Monday, November 28, 2016

Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno Part B

Reading Notes
The Giants
For this particular part, what I really enjoyed was the formatting or rather the continuation of the step by step theme that the journey through the rungs of the inferno ignited. By walking through each of the giants with small excerpts for each the staircase quality of the plot was able to thrive on. Out of the five giants we meet I latched onto Nimod. Whether that is because of the authors note or just the writing I am unsure but I think I am also attracted to the curse laid upon him. To lose the ability to communicate is a fate I would wish upon no one and can be such a source of pain that I was entranced by his cameo in the piece.

Ugolino
The story of Count Ugolino is a captivating one to say the least. For all intents and purposes, Ugolino was just a naive noble who paid for his foolishness in famine. Funnily Enough, I heard the story of Count Ugolino in an episode of a podcast called Lore; being slightly familiar with the piece allowed for a renewed pleasure in the reading for me. Instead of hearing a third party, Count Ugolino was able to describe his own demise which provided a fun, delicious (excuse the morbid pun) twist. 

Satan
The personification of Satan over time has evolved and twisted itself into a product of media culture. At first it was in the medium of books and novels, such as the bible and Dante's Inferno but with tv shows and movies the Devil has been shaped into a whole new beast of its own right. For me, it was intriguing to see and understand one of the first elaborate depictions of the Christian Satan. While every culture has their from of the Devil, Dante's Inferno's description is a thing of nightmares and maybe that is the key to his writing in general: to being people's sins and nightmares to the forefrront.

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All reading notes are based off of excerpts from Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002).

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