best suited to a particular task, while at other times a different one is better. And in many ways, that's the beauty of the Philippines: we're a plurality of languages and cultures.

Edit: Just to clarify, that's not to disregard biases against Filipino. There is a negative bias in the country when you can't speak fluent English (but adept in Filipino), or how English proficiency is demanded--if not required--in a lot of business environments, or how the publishing industry favors English over Filipino (although there are exemptions). But raising awareness and appreciation of Filipino is not the same as tearing down English and those who choose to use it.

Essay: Not A Book Blockade

More than two years ago, the Philippines had an issue Robin Hemley called The Great Book Blockade of 2009 (the catchphrase was shortened to "Book Blockade" and you can get the timeline here). Eventually, there was a victory of sorts, as the then-president declared "the immediate lifting of the customs duty on book importation."

While this was a boon for book importers (i.e. bookstores), that doesn't mean import books here didn't get taxed. Individuals whose books went through the post office still got taxed.

As I mentioned in an old essay, I'm not against book taxes per se--I just want transparency and consistency. If we're going to break the Florence Agreement, that's fine. Let's not just pretend to uphold it while practicing the opposite. Various countries like Australia do have taxes on import books and it's been a continuous debate whether this is positive or not (I'm leaning towards the latter but that's besides the point).

Anyway, here's the latest announcement from the Bureau of Customs. Italicized text is my interpretation of their statements (the editorial comes after the quote):

SUBJECT : BoC Rationalizes Tax-Free Importation of Books
1. The Bureau of Customs has issued new guidelines for duty and tax-free entry of imported books into the country. (We have new rules.)
2. Customs Commissioner Angelito A. Alvarez issued Customs Memorandum Order No. 25-2011 for uniformity in the treatment of book importations. (Credit goes to Customs Commissioner Angelito A. Alvarez.)
3. Alvarez said the order covered the following importations: (There are three exceptions to taxes on import books and our latest policy acknowledges them.)

• Educational, scientific and cultural materials under the Florence Agreement;
• Books or raw materials to be used for book under RA 8047 or the “Book Publishing Industry Development Act:” and,
• Importations of books by non-stock, non-profit educational institutions under Section 4 (3), Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution.

4. Under the new guidelines, importers must apply with the Revenue Office, Department of Finance for duty-free and/or tax-free importation of books/materials stating the legal basis for the request for exemption and appending the pertinent certifications issued by the concerned agency or office. (If you want a tax exemption, you first need to talk to the Revenue Office of the Department of Finance.)
5. Applicants for importations under the Florence Agreement must first secure a certification from the UNESCO Office in the Philippines attesting that the importations of educational, scientific and cultural materials are among those included in Annexes A to E of the Florence Agreement. (If you're filing for an exemption due to the Florence Agreement, get your papers from UNESCO.)
6. The Florence Agreement, signed in 1952 in Florence, Italy by 17 countries, waved tariffs on books and other printed materials in order to facilitate the free flow of educational, scientific and cultural materials.The Philippines became a signatory to the Florence Agreement on August 7, 1979. (We signed the Florence Agreement.)
7. The certification to be issued by UNESCO must be addressed to the DOF and must be attached as one of the supporting documents to the application for duty tax and exemption submitted by the importer/applicant with the Revenue Office of the DOF. (When you file for the exemption, make sure you bring your UNESCO papers with you.)
8. For importations of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing, the importer/applicant must attach to the application for duty tax exemption his registration with the National Book Development Board (NBDB) as a book publisher. (For those seeking an exemption due to the Book Publishing Industry Development Act, get your papers from the NBDB.)
9. Also required is a certificate to be issued by the concerned local domestic producer/supplier of non-availability of the raw materials to be imported. (We want proof that the raw materials is actually out of stock, hence justification for the import.)
10. Applications for the duty-free importation of books by non-stock, non-profit educational institutions must be accompanied by a certification from the Department of Education (DepEd) or the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) attesting that the importations are economic, technical, vocational, scientific, philosophical or historical books. (If you're filing for an exemption due to Section 4 (3), Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution, get your papers from the DepEd or CHED.)
11. Importations of books and any newspaper, magazine, review or bulletin which appear at regular intervals with fixed prices for subscription and sale are exempt from the value-added tax (VAT). Importers however are still required to secure an exemption from the DOF for purposes of VAT-exemption. (Import books and magazines that come out regularly are exempted from VAT but you need your papers from the DOF.)
12. Importations of books/materials otherwise not falling under any of the above-cited instances and without the DOF endorsement shall be levied the corresponding rate of duty provided under Executive Order No. 855 series of 2010. (Everything else will be taxed.)
13. Alvarez said examples of books/materials subject to duties and taxes of at least 5% included dictionaries and encyclopedias, maps and hydrographic or similar charts as well as plans and drawings for architectural, engineering, industrial, commercial, topographical or similar purposes. (These are examples of books we will tax.)

