Introduction

Geek Tragedies and Geek Triumphs collects works written in the span of seven

years, three books written while I was studying in the MA in Creative Writing program. This

essay serves as an introduction to those works which comprise the main body of this

thesis, while effectively also laying out my own perspectives on writing. I stress that this

essay will introduce and discuss not only the creative works and the poetics that drive

them, but also aspects of book publishing that include marketing, branding, and

distribution concerns. I include the business aspects of writing because I became largely

concerned with how they worked as I continued writing and began publishing my work.

Geeks are cool now, havenʼt you heard?

! It is still unusual for me to wake up in a world where geeks are considered cool.

When I was in grade school, first discovering my geekiness, first indulging in the wonders

of Star Wars, dreaming of wielding a whip and a doctorate like Indiana Jones, obsessing

over time paradoxes in Back to the Future, and spending way too much time with my

Nintendo, the geek was the antithesis of cool. The way that the geek is perceived has

changed since the early 80s, but then it is also possible that the definitions and the

concepts we employ to describe someone as a geek have similarly changed. According to

Katie Lambert (n.d.) in her essay “How Geek Chic Works,”

The kids who spent their high school years outside the popular crowd have come
into their own, with a defiant, open-armed embrace of what makes one a geek: love
of books, computers, video games, comic books, horror films, technology. It's cool
to be smart. It's cool to do what you love -- bonus points if what you love requires
exhaustive knowledge of obscure things.
!
! When I was in grade school the definition was synonymous to “weirdo” or “freak,”

an outsider who was “uncool,” someone who could not talk to girls (bear in mind that at the

time geeks were always male). The geek was susceptible not only to verbal ridicule but

also to physical attacks on his person or property, which is to say that bullies pushed

geeks around and they messed with geeksʼ stuff. If this sounds like it is taken from

hackneyed portrayals and high school flicks that rely on over-stereotyping characters, it is

because these are common and true occurrences.

! An internet search I conducted for another paper yielded a minimum of sixteen

different definitions for the term “geek.” These have a varying range of definitions that will,

at one end of the spectrum, describe the geek through the wordʼs etymology, like in

dictionary.com and refer to him as a circus performer who would bite the heads off

chickens and other animals and do other bizarre acts (as an aside, one must wonder how

the term fared when Ozzy Osbourne, who is a cool musician, went around and as part of

his show, bit the heads off animals; Iʼve never heard anyone call Ozzy a geek-- crazy,

yes, messed up, definitely, but geek, never) and on the other end of the spectrum

championing the geek as a specialist who possesses knowledge and understanding of

concepts beyond normal human beings. For example the Merriam Webster Online

Dictionary defines the geek as “an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or

activity.”

! In The Free Dictionary , we get a number of varying definitions, among them:  “A

person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy;” “A person who is single-minded or

accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept; “a boring and

unattractive social misfit;” and possibly the funniest definition because it runs so powerfully

against what we refer to as geeks now, “a degenerate.” I find these definitions funny

because they illustrate just how far the term has come from describing social outsiders

decades ago, to how they are seen in the 21st global society and culture .
! The definition which I prefer, and which I will use henceforth comes from a flowchart

which can be found in Flowtown (Martell, 2010). It states, “In the past being described as

a geek was considered an insult, for it reflected a certain manner of social skills or status.

Today, it is used to describe someone impassioned or obsessed by a particular area of

interest.”

! In addition to that definition is something taken from Wikipedia1 (updated 2010).

One of the definitions states that a geek is:

A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her

outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject
of their interest. This definition is very broad but because many of these
interests have mainstream endorsement and acceptance, the inclusion of
some genres as "geeky" is heavily debated on. Persons have been labeled
as or chosen to identify as physics geeks, mathematics geeks, engineering
geeks, scif-fi geeks, computer geeks, various science geeks, movie and
film geeks, comic book geeks, theater geeks, history geeks, music geeks,
sports geeks, art geeks, philosophy geeks, literature geeks, historical
reenactment geeks, 2012 geeks, video game geeks, and roleplay geeks.

! Similar to the explanation above is the definition in the website howstuffworks.com

(Lambert, n.d.) which states, “A geek has obsessive, esoteric knowledge about mass

media, pop culture and technology. Geeks are generally smart, they're passionate about

things most people don't care about, and most of them tend to be early adopters when it

comes to the latest gadgets.”

! One key aspect of geekery that needs to be integrated in my own definition of the

geek is social ineptitude or awkwardness. This trait of the geek comes from the classic or

early definitions of the geek as someone who did not fit in, someone who is an outsider.

Itʼs essential, at least from my perspective and from my experience, to point out that the

outsider status is what allows for the devotion and passion for decidedly non-mainstream

things. Geeks needed something to huddle over and discuss, something that was their

1 While Wikipedia is usually not acknowledged as an academic reference, it serves as a good place to check
for definitions on the geek because of its being constantly updated. Also, Wikipedia illustrates a number of
points about geek culture, such as collaboration, crowdsourcing, and the idea of collective knowledge.
own and would not be touched by the cool kids, whether it was the continuity of comic

book universes or lightsaber fighting styles, or other geek referents.

! With these various elements put into play, I will define the geek as a person who is

socially awkward and has an impassioned devotion to non-mainstream interests. These

interests and how mainstream they are can sometimes be subject to question (e.g. Film is

mainstream. So is music, and there are times that people have contested my being a geek

because I played guitar in a band. But the kinds of films and music and in particular the

level of devotion help to separate the geek from the mainstream.) but the overall definition

of the geek demeanor, decidedly “uncool,” outside of the popular clique, and engaging in

information and culture at a higher degree than most, holds true.

The Filipino Geek?

! I have carved a niche for myself as the voice of the Filipino geek. And I think it is

important that I problematize the bringing together of those two terms, as the latter is an

inherently Western concept. Itʼs not just people in the West who are geeks, though there

are probably more of them there because of the access to media and content which would

inspire geekery.

! There is a geek community here. It has not reached a critical mass to the level that

it can influence local pop culture, but geeks do organize and congregate. Seeing geeks

gather though, it becomes clear that the composition is mostly middle to upper class, with

most of its members being affluent, which explains not only their ability to engage this type

of culture, but their access to media, content, collectibles, and the other physical

manifestations of geekery. Which is to say that geeks make up an extremely small part of

the population.
! Also, the things which geeks get geeky about are rarely Filipino. Filipino content at

present is developed for the masa, and it largely excludes the geek from its considerations

when TV shows, movies, music, or other forms of entertainment media are designed.

! This means that the Filipino-ness of a geek will be at question, because while

Filipino in nationality, the geek will inhabit a consciousness that is not Filipino. It is

arguable that the consciousness is largely Western- or Japanese- influenced as most of

the content that fuels geekery is either from the West or Japan. While this might lead us to

assumptions that this is just the spreading of Western cultural hegemony, we can also

point out that the content that geeks get geeky about isnʼt pop or mainstream either, but

constitutes fringe culture and interests. Itʼs more likely that the values geeks ascribe to are

influenced not by the hegemony of the West, but rather the teachings of The Jedi Council

and The Force, The Federation and The Prime Directive, or other fantastical worlds. The

cultural consciousness to which the geek ascribes is something not fully Filipino, if Filipino

at all.

