Thursday, September 27, 2007
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
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Whatever happened to the 2007 Palanca?
I don’t even know if my entries to the 2007 Palanca Awards — a short story and a fiction for children (both in Filipino) — managed to get the attention of the judges. Many times I imagined how their jaws dropped in disbelief while reading the stories written by a pathetic guy who had had too much time in his hands to scribble trash and idiocy. Sorry to disappoint them, but I'm planning to send them another maisterpiece. That's how stubborn I am. If I lose again, no pressure and regrets at all. At least I tried.
I'm quite surprised myself at how enthusiastic I have become in this stuff. I can attribut this to my Creative Writing subject in college, in which my professor was Rogelio Ordoñez. He opened my eyes to the works of Filipino fictionists such as Edgardo M. Reyes, Rogelio Sicat, Dominador Mirasol and Efren Abueg who all co-authored the “Mga Agos sa Disyerto,” one of the best short story anthologies in the history of Philippine fiction. And that “emancipation” opened the door for reading more works of Filipino fictionists including Lualhati Bautista and Rosario de Guzman-Lingat, eventually introducing me to foreign fictionists such as Hemmingway, O’Henry, Chekhov, Asimov, Maupassant, etc. Perhaps to satisfy my ego, quench my literary thirst or just to express myself — I don’t know exactly why I have been drawn to write short stories recently. Anyhow, I take it as a good justification to my staying late at night and my harboring weird concepts after concepts — in short, pagtulala sa isang tabi (laugh). I have no idea whether this enthusiasm is for short or long term, but wouldn’t it be nice to write when you’re brimming with ideas? It would be a total waste not to put all those ideas into written forms — however bad one may think those are. The thing is, it’s fun to dream and create a world from your own viewpoint and then virtually “realizing” them through writing fiction. ^_^
Anyway, the list of winners for 2007 can be found in Carlos Palanca website, or you may go to the new Philippine online encyclopedia, Wikipilipinas. It’s an encylopedia that uses Wikipedia’s format under GNU Free Documentation License. I have already registered in the site and made some contributions (editing, writing, etc.), all for the glory of sharing information and knowledge. Like Wikipedia, Wikipilipinas is a cool and easily-accessible site; although one may find some information missing or inadequate, it’s only normal for a young site which is fed on information contributed by volunteers, so I guess some criticisms against Wikipilipinas are uncalled for. Remember that Britannica Encyclopedia once criticized Wikipedia for plagiarism and content issues, stating years ago that Wiki lacked significant information and authority. Wiki was young that time, barely a year old. But what happened after some years? It has now millions of articles that provide helpful information to everybody, nth times more than Britannica or any other existing encyclopedia for that matter! Moreover, Wiki decided to make its source program open, so others may copy and use it for educational purposes. Why did they do that? It's because they want people to use their software to spawn some new knowledge sites like Wikipilipinas, all for the sake of expanding an open and free online reference.
I believe that nobody has a monopoly over knowledge, and the question of redundancy of informative site only dwells in the minds of illiberal and envious people. Wikipilipinas is a fine and welcome addition. Besides, it is free!
I don’t even know if my entries to the 2007 Palanca Awards — a short story and a fiction for children (both in Filipino) — managed to get the attention of the judges. Many times I imagined how their jaws dropped in disbelief while reading the stories written by a pathetic guy who had had too much time in his hands to scribble trash and idiocy. Sorry to disappoint them, but I'm planning to send them another maisterpiece. That's how stubborn I am. If I lose again, no pressure and regrets at all. At least I tried.
I'm quite surprised myself at how enthusiastic I have become in this stuff. I can attribut this to my Creative Writing subject in college, in which my professor was Rogelio Ordoñez. He opened my eyes to the works of Filipino fictionists such as Edgardo M. Reyes, Rogelio Sicat, Dominador Mirasol and Efren Abueg who all co-authored the “Mga Agos sa Disyerto,” one of the best short story anthologies in the history of Philippine fiction. And that “emancipation” opened the door for reading more works of Filipino fictionists including Lualhati Bautista and Rosario de Guzman-Lingat, eventually introducing me to foreign fictionists such as Hemmingway, O’Henry, Chekhov, Asimov, Maupassant, etc. Perhaps to satisfy my ego, quench my literary thirst or just to express myself — I don’t know exactly why I have been drawn to write short stories recently. Anyhow, I take it as a good justification to my staying late at night and my harboring weird concepts after concepts — in short, pagtulala sa isang tabi (laugh). I have no idea whether this enthusiasm is for short or long term, but wouldn’t it be nice to write when you’re brimming with ideas? It would be a total waste not to put all those ideas into written forms — however bad one may think those are. The thing is, it’s fun to dream and create a world from your own viewpoint and then virtually “realizing” them through writing fiction. ^_^
Anyway, the list of winners for 2007 can be found in Carlos Palanca website, or you may go to the new Philippine online encyclopedia, Wikipilipinas. It’s an encylopedia that uses Wikipedia’s format under GNU Free Documentation License. I have already registered in the site and made some contributions (editing, writing, etc.), all for the glory of sharing information and knowledge. Like Wikipedia, Wikipilipinas is a cool and easily-accessible site; although one may find some information missing or inadequate, it’s only normal for a young site which is fed on information contributed by volunteers, so I guess some criticisms against Wikipilipinas are uncalled for. Remember that Britannica Encyclopedia once criticized Wikipedia for plagiarism and content issues, stating years ago that Wiki lacked significant information and authority. Wiki was young that time, barely a year old. But what happened after some years? It has now millions of articles that provide helpful information to everybody, nth times more than Britannica or any other existing encyclopedia for that matter! Moreover, Wiki decided to make its source program open, so others may copy and use it for educational purposes. Why did they do that? It's because they want people to use their software to spawn some new knowledge sites like Wikipilipinas, all for the sake of expanding an open and free online reference.
I believe that nobody has a monopoly over knowledge, and the question of redundancy of informative site only dwells in the minds of illiberal and envious people. Wikipilipinas is a fine and welcome addition. Besides, it is free!
Posted by
Nutty Boy
Labels:
2007 Carlos Palanca Awards,
Filipiniana.net,
Maikling Kwento,
Mga Agos sa Disyerto,
Wikipilipinas
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