Now, what I like about this announcement is that the Bureau of Customs is transparent. They have a policy and it is going to be universally applied. (It's even announced ahead of time.) Now my praise ends there.

The first problem are the fees. On paper, a 5% tax on import books seems reasonable. However, it's not because, well, what the Bureau of Customs is actually charging you isn't just import duties. For example, here's what I was charged for a book package earlier this year:

There's Import Duties; BIR Taxes; VAT; Customs Duty; Import Processing Fees. We're not talking about just one fee but several.

The second is the process of filing for an exemption. It's time (and money) lost to travel and red tape. It has its own set of fees (arguably cheaper than what the Bureau of Customs is charging, but it's hardly free).

Now the first two problems aren't that significant if you're an institution (although it's still cutting into your bottomline). If you're an individual, however, filing for those exemptions is going to be tricky due to the required paperwork.

There's also lots of room for debate on the significance of this change. What kind of culture are we nurturing when we tax books? (Again, some countries have made it work and some have honestly suffered for it.) What are the unintended consequences for such actions? (Do we encourage the black market? The secondhand book market? The eBook market? The wealthy over the poor?) Is this optimal usage of taxation? (Why not tax other commodities instead like cigarettes or alcohol?)

I'll admit, the process in which the Bureau of Custom's latest guideline is worded is clever. You can't really blame them for breaking the Florence Agreement for example: that's determined by UNESCO. (Same goes for the two other exemptions.) It just adds red tape to the entire process, discouraging automatic exemptions. I also wonder how this new practice will affect local businesses (bookstores are just one industry which will be affected).

A Dance With Dragons Day One

A Dance With Dragons is large and heavy, and I'm referring to its physical size and weight. The closest thing I can compare it to is my hardcover of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. At one point, I was carrying three copies of these in my bag and it was straining my shoulder.

So I spent much of today, aside from getting work done, visiting various bookstores, checking up on how they fare on the launch of a not-quite-popular novel (here in the Philippines).

Fully Booked, at least the branch in Promenade, didn't have copies. I had a reservation and nada, no phone call or text message.

Powerbooks, on the other hand, was pretty much on the ball, minus some arguable failings. They had copies in their branches by the time the stores opened. Where it failed was the pricing. It originally had a price of P1399.00 (and I bought one of my copies at this price) but was later adjusted to P1195.00 (matching the price at National Bookstore). By my estimate, each branch (save perhaps for its main branch) had around five copies allocated. The branches at Mega Mall and Shangri-La already had all their copies reserved so it was pretty much sold out when it was released (and informs you the kind of consumer market they have).

National Bookstore, on the other hand, got their books later in the day (sometime around lunch time) depending on the location. Again, by my estimate, they probably had five or six allotment per branch, unless a lot more were hidden (at least two were always on display). Unlike Powerbooks, most of their copies weren't reserved, so there was a lot to go around. Of course the problem is the slightly-delayed release and I think I saw a girl browsing through A Feast for Crows as she waited for a saleslady to assist her with a copy of the book as she dropped by when the mall just opened. (Anyway, if you still don't have a copy, National Bookstore looks like your best bet.)

Essay: Counting Down to A Dance With Dragons

I'm an opportunist. In college, I carried a spare umbrella just so that I can loan it to someone when it rained. Having said that, I'll seldom have the courage to ask a girl out. Does that make me active or passive? I don't know, that's the problem with binaries.

My Sunday nap was interrupted by a text message from one of my favorite customer service representatives. She informed me that their branch had only stocked five copies of A Dance With Dragons, and that she reserved me a copy (which is why she's now my favorite customer service rep).

Now here's how my mind works: Great, I have a copy. Oh crap, what about my-crush-who-rejected-me, my friends, the guy I met at GeekFight the other day whom I told A Dance with Dragons would be available at the local bookstore?

There's opportunity here, a chance to be a hero to some friends if I managed to get them copies, because clearly, there's going to be a shortage of books. It's time to earn my self-labeled monicker, Bibliophile Stalker.

