| Pirate Utopia by Bruce Sterling Tachyon Publications, $19.95, 192 pp. The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville Del Rey, $25, 224 pp. Max Ernst and Alchemy: A Magician in Search of Myth by M.E. Warlick University of Texas Press, $32.95, 335 pp. |
Well, it’s 2017, a century-plus since Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire first raised the flag of Dada derision above the senseless carnage of World War I. The founding group of Dada expats soon attracted many other bohemian rebels seeking freedom from existing social, aesthetic, and governmental norms. Of course, as Bruce Sterling’s new novella, Pirate Utopia, points out, the pro-war, pro-nationalist Italian Futurist movement was winning followers at the same time, and their manifestos ultimately supported the rise of Italy’s Fascist Party. Continue reading “These Must-Raeds Explore Dada, Futurism, Surrealism, and the Art of Opposition”