In an age when T.V newspapers and computer news have taken the place of books, it may seem strange to ascribe any serious effect to the works of poets and romancists; but in the Italy of that date there were no newspapers to speak of; the ordinary channels of opinion were blocked up. 
Books were still not only read, but discussed and thought over, and every slight allusion to the times was instantly applied.
In the prevailing listlessness, the mere fact of increased mental activity was of importance.
A spark of genius does much to raise a nation.
If we take the U.S.A today we may understand that its moral bankruptsy is merely that of having very few intellectuals, real ones, in the public view and hence meaningless interventions in the middle east such is the idiocy abroad and around.
It is in itself the incontrovertible proof that the race lives: a dead people does not produce men of genius.And you may be dead without knowing it. One might point that accusing finger not just at the dead rhetoric of the USA but also at Europe where the artists have more or less become that fey group where intelligence has given way to mental and physical charity.
Whatever awakes one part of the intelligence reacts on all its parts. You cannot lift, any more than you can degrade, the heart of man piecemeal. In this sense not literature only but also music helped, who can say how effectually, to bring Italy back to life.
The land was refreshed by a flood of purely national song, full of the then laughter and the tears of Italian character, of the sunshine and the storms of Italian nature. Music, the only art uncageable as the human soul, descended as a gift from heaven upon the people whose articulate utterance was stifled. And
... No speech may evince
Feeling like music.
Fantastic work! Please keep up the work on this under covered topic.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rob
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