Apparently there's been a bit of a discussion going on (the Philippine Genre Stories blog contains links and a roundup to the pertinent posts), and while I find the back and forth of ideas (or, as is more common in the internet, the near simultaneous barrage of ideas, coiling and colliding in a kind of babble-ferment) interesting, I am nowhere near to being enticed to contribute.
I've always had a bit of a problem with being critical and analytical when it comes to literature - it was probably why I didn't last long as a member of Heights, and why I find it difficult to criticize the substance (as opposed to the form - grammar, tense, etc.) of another fiction writer's works. I just can't really get beyond the story, and I know a lot of my taste in stories is subjective. It's sort of like my taste in food: I'm sure that shark's fin soup is a delicacy (moral-environmental issues aside of course) but I still prefer a can of vienna sausages, I have to admit. That doesn't mean I think a can of Libby's counts as high cuisine, but it also means I can't very well give an accurate answer if someone asked me if it was better or worse food than, say, duck l'orange. I can say whether or not I liked a story, but not whether it is or isn't better than another because of so-and-so literary mechanism or genre trope.
Promotion of Philippine Spec Fic as a genre is fine with me as long as it spurs more good stories - and I think any new emerging market for stories will do that (I still await with bated breath the Philippine baby zoo animal slash fiction genre). Could such a label be abused for marketing purposes? Sure it could - but the discerning reader won't be fooled, and the non-discerning reader will be happy either way, so I don't really see the harm.
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