THE COMPLETE title of this article is “Why Wattpaders can’t win a Nobel Prize for Literature, or the Palanca Awards.”
Given that I have recently gained so many Wattpader friends on Facebook, this is probably political suicide.
But you know what? I don’t care.
If I can’t tell my Facebook friends the truth, maybe they’re not really my friends in the first place.
Maybe they’re just fans.
And I don’t want fans.
Because fans are fickle.
They just say they aren’t, but they really are.
Smart fans outgrow their idols.
That’s a fact.
Only stupid fans remain stupid.
Thankfully, in my career, I got smart fans (who stay with me), I got friends, and I got fans who also turn out to be friends.
But to be 100% real about it, I also got fans who turned out to be enemies, competitors, and just plain evil backstabbers. Bitter losers those are!
Well, let’s see who stays with me after this “Sermon on the Net.”
(I have this knack for saying the unsayable, you see.
And many people are snowflakes.
Can’t handle the truth.)
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Anyway, going back to the main topic.
Before you bash me (and I warn you, I bash back without mercy), please understand who I am who’s talking to you.
I am a multi-awarded writer, author, artist, and… textbook writer.
Textbook writer for Philippine Senior High School.
Wait, make that textbooks (plural) writer.
I have written a Creative Writing textbook (now on its 2ndedition).
I just finished the manuscript for my 21stCentury Literature from the Philippines and the World textbook.
And I am halfway done with my Contemporary Arts from the Regions of the Philippines textbook.
Which means, I know the DepEd curriculum guidelines inside and out.
I have researched for the intelligent content of my books.
And I have observed and studied educational pedagogies and approaches from all over the world for teaching effectively in the new millennium.
In short, I know the complete sh*t that I’m talking about.
And I can call out the rottenness of the DepEd curriculum.
(Yes, DepEd, I’m available for consultation!)
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I’ll admit to little knowledge of Wattpad.
I have created an account in 2017 (maybe earlier), and I revisited it again this year.
I have stayed on it reading stuff for 32 hours at most.
But I just couldn’t stay any longer.
Life is too short to be spent reading juvenile sh*t, and bad literature.
A word about Wattpad:
Wattpad is not evil.
I see it as a good thing if it provides an avenue for youngsters to read, and write, and express themselves.
It becomes bad if the same youngsters who are in it think that it is the pinnacle of life.
That it is good literature.
That it is a good way to validate themselves.
That it is the best way to educate themselves on things literature and literary.
I agree with the Common Sense Media consensus: however friendly Wattpad is for its teenage users, it is also full of smut.
And you cannot convince me otherwise.
Been there, done that!
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Ponder this: If Wattpad is so great, why do Wattpaders write under pseudonyms?
(And I’m speaking generally, mostly, not all, idiot!)
If you are proud of what you are writing or doing, sign it with your name.
Do not hide under some false names because you have stupid grammar, ignorant knowledge of the world (yeah, that’s an oxy, you moron!), and/or perverse pornographic style.
You do not live in the century of Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, George Sand, and the Brönte sisters.
And you will never gain their prominence and importance.
In fact, if you are writing under a pseudonym right now, and don’t stop immediately (I’m giving you 24 hours), I curse you not to have the significance and magnitude of these writers, now and forever more.
Of course, you can slap this curse on my face twenty years from now if you get really famous and important for literary writing (porn and notoriety not counted!). (To be continued/PN)