A part of me hates this situation. Why does book scarcity have to ever come into play? On the other hand, I'm good at this kind of crisis. I start making phone calls to various bookstores and branches. I encounter both helpful and unhelpful customer service representatives. I start visiting bookstores.

There's lots of disappointing and sometimes conflicting (remember the part about unhelpful customer service representatives?) reports. Fully Booked's main branch at The Fort for example reported has only twenty copies of the book and they're not accepting reservations. It's a different story at the Shangri-La branch, however: At first they said they only have one copy remaining... I can have it reserved and pick it up today... and then wait, it will only be available on the 12th... and then that one remaining copy is already reserved so no dice.

National Bookstore--the country's largest bookstore chain--is a mystery when it comes to A Dance With Dragons. The most helpful customer service rep I talked to said that they don't expect stocks to arrive until the 11th so they don't know in what quantities they'll be acquiring it but it'll be released on the 12th. Of course the question is how much copies of the book they received and how much will be allocated to each branch.

Now I know George R. R. Martin isn't as popular in the Philippines as other authors best-selling authors. There was no shortage of Harry Potter books for example, even as fines lined up at Powerbooks to claim their copies as early as 7 am on book launch day. National Bookstore is currently prepping for Lauren Kate's second visit (and there's a big acknowledgment to National Bookstore in her recent novel) so there won't be a book shortage for her fans either.

On the other hand, living in the Philippines, it's also rare for a genre title to have a day one simultaneous release with the rest of the world (there are exceptions of course like those previously mentioned). I remember the days of visiting bookstores for the entire month of August and September just to wait for Terry Brook's latest novel to come out or Ellen Datlow's latest anthology. So I can't be too sad about A Dance With Dragons as it's having a worldwide simultaneous release (well, technically, we're getting it 12 hours ahead of time). I'm just disappointed when it comes to this missed opportunity (for the bookstores). Not that they're to blame--for all I know, the publisher themselves might have limits due to Martin's newfound popularity.

When Tuesday arrives though, National Bookstore might have ordered a lot of books. Or the customer service reps might have been mistaken. I don't know. Hopefully there'll be enough books to go around. And at the end of the day, I realize this is a nerdy and trivial problem.

The Clutch Novel

A lot of fandoms has this myth: that there is one book or show or movie or song that will convert anyone to their cause. It's a tempting theory and I've succumbed to this paradigm on more than one occasion. The cassette tape generation is quite familiar with this concept as audiophiles distribute mix tapes that's supposed to convey "this is who I am," the story of my life in two half-hour segments. Last month, I was told by two friends that Asterios Polyp is enjoyed by readers who don't usually read comics (and more than a decade ago, I gave away around a dozen copies of The Dream Hunters to friends and acquaintances). There will be multiple variations of this: "D&D introduced me to RPGs," "My Neighbor Totoro is universally loved," "The Lord of the Rings got me into fantasy," "If you're into horror, you must watch Ringu or read Uzumaki".

When it comes to genre fiction, the book you can recommend to anyone is the Holy Grail. Sorry, as much as I love Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tokien's writing was a poor fit for me. C.S. Lewis felt too didactic. Philip Pullman too polarizing. Some found J.K. Rowling too mainstream (as if that's a bad thing), too young adult (whatever that means), too mediocre (fair enough). For quite some time, A Game of Thrones was my go-to-book--until my Filipino teacher said he hated it because the modern language proved too jarring for his suspension of disbelief. Nowadays, The Lions of Al-Rassan and Tigana are the books I give to people who are looking for epic fantasy without the investment of reading a decade's worth of fiction. On second thought, Dune might come in handy as well.

But the problem is that none of those books will work for everyone. Different stories call out to different people. If I'm in the mood for love and a sense of loss, I recommend Tim Pratt's "Little Gods" or Dean Francis Alfar's "L'Aquilone du Estrellas (The Kite of Stars)" (although Peter M. Ball's "Say Zucchini, and Mean It" is catching up on that list). I can recommend Kij Johnson but each story works for a different reason: "Spar," "26 Monkeys, also the Abyss," and "The Empress Jingū fishes." There's also lots of short story authors (who are personal heroes) that I'd recommend--each one different and contributing something unique to the field: Mary Robinette Kowal, Jeffrey Ford, Claude Lalumiere, Paul Tremblay, Karen Joy Fowler, Theodora Goss, Aimee Bender, Kelly Link, Elizabeth Hand... (and I haven't even gotten to the local authors we have here that you never heard of: Nikki Alfar, Andrew Drilon, Crystal Koo, Francezca Kwe, Mia Tijam, Kate Osias, Ian Rosales Casocot, etc...)

