The Poet As Celebrity and Teacher - The Life of Irving Layton by Dave Jaffe. Section Two.
Irving Layton lived through the Great Depression of the 1930's but it was tough for him and millions of other Canadians. In the first of his many marriages and liasons he met and wed Faye Lynch, She helped him with money, food and company. With her help he graduated from MacDonald College with a B.A.
By now in the late 1940's, Layton had been in the army and then been discharged. He had survived the Great Depression and the Second World War. Now he started to apply himself to writing poetry. He also battled in print and in person with many people.
"Canada has produced nothing," Borges the Argentine novelist said in effect about Canada's culture. Yet Layton and his generation proved Borges wrong. Already an older group of poets like Frank Scott and others had come along to write modern poetry. Layton, Louis Dudek and poets from the poorer parts of Canada started to write more vigorous poetry. This helped put Canada on the cultural map at a time when Canadian novels were relatively few in number.
"They dance best who dance with desire," Layton wrote in his poem called 'Red Carpet For the Sun'. Layton's poetry was full of passion and energy. He ended up teaching at Herzliah Junior High School, a private school for Jewish children in Montreal. Layton had now got an M.A. degree in political science from McGill University. Many of Layton's students at Herzliah enjoyed Layton's enthusiasm for learning and his poetic gifts.Some of his students including David Solway, David Slabotsky, Seymour Mayne and Henry Moscovitch carved out careers as poets. Moscovitch's career was unfortunately halted by mental illness.
Layton also taught the future media mogul Moses Znaimer and the Liberal politician Irwin Cotler. Laytion didn't teach another rising poet named Leonard Cohen. But the two men always got on well together. Layton was later fired from Herzliah High but this didn't slow down his poetry output. In the 1950's, Layton moved into the forefront of Canadian poetry. A new affluence spread across Canada. Tens off thousands of young Canadians flooded into new universities. A newly-formed Canada Council sponsored poetry readings at universities. Layton appeared at many of these readings and his fame grew.
Layton left Faye for Betty Sutherland, a fine artist and a talented one. Then later on he took up with Aviva Cantor then left her for Harriet Bernstein, a rich woman. This marriage didn't lasts long. Then he hooked up with Anna Poirier, a transplanted and very young Nova Scotian. Layton had four children and he also had other lovers besides his wives.
From the 1950's to the 1970's, Layton wrote some very fine poetry. Later I think his poetry declined. Cultural revolutions and political rebellions swept across the world in the late 1960's and 1970's. "Kill your parents," the yippie revolutionary Jerry Rubin told the youth of North America. Casual sex, casual drug use, casual dress and anti-war marches became the order of the day. Some youth sought enlightenment in Buddhism, other eastern religions and New Age philosophy.
Due to these upheavals and his age, Layton started to seem very conservative. He supported the U.S. war in Vietnam and praised Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau for imposing the War Measures Act in 1970. Also the former Marxist couldn't deal with the new groups athat emerged in the wake of the 1960's and 1970"s political upheavals.
"Layton just hates feminists," a man from Montreal told this blogger. "He just can't deal with strong feminist women."
Layton kept writing poetry but his poems lacked the edge and the passion of his earlier work. By the 1970's Layton was famous across Canada and in many parts of the world. He saw himself as a genius . Others disagreed. He got into a tremendous squabble with one of his biographers, namely Elsbeth Cameron. Layton had become a celebrity which some observer defined as "Someone known for being known." He knew people like Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Adrienne Clarkson and other famous and elite Canadians.
In conclusion. Layton wrote some fine poetry at times, and turned many people onto the joy of poetry. He passed away in 2006. With his death a unique slice of Canada's cultural life, ended too.
Tuesday 28 June 2016
Monday 27 June 2016
Writing Poetry Can Endanger Your Health - Chapter 23 First Section
The Poet As Celebrity and Teacher - The Life of Irving Layton; First Section.
Irving Layton strode proudly into a Sir George Williams University classroom. It was late in the fall of 1961. I had come to this classroom to hear and see one of Canada's foremost poets. He didn't disappoint me.
His teaching style embraced humour, inspirational talk, and even envy. "I wish I'd have written such a line," this short, burly dark-haired man said in effect about a part of a poem by William Butler Yeats. Layton's approach to poetry differed totally from the teaching styles I faced at McGill University, that lay up the street from Sir George Williams.
