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Chapter One
INTRODUCTION TO PART ONE LAWRENCE RAINEY
In the autumn of 1913, the painter Gino Severini sent the rough draft of a projected
manifesto to F. T. Marinetti, asking him to either approve or send suggestions
for revision ("whether it is OK or requires modifications"). Marinetti replied
promptly:
I have read with great attention your manuscript, which contains extremely
interesting things. But I must tell you that there is nothing of the manifesto
in it.
First of all, the title absolutely won't do because it is too generic, too derivative
of the titles of other manifestos. Secondly, you must take out the part in which
you restate the merde and rose of Apollinaire, this being, in absolute contrast
to our type of manifesto, a way of praising a single artist by repeating his own
eulogies and insults. Moreover, you must not repeat what I have already said,
in Le Futurisme and elsewhere, about the Futurist sensibility. The rest of the
material is very good and important, but to publish it as is would be to publish
an essay that is e ... read full excerpt from Futurism: An Anthology ebook
