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die6die 's review for:
The Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri
RitToC 27 -
Backstory - so I read the Divine Comedy in high school and it blew my young mind. It changed me from a militant atheist to a flakey agnostic, it made me appreciate poetry, it got me interested in medieval philosophy. That said I’ve been hesitant to revisit it in the decades since - would it hold up?
Inferno -
The Inferno continues to be great, most of the ironic punishments are great, the demons saluting with farts still makes me laugh. I like that Dante the character evolves through the story, from empathizing with the damned to anger at them. It’s kind of like listening to funeral doom metal - I feel this kind of despair throughout the whole thing but it’s a good despair. Cathartic, maybe.
Definitely the best of the trilogy.
Purgatorio-
See, when I read this decades ago I really enjoyed this one as well since it’s central theme is hope. There are still ironic punishments but they’re temporary. We actually meet a soul who ascends into heaven.
This time around I wasn’t as into it, especially with the pageant in the Garden of Eden at the top of the mountain. The endless symbolism was frankly rather dull. In retrospect I should’ve taken this as a warning sign of what was to come in Paradiso.
Not as good as Inferno, but still good overall.
Paradiso -
Man oh man. So I thought the theme was joy, but for me the theme was boredom. This whole book was a joyless slog to get through, some cantos took some hardcore skimming to get past.
So in heaven everyone is in a stadium in the shape of a rose watching God, many souls leave to other planets to chat with Dante on Italian politics, theological minutia, and moral philosophizing that is just tedious. 33 cantos in a row of “Well actually Dante...” is kind of the worst.
I think I’ll just stick with Inferno and sometimes Purgatorio. Yikes. I’m wondering now what 17 year old me saw in Paradiso that filled him with wonder. Hmm.
Backstory - so I read the Divine Comedy in high school and it blew my young mind. It changed me from a militant atheist to a flakey agnostic, it made me appreciate poetry, it got me interested in medieval philosophy. That said I’ve been hesitant to revisit it in the decades since - would it hold up?
Inferno -
The Inferno continues to be great, most of the ironic punishments are great, the demons saluting with farts still makes me laugh. I like that Dante the character evolves through the story, from empathizing with the damned to anger at them. It’s kind of like listening to funeral doom metal - I feel this kind of despair throughout the whole thing but it’s a good despair. Cathartic, maybe.
Definitely the best of the trilogy.
Purgatorio-
See, when I read this decades ago I really enjoyed this one as well since it’s central theme is hope. There are still ironic punishments but they’re temporary. We actually meet a soul who ascends into heaven.
This time around I wasn’t as into it, especially with the pageant in the Garden of Eden at the top of the mountain. The endless symbolism was frankly rather dull. In retrospect I should’ve taken this as a warning sign of what was to come in Paradiso.
Not as good as Inferno, but still good overall.
Paradiso -
Man oh man. So I thought the theme was joy, but for me the theme was boredom. This whole book was a joyless slog to get through, some cantos took some hardcore skimming to get past.
So in heaven everyone is in a stadium in the shape of a rose watching God, many souls leave to other planets to chat with Dante on Italian politics, theological minutia, and moral philosophizing that is just tedious. 33 cantos in a row of “Well actually Dante...” is kind of the worst.
I think I’ll just stick with Inferno and sometimes Purgatorio. Yikes. I’m wondering now what 17 year old me saw in Paradiso that filled him with wonder. Hmm.