I haven't followed up on this yet, but, the article and quick interview with the author piqued my interest. Anyone who has a half a battleship disassembled and brought to his home to be re-assembled - in a hillside - gets my attention. Not to mention taking over a city in Croatia and announcing a new Utopia. And bedding actresses. How do you not like this guy?!
http://news.yahoo.com/book-talk-pike-biography-reads-novel-080741620--sector.html
so thats who I was last time...
Quote from: MetalDog on December 19, 2013, 08:34:07 PM
How do you not like this guy?!
http://news.yahoo.com/book-talk-pike-biography-reads-novel-080741620--sector.html
Because I'm not him.
^I'll admit there are several character defects that a morally upright person might find objectionable, but, a BATTLEship, man! In the side of a HILL! What's not to like?
He was one of about 3-4 people that got Italy into such a frenzy that it stumbled into WWI. According to recent comments by critics, his writings haven't aged well, swollen with emotional bombastic rhetoric as they are. That's the problem with reading the works of most of the nationalistic writers of the time, though, we don't feel nearly as passionate about the subjects they mention as people did about a century ago.
Italy's history is full of eccentric figures. His Villa is a museum and can be visited. Among all fascist jerks the Italians were probably the most fascinating ones. Several of Mussolini's generals and ministers were quite unbelieveable characters.