It’s the Modern World, the End of Times, the Decline of the West, the Revolt of the Masses. It’s the 1920’s. It’s going to be Very Silly.
In honour of Black History Month, a little taste of the language of power that has been used to keep people quiet and obedient for ages.
1896—Plessy vs. Ferguson. The U.S. Supreme Court rules against a 7/8 white man (classified black) who sued Louisiana for being forced to ride in the “colored” coach on a train.
The [...]
The Lund University Library has four English-language biographies of Gabriele D’Annunzio, the diminutive dictator of Fiume. Here’s a short, superficial review of each, with the first sentences as examples of the grand prose that his ghost has inspired in other historians (I’m not the first victim…).
More Josephine Baker trivia: Örnulf (”Ulfven” among friends) Tigerstedt was a Finland-Swedish fascist poet and political activist in the 1920’s and 1930’s. IKL was a small but loud quasi-fascist party on the political scene in Finland in the 1930’s and 40’s. They did not get along:
I wanted authority and heroic achievements and the pack seconded [...]
Gabriele d’Annunzio
Canto novo I, 222 (1882)
Io mi affretto alle pugne. Cavaliero
ignoto in arme brunita cavalco
per la campagna scabra, ma un pensiero
superbo m’arde ne l’occhio di falco.
Guardan le turbe; e - Chi è questo altiero
fanciul che passa? - elle ghignano.
I hasten toward the combat. An unknown
knight in gleaming armour, I ride
across the barren land, with a [...]
“Flirttailusta tai laiskottelusta kertoneet iskelmät herättivät pahennusta siinä missä toinenkin uusi viihteen laji, elokuva. Erityisesti taidemusiikin harrastajat esittivät paheksuntansa iskelmää kohtaan. Kotimaiset aiheet olivat tekstien riimittelyssä tärkeitä, vaikka myös pyrkimys kansainvälisyyteen tajuttiin. Kirjailija Olavi Paavolainen oli yksi harvoista “neekerimusiikin” puolustajista, hän kirjoitti kansojen sulautumisesta musiikin avulla.”
Ensimmäisen tasavallan viihdemusiikki
Tulenkantajat 1920-luvulla (Haaremiasussa!)
Paavolaisen jalanjäljillä 1939-1945