! Most geeks would point to the lack of Filipino content to get geeky about. After all,

local TV has no such mythos-building equivalents, local literature has no sweeping LoTR

or Song of Ice and Fire epics, no local movie has the irresistible allure of Star Wars. But

there is content. I canʼt speak for TV, but I think that our local epics do have mythic

qualities and classic Filipino films as well as old Pinoy comedies inspire their own brand of

geekiness. But again all of this has yet to catch on, and itʼs going to take a lot more before

there is a brand of true Filipino geekiness.

! Where does that leave me, as a person who attempts to document his own

geekiness in this world, with an eye on the movements of pop culture? It presents on my

end a substantial problem, as it shows limitations in the way that I can engage Filipino

content, Filipino consciousness.

! The true Filipino geek does not exist. Knowing this it becomes apparent that the

way is clear to create an identity which has never been explored in our literature before, an

identity that engages both global interests and hopefully local concerns.

So a Rogue, a Dark Elf, and a Paladin walk into a bar…

! The coolness of being a geek is a new thing. It probably coincides with the fact that

never before have geek references been so easily accessible. We see then a maturation

of a number of factors such as geek humor, cultural engagement of content, and ease of

access to content, which lead to the new opportunities for the popularity of geek literature.

This is to say that with the proliferation of content (which in this case refers to all media

products and artifacts including film, television, music, literature and extending on to new

media like youtube videos, viral campaigns, Facebook memes, etc.) and everyone having

access to all of this culture brought about by technology, geek culture and geek

consciousness are defining the mainstream. As Patton Oswalt (2010) explains in his essay

“Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die”:

! Everyone considers themselves otaku about something—

whether itʼs the mythology of Lost or the minor intrigues of Top Chef.
American Idol inspires—if not in depth, at least in length and passion—the
same number of conversations as does The Wire. There are no more
hidden thought-palaces—theyʼre easily accessed websites, or Facebook
pages with thousands of fans.

! Because geekiness has thrived as a sub-culture (and within the subculture, in

various subcultures, as evidenced in the previous flowchart) there are lots of jokes that

have developed around the content with which geeks get geeky about. There is incessant

referencing. As Ken Denmead explains in the Geekdad Column of Wired, “One thing that

every geek can do is quote their favorite geek-culture media, whether itʼs movies, books,

television, theater or music” (2010). Geeks take pride in their mastery of the various

realms of knowledge which they devote themselves to, and a way to prove and show that
mastery is by saying just the right quote at the right time. For example, if someone gets a

cut or some other kind of wound in the presence of a group of geeks, it is very likely that

one will say, “Itʼs just a flesh wound!” and then the rest of the group would join in, begin to

start sporting British accents, and follow up with their own favorite quips from the Monty

Python films. As Oswalt shares, “When our coworkers nodded along to Springsteen and

Madonna songs at the local Benniganʼs, my select friends and I would quietly trade out-of-

context lines from Monty Python sketches—a thievesʼ cant, a code language used for

identification” (2010).

! This kind of behavior would cause great amusement among geeks, and referencing

the right things at the right times would serve as badges of membership in this culturally

elite, smart-ass group. Talk about classic weaknesses of Green Lantern (wood, the color

yellow), inconsistencies in the continuity of various multiverses, RetConned episodes of

Star Trek: TNG, or other quick and fun references and you would fit in with the group of

geeks. But try cracking jokes about these things in normal company and you would be

greeted with blank stares.

! Now though, with the proliferation of technology, geek gateways, and google and

wikipedia, as well as wikis for various geekdowns (for example wookieepedia for Star

Wars) there is quick access to explanations. Further, with the internet, finding the content

being referenced is a few clicks and keystrokes away. Thus what was once confined to a

subculture is now available to everyone. And the in-jokes of that subculture are now larger

cultural touchstones.

! The referencing, which extends to mainstream film and television (witness

Tarantinoʼs films or popular television shows like 30 Rock and most notably Community

that make the nonstop intertexualtiy and referencing a staple of their content) is now

considered a cool smart thing to do. Even if you cannot go quoting Yoda, at least you know

that it is Yoda being quoted and you can laugh along to it. For some reason, the old uncool
is in this paradigm the new cool. As Lars Konzack (2006) explains in his essay “Geek

Culture: The 3rd Counter-Culture,” “Not long ago nobody would have known outside the

geek culture what was meant by player character, experience points, level gain, and hit

points. Now it seems everybody knows. The geek culture is transforming mainstream

culture and itʼs just the beginning of a general cultural change in that direction.”

! What this means for humor is that the intertextuality inherent in geek humor is now

embedded in contemporary popular culture (at least Western-influenced modes of culture,

this aspect to be discussed later). When a geek cracks a joke, people get it, whether they

are geeks or not. This becomes key in my own writing as I take a stance that is rooted in

being a geek outsider, and yet the observations, issues engaged, and references made

are still understandable and relatable to the non-geek reader.

Geek as Life and Persona

! The the geek persona which I appropriate in my writing, the geeks and geekiness

that I feature in my short stories, and the actual lifestyle that I hold have large overlaps. If

these were drawn up as a Venn diagram, it would be three circles almost perfectly on top

of each other.

One of the things that I take care to do is never to pretend, to attempt to appropriate

a consciousness or identity which I do not actually have, because that would seem a

betrayal of trust between the reader, who trusts and believes me to be a geek, and myself.

! The appropriation of this personality comes naturally, and yet it is so because of the

years of cultivation and development not of the persona per se, but of the lifestyle, of living

as a geek. As such, it becomes important to discuss how this identity was formed and how

it is deployed in the writing of the books in the main section of the thesis.
! I have always believed that a level of “other-ing” or “other-ness” is essential for

someone to come up with different ideas and perspectives. In my undergraduate thesis I

discuss aspects of this other-ing while simultaneously making light of it by referencing a

line from the film Orange County. In the film, a father (played by John Lithgow) asks his

son (played by Colin Hanks) who is an aspiring writer, “Youʼre not oppressed and youʼre

not gay. What are you going to write about?” From that reference I discuss my own issues

when I was an undergraduate— coming to grips with family dynamics, an abusive father,

and the struggle to write despite all these different obstacles faced in my youth.

! I do not revisit any of that content in my newer writing. But having progressed from

that point, it is important to illustrate the new perspective and persona to be found in the

new collections of work presented in this thesis.

! I still am neither oppressed, nor gay. And thatʼs where the geek persona makes

space for observation and commentary. The sense of being made “other” or apart which is

created by the geek experience is similar in that it grants the person outsider status and

allows him to see the world differently. I have a number of layers to this outsider status

which I employ, and I pile one on top of the other because of the conflicted nature of my

identity.

