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Maristella Tonello's avatar

Il mondo occidentale ha preferito abbandonare nell'oblio le sue antiche tradizioni, soprattutto quelle spirituali per adottare il materialismo e un appiattimento generalizzato dell'esistenza, nel quale tutti sono portati a credere che è più facile vivere in un mondo ugualitario e nichilista piuttosto che in un mondo dove ogni individuo possa conseguire le proprie attitudini e le proprie aspirazioni metafisiche.

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Henry Solospiritus's avatar

Keeping going! I am interested!

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Helen T's avatar

"Angrily melancholic" - yep, that describes it/us (or at least some of us) exactly. So well said/written.

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Helen T's avatar

OK, NOW I'm interested. This passage made it clear:

"What was ending was the second caste in the traditional Indo-European system, that of the warrior nobles and landed gentry, as well as the caste of artists in their role as guardians of the soul of the culture. Art was peaking and would soon cease to pursue beauty as an end — atonal classical music and abstract painting from the year 1900 onwards are but two examples — and the influence of the aristocracy on Western Civilization would be all but wiped out in 1914 with the Great War. "

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Contarini's avatar

Looking forward to joining you on these explorations, sir.

I have Catholic joie de vivre, but I feel and understand the Baudelairean melancholy at what is fading away, or being put to the torch. I would be miserable and splenetic if I had to live without the Easter hope.

The painting is excellent, one I did not know.

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