tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78175892213711618172024-03-05T17:53:06.209-08:00 Italy Today with Dante What would Dante (and Boccaccio and Petrarch) say about Italy and the world today if, let's say, they hosted a morning talk show? Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-89208378855511910312014-01-27T12:08:00.001-08:002014-01-27T12:08:18.435-08:00Inferno Revealed: From Dante to Dan Brown<b>The Journey Continues</b><br />
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After my sabbatical hiatus and year in Italy, I am back in Oklahoma with a full slate of classes and other professorial activities. As I return to reading and re-reading Dante and Boccaccio, listening to my students' impressions and novel interpretations of these two masters, I can refresh my blog with new material. Not living in Italy now, the material will be more focused on Dantean and Boccaccian takes on the New World, but don't be surprised to see Italian subjects appear. Follow my posts for some information, interpretation, and, most especially, entertainment.<br />
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PLEASE COMMENT ON ANY POST PAST OR PRESENT.<br />
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My first thoughts reach back to earlier posts in 2013 in which I discussed the advent of Dan Brown's new thriller: <i>Inferno</i>. From almost a year's distance, we can see that Brown's book was almost universally panned as poorly written, and yet, spent a good deal of the year on the top of many lists of bestsellers. None of this is surprising. Dan Brown himself spent part of May in Florence talking up his book in a series of events sponsored by the city itself to bring more tourists to town, as if they needed any goading… Some of my most esteemed Dantista colleagues took time from their intellectual labors to consider Dan Brown's book, with the entirely predictable conclusions that Dan Brown is an imbecilic idiot whose novel proves two things: he neither knows how to read or to write.<br />
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Robert Harrison's review in the New York Review of Books is an excellent example:<br />
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<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/oct/24/dante-most-vivid-version/?pagination=false">http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/oct/24/dante-most-vivid-version/?pagination=false</a><br />
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Harrison's criticisms of Dan Brown cannot be denied; indeed, I made some of the same in my first review of the book on this blog. However, another colleague took a different and, certainly, more original if not bold approach to Dan Brown's book. Deborah Parker, a scholar of Dante and the Italian Renaissance at the University of Virginia, co-authored with her husband, also a literature professor at UVA, a book that attempts to take Dan Brown's book for what its worth and to put Brown in context of other authors/painters/ musicians/ etc… who have used Dante to create their own art.<br />
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<i>Inferno Revealed: From Dante to Dan Brown</i> turns out to be a very useful guide for the reader of Dante as much as for the reader of Dan Brown's Dante. It is yet another effort by Professor Parker to make Dante more available to readers today. Her excellent website worldofdante.org has already been the subject of this blog and is cited by Dan Brown in the notes to his <i>Inferno</i>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Inferno-Revealed-Dante-Dan-Brown/dp/1137279060/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390852020&sr=1-1&keywords=inferno+revealed">http://www.amazon.com/Inferno-Revealed-Dante-Dan-Brown/dp/1137279060/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390852020&sr=1-1&keywords=inferno+revealed</a><br />
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The first half of the book takes a rapid tour through Dante's <i>Inferno</i> giving the reader necessary and nuanced background on many of the important characters and episodes that have made the <i>Inferno</i> standard reading for 600 years. What is key here and what is most surprising is the rich detail of interpretation that the authors can fit into this study. I think most readers of Dante, forget about Dan Brown, would get a great deal of help from the authors' discussions in this book.<br />
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The second half of the book looks at the important legacy that Dante's vision of the afterlife had on poets/artists/ and musicians that have come after. The authors note that they will stick to English language uses of Dante, so we find Shakespeare, Milton, Pound, T.S. Eliot, and James Joyce treated with clear and concise sections. Then we look at popular or "lower" treatments of Dante in the contemporary graphic artist Sandow Birk's novel and subsequent animated feature based on Dante.<br />
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After all that the authors had accomplished in the first 2/3rds of the book, I found my self reading the Dan Brown sections at the end with a fair amount of skepticism. I have read Dan Brown's book, and I have noted, as others have, Dan Brown's errors, or to be more generous, "misprisions" of Dante. Thankfully, we do not have to read again how Dan Brown fails to live up to the standards set by Dante, or by Milton, Eliot, etc. Instead, the authors show how Dan Brown gets it right while admitting that he got some things wrong. This is not an apology for Dan Brown, but rather, a generous reading of the ways in which the character of Zobrist, the "villain" has a nuanced understanding of Dante's moral system as author of the <i>Inferno</i>.<br />
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I am not convinced of the excellence of Brown's novel, but I do not think the authors have that as a goal. Rather, they do well to show how Dante's <i>Inferno</i>, the entire <i>Commedia</i>, have set the stage for others to take up his imagined world, just as Dante took up Virgil's. But, Dan Brown aside, this book is a great tool for the non-specialist reader of Dante, which is just about all of us. As Dante himself said of his readership:<br />