! When I was young, I was just a real nerd. I loved dinosaurs, robots, aliens, and all

manner of science fiction and fantasy. I loved being transported to these different worlds.

In the fourth grade, while my other classmates were making ant farms and volcanoes for

the school fair, I convinced a rich classmate to buy the materials needed for us to make a

laser. While other classmates were out on the streets playing basketball or joining gangs, I

was at home repairing an old VCR that kept breaking down and watching Star Wars on it,

memorizing lines and enthralled by every single moment of it. Friends snuck into an R-

rated film because they heard there were gratuitous sex scenes. While they were in that

theater I was in the theater beside it, watching Johnny Mnemonic because it was a scifi
flick about a dude who had a hard drive in his brain. When asked what I wanted to be

when I grew up, I would say astrophysicist (Space!), paleontologist (Dinosaurs!), or

archaeologist (Indiana Jones!).

! This is a crucial layer then to the way I perceive the world. It is seen through the

filter of popular culture and geekery because I was plugged into these things so early as a

child. The interest in these non-mainstream pursuits set me apart from other people. And

though it is cliché, my physical limitations also played a role in setting me apart and

making me choose to develop my knowledge and avid love for non-mainstream things. I

was a scrawny, awkward kid as a youth. Iʼd always get hit in the face when playing kickball

or softball, was terrible at catching. In elementary school Iʼd hang out at the jungle gym

(because even if any balls came flying in our direction, the jungle gym bars would deflect

their impact) with a few friends and we would talk about the latest episodes of

Transformers or the new toys that we wanted. Eventually, the talk went to documentaries

weʼd watched on PBS or things like that. We were the kids who thought it was cool to get

together during the weekends and fly water-propelled rockets or build scale models of the

Enterprise, while the other kids were at Little League. Later in life I became a fat awkward

kid, uncomfortable with his body still and still more interested in talking about nerdy things

than engaging in jock activities.

! The next layer of identity built was to come from not only having been an immigrant

in a foreign country, but also from being an immigrant in my own country. This sounds

unusual, but the kind of nationalism and identity confusion that was created by my

personal history is problematic, and helps to inform the literature, as well as potentially

enlightening post-colonial readings. Itʼs inevitable that a post-colonial reading could be

place on my writing because there is a consistent engagement with Western culture, the

diaspora, and my own experiences as an immigrant, or for sci-fi referencingʼs sake, a

stranger in a strange land.

! I was three years old when my mother and I left the Philippines to live with my

father in America. This means that I was subject to the quintessential American immigrant

experience, the idea that the future was brighter and better in the land of the free. And

though I would grow up there and identify myself as coming from the home of the brave, I

would forever be an immigrant. My identity though was formed in America, and my

conception of the Philippines was taken from stories told by my parents, books and

pictures, and what I saw in the Tagalog movies we rented from the Filipino groceries. So I

had no real idea of the place that I had migrated from.

! My cultural consciousness is defined by a lot of television I watched as a kid. There

were the mid-day reruns of old sitcoms like Gilliganʼs Island, I Dream of Jeanie, and I Love

Lucy. At night my parents would think I was asleep but Iʼd be watching Nick at Nite for

classics like The Dick Van Dyke Show, Get Smart, and Welcome Back, Kotter. I became a

disciple of Saturday Night Live even though I would rarely finish it because, being a kid, I

wasnʼt used to staying up past midnight.

! I would discover Star Wars and Star Trek and they would provide me with hours of

entertainment and what has now become a lifelong devotion to both franchises. At nine or

ten I attended my first convention. I spent lots of hours at the comic book store either

picking new comics or trading basketball cards. And feeding my love for sci-fi and fantasy

was my membership at the book club of the neighborhood library.

! Down the block from our apartment was a video store. The Armenian dude who ran

it always recommended indie films to me, and he let me borrow R-rated movies even when

I was only twelve. Just a few blocks down, with the help of rollerblades, I could get to the

multiplex and catch a bunch of movies.

! I was a suburban kid who was fully attuned to American consumer pop culture.

! And then when I was fourteen my parents decided to move back to the Philippines.

This created a kind of double-immigrant consciousness. I was raised with an American

consciousness, but knew that I was Filipino. It wasnʼt merely heritage, it was land of birth

and blood that made me Filipino, and yet there was very little sense of what it meant to be

Filipino. Beyond the token gestures and stereotypes carried over from the old country to

California, and a vacation taken when I was nine years old, I had no real idea what it

meant, had no sense of nation or nationalism. I suppose these thoughts were beyond a

fourteen year old, but in retrospect it is important to bring these issues out, as they inform

the subject position of the persona in the essays that I write.

! A return to the Philippines created a new identity, that of the Fil-Am balikbayan. I

was coming home, that was the idea. But I was coming to a home that did not feel like

home for me. I was told that this was my country and I was to love it, but I had no sense of

the country. This became key to my own development as a writer and a commitment to

learning and understanding my culture. This rarely reflects directly in the writing, as I do

not mention issues of nation, country, and identity, but in my time spent in the political

science program (I spent one year as a student but continued to take classes and sat in,

and actively participated in a political science organization and other activities throughout

my time as an undergraduate) these became major concerns. Furthering the concern were

the regular objections to my writing as being “too Western” or “not Filipino enough.” These

comments bring to question what is Filipino, and what is Filipino enough?

! These are things that were at first grappled with and things that I considered a

weakness of my writing. But then, as I developed and explored my own fractured identity I

realized that this aspect of my consciousness could provide a crucial perception filter that

could help define my writing and differentiate it from othersʼ.

! My consciousness was inevitably rooted in Western popular culture. And yet there

was a constant struggle to engage the local, the Filipino. And the kind of Fil-Am that I am

helped to further define the consciousness. The usual image of the Fil-Am is the mestizo

who cannot speak Tagalog, is tall and handsome and could probably star in a telenovela or
a reality show at least. I on the other hand, being a pure-blooded Filipino (though we know

that this term is problematic in itself, but let us just use it for now since both my parents are

of Filipino descent), have kayumanggi skin and generally have the classic indio build of

short, squat, and a little chunky. Aside from not fitting the Fil-Am label physically, the kind

of culture that I was embedded in, geek culture, created even more separation from the

mainstream.

! So from the onset, with the geek background, my consciousness was in some way

separate from the mainstream. And then going through the immigrant experience twice

over set up more separation between me and the mainstream. This allowed me to

perceive situations as a geek and as a Fil-Am. One of the crucial things that must be noted

about my Fil-Am stance though is that I love the country and I do not look down on the

country or take the negative stance of always comparing the Philippines to other countries

and finding it wanting. Rather there is a conscious effort to embed myself in local life and

local culture, which helps to prevent my writing from being condescending.

