Game in the Brain

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).