Authority and Stupidity

To this consistent authoritarian, a eugenicist and a fascist sympathizer who would go on to write unsingable marching tunes for the Blueshirts, the somewhat bathetic Irish version of Mussolini’s Blackshirts and Hitler’s Brownshirts, liberals regularly turn to lament the descent of democracies into social chaos, whether they see those responsible as the anarchist “infantile left” or the Hawaiian-shirted Proud Boys on the right. Over and over again, we hear cited “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” and then, inevitably, “What rough beast … Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born.”

for Le parole e le cose 7 (2024)

A few thoughts, mostly historical, about the use of “I” and its more refined collaborator, the editorial “we,” in U.S. poetry. I think it would be helpful for an Italian reader to start with a look at Whitman and what is presented as the “vatic” tradition in our literature.

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Alcune considerazioni, perlopiù di natura storica, sull’uso, nella poesia statunitense, dell’“io” e il suo più raffinato collaboratore, il “noi” autoriale, didattico o di commento. Credo sia utile al lettore italiano cominciare da Walt Whitman e da quella che si presenta spesso come la tradizione “profetica” nella nostra letteratura.

Ends & Odds