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<tr><td class="canto_title ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">PARADISO CANTO 2</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="canto_title eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">PARADISO CANTO 2</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">O voi che siete in piccioletta barca,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">2.1</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">O you who are within your little bark,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">desiderosi d'ascoltar, seguiti</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">eager to listen, following behind</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">dietro al mio legno che cantando varca,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">my ship that, singing, crosses to deep seas,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">tornate a riveder li vostri liti:</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">2.4</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">turn back to see your shores again: do not</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">non vi mettete in pelago, ché forse,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">attempt to sail the seas I sail: you may,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">perdendo me, rimarreste smarriti.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">by losing sight of me, be left astray.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-57532061945301094542013-06-13T05:56:00.001-07:002013-06-13T05:56:04.091-07:00In Purgatory: An Autobiography<br />As I approach the conclusion of my year in Italy, my family and I have entered into a waiting period as we try and enjoy our last few weeks in Italy and prepare to return to Oklahoma. Existing in this "in-between" state, reminds me of Dante's Purgatorio. <div>
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This blog has been mostly occupied with putting people in Hell, since, as most readers of the Divine Comedy conclude, Dante's Hell is the most fun to read. I think Dante might put it another way, since we are all sinners, Hell is where we all feel most at home!<br /><br />Purgatorio, on the other hand, is much-less read, but, unlike Paradiso, I believe most modern readers would find it almost as interesting as Inferno. We should all hope to make it into Dante's Purgatory, since residence their promises eventual admission to Heaven while also allowing for us to have "made a few mistakes" in life. Only Saints go straight to heaven, and they spent their lives in hair shirts or gruesomely killed as martyrs (one of my favorites, is St. Lawrence who was burnt on a grill, which explains the name "St. Lawrence" for a grilled cheese sandwich at a pub I used to frequent). <br /><br />Well, I find myself in Purgatory here in Italy, waiting to move on to the next thing. Dante's Purgatorio echoes with the sound of willing suffering and endured pain. Some of the penitents have to shoulder heavy boulders to cure the sin of Pride. Others have their eyelids sewn shut so as to prevent the envious itch. I know myself well enough to predict that I will spend plenty of time on one particular ledge of Purgatorio: Gluttony.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.worldofdante.org/media/images/purg/full/051202c_024.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://www.worldofdante.org/media/images/purg/full/051202c_024.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br />Here the sinners see abundance around them and, like in the famous story of Tantalus, find satisfaction just out of reach. Here is Dante's description of the punishment of the Gluttons from which Botticelli drew the above.<br /><br /><table id="text_display" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">parvermi i rami gravidi e vivaci</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">24.103</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">the branches of another tree, heavy</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">d'un altro pomo, e non molto lontani</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">with fruit, alive with green, appeared to me</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">per esser pur allora vòlto in laci.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">nearby, just past a curve where I had turned.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Vidi gente sott' esso alzar le mani</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">24.106</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="f_i" style="display: inline; padding: 0px 2px;">I</span></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Beneath the tree I saw shades lifting hands,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e gridar non so che verso le fronde,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">crying I know not what up toward the branches,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">quasi bramosi fantolini e vani</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">like little eager, empty-headed children,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che pregano, e 'l pregato non risponde,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">24.109</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">who beg—but he of whom they beg does not</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">ma, per fare esser ben la voglia acuta,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">reply, but to provoke their longing, he</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">tien alto lor disio e nol nasconde.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">holds high, and does not hide, the thing they want.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Poi si partì sì come ricreduta;</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">24.112</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Then they departed as if disabused;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e noi venimmo al grande arbore adesso,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and we—immediately—reached that great tree,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che tanti prieghi e lagrime rifiuta.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">which turns aside so many prayers and tears.</td></tr>