! I do not want to be perceived as a writer who puts down his own culture and

heritage because of his growing up in another country. The threat of sounding

condescending arises because I will regularly glorify geek content (say, Star Wars) but I

find it difficult to get geeky about local content. This is not to say that I have not attempted

to engage Filipino pop culture.

! My own findings and observations of the local content that Iʼve tried watching is that

it does not necessarily lend itself to geek devotion. Geeks become devoted to content that

is rich, that attempts to mythologize. But with the kind of content produced locally, under

strict budgets, chasing after the lowest common denominator or viewership, there is yet to

be local content which I can get geek about. Again this is not to say that I think Western or

Japanese content is better, but to say that there is no local content, as yet, that has been

developed and targeted towards geeks which I have experienced.

! Still I keep trying to engage local content, just as much as I engage local culture.

! I approach this culture from the outsider geek stance. Itʼs a good point of

intersection because geeks know that they are different but they want to be liked and do

make attempts to fit in. This is precisely what happens in a lot of the writing, I am trying to

understand people, trying to fit in. I have problems fitting in because I am a geek. And I am

constantly figuring things out which would come easily and naturally to people who grew

up in the Philippines.

! All of this awkwardness, the attempts at trying to fit in, make for comedy, because

comedy is when logic breaks down and we can do nothing but laugh.

Comedy and Insecurity

The other-ing that was mentioned in the previous section helped to separate my

consciousness and thus my personae from the mainstream providing for situations that

made for good writing material. I chose to always portray those situations with humor.

This other-ness, this consciousness of being different, of not being cool, of being an

outsider, is an important element that runs through much of the writing. This is the element

of insecurity. Whether it is insecurity for not fitting in, not knowing the right thing to do or

say, or just the inherent insecurities that we all have, this element helps to define the way

that many things are approached and handled in my essays and stories.

Much of the humor then is a sublimation of insecurity, a taking of the various

insecurities and casting them in a funny light rather than a sad, depressing, or

disappointing one. This decision to employ humor comes from my own fascination with

humor and my desire to make people laugh.

The desire to make people laugh stems, I believe, from a belief I have that once you

get someone to smile, and then laugh, then youʼve made the world a little bit brighter than
it was a few moments ago. That sounds undoubtedly like a touchy-feely sentiment, but it

holds true and it is something that drives my desire to write humorous literature.

Another reason, tied to my own insecurities, is my desire to get a response from

people. There is no easy way to measure sympathy or understanding or even just

attention from people when writing in certain modes, for example modern minimalist, social

realist, or contemporary fantasy. People might nod, people might look attentive, but you

cannot really be sure of what they are thinking. This is different when you are writing or

performing comedy. When doing comedy, the response is immediate and you know right

away if your material is working or not. People laugh, and if they laugh where you hope or

expect them to, then you are doing a good job.

This does not sound like something that is testable in literary writing, and sounds

like it is more applicable to stand-up comedy. But I am fascinated by stand-up comedy; I

used to write routines for a friend, and I have always wanted to do it but I have been

crippled by a fear of performing. Hence I resort to writing essays that try to emulate stand-

up comedy in its rhythm and delivery. I do test my essays by attending readings and

reading my essays according to the rhythm I imagined in my head, to see if people get the

jokes.

At this point it seems like I do this for very technical reasons. And while it may be

true that I take a technical approach to the creation of jokes and humor, there is that

deeper personal need for approval, manifested in the form of laughs. As Simon Pegg

(2010) observes in his book Nerd Do Well:

You could argue that the comic is the most impatient and neurotic
among the ranks of the insecure. Not only do they require approval, they
require it immediately, that evident and tangible assurance, asserted by an
unquestionable reflex of confirmation: laughter. “You love me! YOU LOVE
ME!” internalises the mad clown, whilst looking confident and smug.
 There is that level of personal fulfillment, that affirmation that what I wrote has had

the desired effect. When you have someone read your short story, you cannot test if they

understood your epiphany by watching them as they read, but you can have what Pegg

calls the evident and tangible assurance while observing for smiles and laughs.

! I also found that while much of my undergraduate fiction was marked by dark

themes and stories with sad or depressing endings, I had made a commitment as I

transitioned from the undergraduate to the MA program to have happier endings, to have

more optimistic stories. And in the MA program when I began to specialize in Creative

Nonfiction, I made a conscious effort to write funny material. I saw this as a need that was

not being addressed in literary writing.

! Most of the essays that I had read were concerned with being artistic, being

intelligent, or just acting like they meant something deeper and more important. This kind

of content and tone of course appeals to judges of literary contests. However, I found that

readers wanted essays that told stories, that were funny, and that were memorable for

their ability to make readers laugh and have a good time. I would point to American writer

David Sedarisʼs essays as the kind of writing that appealed to a large number of Filipino

readers.

! I was a fan of Sedaris by the time that I watched him at a reading and observed

how well he worked the crowd, how effectively he won readers over with his humor, and

how he employed humor in his essays for just as much depth and meaning as the essays

that take themselves seriously. As such, Sedaris serves as a major influence on my

essays, if only because he seemed to be beating a path that the young writer could follow.

! Humor also became crucial because of the demands that it made on the writer.

According to Alan Moore, people laugh when we establish logic systems and then break

the established logic so as to illicit unintentional laughter. For example, asking “Why did

the chicken cross the road?” causes one to think that there was a reason for the chicken
crossing the road, causing the listener of the joke to try to come up with a logical answer, a

meaning behind the crossing. This logic is destroyed when the answer is so simple, “To

get to the other side,” that it breaks the expectations of the listener.

! The simple formula of established logic/destroy logic is at the heart of all humor

and yet it is extremely difficult to pull off successfully. As the reader becomes more

intelligent and savvier with content, then the reader comes to predict how the logic will turn

out. This means that itʼs more difficult to make jokes, because savvy readers who can

perceive the way that humor operates and can anticipate the breaks in logic are not so

easily surprised and thus cannot be made to laugh.

! The challenge of getting people to laugh would help me improve as a writer.

Knowing how to keep the laughs coming would keep people reading. As long as people

were laughing and having fun, they would keep reading.

! My interest and respect for comedy can best be expressed by quoting from an

interview with head writer of the television series Doctor Who, Steven Moffat, who says:

… .if you can write comedy, you can pretty much write anything,
because itʼs the hardest. Itʼs the most technically demanding, the most
precisely evaluated form of writing. People know if it works or not. Thereʼs a
big button marked “fail,” and thatʼs when nobody laughs. I think training in
comedy, as it were, a history writing comedy, is a powerful tool for anyone.
(2010)

Giving Geeks a Voice

! So I was a geek, I had come to grips and embraced my geekiness. No more artsy-

cool posturing, no more dark brooding. More importantly, I was seemingly taking it upon

myself to write for and about a subculture that had unusually limited representation in local

literature. A lot of local writers are geeks for sure. Butch Dalisay definitely, and from a

younger generation Sarge Lacuesta, Luis Katigbak, Dean Alfar, Emil Flores, and many
others. And yet no one has written about those particularly geeky experiences in

nonfiction.

