Rice, Potatoes and Corn

Gaming and Its Uses. I was able to figure out a few things thanks to the help of the SJ forum. Particularly the VERY hard to find topic of Spanish Arms and Warfare.

One of the key events in the Fiction of Mahadlika is the Famine and Civil War outbreak during the year 1820s. Importantly how the setting diverges from actual historical reality into some alternate time line where Filipino Identity is escalated and the characters of Philippine History are re-introduced in the Stage "Under Heaven".

It is a setting where the our national heroes won't be the stars, since they have already played that tune long ago and what becomes the main features are Icons of the Filipino Identity. This can be seen in the huge cast I've already noted around 2005.

The importance to my realism research is to show that as an artist and Filipino, I can do the mental-leg work which is usually compromised with money-making aspect of art. Particularly the VERY ALIEN psychology and world of the 19th century.

Now, after that long segway some basics about warfare in the Philippines during the 19th Century. Particularly, how the spanish made war. If you can get your hands on Carlo's Quirino's Filipinos at War you will have made one of the BIGGEST leaps into getting into propper detail. Although that is not enough, to figure out a rough sketch of warfare then, one should read up on Napoleonic Tactics and the doctrinal and tactical aftermath after those wars. of course, one should not overlook the forensic knowledge one can glean from the gun used around that time: Charleville Fusil Mle 1777, 17.5mm Flintlock (France, 1777-1839) which was heavily copied and adopted.

Although 1820s is the Background, 1860s is where the exciting action takes place. Particularly since I begin my tale with the Orovida Legacy- a fictional Cebuano-Ilongo Dynasty and how the events of 1820 altered the face of the Visayas. The firearms that is common in the era was the Colt M1851 Navy, .36 Caplock (USA, 1851-1873) and Enfield P/1853, .577 Caplock (U.K., 1853-1866)- guns whose lisences and liknesess were copied and shaped the weapons industry then.

Despite the fact that the Orovida Chapter is supposed to be purely political- violence is never seperated from power or the ability to hold on to it.

Now on to the Title of the Post. In my readings about Medieval Agriculture, there is some power one can have with the understanding from insight of the Dominant profession (it took around 70-80% of the population to be in food production to sustain society; unlike today where it is roughly 2% in a developed world).

Rice and its Over-productivity is one of the reasons, in my analysis, social change was very diffiult. Rice requires a lot of work and leaves very little time or idle pleasure to the tenant farmers as well as being a huge obstacle to a farmer owning his own land. Rice is also fickle, as it can only be grown using wet farming irrigation.

Potatoes and Corn on the other hand, is another story. These New World (because they were from the Americas) crops are important as they had some very important mix of advantages and trade offs to rice. Particularly the opporunity and diversity it would create for farmers who have a chance to develop their own land.

In mahadlika and as in world history- famines and calamities re-evaluated the relationship between farmers and landowners to the farmer's advantage. Part of this was compounded by the introduction and application of Potatoes and Corn to the food staple. In the desperation to correct the food shortage the investment in the two crops allowed for greater risk diversity against future food shortages and allowed the population to explode (much like the baby boomer generation).

The Generation which suffered through the civil-wars and famine, are witness to the generation who grew up much better off, healthier, stronger and more disgruntled with the status quo.

In Historical Philippines where the population was around 3M in 1800, would be around 4m in 1860. Quite generous (but many other population factors will be cited in the future, food production and security is just one of the table's pegs) but necessary for me to push towards a critical mass.

Critical mass, comes about when enough food security and alternate specialization come to play. The fast comeback from the famine and civil war, also paved the way for the Free-Trader profession which the Visayans Sponsor. Free-Traders are basically people who buy and sell, but instead of only within the radius of a Town or Market Village (Village big enough to have a specialists take more or less permanent residence) they trade between all the key cities. eventually specializations intensify and the food producing population ratio shrinks so that more and more technical specialists and their support industries come about.

Lets take a break from the Principles of Population Demographics, why am I such a big nut for these numbers? Because, often and very often literature, success, and anecdotes tend to focus on the heroic virtues of a tale instead of the simplicity of the numbers that went about the social change. It has always been a strong literary belief that Humanity, Drama and Tragedy made up a good story, but i believe it is hard numbers and science make up for the authenticity or the believability. If we ignore the numbers then, we ignore what is real and attribute everything to a lone individual's success instead of the social and political factors that made the change possible.

