As a passage it has no price: Joseph Brodsky explains how, in November 1977, while in Venice, he was called by Susan Sontag, a widow of Ezra Pounden, with a dinner with Olga Rudge: “I don’t want to go alone, I fear.” They struck the bell and after the little woman with rounded and shining eyes appeared in the door, “the first thing I saw was the poet bust on the floor of the living room.” When the tea came out, but before the mugs sank, the host started: that her husband was not a fascist, that he knew nothing about what was happening… While Brodsky entered a sort of lethargy, Sontag no, Sontag put things in his place: “It was one of the biggest answers ever heard.” After thanking the old woman for her welcome, they said goodbye.
It's not the first time Sontag put things in place. He has a 1974 text, “Fascinating Fascism”, which he collected in his book Under the Sign of Saturn, in which he denounces the attempt to whitewash the trajectory of Leni Riefenstahl, an embarrassing rehabilitation exercise, in the United States, the author of Nazi propaganda, reformulating as a sober and irresponsible documentalist of politics the writing of the past. What Hitler called “my perfect German woman.” However, Sontag, besides saying that things have to be called by name, warned us of the fascination that fascism can bring to people 30 years after World War II. And that is that fascism is still effective, because its laughs are still alive.
Fascism, and the fascist, so joyous, in these times of free will, would be a warning to be used when necessary. It can be paradoxical, calling fascist anyone can be an excuse not to call true fascists. And it's more important than it seems: fascism, as Sontag warns, is still, not least, captivating people.
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