The Bullet's Song: Romantic Violence and UtopiaSimon and Schuster, 4. nov 2004 - 368 pages A hidden moral history of the twentieth century unfolds in William Pfaff's fascinating story of writers, artists, intellectual soldiers, and religious revolutionaries implicated in the century's physical and moral violence. They were motivated by romanticism, nationalism, utopianism -- and the search for transcendence. To our twenty-first century, already plunged -- once again -- into visionary terrorism and utopian quests, they leave a warning.... The account begins with Italy's Futurists, who glorified war as "the world's only hygiene"; painted speed, action, and noise; invented "found sound" and chromatic pianos; thought violence sublime; and demanded "reconstruction of the universe." Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet, playwright, and nationalist buccaneer, created a revolutionary utopia in a Dalmatian city stolen in 1919 from Woodrow Wilson and the Versailles Treaty makers. In doing so, he invented the political style and rituals of Fascism, as well as Third World liberation. T.E. Lawrence, archaeologist and spy, guided the Arab revolt against the Turks, becoming both "Uncrowned King of Arabia" and masochist secular saint. Ernst Jünger, artist and scientist, the German army's most decorated hero of World War I, made heroism a political ideology and became intellectual leader of the National Cause. Hitler was a follower. In World War II Jünger plotted Hitler's assassination and survived to become a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation. Willi Münzenberg, Lenin's propaganda genius and an original member of the Comintern, invented the political "front" organization, created the Sacco and Vanzetti case, and seduced a generation of "innocents" to the Communist cause before becoming a dissident himself. He wasstrangled by Soviet agents in a French forest. André Malraux, fantasist "Byron of the 1930s," world-famous novelist, emulator of T.E. Lawrence, and make-believe leader of the Chinese revolution, discovered "that daydreaming gives rise to action." He created and led an air squadron for Republican Spain, wrote himself into the script of the French Resistance as a hero -- and became one. Arthur Koestler, the most famous scientific journalist in Europe, was a Comintern spy in Spain; condemned to death there, he abandoned the cause and wrote Darkness at Noon, the most influential anti-Communist work of its time, before committing suicide in 1976. Others with roles in The Bullet's Song are Benito Mussolini, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Che Guevara, Charles de Foucauld, Simone Weil, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Europe's terrorists of the 1970s, and "Popski" -- Vladimir Peniakoff -- the honorable man who found happiness in leading his private army to war. |
Contents
One Romanticism and Violence | 3 |
Two Overture | 19 |
Three The Fallen Hero | 49 |
Six The Mediterranean Superman | 153 |
Seven The Confidence Man | 187 |
Eight LHomme Engagé | 221 |
Nine The AntiCommunist | 251 |
The Romantic Revolutionary | 277 |
Eleven Progress | 299 |
OutMünzenberging Münzenberg | 321 |
Bibliography | 337 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Allies American André Malraux Arabia Arabs Arditi army Arthur Koestler artists became become believed Berlin biographer Bolshevik British cause chivalry civilization Comintern committed Communist Party Congress contemporary cultural D'Annunzio Darkness at Noon death desert elite enemy Ernst Jünger European eventually experience Fascism Fiume followed forces France Freikorps French Futurist Gaulle German hero Hitler human idea influence intellectual intelligence interest Italian Italy Journal Koestler later Lawrence of Arabia Lawrence's leader liberal literary lives London Marinetti Marxism Melvin Lasky military modern moral Moscow movement Münzenberg Mussolini nationalist Nazi never nonetheless novel novelist officers organization Paris Peniakoff poet political postwar published Red Brigades revolution revolutionary romantic romanticism Russia Second World seemed Seven Pillars social Socialist society soldiers Soviet Union Stalin T. E. Lawrence terrorist tion took troops twentieth century utopian violence Western Willi Münzenberg writes wrote York