IN DECEMBER 2017, Ilonggo poet and writer Melecio F. Turao’s book, “INSATIABLE: A Literary Biography of Peter Solis Nery” was published in the United States.
Aside from the outstanding essays, the book includes “A Reader’s Guide to Peter Solis Nery” as literary writer and filmmaker, and a chapter of the zany “Adventures of Captain Ooze”.
Captain Ooze, of course, is the superhero based on Peter Solis Nery’s life as avant-garde columnist and sex guru of Ilonggo newspapers, and his legend as premiere agent provocateur of Western Visayas.
Captain Ooze was conceived by mischievous Peter Solis Nery, and his friend Ronelo Ladiao, who was, at that time, deep into drawing superhero comics.
*
In this Mel Turao series that continues next week, I will share some episodes of the Captain Ooze adventures.
Some, but not all.
Of course.
Because bottom line, I still want you to buy the book.
Because bottom line, the book is a real treasure.
For both the story of Peter Solis Nery, and Mel Turao’s masterful handling of materials from the life of the book’s subject.
*
Insatiable: A Literary Biography of Peter Solis Nery
by Melecio F. Turao
Foreword
*
No other writer could have written this book better than Peter Solis Nery himself. His autobiography would have been as much anticipated as his next full monty. But for reasons known only to our author (something that I like to guess, occasionally), he chose me to do the book instead.
*
If not trust, perhaps friendship may have had something to do with it. I can’t claim Peter Solis Nery’s close allegiance. I only met him in 1993 at the Premyo Operiano Italia Poetry Recitation Contest, which our author unanimously won. He had had a writing grant from the Cultural Center of the Philippines by then.
*
I’d hear Peter Solis Nery’s name being said in the same breath as Nenen Geremia Lachica’s, Alex de los Santos’s, and Felino S. Garcia’s. They were “ahead” of us, so to speak, with the way our writing turned out at the UP Summer Writers’ Workshop in Miag-ao.
*
Leoncio Deriada’s rule of thumb in the face of poor English at the time was, “Write in your native tongue. You can never go wrong with that.”
*
Peter and I belonged to that generation of young, sleepless, hungry Ilonggo poets who snuffed their Blakean ambitions in favor of rural ballads and bucolic encomium. Strangely enough for an English lit major like me, the conceptual shift deepened my ties to the local tradition.
*
The Miag-ao workshop resulted in a resurgence of Ilonggo and West Visayan writing — anthologies, readings, performances — throughout the 90s to early 2000.
*
I would not meet Peter Solis Nery again until 2001 at the Hublag art space housed at the PNB Multipurpose Hall. There was an art exhibit going and a poetry reading was to take place that afternoon. I went to represent myself and my little name, and there I met Felino S. Garcia who practically purchased all the books at the writers’ auction.
*
Peter turned out flat out flamboyant. The person I shook hands with was in stark contrast to the one I shared a lunch under a tree with in Dueñas in 1993. Peter came on as a schoolboy at the time. The one who read a poem next was a cross between a bohemian and a haberdasher.
*
Moreover, Peter had become loud and pushy. Though I had no way of knowing whether he was a virgin or not, he was pretty articulate talking about the ways of the world and the birds and the bees.
*
We went to a drunken poetry reading that night where Allan Rivera, bless his soul, incoherently recited his name and occupation a dozen times — until he was herded back to his chair where his head hung for a while. Peter may have been there too but it clearly wasn’t his night, I guess.
*
The thing about writing a biographical account of someone, and even of one’s self, is that you seem to be writing about a different person altogether. You cannot be totally truthful nor can you fib through it all. You can throw in the facts and put them in order, but the moment they find themselves together in a sentence, you shall have cut their ties from the truth.
*
A security personnel’s logbook would be a more helpful facsimile than a piece of autobiography. Writing of this kind follows an arc that creates its own reality, one that is several layers removed from whence it came — even if you swear under oath before a notary.
*
This book is about Peter Solis Nery, yes, but it is not his story. This is my story of him. His story is far more than this, and what’s contained in his baby book.
*
And thus, begins Mel Turao in the exciting biography of the insatiable Peter Solis Nery, a consummate Filipino artist willing to do anything for fame, love, and art.
Next week, dear readers, you will be treated to the wicked humor of Mel Turao as pens the new adventures of Captain Ooze.
I mean, “new” in contrast to the original Captain Ooze adventures written by Peter Solis Nery himself for the Ilonggo newspapers in the mid-2000s. (To be continued/PN)
