To the editors:
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Anthony Adler’s review of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (Reader, 3 February) spoils his otherwise astute observations with the throwaway and inaccurate claim for the “futurists’ affinity for fascism.” As a matter of fact, despite Marinetti (the self-declared “leader”) and his ardent imitation of Mussolini, art and culture in Italy at the time were not harnessed to the services of a “Ministry of Propaganda” to the extent that they were in Nazi Germany, where any artistic experiment was immediately denounced as decadent. I certainly wouldn’t want your readers to underestimate the brutal political repression by the Fascists, but you shouldn’t simply ignore the fact that many in Italy chose (and were largely allowed) to ignore the propaganda demands of the regime. (See Futurist Performance by Michael and Victoria Kirby–published by PAJ–for more info.)
E. 59th Street
