Speed
Authors: Ward Brian 
Published: October 2020

In the Futurist imagination, speed is the essence itself of the existence of modernity: both as the indispensable mechanism in the relationship with contemporary life and as the guiding factor in relationships of the psyche and thought with reality, shaping new individual and collective relations, which were by then projected into the future.
-- La Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta
Speed, Modernity, and Post-Modernity
The concept of speed is prevalent in, and has many implications for, contemporary western society. Speed is simultaneously a form of behaviour required of individuals in their professional lives as the electronic workplace becomes faster and faster, and an experience that many people crave as a form of release from the slow pace of personal or recreational life as this is defined by our physical limitations.
In his recent book Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, popular science writer James Gleick discusses instances of where speed functions as a social mechanism that pushes people to function with the speed and efficiency of machines. He describes how speed has become embedded physically, mechanically, and psychologically into almost every aspect of social behaviour, often overwhelming our mental and physical ability to cope with its effects. Speed has become a necessity, a desperation, and a desire to fulfil.
The concept of speed is explicitly identified with Modernism, yet it continues to be a focal concept in what may be termed the Postmodern present. Does this mean that speed has surpassed Modernity, that it has sped ahead of its own origins, or does it indicate that Postmodernity is merely the speeding-up of Modernity?
This paper does not attempt, in dry academic fashion, to proclaim universal knowledge and provide all the answers to all the questions that could be raised in relation to this topic. The author invites readers to consider the various representations of speed introduced here as the product of a collective western obsession with progress, novelty, and rapid sensationalism.
Speed in Futurist Philosophy
The Futurist movement has been discussed widely elsewhere, so I will not offer a repetitive description here. It is sufficient for the scope of this paper to refer to the fundamentals of Futurist philosophy as it is defined by F.T. Marinetti in 'The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism', Le Figaro (Paris), 20 February 1909:

We affirm that the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath -- a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.

We want to hymn the man at the wheel, who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth, along the circle of its orbit.

Without condoning or embracing the fascist, anti-intellectual, multi-anti-ism elements of Futurist philosophy; I draw attention to this evocative pronouncement of its obsession with speed in order to provide a thematic basis for the material that follows. Speed is defined as a form of great mechanical accomplishment and as an immense intellectual, emotional, and spiritual force that is symbolic of the ideal or progress and human achievement.
Speed and Contemporaneity
Milan Kundera in his novel Slowness employs the concept of speed to characterise a frenetic ecstasy of the present, which he disparagingly views as archetypally modern:

... the man hunched over his motorcycle can focus only on the present instant of his flight; he is caught in a fragment of time cut off from both the past and the future; he is wrenched from the continuity of time; he is outside time; in other words he is in a state of ecstasy. In that state he is unaware of his age, his wife, his children, his worries, and so he has no fear, because the source of fear is in the future, and a person freed of the future has nothing to fear. (3-4)

The 'progress' of the technical revolution, so worshipped by the Futurist thinkers, is for Kundera an experience that is more mental and psychological than it is physical, due to the inability of the human body to produce the thrill of speed to the extent that machines can. He contrasts mechanically-induced speed to that produced by our own bodies:

As opposed to a motorcyclist, the runner is always present in his body, forever required to think of his blisters, his exhaustion; when he runs he feels his weight, his age, more conscious than ever of himself and of his time of life. This all changes when man delegates the faculty of speed to a machine: from then on, his own body is outside the process, and he gives over to a speed that is non-corporeal, non-material, pure speed, speed itself, ecstasy speed. (4)
For Kundera, "Speed is the form of ecstasy the technical revolution as bestowed on man." This statement accords with the Modernist vision of speed as the motif of industrial and social progress, but it does not really elucidate what characteristics the speed itself possesses.
The Characteristics of Technologically Enabled Speed

Interpreting from Kundera's thoughts on speed, it is possible to surmise that:

The speed produced must be significantly beyond that capable of being produced by the unaided human body;

The technical production of speed and the reliance on sophisticated equipment to do this paradoxically produces a purely non-corporeal, metaphysical or psychological experience that is outside time and beyond immediate physical consequences; and
Speed is a form of ecstatic experience that is comparable to other forms of ecstasy, such as sexual or religious experience, or the use of psychotropic drugs.

