Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by lilith89ibz
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
I am not going to rate this because I have a lot of conflicting feelings about it.
On one hand, the cultural and historical impact of this text is out of the question, and the poetry is fantastic. On the other hand, this is the ultimate wish fulfillment, self-insert, Bible fanfiction, and I find that ridiculously hilarious. Dante gets a metaphorical metaphysical revenge on his enemies, meets his mythological idols, laments the fact that God didn't introduce himself to all the old Greek heroes so they could have gone to Heaven, becomes great pals with Virgil, and ultimately gets the girl of his dreams and gets into Heaven, as a reward for having invented for himself The Right Way to Believe in God™, featuring an entirely made up structure of hell, purgatory and heaven, and endless ways of over-explaining Bible plot holes.
I was entertained enough in Inferno, witnessing the obvious sadism Dante partakes in while trying to cover it up with piousness, but I got a little stuck in Purgatorio. Yes, yes, very fitting. It took me forever to get through it because I was bored. Paradiso does pick up a bit, but I think this book loses a lot if you're an atheist.
On one hand, the cultural and historical impact of this text is out of the question, and the poetry is fantastic. On the other hand, this is the ultimate wish fulfillment, self-insert, Bible fanfiction, and I find that ridiculously hilarious. Dante gets a metaphorical metaphysical revenge on his enemies, meets his mythological idols, laments the fact that God didn't introduce himself to all the old Greek heroes so they could have gone to Heaven, becomes great pals with Virgil, and ultimately gets the girl of his dreams and gets into Heaven, as a reward for having invented for himself The Right Way to Believe in God™, featuring an entirely made up structure of hell, purgatory and heaven, and endless ways of over-explaining Bible plot holes.
I was entertained enough in Inferno, witnessing the obvious sadism Dante partakes in while trying to cover it up with piousness, but I got a little stuck in Purgatorio. Yes, yes, very fitting. It took me forever to get through it because I was bored. Paradiso does pick up a bit, but I think this book loses a lot if you're an atheist.