Manifest What?

The "Futurist Manifesto" is a document in which the authors declare what they believe and what their goals are. One of their goals that I highly disagree with is #10 which declares, "We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice," (Marinetti). I really do not see how fighting these things (except cowardice) will make the world a better place. I mean the world has gone on without fighting these "issues" with humanity. If you fought morality, wouldn't humanity be brought down to utter chaos and destruction? No one would understand what was "good," and I am afraid to see the consequences if such a thing were to occur in our lives. I am afraid the Futurists of 1909 are indeed right though, morality in this day and age is constantly being tested and changed. An example is the question of self-defense. When is killing someone in "self-defense" ok? This manifesto was created during the time when feminism was gaining speed and becoming popular. I think it is safe to say that this manifesto was created by a highly dominant male membership because they were against feminism which was for giving women more freedoms politically and socially. This manifesto can connect to "Reality Hunger" because they both have a theme about art and expression.

This sentence from the "Futurist Manifesto," "Reciprocal ferocity of the painters and sculptors who murder each other in the same museum with blows of line and color," is expressively written in a way that shows their emotion toward things like museums, libraries, etc. which are places of art (Marinetti). These Futurists are against these places. However, in "Reality Hunger" the very first sentence, "Every artistic movement from the beginning of time is an attempt to figure out a way to smuggle more of what the artist thinks is reality into the work of art," explicitly starts this book off on the topic of art and reality (Shields 1). Shields' begins his manifesto with more about how art and reality are connected in the world today. He is not attacking how things are and ranting for change like the Futurists.

Manifestos in these two cases are declarations of what they believe life (or in this case art and expression) should be or is.


Info:

Marinetti, F.T. "The Futurist Manifesto." The Futurist Manifesto. James Joll, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.

Shields, David. Reality Hunger: A Manifesto. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. Print