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<div>
The sinners are emaciated from hunger and parched with thirst, and easy and apt punishment for their gluttony. But they are not being punished, they are being trained to understand that physical sustenance, although pleasurable, should not substitute for spiritual sustenance, Love of God, that will bring true joy. Their hunger and thirst is neither mortal nor eternal.<br /><br /><div>
This will certainly be my Purgatorial fate! But my Italian purgatory is nothing like this; in fact, it is the opposite of Tantalus' annoying quandary. In Italy, I have a cornucopia of wonderful food options at every turn. Indeed, instead of suffering from famine, I have been feasting. Indeed, I think I have discovered the new miracle diet!<br /><div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I have never dieted before, although when I puffed up to over 180 pounds (I am only 5'9) a few years back, I decided to start “watching” what I ate, which translated to not eating an entire carton of ice cream every two days. From the little I know about diets I gather that they have rules about what you can eat. Some of them also regulate when you can eat. Some of them have points that you use to organize your food consumption. Others involve cutting out entire typologies of foods from your diet. Many diets are so complicated that it takes an entire book ($19.99 in paperback, available at amazon.com) to explain.<br />Well, my miracle diet is doubly-miraculous. Not only is it effective, but it is so easy that I need not write an entire book to explain it. There is one rule to my diet.<br /><br /><div>
Move to Italy.<br /></div>
<div>
The rule is so short and simple that there is no need for a fancy name for this diet. It can just be called the “Move to Italy” diet. I have now lived in Italy for a year, and I have lost about 15 pounds. My BMI has gone from 25 to 22.9.<br /></div>
<div>
And now the “miracle” part. I eat whatever the hell I want to eat. My breakfast is a sugary feast, with brioches, cookies, yogurt, granola, and sweet and whole-milky cappuccini. I reliably have an 11 am snack with more coffee, pastries or sandwiches. Pasta for lunch, with salad and salami or other cured meats. Afternoon snack? Of course, sometimes including Prosecco!. Dinner? More pasta, and potatoes, and meat. Let’s not forget dessert(s), which does not inlcude the gelato I require daily. All the while I munch on chocolate bars, potato chips, and even the occasional fruit. Oh yes, I have even started drinking regular coke again. I am in the land of Cockaigne!<br /></div>
<div>
If I ate this at home in Oklahoma I would see 200 pounds in the rear view mirror, if I could see around my corpulence. But with my new miracle diet, I lose weight. You might object, thinking that living in a Tuscan hill town I walk much more than in the US. Wrong! I walk to work (or bike) everyday in the US. I also am an active recreational biker in the US as well. In Italy, my activity level has actually decreased.<br /></div>
<div>
I have no scientific knowledge of how this diet works, indeed, I have very little scientific knowledge at all. My guess is that it has to do with all the chemicals and perservatives Americans eat in their food. I also blame it on High-fructose corn syrup. On the other hand, I am positive it has nothing to do with vaccinations or the lack of NSA spying on my Facebook activity in Italy. But I don’t care. I am 40 years old and eating everything I want in Italy AND losing weight, a miracle indeed.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But, as I said earlier, Purgatory is not eternal, and moving back to Oklahoma will likely mean that I will need eat more like Tantalus and less like 70s vintage Elvis. And given the Oklahoma heat, that will feel more like Hell than Purgatory.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Please send me some ideas for people to judge by Dante's rules. Who do you want to see placed in Dante's afterworld...and please, no current American politicians, that is just too easy.<br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-53674713955537695602013-06-06T04:46:00.002-07:002013-06-06T06:02:43.150-07:00Nec Plus Ultra: Italy's Angry UltraS<br />
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<a href="http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6926/post585191162559257ul3ay2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6926/post585191162559257ul3ay2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Italian Ultras giving Fascist (Roman) salute.<br />
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<br />
This story by Wright Thompson on ESPN is a must read for anybody interested in Italy today. I found it surprisingly good journalism from ESPN.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/9338962/when-beautiful-game-turns-ugly">http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/9338962/when-beautiful-game-turns-ugly</a><br />
<br />
I think the story has a couple of problems. The author resorts to some easy clichés about Italy. However, he does this to a much lesser extent than most things I have read, and he often uses these clichés in the service of reconsidering a side of Italian culture that gets virtually no coverage in or outside of Italy: the immigrant experience in Italy. Second, I think he could have made more clear the isolated nature of the culture of virulent racism represented by the UltraS, even if Italy, like many countries including the USA, struggles with issue of race and immigration.<br />
<br />
