Jan 27– From Purgatorio from The Divine Comedy by Dante (1308) translated by Henry F. Clay

Doom Music (The third and final episode of the original Doom is Inferno, and references Dante.)

Reading

Jan 27– From Purgatorio from The Divine Comedy by Dante (1308) translated by Henry F. Clay

Summary: Dante finished up with Virgil in Purgatory, then gets chastised by his crush on the way to Heaven.

Commentary: I'm teaching The Great Gatsby right now. The Divine Comedy is clearly the better story about being obsessed with a woman.  Also, I like the 1993 Doom music (and game in general) better than the newer ones. I'm just full of pointless comparisons tonight.

From a modern perspective, Dante's relationship is pretty unhealthy. There's putting a woman on a pedestal, and then there's elevating her to near sainthood. Doubly so for a woman who doesn't even particularly care for you. Compared to other quests through (usually metaphorical) hells to save the princess, Dante also has no other objective. Mario goes to rescue Peach, but he's also trying to protect the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser. Luke Skywalker is partially motivated by that sexy Princess Leia hologram, but he also hates the Empire and wants to train to be a Jedi. Dante is just chasing Beatrice. While she taunts him about not loving her properly.

I'm a little curious about why this section was chosen. There's certainly nothing wrong with it (and the transition from Purgatorio to Paradiso is significant), but if you're only going to read 10 pages of Dante, I'm surprised you wouldn't choose Inferno as the most known. Maybe that was less true 100 years ago than today. The first few cantos have "abandon all hope, ye who enter here," which seems like someone getting the "core" cultural experience would want. You could start around there, and still get the virtuous pagans, which would tie into the other readings. Alternatively, doing the last few cantos would get you some of Dante's historical/political commentary, and glacier Satan, which is both one cool (pun intended) and not what people usually expect, which makes it more interesting.

Overall, this was an enjoyable enough selection, and does provide some interesting critical fodder for the presentation of relationships in fiction.