Lately, I've been more of the type that gives a wide variety of books or comics, and then narrow down my recommendations based on how they react. Like Kelly Link? Maybe you should try some Aimee Bender of Theodora Goss. Like George R. R. Martin? Have you tried Robin Hobb or Daniel Abraham? Unfortunately, this also entails a lot of rejections. Sorry, that wasn't my type of book. It bored me. Not my genre. And you know what, that's fine. Don't take it personally (that's also valuable advice to writers). The point is to explore the boundaries of your friends and acquaintances, discovering what really interests them, or better yet, introduce something new to their diet. (Unfortunately, this results in me lending out or giving away a lot of books, with my intentions sometimes suspect.)

So, my question is, what are your favorite books that you automatically recommend to everyone you meet? Or are you an astute bookseller, probing for their tastes and interests before recommending a book?

Essay: Do the Details Matter?

How many times have we heard the statement saying that "I'm only interested in looking for a good story," with politics, agenda, race, culture, and author not factoring into the equation? Various critics, editors, and writers are baffled by the pervasiveness of this ideology (Nick Mamatas has a brief discourse on why a "good story" is not good enough). For me, it hearkens to one of the common tools (perhaps erroneously) still used in literary criticism and theory: Formalism. You only need to read the text itself; author, history, and context is discarded.

It's a lazy approach yet it has a certain appeal. After all, when we approach an unknown author or book--especially from a genre or field we're not familiar with--this is the paradigm we're working with. I don't care who the author is, when the story was written, or what the background of the material was. All I have to work with is simply the text. This was, for the most part, also the norm half a century ago, considering the unavailability of the Internet, and how the positive effects of globalization have yet to take place.

To a certain extent, "blind" readings also attempt to work within this framework, as the author's name is stripped from manuscripts and the reader or juror only has the text to wrestle with. The value of blind readings for me, however, is discovering the context of the story once you've accepted it as a "good" story. Who is the author? Under what scenario was it written? What was the agenda? It's also a great tool to expose the claims made by people like VS Naipaul. Naipaul's argument for example isn't new: science fiction already witnessed--in print--the folly of Robert Silverberg when it came to James Tiptree Jr.

But.

Formalism is an old theory and with it comes a certain idealism that is impractical. It assumes that there is a certain level of objectivity that can be attained when reading a text, perhaps the same assumption people have when it comes to history ("it's fact!") and the news ("gee, your choice if headlines is not biased at all"), when that's not the case.

Let me sum it all up with one word: Baggage. We all have baggage (emotional, cultural, political, religious) and this informs how we read texts. An atheist for example might interpret the Bible as fiction at worst, or mythological history at best. A fundamentalist Christian, on the other hand, will read the Bible as truth more factual than the latest scientific discoveries.

Allow me to spell it out for you: there is no objective story, whether it's fiction or non-fiction. It's not just in the way it's written but in the way we read it.

For example, if an alien suddenly arrived and acquired our literature (assuming it understands our language--and that's a big if in itself), the way I read The Lord of the Rings will be very different from the way they'll interpret it. Will they consider it as fact instead of fabulation? Or perhaps they'll root for Sauron instead of Frodo. Or maybe they'll just find the work simply too long and futile.

Just look at the headlines from a hundred years ago. What was deemed important at the time is irrelevant by today's standards.

I bring this up because I just watched X-Men: First Class last Thursday (warning: spoilers), and while it has a few flaws in logic (Cerebro, Magneto's helmet, the missiles at the end), it is for the most part an enjoyable film with lots of relevant highlights (the characterization, the interplay between Mystique and Beast, etc.). It has one significant problem though, although for most people (and reviewers, apparently), this is a minor detail. Which begs the question, how important are details?

My one problem with the film--and this is ironic considering the theme of X-Men is that they represent the outsiders of our society (I once saw a blog post label the series as racial minorities and gay people if they were White)--is how the people of color are treated. Guess what, they either die or join the evil side. It's not new politics but one that has been in place for the past few decades and its recurrence starts to become a pet peeve once you notice it. Some people will brush off this detail as a "minor flaw" in the story. Others, those who've either experienced this problem firsthand or witnessed this too often, will not simply let this slide as the dilemma jars them from the entire movie experience.

