Marinetti was the leading Futurist,, a group of Italian intellectuals. The group was launched with the publication of the Futurist Manifesto on 1909. They praised speed but were dubious about women. (It is believed by the writer that the Futurists were men to a man).
In 1932, Marinetti turned his attention to food. The following extract is from âThe Futurist Cookbookâ? translated by Suzanne Brill.
Of pasta he wrote:
We call for the abolition of pastaciutta, an absurd Italian gastronomic religion. It may be that a diet of cod, roast beef and steamed pudding is beneficial to the English, cold cuts and cheese to the Dutch and sauerkraut, smoked pork and sausage to the Germans, but pasta is not beneficial to the Italians. For example, it is completely hostile to the vivacious spirit and passionate, generous, intuitive soul of the Neapolitans. If these people have been heroic fighters, inspired artists, awe-inspiring orators, shrewd lawyers, tenacious farmers it was in spite of their voluminous daily plate of pasta. When they eat it they develop the typical ironic and sentimental scepticism which can often cut short their enthusiasm.
This is something for the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to, pardon the pun, get their teeth into.
Pasta is political and must therefore, under their policy, not be advertised on commercial radio.
What would your view be on the BCI’s likely position on the Wizard of Oz, with its underlying themes that political power is all about perception (“ignore the man behind the curtain”) and that citizens have within themselves the power to change their status and state of being in society through positive action (the Cowardly Lion displays courage, the Tin Man demonstrates love and the Scarecrow becomes a thought-leader)?
We surely woudln’t need to go into the planning and development implications of siting wind-blown cottages on errant witches or the obvious implication of preferred penalties for threatening violence to children or animals (“I’ll get you and your little dog too” leads to “I’m melting, what a world!”).
If you do enough of these, you’ll be able to publish one of those “Little Books of” and enjoy the steady stream of royalties as copies are impulsively purchased daily at the counters of Waterstones and H&F.