For in 1961 I was enrolled at McGill University in downtown Montreal. Here, university professors walked around in black gowns at times. This dress was an essential part of some British professors' wardrobes. And the English professors who taught me stressed the text of the poetry we studied. Everything else was not mentioned.
McGill teachers knew a lot about poetry. Yet Layton explained poems with the eye and ear of a poet. Layton also projected more than knowledge. He had charisma and a love of poetry flowed out of him. I was listening to a passionate man and I realized that Layton's passion for poetry could rarely be found in McGill's classrooms.
I returned one more time to see and hear Layton and once again he inspired me and a few dozen other students. Layton had struggled long and hard to get where he was when I first saw him. He was born Israel Lazarovitch in Tirgul Neamt in Romania. "Eastern Europe is the graveyard of nations," one observer pointed out. For Jews like Keine and Moishe Lazarovitch who were Layton's parents,
Romania was a hell. Anti-semitism flourished everywhere. In the end, the whole family ended up in Montreal just before World War One.
Life was tough here too. French-Canadians, Poles and Italians routinely attacked Jews in the streets. Meanwhile the ruling class Scottish and WASP millionaires looked down on them . Social programs were non-existent. Poverty was everywhere.
Some of the Layton family survived. Others didn't. Of Irving's four brothers, Larry became a manic-depressive and died in middle age. Abraham succumbed to tuberculosis. Irving's father Moishe booted other sons out of the household while burying himself in Hebrew texts. Layton's three sisters, Gertie, Esther and Dora endured marital abuse and crushed ambitions. Layton's Jewish Orthodox father, died in middle age and his widow Keine kept the family alive by becoming a storekeeper and a business woman.
Issie became Keine's favourite child. Very slowly Layton climbed the educational ladder while at the same time becoming a Marxist. He graduated from Baron Byng High School later made famous under another name in Mordecai Richler's novel 'The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'. For a time the Layton family lived in the district near Sainte Urbaine Street that Richler immortalized.
Layton was the only one in his family to complete high school.
(To be continued).
Irving Layton strode proudly into a Sir George Williams University classroom. It was late in the fall of 1961. I had come to this classroom to hear and see one of Canada's foremost poets. He didn't disappoint me.
His teaching style embraced humour, inspirational talk, and even envy. "I wish I'd have written such a line," this short, burly dark-haired man said in effect about a part of a poem by William Butler Yeats. Layton's approach to poetry differed totally from the teaching styles I faced at McGill University, that lay up the street from Sir George Williams.
For in 1961 I was enrolled at McGill University in downtown Montreal. Here, university professors walked around in black gowns at times. This dress was an essential part of some British professors' wardrobes. And the English professors who taught me stressed the text of the poetry we studied. Everything else was not mentioned.
McGill teachers knew a lot about poetry. Yet Layton explained poems with the eye and ear of a poet. Layton also projected more than knowledge. He had charisma and a love of poetry flowed out of him. I was listening to a passionate man and I realized that Layton's passion for poetry could rarely be found in McGill's classrooms.
I returned one more time to see and hear Layton and once again he inspired me and a few dozen other students. Layton had struggled long and hard to get where he was when I first saw him. He was born Israel Lazarovitch in Tirgul Neamt in Romania. "Eastern Europe is the graveyard of nations," one observer pointed out. For Jews like Keine and Moishe Lazarovitch who were Layton's parents,
Romania was a hell. Anti-semitism flourished everywhere. In the end, the whole family ended up in Montreal just before World War One.
Life was tough here too. French-Canadians, Poles and Italians routinely attacked Jews in the streets. Meanwhile the ruling class Scottish and WASP millionaires looked down on them . Social programs were non-existent. Poverty was everywhere.
Some of the Layton family survived. Others didn't. Of Irving's four brothers, Larry became a manic-depressive and died in middle age. Abraham succumbed to tuberculosis. Irving's father Moishe booted other sons out of the household while burying himself in Hebrew texts. Layton's three sisters, Gertie, Esther and Dora endured marital abuse and crushed ambitions. Layton's Jewish Orthodox father, died in middle age and his widow Keine kept the family alive by becoming a storekeeper and a business woman.
