I read the first canto of The Divine Comedy's Paradiso. Of course it's a Christian fantasy, but I'm looking for ideas for Pure Lands. I thought that was the first book, but it starts with the Inferno. I thought it was those two, but there's Purgatorio. "It is widely considered to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature." My grandmother thought she would have wings when she went to heaven.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was born in Florence. He was exiled, and that caused him to write his poems. Similar to Machiavelli, who was also banished. Or Montesquieu who simply retired to the country.
Getting into the Christian system, albeit with an eloquent writer, feels like it could be a slog. Like reading Freud to get his whole system, it's just quite a lot, and it's not a coherent system. I'm OK with the systems of Taoism and Buddhism because they don't feel that huge, drawn out, though I don't interpret anything literal, it's all psychological, and when I consider Christianity as an existential coping mechanism, then it seems less harmful. In fact, I wish people really used it more. I suddenly get a picture of Trump holding a bible upside down when I think that.
Just like MTV doesn't play music any more, Christians in America have wandered from their original mission. What they do speaks about their true belief. But to go back to the "comedy" written 1308-1320 is to see Christianity at it's best presentation. I've always felt that a spirituality should be entered at it's best presentation, not by reading the behavior of it's so-called adherents. And even though I'm a Buddhist, Christianity seems glorious. I think that at the tender age of 53, I could actually go to church now and not feel oppressed. It doesn't offend me like it used to. I can see some merit in it. Thank you Dante.
Another thing I like in writers is that they engender desire to read other writers. For Dante I want to read: Virgil (his guide), and the 4 writers in the first level: Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan. I'm having more success in reading more difficult writers and enjoying it.
In a way Dante could be accused of playing God by articulating these punishments. But I take it another way that he's trying to articulate problems with certain ways of being. Except the sins are always about other people. He is only uncomfortable with lust because he felt that too. He makes that the lightest circle of hell. I'd say it's easier to point out sins in others, but much much harder to root out your own sins.
Supposedly Dante wasn't popular in English until William Blake did a bunch of art.
Here's the schedule: (x)=done:
May 1-7 Inferno I - IX (1-9) (x) 5/1
May 8-14 Inferno X - XV (10-15) (x) 5/2
May 15-21 Inferno XVI - XXI (16-21) (x) 5/5
May 22-28 Inferno XXII - XXVII (22-27) (x) 5/5
May 29 - June 4 Inferno XXVIII - XXXIV (28-34)
June 5-11 Catch/Up and General Remarks on Inferno
June 12 - 18 Purgatorio I - VIII (1-8)
June 19 - 25 Purgatorio IX - XVI (9-16)
June 26 - July 2 Purgatorio XVII - XXIV (17-24)
July 3 - 9 Purgatorio XXV - XXXIII (25-33)
July 10 - 16 Catch-Up / General remarks on Purgatorio
July 17 - 23 Paradiso I - VIII (1-8)
July 24 - 30 Paradiso IX - XVI (9-16)
July 31 - Aug 6 Paradiso XVII - XXIV (17-24)
Aug 7 - 13 Paradiso XXV - XXXII (25-32)
Aug 14 - 20 catch-up / general remarks on Paradiso
Links:
Why should you read Dante’s “Divine Comedy”? - Sheila Marie Orfano
"Hell is simply the first stop on the road to redemption" 13th Floor, How Dante’s INFERNO Shaped the Modern Image of Hell
English translations of Dante's Divine Comedy Wikipedia (16 this century alone)
List of cultural references in the Divine Comedy Wikipedia
Dante's Divine Light (YouTube) Talk by art history professor Martin Kemp, who wrote Visions of Heaven.
Dante: Our Medieval Contemporary by Michael Glover
Dante's descendant to take part in 'retrial' of poet's 1302 corruption case: Seven centuries after guilty verdict in Florence, Sperello di Serego Alighieri to help test whether poet’s conviction would stand today.
INFERNO XIV – THE OLD MAN OF CRETE
Guelphs and Ghibellines Kind of like the Capulets and the Montagues.
Brunetto Latini: A mentor and friend, that proves Dante wasn't just putting people he didn't like in hell.
Danteworlds from UTAUST
Creatures from the Inferno (Infernotopia Wiki) Geryon
Geryon (Wikipedia)
“Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta”
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