Filippo Toomcso

The f,ew

Mcrinetti

Religion.Morcrlity

ol Speed

(Lo nuovo religione - morole delo veocit; 19l6)

in my inougurol monifesto (doted February 20, 1909)I procloimed: "the splendor

o the world hos been enriched by o new beouty, the beouy o speed." On the
heels o dynomic ort, the new religion-moroity

o speed hos been born in the

course of the present futurlst yecr thonks to our grect iberoting wor. Christian
morolity promoted the development o mon's inner ife. Todoy it hcs lost its
reoson for being becquse it hos been emptied of the Divine.
Christjon morolity protected humqn physioogy rom the dongers o
excessive sensuolity. It tempered instincts ond promoted bolonce. Futuris
moro/iy wil protect humonity ogoinst the decoy coused by sowness, memory,
onoysis, repose, ond routine. Multiplied one-hundred fold, human energy wil
overcome Time qnd Spoce.
From the beginning, mon despised the reguor, cqdenced rhythm of
the greot rivers, mirrored in the rhythm o his goit. Man envied the rhythm of
torrents, fqst os o golloping horse. Mon tqmed horses, elephonts, and cqmes
to mqke o show of his godike outhority by meons of qn increqse in pcce. He
befriended the tqmest qnimqs, coptured rebelious ones, qnd fed himsel with
those thot were edible. Mqn stoe electricity from spoce qs wel qs ues, forging
new qlies or himsel in the orm of motors. Mqn orced metcs, deeoted ond
mode flexible by meons o ire, to oiy themselves with uels ond eectricity. He
thereby qssembled crn ormy of sloves, hostie cnd dcngerous but tome enough
to trdnsport him switly qcross the curvoture o the eorth.
Tortuous poths, roods that oow lczy rivers and wind oround the spines
qnd uneven bellies o mountains: such qre the eqrth's lows. Never stroight ines;
olwoys orobesques ond zigzogs. Speed inoly endows humqn lie with one of the
chqrocteristics of divinlty: t:e stroight .line.
The opoque Dqnube under o muddy robe, selobsorbed

ond brim-

ming over with fot lusty ecund ish, flows gurgling between the high horsh
bonks of the mountqins os i within the immense centrql corridor of the eorth, o
convent exposed by the swift rototions o the constelotions. How ong will this
pedcntic river permit outomobies, borking ike crozy fox terriers, to surposs it ct
top speed? I look forward to the doy when the Dqnube will course in o stroight
ine ot 300 kilomeiers on hour.
All those who sin ogoinst speed must be persecuted, loshed, qnd tortured.

254

Filippo Tommcso
Marinetti, "L<r nuovtr
religione - morcrle
dellq velocit,"
L'ltalia ututisto,
Mcry Il, 1916,
Trcnslcrted by lerey
T. Schncpp.

Grove guilt o possist cities where the sun settes, bogs down, ond
never budges. who con believe thot the sun wlll deport tonight? come on! Thot's
unthinkobel This is its home. Squcres, lokes o sicrgnont ire. Streets, rivers of
lozy fire. For the moment, it's imposslble to pcss. No escope! Flood o sunight.
without o refrigeroted boot or a diving suit mqde of ice there's no rMclyto cross
thot fire. Bock into hiding. Despotism, poice stote o light, secures ihe orrest of
ol rebels endowed with freshness ond speed. solqr stoie o siege. woe to the
body thot exits the house. Hommer blow to the heod. Out deod. Soor guilotines
otop every door. Woe to the thought thot exits the sku]. 2, 3, 4 eoden notes wil
crosh down on it rom the ruined be tower. At home: stuffiness, the roge of
nostolgic ies. Stretching o thighs qnd memories bothed in sweqt.
Sinul sowness of Sundoy crowds ond o the Venetion lcgoons.
.Sneed. hovinq os its essence the intuitive synthesis o ol orces in
vyvvv,

movement, is inherently pure. sowness, hoving qs its essence the rotiono

onoysis o qll orms of exhoustions qt rest, is inherenty uncleon. After hoving
destroyed oge-od good ond oge-od evi, we creqte q new good, speed, ond o
new evil, siowness.
Speed = synthesis o ai orms o couroge in action. Aggressive ond wqrike.
Slowness = anqlysis of ol orms o stognont prudence. Possive ond pociistic.
speed = scorn o obstqcles, desire or the new ond unexplored. Modernity, hygiene.
sowness = stosis, ecstosy, motioness worship o obstoces, nostalgio or the
olreody seen, ideqlizotion of exhcrustion qnd rest, pessimism regording the
unexplored. Roncid romonticism of the wid wondering

poet ond the ong-

hoired, bespectoced ithy phiosopher'