Read the article for an excellent description of the phenomenon the Ultras, "super fans of certain soccer clubs, and UltraS, Neo-Fascists who use their fandom as cover for violence and violent speech. The line is not always clear. In the best light, Ultras of all types are still quite scary, using planned choreography and Roman candle pyrotechnics, they 'enliven" soccer matches around Italy and Europe. UltraS promote "Ultra- violence" (to adopt Burgess' neologism from <i>A Clockwork Orange</i>), in the past, against Ultras supporting other teams, but now against other races. They also yell racist chants against players on the field, both on opposing sides and even on their own team.<br />
<br />
Where would Dante place the UltraS? For the complexity and contemporaneity of this issue, it is perhaps the hardest question this blog has had to handle. Please e\be patient with the length of this post.<br />
<br />
I think the UltraS go in Hell, Circle 5 of the Wrathful, Canto VIII.<br />
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<br />
Dante's wrathful (angry) are submerged in a lake of mud, wallowing in the misery of their own uncontrolled hatred. Their anger besmirches their reputation, obscures their humanity, and transforms them into a base nature. Constant conflict marks Dante's passage through the realm of the wrathful. One of the sinners attacks Dante...and Dante attacks him back. Once over the murky waters, perched on high towers and terraces angry fallen angels and wrathful Furies, including perpetually screaming Medusa!, block their entrance to the City of Dis. Dante recoils in fear, proposing to cut short his trip.<br />
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<table id="text_display" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Io vidi più di <em class="f_c" style="font-style: normal;">mille in su le porte</em></td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">8.82</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">About the gates I saw more than a thousand-</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"><em class="f_c" style="font-style: normal;">da ciel piovuti</em>, che stizzosamente</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">who once had rained from Heaven-and they cried</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">dicean: "Chi è costui che sanza morte</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">in anger: "Who is this who, without death,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">va per <em class="f_pl" style="font-style: normal;">lo regno de la morta gente</em>?"</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">8.85</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">can journey through the kingdom of the dead?"</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">E <em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">'l savio mio maestro</em> fece segno</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">And my wise master made a sign that said</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">di voler lor parlar segretamente.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">he wanted to speak secretly to them.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Allor chiusero un poco il gran disdegno</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">8.88</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Then they suppressed-somewhat-their great disdain</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e disser: "Vien tu solo, e quei sen vada</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and said: "You come alone; let him be gone</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che sì ardito intrò per questo regno.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">for he was reckless, entering this realm.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Sol si ritorni per la folle strada:</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">8.91</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Let him return alone on his mad road</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">pruovi, se sa; ché tu qui rimarrai,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">or try to, if he can, since you, his guide</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che li ha' iscorta <em class="f_pl" style="font-style: normal;">sì buia contrada</em>."</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">across so dark a land, you are to stay."</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Pensa, lettor, se io mi sconfortai</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">8.94</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Consider, reader, my dismay before</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">nel suon de le parole maladette,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">the sound of those abominable words:</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">ché non credetti ritornarci mai.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">returning here seemed so impossible.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"><em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">"O caro duca mio, che più di sette</em></td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">8.97</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">"O my dear guide, who more than seven times</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"><em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">volte m'hai sicurtà renduta e tratto</em></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">has given back to me my confidence</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">d'alto periglio che 'ncontra mi stette,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and snatched me from deep danger that had menaced,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">non mi lasciar," diss' io, "così disfatto;</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">8.100</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">do not desert me when I'm so undone;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e se 'l passar più <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7817589221371161817" name="m1" style="color: red; font-weight: bold;" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:java="http://xml.apache.org/xslt/java" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:x="http://exist.sourceforge.net/dc-ext" xmlns:xmldb="http://exist-db.org/xmldb/1.0" xmlns:xsp="http://apache.org/xsp">oltre</a> ci è negato,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and if they will not let us pass beyond,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">ritroviam l'orme nostre insieme ratto."</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">let us retrace our steps together, quickly."</td></tr>
