The Manifestos of Aldo Palazzeschi
In November 2019, Bordighera Press will publish The Manifestos of Aldo Palazzeschi. Turned off by the direction Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was leading the Futurist movement, Palazzeschi offers an alternative vision. With acerbic wit and grand parodic visions, Aldo Palazzeschi challenges the status quo (whether they be institutions, norms, or conventions) and champions the odd balls, the outcasts, the contrarians, and the unconventional. Edited and translated by Katia Pansa and Nicholas Grosso, the complete cycle of manifestos from this influential Italian writer have been translated and are available in English for the first time.
The edition is available through Small Press Distribution, Indiebound, and other supporters of independent book publishing.
For more, read the introductions to each of the manifestos below:
Counterpain sets its sight on seriousness in all of its forms. With his acerbic wit and grand parodic visions, Aldo Palazzeschi cuts down to size the traditional values of the Roman Catholic Church and all other supposed-serious social institutions, norms, and conventions, where salvation may only be attained via shame, suffering, and penance. Undoubtedly playful, this manifesto too cuts at the core of a society that has lost its way, hampered by formalities and sanctimonious visions of humanity’s place in the universe.
In Variety, Palazzeschi questions and challenges notions of perfection: if there is a single uniform ideal, what then of individuality? Must we all conform, strive for that paragon? Failing that, diverging from the standard, the manifesto explores potential fates for the odd balls, the outcasts, the contrarians, and the unconventional.
Equilibrium completes the manifesto cycle, tying together the possible paths forward for the divergent with challenges to the very requisites that established the status quo (whether they be institutions, norms, or conventions). In Counterpain, Palazzeschi urged his contemporaries to confront and challenge grief, examining and analyzing it in order to overcome and eventually conquer it. In this manifesto, Palazzeschi focuses his gaze more squarely on social conditioning and its stifling effect on the individual, championing instead the many nuances of the human spirit.
The Manifestos of Aldo Palazzeschi, edited by Katia Pansa and Nicholas Grosso
Bordighera Press
ISBN: 9781599541341
140 pages