Mariano, the Accidental Artist

Perhaps this is an unfair blog. Perhaps it is not right to select out one contributor to the discussion threads at The Society of Honor and parse his work.

But I intend neither to condemn nor idolize, complain nor advise, admire nor despair. Well, maybe some admire.

Mariano Renato, or MarianoRenatoPacifico, or Renato Pacifico, or any of the other handles this regular contributor has acquired to gain entrance to blog sites that banned him, is an artist.

Monet: "Haystacks"

He would probably exclaim, "Wha?!!"

He is an accidental artist.

But he is an artist. A far out artist. He's the kind of guy who would draw Jesus with a dick for display at a Manila Museum, the Picasso who would draw squares when everyone else is doing circles, the Dali who would draw heads connected directly to hands, the Swift who would write a masterpiece on poverty about eating Irish babies.

He is Tommy the Axe murderer stalking on Rappler, laughing AT his victims, not with them.

He is the guy you hate to see arrive, learn to love, then hate to see leave.

He is a walking Rorschach test, a commenter who makes other readers either laugh and nod, cry or swear, or demand the editor ban this guy. Mariano is Mariano, and he reveals more about US than he does about himself.

What do you take away?

That is the magic of an artist, is it not? Someone who can create an emotional and intellectual impression, who can conjure up feelings and thoughts unique to us as individuals as we study his work? He did not paint the painting for us, but he touches us.

Most blog sites have banned Mariano.

I understand why.

He arrives as an army, flinging off 5 or 6 or 7 separate comments, sometimes related, sometimes duplicate, sometimes different. They hit like grenades, insults to Filipinos, whacks upside the head, kicks in the groin. His Englitches are atrocious.

He's Hieronymus Bosch painting slaughter scenes and pasting them on our eyeballs.

He's too much.

Until you sit up, groaning from the kick, and study what he is saying.

Then you realize this guy is more complex than Joe America, who is plenty intricate, more arrogant and insightful than that Get Real intellectual snob who has banned him, more attuned to the underlying truths about things than college professors or attorneys who pontificate as if they were the Oracle himself.

No, Mariano is the real-deal Oracle.

He turned serious during one comment here at the Society a while back. An excerpt:

• My two sisters are devoted christian believers one of them almost became a nun. They tithe big time. My other younger brother is a recovering drug addict in need of several sessions in Alcoholic Anonymous and heavy dose of anger management. He is a violent christian. Anyone who disagrees with his religion better run for their lives.

The entire comment is well worth reading to understand the complexities of religion and family life: Those Heathen Americans and God Fearing Filipinos.  I can't link directly to the comment so you'll have to scan the comment thread to find it.

When I was a naïve and junior blogger, I hated to see Mariano show up because I didn't quite know how to deal with him. Now as a wise, mature blogger (gag, choke) I know that it is not necessary to deal with HIM  . . . It is necessary to deal with myself, to check if I have the ability to find where he is coming from.

He works on multiple levels. His remark above that anyone who disagrees with his brother's religion better run for their lives is a statement: (1) of his brother's deep commitment to his faith, (2) a poke at the hypocrisy of a religious person being a violent person, (3) a poke at the violent history of many churches, and (4) a poke at the violence that overflows from the Bible.

Did Mariano intend all that when he wrote the line? Did Monet intend to make all of the humanities cheer by painting haystacks?

Does it matter what he intended? Or is the point what we are able to take away?

Here's his pop-off in a recent blog about U.S. President Obama not visiting the Philippines:

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I am happy that Obama skipped Philippines. Obama is aware that University of the Philipppines, an Ivy-league school, journalism graduates would have asked Obama whose side he is in: MARQUEZ or MANNY PACQUIAO.

A head of state asked that question will be in quandary.

When newbee Hillary droppeud by Philippines, she was asked the same question by U.P. Journalism graduates: MANNY PACQUIAO or de la HOYA . IT PUTTED HILLARY IN A BAD SITUATION. 

Goodness, Hillary must have advised Obama not to drop by Manila to elude such ambush question. 

If U.P. journalism graduate ask this stupid question, I just wonder how stupid those students not schooling in University of the PHilippines.
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Coming out of left field, for sure. Taking shots at Pacquiao, tactlessness, journalism and education. Slaughtering grammar and spelling. Making a fine joke.

When I write a blog, that is the kind of takeaway that makes writing worthwhile. It is inspirational. A contributor takes my article and sends it to new places with new information or new ideas . . . sometimes correcting or opposing what I wrote.

Many of you do that and it is what distinguishes a blog from a chat room, and what distinguishes this particular blog from others.  Y'all have your own styles, for sure, but you take the root of the article and enlarge on it.

Continue doing that! But please, please, please do not seek to emulate Mariano.

One is quite enough, thanks! hahahaha

I focus this write-up on Mariano because I think he is grossly misunderstood in the Philippines. Many here read literally, not between the lines, not beyond the obvious.

Mariano works well beyond the obvious . . .in style . . . with a twist . . . with humor. And sometimes, if you believe him, his style is drunk.

If you can take him and not go banzai, you can take anyone.

I'm wondering why I'm the only blogger who gets it, that he is brash  . . . sometimes brutal . . . but brilliant? Why is he is banned everywhere but Rappler and here at the Society? And I sense he is working hard on getting thrown out of Rappler. Here's why I don't ban him:

• It takes a bent mind to appreciate a bent mind, and he bends mine even further.

• He represents the cynical me better than I can myself.

• It takes an artist to appreciate art; I'd like to think that.

• I admire true individuality, a person who stands for himself and no other organization or ideology or person. He is the total opposite of a whiner.

• I like to laugh.

• Or maybe I simply like pain every once in a while, eh? What is the psychological term for that?

If you have a spare 10 minutes sometime, scroll through the comment thread on this Rappler article. Find Mariano's comments and also observe the reactions of other readers. I laughed aloud.

And remember, remember. When he gets your goat, really drives you banshee, that is the time to stop and reflect on why. 

And also remember, you are always free not to read his schtick.

For myself. I read.