The Readings

The readings.

Listen, we all know the readings have gotten progressively easier as they've become more and more modern, but with the story of Landval and the Lay of Chevefoil, the ease of reading has become increased dramatically. Then we come to Dante's inferno. With the inferno the ease fo reading has been set back to Iliad levels, at least in my opinion. Its over saturated with heavy language, extreme similes, and the pettiness of the greeks. My belief is that Dante resumes this over saturation as a way to model the greeks similar way of being extreme about everything, following in the steps of the Romans for stealing works of the greeks, and following in his hero, Virgil's, footsteps.

To Hell and Back

I find that The Divine Comedy is one the greatest pieces of literature ever written. The text is full of references and culture to extents that I have yet to encounter in any other literature. In this text alone, we see the collision of Greek, Roman, and Christian culture, and I believe that this is what makes the text so rich. In none of the texts we've read so far have we seen so many references in one text. The crossing of these cultures is interesting because it once again drudges up the question of how the hell these texts get crossed without modern communication! It's a question that bothers me even though I know that I'll probably never get a straight answer or any answer at all.

Another thing about The Inferno that I find quite interesting is the idea that people born before Christ are stuck in Hell. Here's one question I pose: Is this fair? Should these people be given the chance to accept Christ in the after life? No matter what you think, the bottom line is that they don't have this opportunity -- or at least most of them don't. Along with this, it is worth discussing the fact that there are a few Biblical characters that ascend to Purgatory. In my opinion, this is fair because they did something significant to allow for the to get out of Hell and into Purgatory.

I leave you all with these questions to ponder:

1. Why/How do you think these cultures got crossed in such a way?
2. What is the importance of having Virgil guide Dante through Hell? Is it comparable to anything else you have read?
3. Why has The Inferno, or even The Divine Comedy, stood the test of time?