The New York herald., 1922-10-22
The World of Foreign Books

Cic SaodIciS-We suppose because a caDdre
dinner represents ones moneys worth all by
| itself. and the bottle of champagne, which
is purchased as an entrance fee, enlarges
ones sympathies as the evening wears on,
broadens the sense of humor, inclines tc
tolerance of the strange and the exotic
creates a favorable atmosphere for ex-
periments in art-experiments. moreover
which may fail. or which may succeed
with no one feeling the worse or the bet
ter on either account. In the even tenor
of days before the war Futuristic demon
,stration shocked ingrained habits of mind
headiining the absurdity of supplanting
the glorious drama of the past with the
synthetic drama" of Marinetti, for in.
stance. Three years of Fascismo have
deadened the responses of the Italian pub
lie 70 jostling Of a tame aesthetic kind
Marinetti now finds himself able to upset
all the crockery in the shops of Parnassus
without gaining much space in the papers
But Futurism loses nothing when absorbed
with liberal intake of wine.
Now Marinetti's latest is "The Fiery
Drum (''Il tamburo di fuoco"), an AFRICAN
drama" in three acts, each act with its
symbolic setting and an accompaniment
furnished by "whistlers, snorers. croakers
gurglers. exploders, lashers, hummers
thunderers. snappers, noisernakers. uluIa-
tors" distributors; in a word. of all the
sounds essential Ito the bloody victory of
the human ideal that leaps from the diving
to the living man despite the desperate on
position Of matter" More simply it is the
story OF negro. Kabango Europeans
treat the negro better than we do but
they will never acclimatize bim as well as
we have done. When the I.atins would name
negro character they go clear to the
equator looking for outlandish combina.
tons OF syllables from the native lam
guages They will never know the exact
flavor of Mr.. George Washington johnson +,
haoango Is negro who has OWNED
some of the secrets of white civilization
and has become the prophet thereof tc
the savage African tribes These rise
against him and drive him into flight. HI
In a dark jungle hemmed in by serpents:
from this finally he tries to escape along
'The Elephant Trail" (Act I'LL. at the
end Of which his enemies DESTROY him
The pursuit by the savages is kept in
mind "intermittently" throughout the dia-
logue by the various noise makers emu.
merated above, who were created" on the
hv- ha int
Russolo.
We have summarized the plot thu.
BADLY for the express purpose of stress
| ing the similarity of Marinetti's play with
the Emperor Jones" CT Eugene O'Neill
a similarity for that matter which Ital.
ians who know the American play were
quick to recognize
Not to give our own opinion. which
might seem biased. as from an American
we quote from an article by Prezzolini
There Is an abyss between the two dra
mas. The American, O'Nein. Is a realist
depicting a negro such as many of u:
have seen. a negro who has been a Pull.
man porter but who driven to the wild
/ experiences a revival of all the impulse.
Of his fcrefathers; primordial terror fol-
the wilderness dread of the white man
/ fear of the evil spirits known to tn.
African savage. Marinetti. after runnin,
/ through the literature on the black races
constructs a character who combines an
/ illuminism of the seventeenth eentur,
European type with a mass Of ridiculou.
superstitons; and. Latin that Marinett
/ Is. he gives his negro a negress who talk
/ a language OF exasperated sensualism Dor