/lit/ - Literature

>Many political groups employ violence but normally the violence is used to obtain certain goals. ISIS is fascinated by “pure” violence and Futurism followed a similar principle as it desired to integrate life and art by using violence. In these “lifestyle” philosophies, death becomes a very important variable. La-violence-pour-la-violence contains an anti-life component as the lifestyle philosophies of both Futurism and ISIS are constantly underpinned by the presence of death. When Croce declares to have found in Futurism “a conception or interpretation of life and therefore, in its own way, a philosophy,” he fails to mention how strongly this “lifestyle” is linked to the notion of “death-style.” Marinetti believed that “death is a positive ‘life’ force, [that] it gives energy and dynamism to the universe” (Berghaus 1996: 21). In this sense, the above philosophical models are not lifestyle but “death-style” phi- losophies. They are similar to those of Spanish fascists who used the motto “Viva la Muerte” (Long Live Death). Martyr deaths are not necessarily religious but far-right groups such as “Blood and Honour” or criminal groups such as Latino gangs have inscribed them into their culture, too (see Vergani and Zuev: 12). Eco believes that “the Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death” (Eco 1995). Also Hassan Al-Banna was eloquent on the uses of death, and wrote in 1937 an essay famously punning on “the art of death” (fann al-mawt) and that “death is art” (al-mawt fann): “The Qur’an has commanded people to love death more than life. Unless ‘the philosophy of the Qur’an on death’ replaces ‘the love of life’ which has consumed Muslims, then they will reach naught. Victory can only come with the mastery of ‘the art of death’” (in Mitchell 1969: 207). The temptation to die as a martyr points to a disturbing “self-sufficiency” of death and violence as well as death for its own sake, which lets the act of dying appear in an “aesthetic” light.

Anyone read this? Is it worth it?

Based department?