Issie became Keine's favourite child. Very slowly Layton climbed the educational ladder while at the same time becoming a Marxist. He graduated from Baron Byng High School later made famous under another name in Mordecai Richler's novel 'The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'. For a time the Layton family lived in the district near Sainte Urbaine Street that Richler immortalized.
Layton was the only one in his family to complete high school.
(To be continued).
Saturday 4 June 2016
Writing Poetry Can Endanger Your Health by Dave Jaffe; Chapter 22, Third Section.
The Poet As Gay Activist - Section Three
Pier Paolo Pasolini started out making realistic films of Rome's underclass. Yet in the early 1970"s his subject changed. Now he made films based on classic tales of the distant past. like Bocaccio's 'Decameron', Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' and 'The Flower of 1001'.
The films were grouped together and were called 'The Trilogy of Life.' They preached open sexuality and were against all religious restrictions.
These films triggered a wave of imitators whose films were basically pornographic. Pasolini's last film was full of sex and sadism.
By 1975, Pasolini had made many enemies. His gay lifestyle, films, poetry and public statements outraged people on the left and the right . He remained loyal to the Italian Communist Party though people in the party often criticized him.. He attacked student protestors in the late 1960's, saying they were privileged people, unlike the police who often beat up the students. The police, Pasolini said came from an oppressed class, namely the proletariat.
He opposed abortion and raised the anger of Italian feminists. "Pasolini wasn't on our side," a pro-choice Italian woman told this blogger in the 1980's. "He was totally against our freedom to choose."
Others, like the conservatives and the leaders in the Catholic church as well as powerful business men and politicians on the right had no time for him either. His lifestyle and his work outraged them.
In November 1975, Pasolini was murdered supposedly by a male 17 year-old hustler called Guiseppe Pelosi. "He asked me for something I did not want," said to Pelosi who sent to prison. Later on, Pelosi changed his story and said three people murdered Pasolini. But an inquiry into his death ended with no firm conclusions being drawn.
By the time he died, Pasolini had become a coloumnist for the well-known paper 'Il Corriere della Sera'. He also opposed the spreading tide of consumerism and the disappearance of dialects like the language of Friuli. Pasolini saw these trends as a new sort of fascism.
His life overlapped with the left wing surge in the late 1940's and the rise and fall of the New Left in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Yet after he died, Enrico Berlinguer, "The spare tousle-haired Sardinian" as the media described him, led the Italian Communist Party to a near victory in the 1976 national election. Yet the Christian Democrats narrowly hung onto power.
Pasolini's work is still well-known to-day. His films, novels, poetry and essays set him among the pantheon of great Italian artists in a land and country that has produced some of the great artists of the world.
Pier Paolo Pasolini started out making realistic films of Rome's underclass. Yet in the early 1970"s his subject changed. Now he made films based on classic tales of the distant past. like Bocaccio's 'Decameron', Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' and 'The Flower of 1001'.
The films were grouped together and were called 'The Trilogy of Life.' They preached open sexuality and were against all religious restrictions.
These films triggered a wave of imitators whose films were basically pornographic. Pasolini's last film was full of sex and sadism.
By 1975, Pasolini had made many enemies. His gay lifestyle, films, poetry and public statements outraged people on the left and the right . He remained loyal to the Italian Communist Party though people in the party often criticized him.. He attacked student protestors in the late 1960's, saying they were privileged people, unlike the police who often beat up the students. The police, Pasolini said came from an oppressed class, namely the proletariat.
He opposed abortion and raised the anger of Italian feminists. "Pasolini wasn't on our side," a pro-choice Italian woman told this blogger in the 1980's. "He was totally against our freedom to choose."
Others, like the conservatives and the leaders in the Catholic church as well as powerful business men and politicians on the right had no time for him either. His lifestyle and his work outraged them.
In November 1975, Pasolini was murdered supposedly by a male 17 year-old hustler called Guiseppe Pelosi. "He asked me for something I did not want," said to Pelosi who sent to prison. Later on, Pelosi changed his story and said three people murdered Pasolini. But an inquiry into his death ended with no firm conclusions being drawn.
By the time he died, Pasolini had become a coloumnist for the well-known paper 'Il Corriere della Sera'. He also opposed the spreading tide of consumerism and the disappearance of dialects like the language of Friuli. Pasolini saw these trends as a new sort of fascism.