! More than writing about what geeks do or things like that, what I am trying to show

is a particular perspective, again that perception filter that was placed on the world, that

forced the geek to see the world differently.

! As a result, the first essay collection, And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth is a

mishmash of various topics culled from personal experiences. The social awkwardness,

the obsessions with science fiction and fantasy, all serve to create humor in seemingly

everyday things and occurrences.

! And even when I am doing something extraordinary, like in the final essay of the

collection where I write about joining a reality TV show, I still come out as a geek,

unathletic, uncool, unused to dealing with people, and ultimately too smart for my own

good.

! I discovered after having written And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth which I

thought mostly geeks would read, that among its readers are wives and girlfriends of

geeks, who found themselves understanding their significant others better by reading

about my experiences. I would often get the reaction, “My husband/boyfriend is just like

you.” Then a story follows about that person that was similar to what I wrote. This means

that there was something that people could connect to. And the fact that they could laugh

about it and have fun with it meant that there was some success to the approach. People

were laughing and I was encouraged.

Trek Speaks to the Heart

! After the relative success of And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth my life went into a

tailspin where I lost my girlfriend and quit my job. Iʼd gotten other people laughing but I
could not find much to laugh about myself. And yet, when I turned to writing I found that it

was the ideal outlet for all that confusion.

! In the throes of sadness over being dumped, and still with the geeky perception

filter firmly fitted on, it came to me that I was stuck in a Kobayashi Maru situation. The

Kobayashi Maru was a test in Star Trek given to Starfleet candidates to determine how

they would respond to failure. In barest terms, and what it has come to mean in pop

culture, is that a Kobayashi Maru is a no-win situation. No matter what one does, one is

destined to lose. This felt apt for me, because after the break-up I felt that no matter what I

did as a geek, I would always fail at relationships.

! I am not alone in my inability to understand women and relationships. I have always

found science fiction, the laws of physics, and the continuity of the Marvel Universe much

easier to track than, say, the ideal conversation with someone from the opposite sex.

Simon Pegg (2010) puts it thusly, referencing a beloved cornerstone of geek youth,

“Although I was thrilled and fascinated by girls, I was far more inclined to run across a

building site, making the noise of a TIE fighter”

! To essay is to attempt, and the book that I wrote, The Kobayashi Maru of Love was

a number of attempts. It attempted to understand what it was about me that caused me to

be left (in the spirit of Nick Hornbyʼs High Fidelity). It was my attempt to accept what had

happened and to try and move forward. And it was my attempt to beat the Kobayashi

Maru. It is an unbeatable test, but there is a way to win, and that is to cheat. Captain Kirk

cheated; he thought out of the box and beat the unbeatable test. Perhaps through the

writing I could find the cheat code that would unlock whatever it was I needed.

! It turned out that the Kobayashi Maru of Love paved the way for two things, though

neither of them had to do with my romantic life. The first was that it allowed me to expand

the narrative capabilities of my creative nonfiction. The second was that it led to my

becoming an independent publisher.

! Where And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth is a collection of essays covering a

range of topics whose binding thread is their writer and his geek perspective, The

Kobayahshi Maru of Love has a clear narrative line. It did not start out that way. Like the

essays in And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth, some of the essays in The Kobayashi

Maru of Love had been featured and appeared elsewhere. But when I started bringing

those published essays together and connecting them to new ones I was writing, the

narrative arc began to emerge.

! Ultimately, it seemed like an ambitious project. Going from stand-alone essays I

was trying to write a book that moved in terms of theme and narrative. It attempts to be a

unified and focused piece of work. Further, it is an attempt to write about loss and

heartbreak, two things that led me into the minefield of cliche, in the wasteland of overused

ideas. They are universal and eternal themes for sure, and that created the great

challenge of how to write about these things in a new way. Also, I considered that within

the context of Philippine literature no male writer, as far as I knew, had written a book of

essays about love, heartbreak, and dating. This was stereotypically womenʼs territory. I

had to write bigger, and I had to take something that so many great writers had written

about and make it new.

! I turn to the geek perspective, that perception filter that caused me not just to see

the sadness of the situation, but also to identify the thing as a Kobayashi Maru. How many

local authors would look at their break-up and think that they were in a Kobayashi Maru?

And yet how many people have been through break-ups? This allows for a number of new

angles that I am able to explore. The first is that the geek perspective allows me to write

what was old in a new, fresh way. Given the new context, how dating has changed

because of social media, technology, and other realities of the new millennium, there is the

age old problem of geeks being unable to get on with real life women (I illustrate in one of

the essays that we get on fantastically with digital women; then again those digital women
are designed and brought to life mostly by geeks, so thereʼs that) that made for interesting

content.

! Add to that the idea that because I am a geek but writing about love, I unlocked an

audience that would not have been accessible had I just been a geek writing about his

geekiness. Writing about love, and just even having the word love in the title of the

collection, expands the possible readership, appealing to people that would not normally

read geeky literature, let alone read literature at all. Through the title I was able to wrangle

geeks who bought it on the Star Trek reference alone, and also people who wanted to

read about love and relationships.

! The peopleʼs responses to the essays as they were published, as I posted bits and

pieces of the book on Facebook, and as I read them at events, were positive and I got the

sense that the book could really sell. It might not have had the potential to bowl the world

over with through-the-roof, next-Bob Ong sales numbers, but it definitely had legs as a

product. Emboldened by this, I considered publishing independently. And after a rejection

from a publisher because my submission did not fit in their publishing schedule (I felt that I

had to get the work out immediately, while it was all fresh) I decided to go “indie.”

! As a result The Kobayashi Maru of Love represents a very significant point in my

writing career, both aesthetically and publishing-wise. Starting with heartbreak and leaning

on references in Star Trek, the X-Men, and all other kinds of geekiness, the result is a

book that did many new things in terms of local CNF.

Geektastic Adventures

! The geek persona of the CNF of the first two books discussed appears not just as

an “I” persona, but as a character in the short story collection Geek Tragedies. It is not

surprising, and makes perfect sense that the fiction I produced is the way that it is.
! Heavily influenced by all of the science fiction, fantasy, and other modes of

speculative fiction, it is no surprise that when I tried my hand at fiction I would be writing

similar stories. Entering the writing program as an undergraduate, I wanted to write stories

like Ray Bradbury, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Neil Gaiman.

! In the writing program as an undergraduate though, I was discouraged from writing

speculative fiction. The focus was on the modern short story, heavily influenced by the

American short story with its largely mundane and domestic concerns driving towards

epiphanies. At a workshop I was even told, “You write well, but no one will take you

seriously as long as you write about ghosts.” I thus focused on realist fiction for a lot of

time in my undergrad

! This did help in the sense that I was able to receive a strong literary training. I find

now that I use this training to my advantage. I developed a strong knowledge of form, a

good control of the elements of fiction, and a sensibility for how a story should develop and

resolve. Often I find that what separates me from a lot of other genre writers is this training

in the fundamentals of the short story, and though this training sidetracked me from writing

speculative fiction for a long time, I can now appreciate its value.

