Luigi Pirandello's Broken Men
thenation.comI've always been surprised by how rarely one encounters Pirandello, having read that he was one of the top Italian writers, but the story about his open support of Mussolini explained it pretty quick.
In 1924 a leading socialist was stabbed to death with a file by Mussolini "deputies", and in the ensuing public outrage Pirandello wrote an open letter to Mussolini: 'I will consider it the greatest honor to become one of your humblest and most obedient followers'.
Not a huge fan of the way these 'literary critique' pieces are written, but it was interesting nevertheless. The author alludes to some topicality of the 20th century fascist's mind, but doesn't provide anything specific.
I am actually pretty happy that the political view of an artist didn't make him disappear, as it would happen today. This is one of the greatest things we should be proud of, to be honest, in the West. The witch hunt should be over. However, nowadays an artist can literally disappear for the ideas posted online, which is insane in my opinion.
I read a lot of Pirandello's books (which I highly recommend) and I never cared about his political view. And also throughout the books, I can't remember any subliminal message to make his readers fascists or so. At least I didn't become one, I guess.
It'd be great if we could just learn art without prejudice or too much pre-context.