Month: July 2014

My experimental Jejemon story “I m d 1 in 10” now at The Future Fire

Victor Fernando R. OcampoLeave a comment

My experimental SF story “I m d 1 in 10” is now up at The Future Fire (with amazing if a bit disturbing illustrations by Eric Asaris).

This epistolary piece is my homage to Consolatio Philosophiae by Boethius as applied to the modern white collar migrant worker. It’s written partly in SMS speak and a Filipino-English argot called Jejemon. I have always been fascinated by how spelling drifts in orthography, particularly when mediated by new communications technologies.

Although it’s not the easiest thing to read (on many levels) and it’s nothing like my previous story from earlier this month, it’s definitely a story that needs to be told.

Looking at the comments on my Twitter (@victorocampo) I am happy that people liked it.

Dodo Pop

Illustration by  Eric Asaris (@MisfitToyArt)

Over The Effing Rainbow reviews Apex issue 62

Victor Fernando R. Ocampo1 Comment

Over The Effing Rainbow has a review of Apex Magazine Issue 62. Thank you so much for the kind words!

“The other standout stories here for me are “Blessed are the Hungry”, in which Victor Fernando R. Ocampo puts himself pretty firmly on my map of SF authors to watch (read that story and Andrea Johnson’s author interview and tell me I’m wrong)…”

This piece actually started out as a longer work. However I ended up chopping it to meet the word count requirements for short stories. With so many people asking me to expand it, I am seriously considering making it into the novel I originally thought it to be.

If you haven’t read it yet here’s “Blessed are the Hungry”

Apex62

Thinking things through: On acts of resistance and our own SF

Victor Fernando R. OcampoLeave a comment

Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “We must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.” In this important essay, Filipino Speculative Fiction Writer Rochita Loenen-Ruiz asks what exactly is “resistance” and what it means, how it applies to the process of decolonization and to science fiction.

From the Beloved Country

Since the publication of the first part of Translations, Mother Tongue and Acts of Resistance, I continue to think of resistance and what it means. I am also thinking of it in terms of how it applies to decolonial work and the process of decolonization, to science fiction and how I position myself in relation to genre as well as the work that I do outside of genre.

I am grateful for the conversations that I am able to have with thinkers and doers and also thankful for the access that I am given to work that is being produced by mindful writers inside and outside of genre.

I find myself thinking of acts of resistance and how the history of my country is one that is filled with these acts. Because we have been colonized and occupied time and again. Because our language, our culture, our ways have…

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New SF Story “Blessed are the Hungry” in Apex Magazine

Victor Fernando R. OcampoLeave a comment

Very excited to announce that I have a new SF short story “Blessed are the Hungry” in issue 62 of Apex Magazine – http://www.apex-magazine.com/blessed-are-the-hungry/

It’s a social realist tale set in a Generation Ship ruled by a brutal theocracy, featuring aliens, anting-antings, robot dogs, edible plastic and a headstrong young girl as a protagonist.

They also did a nice little interview in the same issue – http://www.apex-magazine.com/interview-with-victor-fernando-r-ocampo/

Image

Cover art by Ashley Mackenzie.