----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]>James Deboo
To: [log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2000 7:30 PM
Subject: Fw: Re: Futurism

    I often wonder how different the general view of Pound might be today if he'd felt himself sufficiently at home in Italy (or anywhere) to abandon his US citizenship and obtain an Italian passport. As far as I can tell his main reason for supporting the fascists was a desire to end the war - the friends he lost in WW1 that war in, say, High Selwyn Mauberley, perhaps suggests that he saw the war as unnecessary and wasteful, the result of a capitalist system resembling a corrupt communist one, with absolute rulers and corporations who kept their workers so much in the dark, and offered them a ready-made, responsibility-free life in return for their money, that they didn't really know what they were fighting for anyway, and he couldn't bear to see everyone going back home to the same old lies all over again.
    The Futurists wanted a new artform- they wanted, in Pound's words, to 'make it new'; and, certainly in the visual arts, their impact has been enormous. The Fascists also wanted to make it new; as, I suppose, did Hitler. So did Pound; and whereas he (and, of course, everyone in their right mind (dramatic irony intended)) despised Hitler and perhaps didn't see quite eye to eye with Mussolini on all things, he did see that the utopian ideals behind Itatian Fascism, while quite unsupportable, were also, if advanced and supported, likely to bring the war to a rapid end. After all, Alan Bullock's book Hitler: a study in Tyranny closes by saying that Hitler's chief aim was to destroy the structure of Europe and replace it with something new, and that in this, he probably succeeded.
 
    There was an article on Italian Futurism in last summer's edition of the UK Poetry Society's Poetry Review; when I have a chance I'll re-read it to see if there's anything relevant.
 
James.
 
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]>R.Gancie/C.Parcelli
To: [log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2000 5:14 PM
Subject: Re: Futurism

In The Women Artists of Italian Futurism: Almost Lost To History
(Midmarch Art Press, 1997), there's a brief mention of Pound's
admiration for the artist Benedetta (Marinetti's wife).

The theories & forms of Futurism radicalized twentieth century art --
there is little 'modern' art from the last century that doesn't
reference Futurism in some way.  Yet Benedetta & Marinetti were quite
public in their admiration of fascism--if I recall correctly, Benedetta
at one point toured the country as a spokesmodel for Mussolini's new
'ideal' womanhood.

Yet, seemingly unlike Pound, the Futurists' influence is frequently
cited without the impulse to make reference to their fascist politics.

--Rosalie Gancie


C.Brandon Rizzo wrote:
>
> I've been searching for information pertaining to Pound & Futurism (pref.
> pre-war), but haven't had much luck. Did Pound know those Futurist fellows at
> all? If anyone could offer some assistance it would be much appreciated.
>
> --CB

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