Category: Other Modernist Figures

On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life

by Alexandria Miller Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life (in the original German, Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben), written in 1874 as part of his second “Untimely Meditation,” has been read not only as an essay on the crisis of historical culture, but also as a… Continue Reading On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life

On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense

by Stephen Gilb The 1873 “On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense” (“Über Wahrheit und Lüge im außermoralischen Sinn”) was one of Friedrich Nietzsche’s early works, and he was originally unable to have it published. Though it precedes many of his more well-known writings, it is considered by some scholars to be a cornerstone… Continue Reading On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense

The Chapbook

by Sam Alexander The Chapbook (called The Monthly Chapbook in its first two installments), was the third journal edited by Harold Munro, founder of the Poetry Bookshop, and ran from 1919 until 1925. Munro had previously edited The Poetry Review (the organ of the conservative Poetry Society) and the influential but short-lived Poetry and Drama… Continue Reading The Chapbook

The Joy of Life

By Pericles Lewis   Like the poet W. B. Yeats, the painter Henri Matisse found in dance and dancers a source of inspiration for his work, which sought to achieve rhythmic effects similar to those of the dance, as in Joy of Life (“Le Bonheur de vivre”; 1905–6). Here, the joy of lovemaking, piping, and… Continue Reading The Joy of Life

The Futurist Manifesto

by Pericles Lewis In the “Futurist Manifesto” (1909), the leader and publicist of the Italian futurists, F.T. Marinetti, showed a characteristic interest in anything fast or lethal: racing cars, trains, automobiles, airplanes, machine guns, tanks. He writes, for example, that “A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath—a… Continue Reading The Futurist Manifesto