Another, more personal experience for me, is Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, which is either the bane or the blessing of science fiction Filipino fans. On the surface, it's a book to be praised (pro-war politics aside), since it's one of the first science fiction novels to feature a Filipino protagonist (and this was how I felt when I first read it). Over time though, I started questioning this assumption. For example, the hero's culture is never revealed until the very end, although occasional irrelevant-to-the-story hints have been dropped here and there. If we strip out the character's name--let's make it Rick--there's really nothing there to suggest that he would otherwise be a Caucasian American. The only moment of Filipino-ness is his awareness of Philippine trivia, namely that one of the spaceships is named after a Filipino president. As far as the novel is concern, the character's cultural heritage (at least the part that's not American) did not have any impact at all (others are, of course, welcome to debate this thesis). Most non-Filipinos will probably skim this part of the book, but it's an important detail to me, as a Filipino.

Formalism has its place in critical theory but it's not the only tool we should be using, nor should it be an excuse not to eschew other paradigms. At the end of the day, I say Fuck good story, because that phrase doesn't really articulate what kind of stories interest you. It's like reading a book review that simply says the book is either good or bad.

Essay: Setting Aside Time for Reflection

Source: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.


I'll open with this comic from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.


Have you ever gotten inspiration for a story or solution to a problem while bathing? I have. I attribute this to the fact that bathing is more or less an autonomous task that I can focus my conscious thoughts on reflection.

The same goes for various other activities: running, knitting, washing the dishes, scanning photos and documents... It's also not surprising why these activities are suitable for listening to podcasts.

And that's the opportunity cost here. Whenever I'm engaged in a monotonous activity, I usually have two choices: I can listen to my thoughts or someone else's (whether it's a podcast or music with lyrics). When I was a teenager, I was brooding and contemplative, mainly because I had all the time in the world. I didn't have a lot of friends to hang out with (which is a different story altogether) so I typically spent recess and lunch alone. I also didn't listen to the radio so the trip to and from school was spent on introspection.

That eventually changed when I got a portable media player (PMP). Whether it's podcasts or Japanese music, I don't have to spend my solitary moments with my thoughts. Except when bathing. I wouldn't want to wreck my iPod Touch.

It's not just music that keeps us from reflection. It can be engrossing ourselves with work. Or video games. Or media (whether it's television or film). We might drown ourselves in alcohol or drugs. Or simply embrace lethargy and sleep and eat, sleep and eat.

That's not to say reflection is the ultimate form of transcendence. The threat to one's sanity with solitary confinement isn't just the lack of social interaction, but the fact that we have nothing else to do but contemplate. Too much introspection and we might end up focusing on the possibilities and what-ifs instead of the reality at hand. Or we might be seduced by the allure of theorycrafting and imagining events without backing it up with action.

Still, for the most part, I think reflection is an important part of our lives. It can be a scary experience but it also be enlightening. As a communicator--and not just a writer--I think it's important that we be able to articulate our thoughts, opinions, and emotions. Reflection helps us with that. And we need to set aside time for it. It's all too easy to get wrapped up with our other priorities.

Essay: Persistence

"One thing I think about, as I work on this writing career of mine, is that anything worth building takes time. Consistent action over time, specifically." - Theodora Goss

I was just reading Shelly Li's old (by Internet years) blog entry entitled "Best of Luck Elsewhere" and she mentions something we've all heard before: the road to publication is paved with rejection slips and takes time. (It is, of course, possible to get published in your first try and I've interviewed some authors wherein that's the case; they're the exception rather than the norm though and let me be the first person to tell you that I'm not exceptional.) Li speaks wise words. I'm even more impressed that this is coming from someone who's ten years my junior and has a prolific bibliography to back it up. (What was I doing when I was eighteen? Not writing fiction, that's what.)

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Theodora Goss who's celebrating 40,000 hits on her site after four months of blogging (Congrats Dora!). Now Goss is a talented writer (she's a big influence on how I read and write speculative fiction) and I'm surprised she hasn't garnered a huge blog following (if I could give her my own readership, I would, because she's that deserving). But just like anything else, it takes time to build an audience. Last month I had 6,000 visitors, but I've also been blogging for a long time (my old Pitas blog is apparently still up). During my first three years of blogging, I barely had an audience. It's only in the last three years that people have started to notice me (and even then, it's mostly a US audience rather than a local one).