His life overlapped with the left wing surge in the late 1940's and the rise and fall of the New Left in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Yet after he died, Enrico Berlinguer, "The spare tousle-haired Sardinian" as the media described him, led the Italian Communist Party to a near victory in the 1976 national election. Yet the Christian Democrats narrowly hung onto power.
Pasolini's work is still well-known to-day. His films, novels, poetry and essays set him among the pantheon of great Italian artists in a land and country that has produced some of the great artists of the world.
Friday 3 June 2016
Writing Poetry Can Endanger Your Health - by Dave Jaffe, Chapter 22, Second section and Correction
Continuing Story of Pier Paolo Pasolini- Second Section
Correction: In the previous section I said that it was uncertain who killed Pier Paolo Pasolini's brother named Guido in the second world war. It seems clear to me now that Guido did join the partisans to fight Mussolini's fascist troops and the Nazis.
Yet he was killed by communist partisans who didn't like the more conservative politics of the partisan band that Guido had joined.
Chapter 22, Section Two of 'The Poet as Gay Activist'.
At the end of World war two, Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1945 had completed courses in philology and the aesthetics of figurative art at the University of Bologna. At the university he often went to the cinema club. He graduated from the university and ended up teaching in Friuli. Then in 1947 he came out as a communist. "Only communism is able to provide a new culture," Pasolini said.
Soon his politics and sexuality disrupted his life. He may or may not have had sex with young boys at the school. Whatever happened, he was expelled from the school as the charges said, "for corruption of minors and obscene acts in public places."
Pasolini claimed that the new rulers of Italy, the conservative Christian Democratic Party had targeted him because of his politics. By now the Christian Democrats were launched on their near 50 year rule of Italy. The Mafia, the CIA, the Catholic Church leaders, big business, and landowning aristocrats backed this party. Meanwhile the powerful Communist Party was confined to be the main opposition to the C.D.'s.
The Communist Party expelled Pasolini for corrupting minors. Pasolini's case became famous and he and his mother and father left Friuli to live in Rome. Here they lived for years in great poverty. "I was unemployed for years," Pasolini recalled. "I was ignored by everybody." Pasolini was now living in Rome among the very poor, or the underclass. In this way his life paralleled that of the great Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio. Caravaggio also lived among the Roman underclass in the early 17th century.
Pasolini got a job teaching again, but his wages were pitiful and he and his family remained really poor. Yet in the 1950's, Pasolini's luck changed for the better. He published his first big collection of poems. He made friends with some of Italy's leading literary figures like Alberto Moravia. In 1955 his first novel called 'Ragazzi di Vita' or 'Hustlers' in English was published. The government swooped down on booksellers and tried to have the novel withdrawn from publication. This was the first of over two dozen times that the authorities tried to throttle or censor Pasolini's works.
The government's case was overturned in a court case and Pasolini became famous. Then he got a job with the well-known director federico Fellini in the film 'La Dolce Vita'. He wrote more poetry, acted in a film and then directed his first film called 'Accatone'. It took place among Rome's underclass.
Pasolini wrote poetry throughout his adult life. Most of it leaned to the left. His poem called 'Ballad of Stalin's Mother' indirectly praises Stalin, the Communist dictator of the Soviet Union.
"I who was only life, my son," the poem starts,
have given you the love of death
Because the simple life of us slaves
is a force that in itself holds no dominion :
My son, how many mothers in the world,
are still making sons like you,
in Asia, Europe, Africa..
Pasolini also wrote poems of love to his male lover the actor Ninetto Dari. Dari had a wife and a family and in this poem Pasolini hints at Dari's uneasiness as Pasolini's lover.
"Your place was at my side and you were proud of this," writes Pasolini.
But sitting with your arm on the
steering wheel.
You said, 'I can't go on. I must stay here alone.'
(End of Section Two. To be continued).
.
Correction: In the previous section I said that it was uncertain who killed Pier Paolo Pasolini's brother named Guido in the second world war. It seems clear to me now that Guido did join the partisans to fight Mussolini's fascist troops and the Nazis.
Yet he was killed by communist partisans who didn't like the more conservative politics of the partisan band that Guido had joined.
Chapter 22, Section Two of 'The Poet as Gay Activist'.
At the end of World war two, Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1945 had completed courses in philology and the aesthetics of figurative art at the University of Bologna. At the university he often went to the cinema club. He graduated from the university and ended up teaching in Friuli. Then in 1947 he came out as a communist. "Only communism is able to provide a new culture," Pasolini said.
