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Written by Rondi
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Monday, 24 October 2011 16:46 |
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If you scroll down you'll see a reference I made, in light of Gaddafi's rather undignified departure from this earth, to Mussolini's death and the subsequent mutilation of his corpse. Interestingly, the New Yorker online has posted a link to the "Letter from Rome" published in their magazine's May 19, 1945 issue. Of course, at that point Mussolini's body hadn't been passed from city to city in Italy, but it still makes for fascinating reading. It certainly would indicate that humans have always been prone to dramatic flourishes:
To an outsider like myself, who happened to be on hand to see Mussolini, Clara Petacci, Pavolini Starace, and some of the other Fascists dangling by their heels from a rusty beam in front of a gas station, the breathless, bloody scene had an air of inevitability. You had the feeling, as you have at the final curtain of a good play, that events could not have been otherwise. In many people’s minds, I think, the embellishments of this upheaval—thousands of Partisans firing their machine guns into the air, Fascist bodies lying in a heap along side the gas station, the enormous pressing crowd—have been overemphasized and its essential dignity and purpose have been overlooked.
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Last Updated on Monday, 24 October 2011 16:48 |