In contemporary society the experience of speed is determined by these three concepts.
The Personal
I know of no better way to experience speed in a raw, immediate, and sensory-fulfilling way than to ride a motorcycle faster than is legally permitted. Unlike other forms of mechanical travel -- cars, aircraft, trains -- motorbikes offer a direct way to really feel speed. The image of the motorcyclist in Slowness is evocative for me because Kundera's language (even in translation) gives my immediate experience a lyrical context.
In other forms of transport, the traveller is too far removed from many of the sensations of speed, even when travelling at greater speeds than a bike can manage. Cars are safe, and you can speed in them more safely than on a bike. The relative distance from the road and the wind is greater, however, and the traveller is thus further removed from the elements that make the sensation of speed so intoxicating. When riding a motorcycle, the wind hits you roughly at higher speeds, gently at lower speeds, and moves around you unpredictably, pushing the bike in different directions.
In other forms of transport, the traveller is too far removed from many of the sensations of speed, even when travelling at greater speeds than a bike can manage. Cars are safe, and you can speed in them more safely than on a bike. The relative distance from the road and the wind is greater, however, and the traveller is thus further removed from the elements that make the sensation of speed so intoxicating. When riding a motorcycle, the wind hits you roughly at higher speeds, gently at lower speeds, and moves around you unpredictably, pushing the bike in different directions.
In other forms of transport, the traveller is too far removed from many of the sensations of speed, even when travelling at greater speeds than a bike can manage. Cars are safe, and you can speed in them more safely than on a bike. The relative distance from the road and the wind is greater, however, and the traveller is thus further removed from the elements that make the sensation of speed so intoxicating. When riding a motorcycle, the wind hits you roughly at higher speeds, gently at lower speeds, and moves around you unpredictably, pushing the bike in different directions.
Racing
The rebellious, renegade idea of driving or riding illegally fast on public roads is examined and discussed at the Flat Out Website (not that this article condones breaking the law). A far safer and less costly alternative is watching motor-racing on television (or better still actually at the track).
In Formula 1, the ultimate form of international motor-racing, speed is sought and worshipped in many forms, from the speed of the cars and the drivers themselves to the speed of the associated technologies used by the teams. What fascinates most spectators, however, is the desire of the drivers to take risks in order to go faster than anyone else, and go faster than they have ever gone before. Legendary drivers like Stirling Moss, Gilles Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, and Michael Schumacher have earnt respect and admiration in relation to the intensity of the experience of speed that they are able to share with their fans. The number of races they win is immaterial in relation to the style with which they drive. Villeneuve, for example, only won 6 races, yet he is worshipped more than drivers who have won many more than that because his style of driving demonstrated the purity of speed. He desired the thrill of speed more than the glory of victory.
Vicariously, spectators of speed share in the glory and sensationalism it creates. Speed is meant to be fun for both the participant and the spectator; it does not have to mean anything more than this. Visualise a Bullet Train or TGV slicing through glorious Japanese or French countryside. Marvel at a 500cc GP rider like Mick Doohan sliding his bike through a smooth fast corner to the adulation of thousands.
There is only one appropriate response. As Lt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, Tom Cruise's character in the hit 1980s film Top Gun, says, "I feel the need, the need for speed!"

References

Gleick, James. Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything. London: Little, Brown, and Company, 1999.
Kundera, Milan. Slowness. London: Faber, 1996.
Marinetti, F.T. "The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism". Le Figaro (Paris) 20 Feb. 1909. 1 Feb 2000 <http://www.futurism.fsnet.co.uk/manifestos/manifesto01.htm>.

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