! Still, there is an obvious discrimination against speculative fiction. Or there was

anyway. The discrimination still occurs when it comes to winning awards, but it is easier

now to publish speculative fiction than it was when I started writing it. This is due in large

part to the efforts of a number of writers and independent publishers who were willing to

express their commitment to genre writing by providing writers with venues to publish their

stories.

! When asked about his reasons for becoming an independent publisher, Paolo

Chikiamco (e-mail correspondence January 27, 2011), better known as “Rocket Kapre”

and for his site rocketkapre.com explains:

 There was not much of an alternative: On the “artistic” side, none of
the major local publishers were regularly publishing the type of plot-centric,
novel and series-length speculative fiction that I wanted to see (and still
want to see) from Filipino authors. On the “marketing” side, I didnʼt see a lot
of local publishers making the most out of the promotional opportunities
available for their books and authors. As I didnʼt think that any mainstream
publisher would take it kindly if I walked into their offices and asked them to
give me a genre line to run as I saw fit, independent was the only way to
go.

! Also, Kenneth Yu (e-mail correspondence January 21, 20100), publisher of

Philippine Genre Stories, explains that “With the goal of developing more readers,

especially younger ones, I wanted to provide a venue for Pinoys to read genre fic written

by fellow Pinoys.” Though his reasoning is slightly different from Chikiamcoʼs, Yuʼs push is

similar in that they both wanted to make more Filipino genre writing available.

! Through their efforts and those of others, speculative fiction was able to reach a

larger audience, and more interestingly an audience that had been left untapped by

traditional literary publishing. People who would not normally buy fiction written by Filipinos

in the literary mode were buying the genre magazines. These readers became a niche

market that was suddenly a viable reading market.

! My own writing, which as far as literary writing was concerned, and in the context of

the literary community that I was writing in, was itself a kind of niche or fringe writing. I was

incorporating the literary techniques that I had learned, and was employing them to write

speculative fiction. I was also incorporating the geek perspective that I had developed,

featuring characters who were geeks. And even in stories where there were no geeks,

there was content that was decidedly geeky. I proceeded also to build humor into the

majority of my stories, because I felt that there were not enough funny stories being

written.

! Dean Alfar, the editor and publisher of the Philippine Speculative Fiction series, and

arguably the biggest force behind the rise of local speculative fiction, commissioned a

funny short story from me. He had read some of my speculative fiction that employed
humor. Sufficiently challenged, I submitted to him. Joseph Nacino, first winner of the Neil

Gaiman-sponsored literary contest and publisher of Estranghero books and his co-editor

Karlos R. De Mesa likewise commissioned a funny story from me for an anthology that

they were putting together.

! The majority of the stories in the collection are written in the speculative fiction

mode, and they all attempt to incorporate humor in various ways. These kinds of stories

show inclinations that push my stories to the fringes of what we normally see published in

literary books or publications, which still usually follow the American 20th Century Modern

Short Story mode.

! The stories employ science fiction, and sometimes science fact. Some introduce

elements of the fantastic. Then they add on a dose of humor. And as their base they all

use forms that were learned in a formal writing program. To top it off, the referencing and

intertextuality that I employed in my CNF are all also utilized in the fiction stories. Only this

time, the intertextuality not only helps to enrich the text, but at times informs the form,

structure, and content of the stories.

! For example, my love for stories and how certain stories were told is used to remix

or mash-up some of my stories. “The Sniffles” takes the mundane stuffy nose, brings in a

nerdy undergrad, and then mixes it up with a play on Faust. “Demon Gaga” brings together

Lady Gaga, aspects of the breakfast club, and demon Lovecraftian mythos. “Dinoʼs

Awesome Adventure” brings together my love for Back to the Future and an attempt to

reach younger readers by appealing to a High School Musical vibe. And in perhaps my

biggest and craziest mash-up, “The Day the Sexbomb Dancers Came,” I bring together a

generation starship, zombies, a nerd, kung-fu movies, and scenes and elements cribbed

from Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien, and Thereʼs Something About Mary.

! Along with this love for the remix and the mash-up that was applied to literature I

was doing other experiments in my fiction. Included in the collection are a number of short
shorts or flash fiction. I was drawn to these kinds of stories because they demand all the

elements of a short story, but delivered in a much briefer frame. I also added an extra

challenge by writing genre short stories, so I would have to establish the genre elements

and tell the story all in that short frame. For example, the short short horror employs a

number of techniques. It references staples of the slasher horror film, taking scenes that

are commonly used in such films, and attempts to reimagine the slasher film as a self-

aware text.

! Furthering the demands of brevity is the section of Geek Tragedies that features

six-word stories. The attempt, as the name implies, is to tell a complete story in only six

words. There are also some experimental pieces where the six-word stories are illustrated.

! In looking at the collection Geek Tragedies we can see common threads running

through the fiction and the CNF of the two other collections. There are the geekiness, the

humor, and the attempts to play with something old and turn it new. Also noticeable are

how all of these are what could be called fringe or niche literature.

At the Fringes Riding the Long Tail

! The three collections presented in this thesis, And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth,

The Kobayashi Maru of Love and Geek Tragedies all occupy fringe/niche culture, and yet

have popular appeal. This sounds paradoxical because how can they be in the fringe and

yet be popular. But when one observes the existence of different local markets, then this

paradox becomes resolved.

! My writing occupies the fringes because I am, by training and by association, part of

the Philippine literary community which has specific standards. This community, made up

of people trained in Creative Writing programs and accustomed to mainstream publishing,

holds as its mainstream literature poetry, literary fiction (the aforementioned modern short
story and the realist novel), and literary criticism. It has slowly accepted Creative

Nonfiction as a formal genre, though many still contest the position that CNF will hold vis-

a-vis formal essay, New Journalism, and the personal essay.

! The paradox is, that the writing is fringe and at the same time popular. It is fringe in

the context of the Philippine literary community to which I belong. This is also the main

market for literary readership. Yet this main market is small in number, despite its being the

mainstream. The popularity appears in the form of alternative readership, such as those

found online, through blogs, and other non-traditional media. While my writing occupies

the niche in traditional publishing and the literary community, it finds other markets in

which it can be popular. This will be explained further as we discuss “The Long Tail.”

! So within the context of the literary community, my writing is definitely fringe. The

fiction I write is largely genre, and while it displays the elements of the modern short story,

it is decidedly different in its content and approach as it puts a premium on remixing and

mashing up ideas.

! When I re-evaluate my possible markets though, I find that there is a large

readership, not a part of the literary community, that would be interested in the things that I

write. As Yu explained in our interview, “My instincts told me there was a market of readers

who liked genre fic the way I did. I found the notion that I was alone in liking to read genre

fic impossible. Surely other Pinoys were into reading genre. Therefore, I saw it as filling a

niche. But I don't discount that such material also helped grow the market” (e-mail

correspondence January 21, 2011).

