cue opening line: hi neil, how are ya?
to my non-surprise, i've become a regular reader of neil gaiman's blog since he visited manila last month. (must be a coincidence, but i had the lovely experience of meeting him exactly a month ago, july 11.) about hagrid's recent dilemma of wanting to order a collection of plays published in britain but finding that all the bookstores here only have american released books, this was actually discussed in neil's blog a while back. he updates it almost every day, and i read his posts religiously. :)
there was a discussion on which editions of his latest novel anansi boys would be released where, and he referred to the philippines as a US territory. then a filipino reader (who unfortunately conceded to no one's urging that the philippines was "small and weak," ugh-- come on, great rallying of spirits, that) said we're a sovereign country.
neil replied that he knew that, but that for book release purposes (as in mundane technical stuff) the philippines is under the US. he explains the whole thing, and the process is baffling, but yeah i guess it's a valid question why things are as they are in the first place. damn. i do wish we'd been influenced by the brits more, cos they're less crass, they're more cultured, they're wittier, and they're more hardworking and resilient. after the london bombings some indian residents were asked if they were worried about a backlash like what happened in the US post-9/11 (when anyone wearing a turban, for instance, whatever nationality, would be oppressed). but the indians in britain staunchly said, no, we are different here (as in different from the americans). they weren't afraid. i was told that some sort of backlash still occurred in london, but i dunno, the indian residents themselves weren't worried.
there was a discussion on which editions of his latest novel anansi boys would be released where, and he referred to the philippines as a US territory. then a filipino reader (who unfortunately conceded to no one's urging that the philippines was "small and weak," ugh-- come on, great rallying of spirits, that) said we're a sovereign country.
neil replied that he knew that, but that for book release purposes (as in mundane technical stuff) the philippines is under the US. he explains the whole thing, and the process is baffling, but yeah i guess it's a valid question why things are as they are in the first place. damn. i do wish we'd been influenced by the brits more, cos they're less crass, they're more cultured, they're wittier, and they're more hardworking and resilient. after the london bombings some indian residents were asked if they were worried about a backlash like what happened in the US post-9/11 (when anyone wearing a turban, for instance, whatever nationality, would be oppressed). but the indians in britain staunchly said, no, we are different here (as in different from the americans). they weren't afraid. i was told that some sort of backlash still occurred in london, but i dunno, the indian residents themselves weren't worried.
1 Comments:
Ang pagkakaalam ko kasi sa Berne's Law (na unfortunately, hindi pala siya authoritative. pero weirdly, iyong mga nagbebenta ng mga bootlegs sa States eh hindi naman nahuhuli), kapag hindi siya commercially available eh pwedeng ibenta in any form (without the legal consent ng, kung meron man, official distributor). Ang pagkakaalam ko din ang idea ng regioning ay construct ng American production outfits (and I guess pati na rin ng ibang mga bansa na me heavy affiliation with US), para naman hindi daw makuha ng ibang bansa ang pera na dapat sa kanila (maski na wala pang available format. kumbaga, magdusa tayo sa kakaantay ang drama nila). Pero kung ako ang tatanungin, sana Germany or Italy (nung naging pasista sila... pero wait, mali nga ba na mga espanyol ang naggovern sa atin? kasi sa pagkakaalam ko ang nakapagpasira sa atin ay catholicism, eh nanggaling sa italya yun eh), or Japan na lang ang sumakop sa atin (I think I prefer the last option best).
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Joel, at 10:12 PM
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