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Right-wing
legends
“So,
you say, fascists, then you come to understand, with analytical
dismay, that the category includes mistimed devotees of the
Risorgimento and disciples of the most abstruse esoteric
traditions; pro and anti Americans, pro-Europeans and nationalists;
and then traditionalist catholics, rabid anti-clericals and
neo-pagans; extremists and rogues too. Imagination is by its very
nature fleeting: but looking at the cover, who would ever have
dreamed of finding analogies, in the followers of Fascism, between
Charles Bukowski and Lando Buzzanca, Patty Pravo and Padre Pio,
Willy the Coyote and 007?”: this is what Filippo Ceccarelli asks
himself in his astute preface to “Fascisti immaginari (Imaginary
Fascists)” (Vallecchi, 602 pages, € 25), a sort of sentimental
dictionary of the right wing in the fifty year postwar period,
compiled by journalists Luciano Lanna and Filippo Rossi.
Expelled from the democratic dialectic of Republican Italy,
emarginated from political debate, the neofascists made up for
their isolation by opening their ranks to the most diverse and
heterogeneous of input: taking a somewhat confrontational stance,
alongside more or less predictable names - characters like Carmelo
Bene and Ernesto Che Guevara (idolized as one who fought for noble
ideals, a warrior who died young), the authors also include
literary heroes like Tex Willer and Corto Maltese (the latter,
especially, usually numbered among heroes of the left),
singer-songwriters of the standing of Fabrizio De André and
Giorgio Gaber (the latter, especially from the track “Polli
d’allevamento” on).
Not particularly interested in creating an album of the greatest
champions of the Fascist reaction (indeed, there is a conspicuous
absence of chapters dedicated, for example, to the likes of Céline,
Drieu La Rochelle or Ardengo Soffici), Lanna and Rossi prefer to
paint a portrait that is as animated and composite in nature as
possible, throwing together Craxi and C.L.N. supporters, Rambo and
Ray-Bans, Montanelli and Vanzina, Don Backy and Houellebecq. A
greater measure of irony might perhaps have proven useful, in some
cases: nevertheless this first exploration into a little-known
universe is undeniably interesting, with watchwords that are at
times surprising, worthy of fascists - albeit - imaginary fascists.
Francesco
Troiano
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Fascisti
immaginari
by Luciano Lanna and
Filippo Rossi
Vallecchi
2003
602 pages
25 euros
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