The Infinite Library and Other Stories
by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo
For #ThrowbackThursday, #TBT I am sharing the cover and the first page of Hu Shaoyan’s Chinese translation of “Blessed Are the Hungry” which originally appeared in the March 2015 issue of Science Fiction World. Western readers may find the cover artwork familiar (“Spring Day is Coming” by Liu Junwei) as it also appeared as the cover of Clarkesworld issue 105 later that year.
Very happy to announce that I have sold two stories in the last two weeks. The first one is “Brother to Space, Sister to Time”, a family drama/space opera piece set in the last remaining Filipino space colony, very far away from mother Earth.
One of the things I really liked about this work was that I got to meditate on three important issues on the future of communication. It allowed me to explore questions like:
1. When you create a device that can communicate across interstellar space, aren’t you also creating one that can talk through time?
2. Is it possible to weaponize music to hack into someone’s brain?
3. What happens to a highly social group (such as Filipino society) when you can no longer communicated without tech mediation?
The second story I’ve sold is my Pre-hispanic “woodpunk” story called “My Father is Made of Light” where the ancient Filipino household dieties called “Anitos” are really library automations of shell, silver and wood. Inside they carry an almost innumerable number of rontal (inscriptions on palm leaves) to instruct and advise children.
It’s set in a world where people mine the bodies of dead gods for fuel and is about a little girl’s fierce determination to save her parents from a seemingly impossible disaster.
Sadly, my post title is a bit misleading, both stories will take sometime to be released — late this year and in 2016.
“My sainted aunt (God bless her fucking soul) and I didn’t get along. She tried to sell me for fertilizer…”
Another new post is up on #WhereGhostWordsDwell. Please check it out!
(Art courtesy of Jon Jaylo)
I am so honored to announce that “Blessed Are the Hungry” (which originally appeared in Issue 62 of Apex Magazine) has been translated into Chinese by my friend Hu Shao Yan. It appears on this month’s edition of Science Fiction World! This magazine has a circulation of about 130K subscribers and a readership of close to one million people, I still can’t believe they accepted and published our work. I have been told that this is the first time they have published a story by a Filipino author.
For those who still have space on their Hugo ballot this year, please consider my little tale of a Filipino family on a Generation Ship for the Short Story category.
“Exit Quiapo Station” my Robert Altman inspired story set on a Filipino-run space elevator will be in Maximum Volume 2. Thank you so much to editors Dean Francis Alfar and Sarge Lacuesta!
Like “I m d 1 in 10” (at The Future Fire), this work is also quite experimental in structure, playing with the placement of dialogue and mixing up tenses. “Exit Quiapo Station” explores several themes that could affect us in the near future such as commercial space travel, the rise of the ultra-super rich, the decoupling of sex from reproduction, the acceptance of non-traditional families, and the socio-biological future of call center agents.
In line with my recent stories, there is a Pinoy mythical element in this “mundane” Sci-Fi piece. This time it’s a witch — a mangkukulam who hails from the “magic market” outside the old Quiapo church, and a bottle of her gayuma love potion.
Space Elevator image c/o of io9.
Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 9 has been released on Amazon, Flipreads, Kobo and iTunes. ! This is my second outing with the PSF series (the first, in 2011 was my first published story ever – Resurrection). Thank you to Andrew Drilon, Charles Tan and the good folks of Flipside Publishing.
PSF #9 has my cyberpunk revenge story “Panopticon”. Here’s a short excerpt:
“After a while, I staggered out of the toilet. Night had fallen and I looked around the deserted alley, wondering where I was supposed to go. A bicycle had been propped on a wall just in front of the lavatory entrance. As soon as I stepped towards it, the bike began to flash its lights, illuminating layers of advertising graffiti with a frail white fluorescence. The lights kept blinking until I put my hand on its bamboo handlebars.
A message popped on its digital odometer:
“Thank you for choosing a Shimano Intelligent Bicycle Mr. Salazar. The seat has been automatically adjusted to your height. Your route has already been pre-selected. Please climb aboard and simply pedal.”
I heaved myself up to the gel-padded saddle and kicked off. The bike guided me through the dark and narrow alleys that snaked through the labyrinth of tenements. Everything in New Tundon lay in the shadow of its sole skyscraper, the neon-lit Torre Paraiso.
I passed through the slums like a ghost. Through the yawning windows I saw people leading seemingly normal lives — playing mah-jongg or the card game pusoy dos, eating dinner or simply gathered around their living rooms, plugged into a legion of electronic devices. This was a town of old people, permanently idled; permanently trapped in the amber of unstructured time. Not a single child was in sight.”
Cover design by Kevin Roque.
My first YA story “Infinite Degrees of Freedom” was was accepted in “Science Fiction: Filipino Fiction for Young Adults”.
This far-future coming-of-age tale is about a boy trying to bond with his estranged (and distant) father while on a road trip to salvage nano-tech from old battlefields.
This work also features a lesser known Filipino mythical creature called a “Sigben” or “Sigbin” which has been described by various sources as a bloodthirsty Chupacabra-like chimera that’s half dog, half reptile or half goat (more from Wikipedia). Yes, its an obscure Visayan monster in a space opera setting. So sue me.
Before this story I had no idea how hard it actually was to write YA fiction. I’m happy I did and I might write more in the future if people like this.
Thanks once again to editors Dean Francis Alfar and Kenneth Yu !
Here’s a mini-interview for the editors of #TheFutureFire:
1. What does I m d 1 in 10 mean to you?
“1 m d 1 in 10” is a story about what people (like me) are willing to give up when they move to another country. In essence it explores how migrants trade their identities for things like financial stability, safety and the illusion of greener pastures.
What happens when a future immigration process becomes so brutal and competitive that you have to surrender important things like your control over your children or your own sense of right and wrong just to get in.
I wrote this story as a way of addressing many of my (heretofore unspoken) fears about living where I do now.
2. What attracted you to Speculative Fiction?
Fiction writing is, by definition, “Make Believe”, despite its realist trappings — all of it is speculative to me. I just happen to like mine with space ships and dragons (because space ships and dragons dammit!).
3. When did you learn Latin?
I don’t actually speak Latin.I got interested in it after I fell in love with Umberto Eco’s works. I do, however, collect strange and humorous Latin phrases such as “Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?” (hint: it involves wood chucks and the amount of wood they could conceivably chuck).
4. What are you writing next?
I am currently finishing up another SF Short story that deals with the differences between individual and shared memories. I’ve also started sketching out the outline for a SF novel that I hope to write (….and finish someday).
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.
Illustration by Eric Asaris (@MisfitToyArt)
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”
The Infinite Library and Other Stories 