Elementary Historical Note (was Pynchon and fascism)

[Vincent A. Maeder]

And a bundle of sticks bound together is a "fagot."  So there you have
it.  A fagot with an axe. what images that conjures.  
 
Then there's that poetic resonance with feces.
 
V.
-----Original Message-----
From: Eulenspiegel7646 at aol.com
Actually, it was None Other than Benito Mussolini who coined the word,
as most of you probably know.  It comes from the Roman term "fasces,"
referring to a bundle of canes tied together with an axe carried by the
representatives of the Senate to symbolize the power to mete out
corporal & capital punishment.  The old silver Liberty Head dime has a
fasces on the reverse.  The coat of arms of the French Republic also has
a representation of the fasces.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20030529/a5c67c1b/attachment.html>