The Futurists were literally on the wrong side of every great public argument of the 20th century. Pro-engine, anti-nature, full of lust for war and scorn for women. I guess artists can afford to mess around with Fascism and rampaging egos and talk big about killing you until their successors come along to kill them, assuming that society will never be as avant-garde as them, and will therefore never destroy itself with ideas like these, and so they can continue living like diesel gods among the herd. I love that Marinetti's story (in the "Founding") of how dangerous he is involves him driving into a ditch and some local people pulling him out, and then he has to squirm about being grateful because he thinks you can embrace and promote violence and hate and then not have to like, be violent and hateful. Hypocrite! The prose is magnificent, the ideas are evil. The only thing that redeems it is that it was written before, not after, two world wars. ( )