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[–]NeoRail 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I am taking questions about Evola, if anyone is interested. There has been little opportunity to discuss his works on this sub, but I can offer some answers here.

[–]literalotherkinNorm MacDonald Nationalism 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Wasn't Evola quite an active and influential part of the dadaists and the futurists? I'd love a bit more info on that.

[–]NeoRail 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

He discusses both of those things in his autobiography, The Path of Cinnabar, if you are interested. He was indeed involved in Dadaism and in fact some of his Dadaist paintings are still exhibited in Italian museums. Evola explained that in the post war period, Dadaism was a form of radical revolt against bourgeois civilisation and its sanitised artistic and social norms. The nonsense art of Dada was held up as a mirror for the nonsense world of the bourgeoisie, who had debased every higher value and every aspect of life. As to the Futurists, he very much did not get along with them. Again in the Path of Cinnabar, he quotes Marinetti as having said to him: 'Your ideas are farther from mine than those of an Eskimo'. Evola for his part thought that the Futurists were too obsessed with technology, strong sensation and vulgar violence to have any real insights.

[–]literalotherkinNorm MacDonald Nationalism 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Very interesting. Thank you.

One more question: How would you describe his attitudes towards Christianity? I think it was in a Bowden lecture I heard Bowden say that Evola had called himself at one time a 'Catholic Pagan' which I always found interesting.

[–]NeoRail 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Personally, I have not seen him refer to himself in that way. I have seen a lot of his writings on Christianity, though. Generally speaking, he did not like it. Still, he was willing to acknowledge the value of all traditional elements of Christianity and openly stated that if the Catholic Church was to again endorse the Syllabus, he would support it and consider it an important ally. However, he lived long enough to see Vatican II and was very pessimistic about the ability of the church to play a positive role. His opinion of Protestantism was even lower.