And personally, fiction-wise, I had to be persistent as well. My fiction was recently accepted for Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 6 and in fact my stories were were published as far back as Vol. 3. What you haven't heard is how I was already submitting stories since Vol. 1 (and other anthologies as well) but got rejected. It was only during my third year (third time's the charm?) that everything came into place and my story was polished enough not to get rejected.

Essay: Goals

It's been my experience that people's goals fall into one of three categories.

The first are long-term goals. They can be abstract ("I want to be rich") or concrete ("I want $1,000,000 at the end of ten years"). They can affect the world ("I want to eliminate poverty") or they can be centered in your little corner of the universe ("I want to live in luxury with my family").

Our long-term goal(s) defines who we are, although not necessarily consciously. If you've ever had a mid-life crisis and question what your purpose in life is, a long-term goal can provide you with that satisfaction. Similarly, long-term goals can manifest itself in other terms like religion, faith, purpose, calling, politics, or agenda.

A person's long-term goal isn't readily apparent. I think every person starts out with the same objective: finding out what our long-term goal will be. There's no definite time frame for this. Some people discover their answer at age ten. Others at age forty. During this time, we're focused on the process of discovery rather than fulfilling a specific agenda.

By their nature, long term goals are difficult to achieve and we won't see results immediately. That's both good and bad: on one hand, we'll always have something next to drive us forward. On the other hand, it can be a frustrating experience as we don't get to experience tangible results (although completing short-term goals related to your long-term goal can be satisfying). It's also entirely possible that we may never achieve our long-term goal but at the end of the day, it's the striving that matters.

For example, in my case, my current long-term goal is to a) promote Philippine speculative fiction, and b) be involved in the publishing industry in some way. The former has been constant (although I might change it in the future to be more inclusive of others). The latter has honestly changed over time: before I wanted to have x books published by year xx. It's altered mainly due to my current activities and relation to my first goal. I don't mind being an editor and nurturing other talent for example. When I need to get my life back on track, I recall my long-term goal.

The second are short-term goals (note that I use short term relative to long term: a short term goal can take a year to complete for example). They can be arbitrary goals ("Earn enough money to buy an iPad") or they can be related to our long-term goal ("Finish writing this short story").

Short-term goals can be very fulfilling, especially when we achieve them. They're usually how we measure our success. Problems crop up when we have too little short-term goals that are related with our long-term goal. For example, as terrific as winning ten consecutive games in Starcraft 2 feels, it honestly won't help me in my goal of establishing a career in speculative fiction. Another problem is misinterpreting how important our current short-term goals to our long-term goals are. For example, in my case, is conducting my nth author interview really helping me as a writer? (It might or it might not. Distinguishing the point when it does and doesn't is important though, and some people still continue pursuing an activity even if it's now irrelevant to their goal.) Or we could simply be swamped with too many pressing short-term goals (i.e. work) that we lose sight of the bigger picture.

I think it's entirely possible to live a happy life simply by completing a lot of short-term goals that are unrelated to your long-term goal. When you stop to reflect, however, you might not be satisfied with what you discover.

The third kind of goal is what I'd classify as a "side quest". It's not quite a short-term goal (it can't be completed immediately) but it's not as essential as a long-term goal. For example, in my case, this takes the form of romance. Despite my rants for the past month, I'm fine living the life of a bachelor (and I've even imagined dying single). But when someone interesting comes into my life, courtship takes on the form of a long-term goal (and anyone in a relationship knows it doesn't end with marriage) and there are various short-term goals I know that I need to take (first date, second date, etc.).

Unlike long-term goals, it's possible to quickly meet failure with "side quests". Again, it's not essential to who you are, but on the other hand, failure in this endeavor can feel just as devastating (and this isn't just failure as a short-term goal but failure in a series of short-term goals). On the other hand, this can morph into a long-term goal (not applicable to romance but some other "side quest" such as the charity you're a patron of taking up much of your life).

What are your goals? How does it come into play as a reader and/or writer?

Essay: Miscellaneous Real Life Insights (feel free to skip as it's not book-related)

My life tends to revolve around two phases. One phase involves telling people "I'm busy" (I really am) and focusing on various projects and work that I'm involved with. I spend most of my free time reading and writing, and the occasional Saturday outing with my gaming group. The other phase is the complete opposite: I yearn for company and start calling old friends. It might involve dinner, a simple chat, or some other communal activity. The former tends to be more common than the latter, as it usually takes just a few instances of going out before I resume my hermetic lifestyle once again.

