PART III: exercising my understanding of the movement/how i feel about this movement

Russian Futurism was a movement that was based around reclaiming Russia and thrusting it into the industrial age. The futurists were most artists and poets whose work focused around a desire for speed and dynamism. The general public scrutinized their passion and intensity, mostly the Bolsheviks, with whom the Futurists were greatly unsatisfied. Unlike the Italian Futurist movement, which was plastic and gave rise to Fascism, the Russian Futurists were a network of artists and poets who collaborated on big works like the opera Victory Over the Sun.

Since the Futurist movement was so strongly tied to politics, the poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky epitomizes the ideal Futurist’s mentality. Mayakovsky’s poems exemplify the speed, restlessness and urgency for a modernized culture that was desired by the Futurist movement. They do this through their discursive length, relentless action and explicit violence. The structure of the poems is also representative of the Futurist movement. The Futurists believed that there was no difference between words and material things, and they expressed that by placing words in different patterns on a page, like a sculptor would sculpt a work of art. Mayakovsky creates long lists and they are emphasized by his placement of words just below the end of the preceding line. An example of what I said looks like this:

“Proletarians
arrive at communism
from below -
by the low way of mines,
sickles,
and pitchforks -
But I,
from poetry’s skies,
plunge into communism,”

Personally, I was very much enjoyed reading about concepts in Russian Futurism. I found Mayakovsky’s discourse to be refreshing and impressive. I believe that America could use more people with the motivation and passion to commit to a cause that works so intensely on social change. I do not necessarily agree with everything Mayakovsky said, though. I feel that his heart was in the right place, but Mayakovsky was a tortured man with a lot of rage and other deep emotional problems that served as an impediment on clear thought. I do not mean to say that I want to see more people who are willing to die for our country; I did not mean that at all. Our country is taking a horrible dive and I fear for now. I want a revolution, but I am not the best candidate to begin it. We need a powerful and compassionate leader, one who commands the attention of his or her people. I do not want to wake up and feel this helpless. I want a reformation of society. It needs to begin soon and if it does, I would be behind it one hundred percent.