! Chikiamco states further from our interview:

! !
While I did see a market for local speculative fiction when I decided to begin
publishing, I also felt that it was much smaller than it could be. You see the kind of
crowd Neli Gaiman pulls whenever heʼs in town, and then look at the authors we
have who write similar stories, and you wonder: why isnʼt there a crossover?
The goal in putting out new content, new not just in terms of specific titles
but in the type of spec fic that I intend to publish, will not so much create a
market, but make inroads in the existing local market for speculative fiction
 in general, in particular the market for novels and young adult oriented
books.
But thatʼs just on the local front. Itʼs also important to keep in mind that
with the advent of digital distribution, international readers--those who are
simply looking for good spec fic--are more accessible than ever before. Iʼd
like our authors to have a piece of that market as well, and again, I donʼt
see any mainstream publisher making that push in the realm of spec fic. (e-
mail correspondence January 21, 20100),

! And therein one can find a new community of readers, tech savvy and familiar with

the geek references and genre writing. In the economy of the new millennium, finding and

identifying such a readership can lead to a bookʼs ability to reach more readers.

! Tech writer and Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson developed the theory of “The

Long Tail,” and it is in the context of “long tail economics” that fringe/niche literature can

flourish. The “Long Tail” posits that in the new web-based economy all things that are

online will be downloaded at least once. So instead of just one market made up of big hits

and misses, you get multiple markets serving niche interests.

As Anderson explains:

This shattering of the mainstream into a zillion different cultural shards

is something that upsets traditional media and entertainment no end...The
audience is shifting to something else, a muddy and indistinct proliferation
of... .Well, we donʼt have a good term for such non-hits. Theyʼre certainly
not ʻmisses,ʼ because most werenʼt aimed at world domination in the first
place. Theyʼre “everything else.”

He then continues:

Itʼs odd this should be an overlooked category. We are, after all,

talking about the vast majority of everything. Most movies arenʼt hits, most
music recordings donʼt make the top 100, most books arenʼt best-sellers,
and most video programs donʼt even get measure by the Nielsen, much
less clean up in prime time. Many of them nonetheless record audiences in
the millions worldwide. They donʼt just count as hits, and are therefore not
counted.
But theyʼre where the formerly compliant mass market is scattering to.
The simple picture of the few hits that mattered and the everything else that
didnʼt is now becoming a confused mosaic of a million mini-markets and
micro-stars. Increasingly the mass market is turning into a mass of niches.
The mass of niches has always existed, but as the cost of reaching it falls—
consumers finding niche products, and niche products finding consumers—
itʼs suddenly becoming a cultural and economic force to be reckoned with.
! Thus, while in the context of the literary community my geek literature is niche, this

niche serves a larger market that is newly accessible to a much larger readership that did

not used to have access to my writing. With the internet and the emergence of “Long Tail

economics” I have an opportunity to reach a much larger market, and this much larger

market can now find my writing.

Dropping Production Costs and Digital Access

! One of the crucial factors that has led to the opportunity to publish independently

has been the advancement of technology. In accordance with Mooreʼs Law which states

that every two years processing power will double while processing costs will be reduced

by half, the costs of production in publishing have dropped dramatically as technologies for

printing have developed over the years. Along with the considerable drop in production

costs is the access to marketing and distribution that is afforded by technology in the form

of the internet, particularly blogs and social networking sites.

! Before, authors had to go through publishers who could cover the costs of the print

run, as well as provide the infrastructure for publishing. An author would submit his

manuscript and it would be up to publishers to assess the manuscriptʼs worth and then put

it through the publication process if it was found worth publishing. This process of

assessment would be based on pre-set factors such as sale-ability and the workʼs

contribution to the larger body of published work (if the publisher was an academic

publisher, as literary publishers often are). In essence, what Anderson describes as “hits”

became the filters, the barriers and expectations of a text, were the kind of traits that were
looked for in a manuscript. The manuscript would be subject to a publisherʼs assessment

of quality and sale-ability.

! With the advent of digital printing though, the costs of publishing dropped, and

authors could afford to bypass publishers by becoming publishers themselves, have books

printed with digital printers, and then releasing the books to their market.

! If publishers offered infrastructure—the copyeditors, proofreaders, artists, and

designers who would work on the book— the indie author found ways to subvert the need

for these in two ways. One way was to publish digitally, which meant that the copies were

always easily editable, so typos and the like could be corrected as people read and

downloaded. The other way was to crowdsource these tasks.

! The term “crowdsourcing” comes from author Jeff Howeʼs (2006) Crowdsourcing. It

means to use the crowd to accomplish tasks that an individual could not do alone.

Crowdsourcing is driven by a sense of community and sharing. I utilized crowdsourcing

when I self-published The Kobayashi Maru of Love. I had my friend and collaborator Adam

David do the book design, rather than hire a designer. Then I farmed out digital copies of

the book to friends for reading, and they would send me back their copyediting and

proofreading comments.

! The geeky background, love for technology, and operating at the fringes which are

integral to my writing clearly played an influence in the way that I approached publishing. I

did it myself, studied by asking friends and people on the net and even posting chapters

for input and assessment. Instead of a publisher assessing the work, it was the crowd,

people giving comments and saying whether they liked the work and what the book was

becoming as it was being written. This is obviously not the traditional way to write and

publish a book, but then the traditional modes were not adapting to the needs and

capabilities that were being shown by both me as a publisher and by the base of readers

that I was building through non-traditional means. As Standard Law professor, Copyleft
proponent and tech visionary Lawrence Lessig explains, “Because disruptive technologies

rarely make sense during the years when investing in them is most important, conventional

managerial wisdom at established firms constitutes an entry and mobility barrier that

entrepreneurs and investors can bank on. It is powerful and pervasive.” (2008)

Marketing and Distribution

! Book production is only one aspect of book publishing. The other aspects are

marketing and distribution, which are just as important in the whole process. If people do

not know about the book and where they can buy it, then it will be a failure. It is ironic then

that authors who care so much about their writing and being read, focus so much only on

writing and take very little interest in marketing and distribution.

! The discussion of “Long Tail Economics” illustrated how the new economics allow

for niche markets to proliferate and succeed in the information age. We once again refer to

Andersonʼs “Long Tail” in the context of reaching an audience. Lessig explains that, “The

Long Tail dynamic benefits those whose work lives in the niche. A wider diversity of films

and books is available now than ever before in the history of culture. The low cost of

inventory means wider choice. Wider choice is a great benefit for those whose tastes are

different” (2008).

! This means that without the limitations of shelf space, the costs of distribution

dropping with the increasing access to the internet, and the many ways which we can get

books to people, then more people can have access to more work. We can now offer

wider choices to people with different tastes. Our potential market is no longer limited to

physical constraints, to what books we can put in the major local bookstores. Through the

“Long Tail” we now have access to an international market through digital and online

publishing and distribution.