I met my crush during my phase of reaching out to old friends. I wasn't expecting it (whoever plans to fall in love?) but the entire experience is heightened by my mood at the time, exposing the loneliness that engulfs most of my waking hours.

(Having said that, it also exposed my lack of social skills, and the fact that it's sometimes harder to rekindle old friendships than it is to make new friends from strangers.)

Whenever I mention my broken heart to friends, they inquire whether the rejection was difficult. Well, considering that for my previous crush half a decade ago, I experienced receiving the silent treatment for a year or two (even after walking with her for kilometers), had the phone slammed down on me, one of my letters torn into several pieces, and books abandoned in public places for other people to pick up, so having my crush be direct and mention that she's not interested in a relationship outside of platonic friendship actually couldn't be any gentler. But, as I point out, it's a rejection nonetheless, and so my brooding mood. I compare it to the death of someone you love (a friend, a relative, someone important or influential in your life): they can have the most peaceful of deaths or the most glorious demise (if you believe in Valhalla) and while there's a certain comfort in that, it doesn't change the fact that they're dead and so we mourn.

I was talking with my crush and I told her the value of an early rejection is that it hurts less compared to when you break it to them later on, when they've built up all this hope and expectations. That's why I want an honest answer when it comes to such matters, none of the second-guessing or ambiguous signals given by someone who's afraid of hurting the other person's feelings. I don't think you can avoid hurting someone's feelings--a rejection is a rejection--but at least if you're direct with them, they can cope faster, and there's a sense of closure in that chapter of their life rather than perpetuating a constant state that shifts between hope and despair.

Unlike the first time your heart is broken, I know I'll survive this. I have coping mechanisms in place, borne from past experience. Of course there's a cognitive dissonance between what you know and what you feel. I know I'll move on eventually but the day-to-day moments can be full of anxiety.

(Some coping mechanisms feel follow though. I was out late last night, playing DotA with my gaming group, and while it was distracting for the four hours we spent, it didn't feel productive when the game ended. An alcohol binge is the same case.)

Potential is what kills you in the end. You can't help but wonder the what-ifs and what-could-have-beens, even if in reality, that's not how it would have played out (everything is ideal in your imagination). It might make for great stories, but in real life, it's honestly unnecessary self-inflicted anguish. The grass always seems greener from the other side and you never take into account Murphy's Law.

Essay: eBooks and What Matters

Context is very important. Last week, I came across two seemingly-contradictory articles, at least if we only read the headlines and the first few paragraphs: E-Readers Fail At Education and iPad Study Released by Oklahoma State University. To sum up both articles: one showcases how ineffective eBook readers are, while the other praises the iPad.

Over the past few months, I've migrated from reading eBooks on a computer to an iPod Touch to a cheap eBook reader to an iPad. While my conclusions is based on personal experience, I think it gives me leeway to extrapolate on the subject.

The Reader Matters

Whenever there is a discussion, I think it's important to nail down who the reader is. It's not simply about the demographic, classified by age or profession or degree, but who they are as individuals. Are they open to reading on a computer screen? LCD or e-Paper? How tech-savvy are they? Any medical handicaps that may impede (or in some cases, benefit) from using an eBook reader? (I also want to point out how these questions are framed from the assumption that paper is the default and theoretically best method.)

That's not to say these details are easy to consolidate and present in a report, especially as a statistic, but when it comes to individual choices of whether to use an eBook reader or not, I think these are essential questions which can't be covered by a generic recommendation.

The Book Matters

I've been in a reading slump as of late but there have usually been two motivators for me when it comes to reading books on an electronic device--and this element isn't stated often.

The first is how badly do I want to read this book? I'm a genre reader from the Philippines so book scarcity--whether it's a supply problem (not available here) or a finances problem (it's available but it's not within my budget)--is a genuine problem. If eBooks can overcome those problems, my desire to read a particular book can possibly overcome any anti-eBook bias I might have. I don't think this is constant rule, but just as we make exceptions to various standard responses, I think a book that's compelling enough to the reader might make us "put up" with eBook readers, no matter how sub-optimal it might be.

Related to this is the content: reading on an electronic device is compelling because the writing is good, rather than because of the medium. Similarly, it might be an unpleasant experience because the writing is terrible. I think what often doesn't get asked is whether the text is unwieldy because of the text itself, rather than the fact that it's an eBook.

