The Body of Il Duce . . .
Mussolini's Body and the Fortunes of Italy, written by Sergio Luzzatto is what I am currently reading. It is an excellent window into the history of WWII in Italy. I especially recommend it to students who have been on or are expecting to take CLAS308 at some point. It will give you an excellent window into the modern history of Italy and into some of the divisions in Italy we see between the north and the south.
Perhaps most interestingly, today Italy, contrary to the U.S., has something resembling a civilization. This makes the book all the more interesting to read, because that civilization is not always so civil (which civilization is, though?) The capacity for barbarism among a people as dynamic, as robust, as generally gentle, kind and congenial as the Italians are, and as fond of fine living as any people around (we - and they - do not refer to La Bella Vita for nothing), is actually quite staggering. Indeed, it is fair to say that it is as frightening as the capacity of a people who produce a Bach, a Mozart, a Beethoven, a Kant, to produce a Hitler, a Goering, a Himmler.
I do not say it is puzzling though. Given the darkness of which humanity is capable, the puzzle is that the production of such creatures is not a perennial event amongst all societies. Arguably we've done a good job churning them out for the past 60 years or so in varying degrees that range from apethetically complicit to actively vicious (though a society rarely sees or admits the evils that emanate from itself).
If you are interested in this issue - and I think you'd have to be dead from the neck up not to be interested in the concept and subject of Evil in the modern world, then two books I highly HIGHLY recommend are Hannah Arendt's famous work, Eichmann in Jerusalem, and Susan Neimann's book, Evil in Modern Philosophy (you may want to check on the spelling of her name).
Have fun, and enlarge your world!
HE
Perhaps most interestingly, today Italy, contrary to the U.S., has something resembling a civilization. This makes the book all the more interesting to read, because that civilization is not always so civil (which civilization is, though?) The capacity for barbarism among a people as dynamic, as robust, as generally gentle, kind and congenial as the Italians are, and as fond of fine living as any people around (we - and they - do not refer to La Bella Vita for nothing), is actually quite staggering. Indeed, it is fair to say that it is as frightening as the capacity of a people who produce a Bach, a Mozart, a Beethoven, a Kant, to produce a Hitler, a Goering, a Himmler.
I do not say it is puzzling though. Given the darkness of which humanity is capable, the puzzle is that the production of such creatures is not a perennial event amongst all societies. Arguably we've done a good job churning them out for the past 60 years or so in varying degrees that range from apethetically complicit to actively vicious (though a society rarely sees or admits the evils that emanate from itself).
If you are interested in this issue - and I think you'd have to be dead from the neck up not to be interested in the concept and subject of Evil in the modern world, then two books I highly HIGHLY recommend are Hannah Arendt's famous work, Eichmann in Jerusalem, and Susan Neimann's book, Evil in Modern Philosophy (you may want to check on the spelling of her name).
Have fun, and enlarge your world!
HE
posted by Varro at 11:38 AM
1 Comments:
"The capacity for barbarism among a people as dynamic, as robust, as generally gentle, kind and congenial as the Italians are, and as fond of fine living as any people around (we - and they - do not refer to La Bella Vita for nothing), is actually quite staggering. Indeed, it is fair to say that it is as frightening as the capacity of a people who produce a Bach, a Mozart, a Beethoven, a Kant, to produce a Hitler, a Goering, a Himmler."
The ability and will to create art and beauty does seem to go very much hand in hand with the predilection to create death and destruction. Two sides of the same coin? I hope not, but it is eerie...
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