In the future envisioned by author Katrina F. Olan, the Philippines is a fully-modern country with cutting-edge science and technology. A Muslim woman heads the main research and development arm of the government, while a Filipina colonel is the country’s—and perhaps humanity’s—strongest soldier.
But this Philippines also continues to be plagued by ills as old as time. Poverty persists. Historical truth is obscured for the sake of propaganda. More importantly, albeit fantastically, the country has been waging a century-long war for survival against an alien invader, as human-piloted mecha (robotic exosuits built for war) duke it out in the skies against their extraterrestrial counterparts.
By perception and by the numbers, science fiction, and its subgenre, mecha military fiction, is a category aimed traditionally at men, by men. But women can add much-needed perspectives to the well-worn path.
As a girl, Olan loved Sci-Fi, though she wasn’t necessarily a fan of the mecha military subgenre.
Her second novel, titled Tablay, follows her first published project, the steampunk adventure Skies Above. Tablay was born from Olan’s desire to tell a story set in the Philippines, carrying a sense of urgency that stems from contemporary socio-political issues.
‘What if we put robots?’
Tablay was supposed to be about Philippine mythology. But in many ways, it still is, only this time, aswang, tikbalang, and kapre are metallic alien monsters from deep space rampaging through earth. “What’s the wildest thing you can bump in with it,” Olan ponders, recalling the direction the story has since taken, “what if we put robots?”
But Tablay’s world doesn’t just draw from fiction. Part of her research also involved unearthing actual accounts from soldiers in the first and second world wars, mainly through repeated visits to secondhand bookstores.
Many of the most visceral scenes in Tablay directly mirror accounts of actual combat, from pilot plane crashes, all the way to the whitewashing of truth and deploying of propaganda as part of a national war effort. Olan reveals that she didn’t want her story “to feel like a repeat” of the conventions of mecha military Sci-Fi.
Additionally, Olan hails from a family of artists, scientists, and also war veterans. Her maternal grandfather was not just a community scientist in Mindanao, but also a survivor of the Death March who faked his death in order to escape and later on fight the Japanese.
Hearing the history of her family naturally drew Olan to war stories, and perhaps Tablay could be the natural result of this childhood curiosity and adult urgency of wanting to voice her thoughts about the times we live in.
Her family influence shows as well, as academics challenge the established narrative, soldiers regret, if belatedly, the roles they play in deceiving the very people they’ve sworn to serve, and political intrigue reaches deadly consequences as human lives are needlessly thrown away.
Still, it is this setting that reveals Tablay’s main assertion: that as long as humans have free will, individual choices collide to impact the bigger picture.
A Filipino family story
But closer to home, Tablay is also a Filipino family story, with both poignant and heartwarming moments, from a Christmas Noche Buena scene (a must-have for Filipino stories!), which reads like an oasis amid a bleak setting, and an aunt-niece conflict that mirrors the larger conflicts in the novel.
But what puts Olan’s Sci-Fi alongside others as a work representative of today’s kind of storytelling is how it evolves thanks to fan input, a trait commonly seen in geek convention culture, where audiences are not just passive consumers, but active contributors to the development and direction of a story.
Storytelling today, in an age of comments sections, video essays, and multimedia e-mails, is, just like storytelling of yore, a communal affair—a gathering, so to speak, around the proverbial campfire.
Amid reader rants and raves, Olan is nonetheless thankful that her work inspired people to sit through and finish a book, especially those who haven’t picked up a book in a long time or those who identify as non-readers, based on many comments, reviews, and fan mail she has since received.
As part of the independent publishing community, and a regular at conventions like Komikon and Komiket, Olan is immersed in an ethos that’s at once rugged individualism and communal connection.
There is also the divide between institutional publishing, and independent publishing. Once upon a time, it wasn’t seen as ideal for a writer to self-publish, but with the advent of two-way communication between creators and audiences, those attitudes and stigmas are eroding.
Ultimately, Olan’s vision for Tablay is not yet fully realized. She’s currently developing a graphic novel which will take major departures from the book. It is here that Olan will apply many of the fan input, like developing the perspectives of characters, antagonists included, all to form a more nuanced picture not just of the Tablay universe but also of the themes presented.
Her mentors for this upcoming iteration include komiks industry “kuyas” like adman and artist Apol Sta. Maria, who is also her colleague in her day job in the advertising industry.
While Skies Above showed Olan she could commit to writing a novel while maintain a day job, Tablay is pushing her to dream bigger. Not just in terms of budget and logistics, but simply in terms of unbridled creativity. If one thing can’t be done in one medium, she plans to explore other media.
Tablay the videogame, Tablay the series, Tablay the musical play.
As long as the spark runs through Olan and the indie publishing community and their followers, their co-creators, the stories-within-a-story will keep charging.