F.T. Marinetti, The Founding and the Manifesto of Futurism (Feb. 1909)

This article by F.T. Marinetti was edited by Lawrence Rainey in the book, "Modernism: An Anthropology." This reading was assigned on September 29th.

I found this article to very confusing because Marinetti never seems to be direct with what he is talking about. Instead, he uses an abundance of metaphors to describe his journey, along with other futurists, and their struggle with gaining recognition and rebelling from the traditional standards of modern society. Marinetti starts as if he is telling a tale of wondrous capabilities, where he is running through the forests with his peers as they battle beasts to survive and concur. It seems as if ever new paragraph, in his story, would put him in a new location with another uphill battle to fight. May it be against massive sharks in the seas to the oppression by society. There is also a list called "The Manifesto of Futurism" that essentially describes a new way of living. It includes goals that must be achieved by the futurists as well as things to be avoided to maintain their ethical and moral peace. Marinetti pushes the idea of letting go of all past thresholds because the future is what is going to happen and bring new things. Marinetti also slanders the traditional professions or occupations, such as doctors and students, as he suggests that they will not find what they need to succeed simply through books, but instead by first hand experiences. I found this article to be slightly nonsensical because it doesn't really give any sort of definitive statements that would suggest that Marinetti and his fellow futurists have a concrete plane for their future. Instead, he plans for a much more unstructured life style which is something i would have to disagree with because i quite honestly love the complexity of the world we live in today.