Short Story Review: The Apollo Contennial

Ditulis oleh
Made Nurulita Pertiwi Raka

The Apollo Contennial is a story about a farmer family went to the exhibit of Apollo Contennial. Arcadio Nagbuya and his children, Dolfo and Doming, were going through a long and unsmooth journey to reach the Apollo Contennial. They had to cross a river on a raft from their village for two hours only to reach the nearest city. Then, they had to ride a ‘bus’ before arriving on Apollo Contennial. The bus they rode were more or less a make-shift truck that had benches instead of regular car seats.  The bus was super cramped because they were being piled up with other passengers and their various belongings. They had to go through rocky road inside the cramped bus before they hit the smooth and even road. In cities border, they got inspected by soldiers; three youth men within the bus passengers got inspected more thoroughly than the other. The soldier checked their index finger, looking for a trigger mark caused by Nasakom’s gun. The did not find anything suspicious and the bus allowed to go again.

Moreover, Arcadio Nagbuya and his children arrived on Apollo Contennial. The exhibits were showcasing the evolution of space-exploration from the era of Neil Armstrong to the year where the story took place. The exhibits showed how far the humanity had reached in the term of space-exploration. Within the story, and within the exhibits, it was told that space-explorers had directly explored the outer planets, such as Uranus, and went to the nearest solar-system from the Sun solar-system. The exhibit showcased that the scientists believed the existence of extraterrestrial within that solar-system and people of Earth had to engage contact to them.

Before leaving the exhibits, Arcadio Nagbuya bought souvenirs of Apollo Contennial and other stuffs that entertained his children. It was told in the story that Arcadio Nagbuya had to wait for another harvest to bring back his children to the exhibits. Then, they took the same exact roads, routes, and methods to get back to their village.

I believe there is an important point where Arcadio Nagbuya met and conversed with his long-lost cousin which was written in ‘the old language’ which I do not understand so I cannot express my thought on that interaction. All I can say that it has to be a fairly important point in the story.

The Apollo Contennial is telling a story about futuristic Philippines where space-travel was not an extraordinary concept however it was still an uncommon thing because it is implied only states were able to conduct a space-travels. Space-travels were not yet privatized or used for pleasure activity. Meaning, the story took place in someday in the future however it is not that far from what we are right now.

In this fictional future, the author believes the Philippines was still filled by socio-economic inequality. There was still a gap that separates the rich and the poor. It is explicitly mentioned within the story. The story itself is told from the point of view of the Arcadio Nagbuya’s family, a family of farmer that had  just ‘enough’ to live. They are not extremely poor, but they are definitely not even a middle-class people. Arcadio Nagbuya bought his children peanuts instead of popsicles because it was cheaper, they rode in a cramped make-shift bus which was definitely not safe because it was all they could afford, and he had to wait for his next harvest—which I believe in today standard is every six months—if he wanted to bring his family back to Apollo Contennial. Arcadio Nagbuya had to struggle financially to get his children to experience the pleasure of Apollo Contennial.

It is not mentioned in the story but in a time where space-travel is super advanced, I believe there are plenty of filthy rich people on that time. People who could easily access the Apollo Contennial, people who did not have to cross a river for two hours on a raft to reach the nearest city. People who were so much more fortunate than Arcadio Nagbuya. That kind of people already exist right now where space-travel is still a spectacular thing. They had to be existed in the story even without being mentioned. The author did not have the need to mention those filthy rich people because the reader will acknowledge them anyway. The author knows if in a futuristic Philippines the kind of people like Arcadio Nagbuya still existed then the filthy rich people also existed. The author did not have to explicitly mention the two side of the gap to tell the reader that the story is about socio-economic gap.

The still existing socio-economic inequality is the biggest take away of the depiction of futuristic Philippines in this story however the story also gives other depictions such as the U.S. remained as the biggest influence in Philippines, separatists or anti-government movements were still exist, the government and military were still hunting them down, and the Asian countries were at war with each other twice. All in all the author are trying to convey a message that even in the time of space-travels, the Philippines and the people have not changed much, not to mention change into something ‘better’.

The majority of sci-fi stories we consume right now is about the advance future and humanity. The characters within the story are human who can afford basically everything because it is the future and suddenly everybody are rich. The conflict is either alien invasion, android takes over, or mega apocalypse. In short, in the future, suddenly everybody is equal. If the future is only filled by Europeans, aliens, and robots, then it is probable. But people of developing countries may not agree. I, a Muslim woman from a developing Asian country, do not agree.

I can see in the future where we have humanoid robots and successfully held contact with extraterrestrials. I can see the future where we have flying cards, where we can live in Mars, even where we can teleport. But I do not see the future where there are no gap and inequality. Socio-economic inequality was first globally recognized on the Industrial Revolution. It has been decades from that point and the gap is only getting bigger and bigger. I do not think the gap will be closed within a millennial from now. To be honest, I think it will be getting even bigger. Sure, the standard of rich and poor will change however inequality will remain.

The Apollo Contennial, a Philippine’s literature, is trying to serve that perspective that even though humanity will be so advanced in the future does not mean people living in will be equal, especially people who live in developing country. A literature originated from developing country will be the best to serve this kind of perspective because the most visible inequality is in fact happening in developing countries. This is what Philippines and other developing countries can offer on sci-fi literature, a new perspective where future does not equal inequality erasure.

However, if the developing-countries sci-fi literatures will mainly focus on the inequality even in the time of science-advancement then it will be hard to focus on the science parts. Traditionally sci-fi are known for depicting how great science has come to the point human is unstoppable. It gives an imaginary image of human solidarity. A literature alike to The Apollo Contennial can pursue that kind of storytelling only so far.