A Fascist Dandy

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by philosophe

Here's a piece of classic Futurist prose to go along with the pictures:

"For twenty seven years we Futurists have rebelled against the idea that war is anti-aesthetic....We therefore state:... War is beautiful because--thanks to its gas masks, its terrifying megaphones, its flame throwers, and light tanks--it establishes man's domination over the subjugated machine. War is beautiful because it inaugurates the dreamed-of metallization of the human body. War is beautiful because it enriches a flpwering meadow with fiery orchids of machine guns. War is beautiful because it combines gunfire, barrages, cease fires, scents, and the fragrance of putrefaction into a symphony. War is beautiful because it creates new architectures, like those of armonred tanks, geometric squadrons of aircraft, spirals of smoke from burning villages, and much more....Poets and artists of Futurism,...remember these principles of an aesthetic of war, that they may illuminate...your struggles for a new poetry and a new sculpture!"

This is from E.F.T. Marinetti's manifesto for the colonial war in Ethiopia. Marinetti's other works included Futurismo e Fascismo (1924), which argued that fascism is the politics of Futurism. The passage is quoted by Walter Benjamin at the end of the essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Reproducibility" (1939). Benjamin, as many here know, denounces this sort of thinking as, among other things, sinister nonsense and terrifying delusion.

Take a look at Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings (Harvard UP), vol 4 for more. His 1930 essay "Theories of German Fascism" is also quite prescient.

a few years ago I saw a fantastic exhibit of futurist art in Rome, apperently the biggest ever assembled. I have to say it was great art. horrible ideas, great astetics. but I also think that, in an entirly different way, the art that came out of wwi from germany and austria was phenominal. If I had to chose a 10 year period when some of my favorite are was produced, it would be wwi and the years after.

 

[johnapril]

I'll take the smallest Rodin sketch, the briefest bit of Satie lost behind the piano, before all that...

 

[Lucky Strike]

Originally Posted by johnapril

I'll take the smallest Rodin sketch, the briefest bit of Satie lost behind the piano, before all that...

Sorry, but I like a bit more noise and starkness:

 

[CTGuy]

wasn't he written about in 48 laws of power or Art of Seduction??

 

[johnapril]

Originally Posted by Lucky Strike

Sorry, but I like a bit more noise and starkness:

Is that thing spinning?

 

[Duveen]

Originally Posted by johnapril

Is that thing spinning?

It's just you.

 

[faustian bargain]

Originally Posted by CTGuy

wasn't he written about in 48 laws of power or Art of Seduction??

art of seduction. maybe both. i love those books.

 

[faustian bargain]

here's another classic futurist sculpture, by boccioni:

 

[LabelKing]

Most of his clothing was not uniform; rather he was like an updated Italianate version of King Ludwig of Bavaria. If you want well-cut uniforms and such, here is a grand photo of King Zog of Albania with his sisters:

As for war and its aesthetics, I feel there is a "war aesthetic" found in early works such as the Illiad as well as the later foundationary elements of sado-masochist aesthetics such as the film The Night Porter with the inimitable couple of genteel decadence, Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling. Leni Riefenstahl too. Walter Benjamin said that 'Fascism was the aestheticization of politics.' One can also find aesthetics of violence in the photos of Joel-Peter Witkin.

 

[Arethusa]

This guy had ******* nothing on Mishima.

 

[LabelKing]

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by Arethusa

This guy had ******* nothing on Mishima.
There were both aesthetes with an inclination towards escatic fascist states of mind. However, one tended to be more convulsive than the other, resulting in a ritual suicide. Of course, Mishima also had a sexual ambivalence which made for certain complexities such as depictions of St.Sebastien and other aesthetic-masochistic activities.

 

[Arethusa]

I agree there are similarities. But this guy is a pale shadow of Mishima.

 

[LabelKing]

I think Mishima's literature is more complex than d'Annunzio's who tended to focus on one particular thematic element. This reminds me of Fred Holland Day, an American Brahmin socialite photographer who starved himself to take self-portraits as Jesus on the cross:

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

I think Mishima's literature is more complex than d'Annunzio's who tended to focus on one particular thematic element.

This reminds me of Fred Holland Day, an American Brahmin socialite photographer who starved himself to take self-portraits of himself as Jesus on the cross:

Holy Christ...

Is this what Chuck Norris would do?

Jon.