! Once again we see how the different, the niche are viable markets, as long as they

are cultivated. The geek market being aggressive in finding and supporting content that it

finds interesting constitutes a community of believers who will lend their loyalty to creators.

As Yu explains of communities, “The fan communities that push genres and stories in

other countries have helped them succeed, surely” (e-mail correspondence January 21,

20100).

! Chikiamco feels even more fervently about the importance of communities:

I believe the creation of a community is essential not just to the

success of a field of art, but to its future development as well. Especially in
the realm of science fiction and fantasy, you can see that it is the zeal of
fandom which has made genre franchises (in all media) the commercial
and, in fortunate cases, artistic powerhouses they now are. A community
ensures that there will always be a group of people who are dedicated to
the advancement of the work or genre purely out of their love for it, and that
will keep any medium from growing stagnant--because if the fans donʼt get
what they want, then from their own ranks will emerge the creators who will
push the genre forward. Even the most beautiful work of art, if bereft of a
community that appreciates it, might as well not exist. Without a community,
there is no excitement, no debate, no criticism, no affirmation. Without a
community, why even bother? (e-mail correspondence January 21, 2011),

! Taking these ideas in mind, it was essential that the geek literature I was writing be

marketed properly and reach the right readers. To do this I utilized “branding.”

! Often, when we think of brands we think of major companies whose identities we

are aware of because of their branding presence. For example, there are Apple and Nike,

businesses which are instantly recognizable by their logos, and when we see these logos

we also associate them with the companiesʼ values. We connect feelings and experiences

to these brands, we form expectations based on them. And it is important that companies

maintain their brand identity, because these serve as a kind of badge that people know

them by. When someone sees the Apple logo, they know what they are getting, know that

they are paying for a quality product.

! My attempt, as a writer, was to establish a similar kind of branding. Previous

discussions of the geek moniker, the geek content, the humor, all of this built into the
brand of writing that I do. This might sound like something that could constrain oneʼs

writing, limit the things that one could do. But it is clear that these are the parameters

within which I write anyway. This means that these branding decisions were made after the

literary texts were produced.

! Like large companies I strive for a consistency in my output. No one can accuse

Apple of coming up with the same thing every year. Sure, every year they release

computers and digital media players. But every year there is development and innovation.

I aimed for the same in my writing. I was regularly producing geek literature, but it had to

be different each time.

! The content was in place, and my branding as an author was clear. The next phase

was reaching out to the market, to the community. And this was facilitated by Facebook,

Twitter, blogs, and other social media. I created Facebook pages and events, maintained

regular presence in various social networking sites, and engaged bloggers and readersʼ

groups.

! Unlike traditional advertising and marketing that blast their messages to the largest

number of people possible through traditional media (TV, radio, print) niche markets and

thus, niche marketing, employs much more targeted tools, reaching a more limited

audience, but attracting an audience that is genuinely interested in the product, in this

case, the book.

! These are books by a geek, for geeks and lovers of geeks. As Danielle Arbuckle

explains in her essay “Targeting the Geek Market” (2010), as the geek market continues to

grow, businesses big and small are targeting their products to geeks.” With the new

popularity, and with most geeks and their ilk online, the online medium is ideal. Posting

essays online, participating in forums, speaking at blogger meet-ups, and other similar

activities which tap the geek community became powerful marketing and distribution
venues. I could market and sell at the same time, give a talk and then pull books out of my

bag.

! In addition to the product itself, Adam and I employed marketing techniques that

were familiar to geeks but were not employed to mainstream literary releases.

! First was the design decision to employ variant covers. Though books may change

covers with succeeding print runs, there is usually one cover that is set initially for the first

edition. Comic books, on the other hand, regularly release variant covers of the same

issue, turning each of these issues into collectorsʼ items. I should know — as a youth, I

bought all six covers of the first issue when the X-Men was relaunched. Knowing this

penchant for being “completionists,” we released two different covers for The Kobayashi

Maru of Love. A succeeding print run led to another cover. And as part of the marketing

scheme, when a group ordered a sufficient number of copies to warrant a print run, we

offered to customize that print run, incorporating their logo or other elements into the

cover.

! Along with the design, we developed merchandising to accompany the book. Adam

designed T-Shirts and bags based on the artwork in the book. Then we pre-sold these

online, posting the designs on our Facebook profiles and taking orders so that by the time

that we launched the book, we had broken even with the merchandise.

! After the launch and the other marketing drives, the geekiness allowed for the

placement of books in Sputnik, a comic book store in Cubao X. But it is also much more

than that. Cubao X at present is an artistsʼ hangout, and the comic book storeʼs location

means a lot of walk-in business of specifically the kind of readers that would be interested

in the literature that I produce.

! This, in small business terms makes more sense than national distribution. If I were

to distribute through the major bookstore chains, I would have books in branches

nationwide, but then most people who walk into those branches probably would not bother
with my book anyway. Placing the books in a store where the target market regularly goes,

in a store that makes initiatives to promote the authors of the books that they sell, was a

smarter decision. It has also led to substantial sales.

Keeping it Pop

! From the previous sections, it is clear that there has been an informing

consciousness to all the initiatives, whether they be aesthetic or business decisions. It has

been geekiness. The geek has driven the kind of sensibility, has manifested itself in

insecurity and humor, has provided a perspective for writing. And it is this consciousness

that has also allowed for the utilization of new technologies and new techniques in

marketing and distribution.

! The awareness of a market, a new, large market of readers that could be reached

with the right kind of literature and through the right kind of packaging, branding,

marketing, and distribution, has driven my efforts for the past few years. Perhaps it is the

need for affirmation, the need to hear the laughter and the responses of people, which

make me prioritize readership over possible aesthetic concerns, as well as push me to be

more aggressive in reaching an audience.

! Geek literature is rooted in pop culture and the pop sensibility. We keep in mind for

academic purposes that pop is a term whose meaning is terribly elusive. Pop for one is

elitist for another, and Filipiino masa pop is drastically different from, say, geek definitions

of pop. In our case I refer to the term in the way it is used by geeks, to mean the pop

culture ephemera in film, TV, books, video games, and comics. I also use it in the sense of

musicʼs pop sensibility which means that you can be making rock or hip-hop or any other

genre, but the music is infused with enough pop sense to attempt to attract a larger

audience.
! In any case thatʼs what it all comes back to. All of these different techniques

discussed play into that pop sensibility. Once it is in the hands of the reader, it is still this

pop sensibility, this hope that people laugh and have fun, that comes through. Working

from the fringes to create something popular and that has the potential to cross over, not

necessarily into the literary cultureʼs mainstream but instead into the pop culture

mainstream, is the greater attempt. It is hoped that the work that follows has that potential,

or at least paves the way for literature that will do that.

! ! ! !
 References

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