Mahadlika, contrary to what I usually write in my spiel, is not about heroes at all. Its not about the glorifying larger than life legends that divorce the reality of an individual's human imperfections. There is heroism in sacrifice, that I grant, but these instances cannot infuse an individual's definition entirely and they are after all imperfect and most of all human.

I know there is a long held Filipino Tradition for Christian Virtues in their Heroes, and this has led to a terrible misunderstanding and misrepresentation and manipulation of heroes as elements of propaganda. I want to mean that Heroes are beloved for their act, but accepted for their humanity- and that is what the science- the secularism and the numbers have to do with how I tell my story.

If you take Carlos Quirinos' Filipinos at War and look at the specialists available to the cause, then you will quickly realize why the battles were one sided and the reality that only a Soldier had the Chance to defeat a Soldier. Miltiary Reality is something lost in propaganda tales of heroes and thrown away by some artists because they see the profession for its violence and not for the people that make up its neccessity.

Authenticity is what I'm trying to grasp, in my knowledge of numbers, psychology, history, tradition, religion, organization, and reality. Every thing surrounding the characters are little things that move very big things- the corn, the guns, the farmers, the laborers and change of weather.

Well, thats what I hope to tell... Its kinda hard with my masters comming up. Good thing I've discovered Taurine, if only cocaine was legal again sigh... (just kidding).

A Lady's Honor: The Analysis of a woman of Philippines 19th century

Emerging from a purely domestic figure, the woman's place in 19th century Spanish Philippines is centered around family. The role of a woman in then was pretty much the same, as women in the earlier ages: tasked to nurture children, take care of the household, plan for the future, and transmit the values they feel is essential in the survival and success of the next generation.

Suffice to say, that the very center of all families then and up until now is the mother. Consider the technological disadvantage and obstacles that comes part of raising a family, and the highly specialized roles they play in raising a child compared to how parents are now- motherhood was the only defining virtue a woman had in the time before the industrial revolution.

So looking at my story, consider a woman who is barren, a stranger to her parent's family, and a pawn of her husband's family. If that wasn't hard, consider a legacy of a "Modern" woman's virtues (the woman's mother) independent, indomitable, and passionate as it is played in mindsets frozen in times medieval, xenophobic, and closed minded. I'm figuring, the very strengths that modern women have now, that I see in the women of my family, having to be in a world where the only thing they are defined with is their ability to bear bawling little brats.

This analysis, is one of the things I'm thinking of as I'm writing my notes and struggling to make sense of it all and what I'm trying to say. Universally, how it is to struggle for an identity beyond that one that is given to you and not the Identity one chooses.

What sucks in stories like these is that I have to give a memorable and distinct name for the protagonist-lady that is not too telling. People who know me well could already guess the name that comes to mind (clue: I drew her a couple of times and she has a lot in common with this character).

Stories.

I've been reading up on a lot of novels lately. A lot of them military sci-fi, but as my favorite author (GRRM) would say about settings, they are just dressing.

Another recent study that I've been making lately is concerning population. Particularly about how population affects technology and culture. I know there are some points of views who would want to attribute the "special" unique and originality of Philippine Culture as something beyond the grasp of science. Still the hard science I've read on the matter really makes me think about how I would write my first Mahadlika novel. Specifically a short story and the setting in general.

Fortunately most of the novels I've been reading have female captains or leading ladies. Particularly how to portray them with as much justice and authenticity.

A few things I've considered that will grossly affect the appreciation of my writing about Mahadlika is the fact that I'm a secularist point of view. Particularly that I'm very neutral when it comes to religion, despite the fact that I am going to write about characters very deeply religous. Some would say a secularist would be the faithless type to get all wrong and come out of it without the best appreciation.

Which puts me to consider that If I were to write it, my audience isnt going to be Filipinos. Its not that I'm being anti-Filipino, or elitist in some way but it is because I want to be more true and to have a more universal perspective of things that many would say is exclusively a ethnocentric experience. Especially given my very sad encounters with reactionaries who would not give a time of day to even read up on the matters of Philippine history before making an opinion- so easily manipulated and twisted.

I have a few more writing projects I just want to get out of my way and I've resolved that by 2010 I will have a short story about Mahadlika in the works. I plan to spend most of my free time, beyond my simulationist exercises and family obligations to write about a story that has been wanting to get out that talks about being born human in a world much like the philippines as it is today and the time of Empire. To imagine or re-imagine the beauty of such simple times but realize the complexities that lay beneath it.

Reading so much about Politics, Families, life, spirituality, faith and science I've come with a clearer picture of how I would tell mahadlika best. I already have the outline, I will just have to fill it up.