Soon his politics and sexuality disrupted his life. He may or may not have had sex with young boys at the school. Whatever happened, he was expelled from the school as the charges said, "for corruption of minors and obscene acts in public places."
Pasolini claimed that the new rulers of Italy, the conservative Christian Democratic Party had targeted him because of his politics. By now the Christian Democrats were launched on their near 50 year rule of Italy. The Mafia, the CIA, the Catholic Church leaders, big business, and landowning aristocrats backed this party. Meanwhile the powerful Communist Party was confined to be the main opposition to the C.D.'s.
The Communist Party expelled Pasolini for corrupting minors. Pasolini's case became famous and he and his mother and father left Friuli to live in Rome. Here they lived for years in great poverty. "I was unemployed for years," Pasolini recalled. "I was ignored by everybody." Pasolini was now living in Rome among the very poor, or the underclass. In this way his life paralleled that of the great Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio. Caravaggio also lived among the Roman underclass in the early 17th century.
Pasolini got a job teaching again, but his wages were pitiful and he and his family remained really poor. Yet in the 1950's, Pasolini's luck changed for the better. He published his first big collection of poems. He made friends with some of Italy's leading literary figures like Alberto Moravia. In 1955 his first novel called 'Ragazzi di Vita' or 'Hustlers' in English was published. The government swooped down on booksellers and tried to have the novel withdrawn from publication. This was the first of over two dozen times that the authorities tried to throttle or censor Pasolini's works.
The government's case was overturned in a court case and Pasolini became famous. Then he got a job with the well-known director federico Fellini in the film 'La Dolce Vita'. He wrote more poetry, acted in a film and then directed his first film called 'Accatone'. It took place among Rome's underclass.
Pasolini wrote poetry throughout his adult life. Most of it leaned to the left. His poem called 'Ballad of Stalin's Mother' indirectly praises Stalin, the Communist dictator of the Soviet Union.
"I who was only life, my son," the poem starts,
have given you the love of death
Because the simple life of us slaves
is a force that in itself holds no dominion :
My son, how many mothers in the world,
are still making sons like you,
in Asia, Europe, Africa..
Pasolini also wrote poems of love to his male lover the actor Ninetto Dari. Dari had a wife and a family and in this poem Pasolini hints at Dari's uneasiness as Pasolini's lover.
"Your place was at my side and you were proud of this," writes Pasolini.
But sitting with your arm on the
steering wheel.
You said, 'I can't go on. I must stay here alone.'
(End of Section Two. To be continued).
.
Thursday 2 June 2016
Writing Poetry Can Endanger Your Health - Chapter 22, Section One by Dave Jaffe
The Poet as Gay Activist - The Life of Pier Paolo Pasolini
He was a poet, then a novelist, then a film director. He grew up under fascism and became a communist.
He was a homosexual in a country, that like many others at the time, loathed gays and lesbians and outlawed homosexuality. In his relatively short but very active life, Pier Paolo Pasolini created some great works of art.
Pasolini was born in 1922 in Bologna, a very left wing city in northern Italy. His father was a lieutenant in the Italian army and at one time was arrested for gambling debts. During the 1920's, the Pasolini family - a wife, husband and two sons - moved many times, due to the father's military career.
Italy at the time was ruled by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. 'Fascism' is a word often used and misused on the political left. "Oh that premier (or president) is just a fascist," many leftists have said. But Mussolini was a true fascist and the first real fascist ruler.
"Fascism in its modern and precise sense," writes John Berger, "can exist whenever a class or people feel trapped." Fascism, says Berger applies to the exploitation of this feeling by imperialism and big business "as a weapon against socialism."
Mussolini's one-party state was born in the unrest that swept the world at the end of the First World War. A former socialist himself, Mussolini crushed the Italian socialists, all leftist opponents and protesting farmers and workers. He sent his troops into Ethiopia in 1936 and conquered it while killing tens of thousands of its black people. Ethiopia and Libya remained in Italian hands until the end of World War Two.
Mussolini allied himself with Hitler and Japan in the Second World War against the U.S. of A., the Soviet Union, Great Britain and other countries. His government was overthrown in 1944 and Mussolini and his lover were killed by Partisans.