I prcryer meqns communicoting with the divine, rocing ot high speeds
is o proyer. Holiness o wheels ond rqils. we must kneel on rowoy trocks to
proy to divine veocity. we must knee before the whiriing speed o o gyroscopic
composs: 20,000 revolutions per minute-the

highest mechonicq

speed ot-

tqined by mon. we must seize from the stors the secret of their ostonishing,
unfothomoble speed. Let us thus join in the greot celestic bottes, conront the
Stqr-shels fired by invisible cclnons; vie with the stor 1830 Groombridge

thot

flies ot 241 km c second, with Arcturus thct fies ot 413 km o second. Invisibe
mcrthemoticql gunners. wors in which the stors, being both proiectiles ond
gunners, ottempt to escqpe o bigger stor or strike q smoler one thqnks to their
speed. Our mole soints qre the countless corpuscles thot pierce our otmosphere
ot on overoge rote o 42,000 meters q second. our emole soints ore ight ond
electromognetic woves moving of 3 x I00meiers q second'

The lntoxicotion o high speeds in motor cqrs is but the joy of becoming
one with the soe divinity. Sportsmen ore the irst cqtechumens of this religion.
Impending destruction of houses ond cities to make room or spocious meeting
pioces for cors ond airpones.
Plcrces inhcbited

by the divine: trqins, restouront cors (high-speed

eoting). Trsin stqtions, especioy in the Americqn West where troins poss ot
140 kllometers on hour to drink in wqter (without stopping) ond pick up moilbogs. Bridges and tunnels. The Ploce de l'Opro in Poris. The London Strand.
Rqce trocks. Films. Rodio-teegrophy stqtions. The enormous condults thot hur
columns of olpine woter downwqrd in order to snqtch electricity's driving force
rom the otmosphere. The mojor Pqrision couturiers whose ropid invention o
qshions eeds o possion or the new qnd hctred o the fomilior. Ultromodern
ond iveiy cities ike Milqn endowed, os Americons soy, with the necessqry
punc: the cleqn ond shorp bow with which boxers knock out on opponent.
Bcttleields. Mochine guns, ri]es, cdnons, ond projectiies ore ol divine. Mines
'ond
high-speed minecountermines: tobow up the enemyBEFORE he blows us up.
Internol combustion engines qnd tires ore divine. Bicyces ond motorcyces qre
divine. Petro is divine. One hundred horsepower inspires reigious ecstcrsies.
The joy o shiting rom the 3rd gecr into 4th. The joy of pressing down on the
occelerotor, the pedo rumbling with musicql speed. The repusion provoked by
those who qre deqd oseep. The repusion thot I fee when I go to bed ot night.
Every night I proy to my ittle electric lomp becouse speed furiously ogitotes ii.
Heroism is o speed thot lopped itsef, hoving compeied the vastest of
rqcetrocks.
Pqtriotism is the vectoriol velocity of o notion. Wor is the necessory test
bed or the ormy, a nation's moin propulsive force.
High-speed trqve in qn quiomobile or oirpone qllows for the ropid
embrqce ond comporison o mutipe points on the suroce o the eqrth, which
is the mechonico

equivoent to the work o onoogy. The frequent troveler

qchieves grenius by mechonicql meqns. He is qble to see connections between

distont things by observing them systemoticoly and comporing them to one qnother, thereby uncovering deeper offinities. High speed ortificioly reproduces
the working o the onoogicoi imoginotion o the ortist. Ubiquity of the wireless
imoginotion = speed. Creqtive genius = speed.
Active ondpassive speed; guidingspeed

(the driver) ond guidedspeed

(the cor); moldrng speed (writing, scupting) ond molded speed (written, scupted);
speed engendered by vorrous speeds (o troin pushed ond pulled by locomotives

both in front ond in bock) ond speed engendering vorious speeds (the tronsqtantic ship equipped with multiple engines o vorying velocities + voriegoted
men on the move: soilors, engineers, pcrssengers, wqiters, cooks, swmmers in
ogitoted poos + the wqter churned by swimmers + mony running or borking
dogs + mony jumping fleos + the potentioi speeds of mony rqce horses).
Another exomple of speed enErenderingr vorious speeds: the outomobie corrying the driver + the speed o his thinking oheod to the second stoge or
whot stil needs to be done even os the car moteriolly compietes the first stoge.
The driver experiences the boredom o the dj vu upon orrivo.
Our ie must ahivoys be on engendering speed: thinking speed + body
speed + speed o the plotorm ihqt corries the body + speed of the element
(woter or oir) thqt supports the piotorm (boot or oircrqft). Free the mind from
the mentql roodwoy in fqvor o the mqteriol one. As i with o penci, mqrk the
rood mop with smels (bodiy difusion), thoughts (spirituol diusion) = occelerotion. Speed destroys the ows o grovity. It mokes time qnd spoce subjective,
thereby ensloving them. For the qst mon, kiometers qnd hours oren't identicol,
but rqther vqriqble in both length ond duration.
Let's imitate the woy thot iroins ond qutomobiles orce everything
encountered olong the rood to roce towqrds them ond mirror their speed, stirring up the spirit o contrqdiction, which is to soy life, in everything thot crosses
their path. The speed o o trqin splits the ondscope being troversed into two
rototing potorms thot wheei oround in the opposite direction. Every troin
cqrries owoy the nostolgios thqt urk in the souls o those who qre wotching.
More distqnt objects-trees,

