212
everything, from cigarettes to their
younger sisters.
Similarly, the cultural scene of
Europe has been overrun by its
own
sciuscia-let
us call them
lumpen
intellectuals. One of them
has written a best-seller that has
just been translated. I refer to
Curzio Malaparte and his
Kaputt .
The book itself shall not be con–
sidered here-it has already been
widely discussed. My concern is
with the author, as a phenomenon
and symptom.
Malaparte was among the very
early followers of Mussolini. A
member of the diplomatic corps
with many and varied connections,
he brought valuable support to the
as yet mainly plebeian ranks of
the budding Fascist party. At the
time of the murder of Matteotti,
it was Malaparte who in a widely
quoted article stated that from now
on Mussolini should no longer be
considered a simple mortal but
must be ranked among the god–
like....
When fascism took power and
became institutionalized and bor–
ing, Malaparte appeared in Paris,
and pretending to be an anti-fas–
cist, enjoyed the favors of French
literary society. Daniel Halevy was
then among his most ardent spon–
sors.
Coup d'Etat,
written in this
period, was an international suc–
cess. But then Malaparte returned
to Italy, only to be imprisoned,
probably for certain careless re–
marks. When released, he became
an intimate of Ciano and other
high dignitaries of the regime, and
later became war correspondent
for the
Carriere de la Sera
for al-
PARTISAN REVIEW
most the entire period of Italy's
participation in the war.
.From November 1943 to March
1916, Malaparte served as a liaison
officer for the American High
Command in Italy....
Kaputt
seeks to portray the inhu–
manity of the Nazis and their war,
the corruption of Italian Fascist
society. But Malaparte, who chron–
icles rottenness and decay, is not
an outside observer but a part of
the ghastly world which he com–
prehends so well. He belongs to
the fauna that has grown on the
rotting soil of Europe in the inter–
war years.
In the preface to the French,
and undoubtedly also the Italian
edition of
Kaputt-but
significant–
ly omitted from the American
translation-there appears a state–
ment by the author in which he
proclaims that from now on he
wishes to be considered as belong–
ing to that group of European
wri–
ters who are "decidedly oriented
toward a marxist critique of the
problems of modem culture and
civilization." Of course, by "marx–
ist" Malaparte means Stalinist. He
has, indeed, joined the Commu–
nist Party and is in the front ranks
of the advocates of a new Italian
Communist culture. As the French
say,
la plaisanterie est de taille.
Were this an isolated phenome–
non, it wouldn't need more than
CHALLENGE
to
WRITERS
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