During this time of great upheaval, Pasolini and his family at first remained untouched. At a very early age Pasolini began to read literature and poetry. As a very young person, Pasolini was religious, a staunch Catholic in Italy that was the home of the Catholic church. Then he deserted religion and embraced fascism. Yet then he was fired by a fascist editor when working on a magazine. This shook up his politics.
Soon the war impacted Pasolini and his family. In 1943 and 1944 Allied forces invaded Italy. Mussolini was rescued by the German army and the war went on. Thousands of Allied forces including Canadians, Americans, British, Poles and others fought and died against the German and fascist Italian armies.
Pasolini's family now moved to Friuli in north-east Italy to escape the war. Pasolini was drafted by the Germans, then he was imprisoned by them. His brother was killed in battle while fighting with or against Italian communist Partisans who set up anti-fascist forces. (One person I read said that Pasolini's brother fought on the fascist side. Another book I read claimed that Pasolini's brother fought on the side of the Partisans.)
Pasolini had lived in Friuli before and by now had written many poems in the Friuli dialect. This was something Mussolini's government didn't like. It sought to stamp out all regional dialects and get everybody to speak and write in Italian. Pasolini's poems written in the Friuli language, was, in a small way, an act of rebellion.
"I learnt it," Pasolini said of the dialect. "As a mystic, as an act of love."
Pasolini was soon launched into a life of rebelling against all authorities.
(End of Section One. To be continued0.
He was a poet, then a novelist, then a film director. He grew up under fascism and became a communist.
He was a homosexual in a country, that like many others at the time, loathed gays and lesbians and outlawed homosexuality. In his relatively short but very active life, Pier Paolo Pasolini created some great works of art.
Pasolini was born in 1922 in Bologna, a very left wing city in northern Italy. His father was a lieutenant in the Italian army and at one time was arrested for gambling debts. During the 1920's, the Pasolini family - a wife, husband and two sons - moved many times, due to the father's military career.
Italy at the time was ruled by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. 'Fascism' is a word often used and misused on the political left. "Oh that premier (or president) is just a fascist," many leftists have said. But Mussolini was a true fascist and the first real fascist ruler.
"Fascism in its modern and precise sense," writes John Berger, "can exist whenever a class or people feel trapped." Fascism, says Berger applies to the exploitation of this feeling by imperialism and big business "as a weapon against socialism."
Mussolini's one-party state was born in the unrest that swept the world at the end of the First World War. A former socialist himself, Mussolini crushed the Italian socialists, all leftist opponents and protesting farmers and workers. He sent his troops into Ethiopia in 1936 and conquered it while killing tens of thousands of its black people. Ethiopia and Libya remained in Italian hands until the end of World War Two.
Mussolini allied himself with Hitler and Japan in the Second World War against the U.S. of A., the Soviet Union, Great Britain and other countries. His government was overthrown in 1944 and Mussolini and his lover were killed by Partisans.
During this time of great upheaval, Pasolini and his family at first remained untouched. At a very early age Pasolini began to read literature and poetry. As a very young person, Pasolini was religious, a staunch Catholic in Italy that was the home of the Catholic church. Then he deserted religion and embraced fascism. Yet then he was fired by a fascist editor when working on a magazine. This shook up his politics.
Soon the war impacted Pasolini and his family. In 1943 and 1944 Allied forces invaded Italy. Mussolini was rescued by the German army and the war went on. Thousands of Allied forces including Canadians, Americans, British, Poles and others fought and died against the German and fascist Italian armies.
Pasolini's family now moved to Friuli in north-east Italy to escape the war. Pasolini was drafted by the Germans, then he was imprisoned by them. His brother was killed in battle while fighting with or against Italian communist Partisans who set up anti-fascist forces. (One person I read said that Pasolini's brother fought on the fascist side. Another book I read claimed that Pasolini's brother fought on the side of the Partisans.)
Pasolini had lived in Friuli before and by now had written many poems in the Friuli dialect. This was something Mussolini's government didn't like. It sought to stamp out all regional dialects and get everybody to speak and write in Italian. Pasolini's poems written in the Friuli language, was, in a small way, an act of rebellion.
"I learnt it," Pasolini said of the dialect. "As a mystic, as an act of love."
Pasolini was soon launched into a life of rebelling against all authorities.
(End of Section One. To be continued0.
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