The Device Matters

I've held a Kindle. I've used an iPad. The two are completely different reading experiences. And those aren't the only options: personal computers, tablets, mobile phones, and various eBook readers. Sometimes, even the lines are blurred (is the Nook a tablet or a dedicated eBook reader?). Businesswire's coverage of the iPad is focused and presents us with all the necessary variables ("The most important consideration is the device must be truly integrated. Simply distributing the device without evaluation of how the course might be modified for its use limits the impact."). Fast Company, on the other hand, generalizes Kindle as a representative for all eBook readers (it's not).

Here's my story: I bought an iPod Touch. It's portable and I carry it everywhere. I love reading ePubs on it. PDFs--which happens to be most of my collection--not so much. I bought a generic eBook reader. It was slow. I read one book with it--and it's a book I really really loved--and then gave it away. I bought an iPad. It's perfect for PDFs. I easily sneak in time to read on an iPad.

Not all devices are created equal, and there are other variables at play as well (see below).

The Format Matters

There is also the format question, and it's a very important question, especially as you move from genre to genre, or depending on what your eBook is designed to do.

On a fundamental level, bad design can ruin an eBook. It can be improper formatting or simply an inelegant presentation of a book in an electronic medium (which can be the case with text books and other, fancier eBooks such as this).

Another way is the story I mentioned above: on a small device like an iPod Touch, I prefer ePub. For an iPad, whatever reservations I had for PDFs are nonexistent (of course it has to be said that other people dislike PDFs even on an iPad).

Much like Fast Company's assumption that all eBook readers are Kindles, we also need to take into consideration the various formats and its correlation with eBooks. eBooks isn't just ePub. Or PDF. Or Mobi. Or Docs. There's a plethora of formats out there and it does impact the reading experience.

The Price Matters

While some options are clearly superior to others (again, relative to the user; for me an iPad is superior to the Kindle but that's not the case for everyone), this is mitigated by practical concerns such as economics. For example, I think iPads are great in the academe... except most students here won't be able to afford it. I just bought an iPad and it's easily twice my monthly salary, if not more. Print, especially in countries outside of the US/UK (where English eBooks are at its peak), is simply more efficient and practical due to sheer economics.

Essay: Passion is Attractive

Source: xkcd

In a previous blog entry, I mentioned how I'm skeptical when it comes to physical beauty. I'd take personality and intelligence any day. But one quality I find very attractive (whether in a romantic or platonic sense) is passion.

On one hand, passion seems like an abstract concept. When witnessed firsthand, however, it can be overwhelming. What drew me to my current crush (who has zero interest in me so I'm heartbroken but moving on) is her answer to my question of what was the most recent movie she watched. Now I'm not a movie buff, but her answer was well-articulated and her enthusiasm was evident. She had a lot to say about the film she was talking about, whether it was the history or the content.

As a general rule, I find myself drawn to people with similar tastes and interests, but people with a passion are exceptions.

For example, I have zero interest in non-Japanese music. When everyone else was listening to the radio, all I had for company was the echo of my own thoughts. But just a few hours ago, I witnessed the performance of Mr. Big, and whether it was the artists themselves or the fans, their dedication was undeniable as everyone was full of energy, even if the show had been going on for more than an hour.

At the end of a different performance, I saw my crush give a genuine yell of approval for the band on stage. This makes me both happy and sad. Sad because it's a subject matter I can never relate to. Happy because even if I can't relate to it, it's clearly something she feels very strongly about, and part of her growth as a person, and I got the chance to witness it.

This attraction isn't necessarily on a sexual level. A few hours ago, two friends were tweeting about poetry. Now I'm not the biggest fan of poetry, and my reviews of poetry are on an intellectual level rather than an emotional one (which, I might add, is my loss). But reading my friend's tweets on their favorite poems, they convey this chunk of their lives that's integral and drives them to fulfill their potential.

Another instance was during the recent Metro Comicon, a girl was dancing with wild abandon to a game on the Microsoft Kinect. Everyone's eyes were on her as her moves were synchronized and fluid. I don't dance but my heart immediately went out to her because of her performance.

Sometimes, passion wears the guise of confidence or charisma. If you're dedicated enough to one subject matter, it doesn't matter what kind of hurdles are encountered as you'll attempt to overcome them. Similarly, you can acquire a following, not through your own affability, but because other people witness your dedication and zeal.

Every individual is interesting, but it's up to each person to convey where their passions lie. Tell me what interests you and why. It's not just words that are conveyed, but your sincerity, personality, and dedication. And that, to me, is beauty.