Some words of wisdom from izkariote.

Furthermore, any and all critics worth their salt may be obligated to point out that it is arrogance to assume that one needs to "define a space for themselves" in Philippine literature. We complain that the literary scene is incestuous and small, but one might also consider the fact that standards have been laid down for a reason. Before one starts complaining about being discriminated against, one MAY want to consider that NOT-SO-SMALL POSSIBILITY that their writing actually falls short of the bare minimum requirements for it to be considered worthy, interesting, or on the smallest note, "new".

A recent source of mine from within the publishing industry (this source will remain unnamed, of course) has an interesting counter-argument to these young ones snapping up and bitching out about being bullied: "Do they not think that what they're doing hasn't been done already? Their predecessors were rejected because, like them, there just wasn't anything interesting to their work. They contributed nothing, offered nothing. Plus, their styles weren't all that."

One's place in the world is earned by skill, dear writer, not by contrived prose and an overabundance of symbol and symbolic meaning in the unreal.

This one's aimed more at ye budding writers who like to argue that it's all about talent. It ain't, kiddoes -- at some point skill *will* eventually come in, and that's why it's even more imperative that one not be afraid to get one's "precious" work taken apart in workshops (or CW classes).

...yeah. You could consider this my 'nice' way of expressing my developing allergy to the kinds of writers who're afraid of criticism. :3