Futurism first appeared in 1909, at the same time as the crepuscolari (twilight poets) movement, but it was clear that the sensibilities of the groups were diametrically opposed. However, both movements were characterized by their reactionary poetic representations. Thecrepuscolari chose to withdraw into a literary world of quiet villages, people of the provinces, and their uneventful everyday routines. They used a simple rhetorical lexicon and simple images that recall classical poetic language. The futurists, on the other hand, chose to destroy all tradition. Under the guidance of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti they produced shocking literary manifestos and publicized their ideas through all possible channels, including conferences, literary journals, and extravagant dinners. As R. W. Flint says in his introduction to Marinetti: Selected Writings (1972), Marinetti "was everywhere at once, thanks to the railroads, organizing, orating, propagandizing, staging exhibitions and theatrical 'evenings' of music, recitation, and riot; clowning, providing a screen...