orests, hiils, mountoins-look

with horror qt the

woy that things hur themselves ogoinst troins, but loter ocquiesce, albeit with
reuctqnce ond qt o reduced poce. Every ost moving body swoys rom side to
side ond tends to become o pendulum.
Rqce rqce roce fy ly. Donger donger dcnger donger right left below
qbove inside outside smeil breothe drink in deqth. Militorized
geors. Precise concise lyricism. Geometrico

revolution of

spiendor. To experience more

reshness qnd ie from rivers qnd seos you must ly ogoinst the fresh countercurrents of wind ot iop sPeed'
when I lew for the first time with the oviqtor Bielovucic, I et my chest
open up like o grect hoe through which, smooth, fresh, ond torrentiq, ol the
blue of the sky punged exquisitely. Insteod of the slow wotered-down sensuoity
qnd
of wqks under the sun ond qmidst lowers, one ought to preer the ferocious
bood-tinging mqsscge of the roging wind. Growing evity. An infinite sense o

carnc pleqsure. You descend from the pione with on ultrcight elostic spring to
your step. Disemburdened, you have defeoted the sow muck o the street. You
hove overcome the low thot condemns mon to crqw.
Constont vqriotions in poce ore essentiql in order to ensure our clrcreness o speed. In the surn speed ochieves qbsoluie beouty becquse it must
struggle qgoinst ist the resisiqnce of the rood surqce, 2nd ctmospheric pressure, 3rd the vccuum creoted in course of turning. Speed on o stroight line is big,
vulgor, unconscjous. Speed durlng ond qter o bend is nimble and self-owore.
The spectoculor drqmo o skidding qround qutomobile rccewoys. The
cor tends to split in two. The recr weighed down by the eor o coming dongers,
becomes q connonbql seeking downwqrd

slopes, ditches, the eorth's center.

Better to die right owoy thon o toke on odditionoJ risl. No! no! nol Al glory to
the futurist front suspension thot with o shrug o the shouders or quick turn o
the steering wheel puls the reor end o the vehicle out o the ditch ond puts it
bock on course. Cors cqreer close fo us, between us, o the roi/s, spinning out,
bouncing olong the curvqture o the horizon, rogie, threotened by the traps set
by crnd ot every turn. The s-turn conquered ot high speed is the most sublime
expression o lie: o victory o the sel over the bose potting o bodily weight,
determined to treocherousy kill our velocity by drogging it into o pit o immobiity.
Speed = exponsion + condensqtion of the L The entire spqce trcrversed by o
body compressed into this very body.

love of eqrth-womcn spreoding out

lqnd

over the world (horizontol ust)

sPeed

= motoring os oving coress

o white femoie curves

hqtred o the eqrth (verticol mysticism)

dir
Epeed

the upword spircling of the self toword nothingnessGod = Aviotion, the purgotive ogility of costor oil

Fost engogement o troin whees with nolsemqking teeth. The whees

extrqct from the eorth oll of motter's latent noises. The trocks jump under the
pressure o the troin; they shimmer in the vibrqnt, elostic net of the moving
instqnt. The roods trovel by outomobies ore troils o gobulcr noise ond spiraling odors. This I00 HP cor extends the coverns o Mount Etnc.
The roods troveled by cors ond roiwoy lines have cn unduloting

eqstic thrust in hopes o quicky wropping themselvesaround the ideol pole

ponted in the horizon line.
The voluptuouseeing o riding olone in the dork depthso q imousine,
rocing cmong the bright skipping iccleso the nocturnol cityscope.The specioi
vouptuousnesso feeling one'sbodily speed.I am q mqn who oten eots crttrcrin
stqtions between one express troin qnd the other. My goze shuttlesbock ond
orth between the woli clock ond the steoming dish. The screw-onxiety-memory
is driven into the heort. It needs to be fed with speed. One needs to believe in
the solidity-resistqncethot results rom speed. The power qnd the compexity
o thought, the sophisticotiono desires ond oppetites, the inodequocy o the
eqrth's surqce, the hunger for honey, spices, meot and exotic ruit: ql ths s
dictoted by the uturist religion-morclity o Speed.
Speed detcches mole rom emcrlecorpuscles. Speed destroys love,
q vice of the sedentory heqrt, o sod coogulotion, crrterioscerosisof humonityblood. Speed rendersogile, it occelerctesthe blood circulqtion o trcins qutomobiles oirplones worldwide.
Only Speed con kill off the poisonous,nostolgic, sentimentq,pcciist,
qnd neutrol Mooniight. Itqians:be quick cnd you will olso be strong,optimistic,
invincibe, immortq!

259