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Today's UltraS belong here most obviously because of their manifest, and manifestly public, anger towards those they believe do not belong in Italy. Like the Furies standing guard on their terrace, the UltraS represent themselves as protectors of their city, culture, heritage, and race from outsiders. UltraS are only UltraS when they are in groups with an militaristic leadership structure, since their effect depends on display. The Furies are protecting the evil dead. The UltraS? Perhaps they protect an idea of Italy that is as mythical as the founding myths of Rome itself. Their ideology is directly linked to fascist ideology of Italy as the master of the the Mediterranean Sea, or Mare Nostrum (our Sea). This ideology found voice in Mussolini who, from his own balcony in Piazza Venezia in Rome, persuaded Italians to support his mad folly of colony and belligerence. The UltraS are angry and they are as fearful as they are deluded.</div>
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The UltraS name itself recalls this isolationist ideology. As the title of this post alludes, Nec Plus Ultra were the words that Hercules carved on his Pillars placed on Western Extreme of the Mediterranean to serve as a warning from the Gods not to " go beyond" Europe. For the UltraS, this reclusion works reciprocally, as a Do Not Enter sign: Nec Plus Intra. With their violence the UltraS forcefully declare their entitlement to their anger, and seek to instill fear in others.</div>
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Dante's stance on these issues is complex. At times, Dante adopts the rhetoric of exclusion (I am not calling Dante a racist!), specifically in Paradiso XVI, at other times, Dante also fears what is beyond his world. Indeed, his fear in this canto is about what is beyond "oltre" or "ultra" the walls of the city of Dis. But, like Ulysses in Canto XXVI of Hell, he ultimately chooses to go beyond the Pillars of Hercules, to open himself up to the dangers of experience of the unknown. For this, Dante and Italy has been rewarded with his voice ringing out in the eternal discussion of virtue and knowledge (virtute e canoscenza) that defines culture. </div>
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Fortunately, these UltraS only represent a far-right fringe on Italian belief, and for their angry words and deeds let them swim in the muck.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-76503053761578378122013-06-03T07:09:00.003-07:002013-06-03T07:09:38.610-07:00Dante Plays The Game of Thrones: A Red Wedding in Hell<br />
***Spoliers Alert**** Info about June 2nd Game of Thrones episode and the end of Dante's "<i>Inferno</i>!"<br />
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The penultimate episode of Game of Thrones season 3 (don't ask me how I am keeping up with the HBO series in Italy) ended with a bloodbath that few viewers will forget. The viewer has been encouraged to root for the Stark family in the current battle for dominance in this fantasy world, but this episode ended any hope for a quick win for Ned Stark's brood.<br />
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What caught my attention was the double betrayal that brought about the gory end to Robb Stark, his mother, and his wife and unborn child. The episode was skillful in emphasizing the seething anger that the spurned lord Walder Frey had for the Stark family, has Robb had broken his promise to take on Frey's daughters as a wife, a political marriage that would have brought Frey's descendants into direct lineage to the kingship. Frey repays this betrayal of a political deal with a more nefarious deed. He welcomes the Stark family to his castle and agrees to marry his daughter to a lesser lord, all the while having planned to massacre his guests after the nuptial celebrations. Shockingly for a tv drama, this all happens before our eyes and agape jaws. <br />
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Lord Frey, a crusty old curmudgeon, losses his wife in the events. But, as he says, he can get another.<br />
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As with everything on HBO, Dante has been here before...and done it better.<br />
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In Canto XXII-XXXIII of Hell we meet and hear from a certain Count Ugolino, who is punished together with another person, Archbishop Ruggieri, who was part of a double-treachery similar to the Stark-Frey dyad. Let's hear how Dante presents these two sinners:<br />
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<table id="text_display" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Noi eravam partiti già da ello,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">32.124</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">We had already taken leave of him,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">ch'io vidi due ghiacciati in una buca,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">when I saw two shades frozen in one hole,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">sì che l'un capo a l'altro era cappello;</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">so that one's head served as the other's cap;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e come 'l pan per fame si manduca,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">32.127</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and just as he who's hungry chews his bread,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">così 'l sovran li denti a l'altro pose</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">one sinner dug his teeth into the other</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">là 've 'l cervel s'aggiugne con la nuca:</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">right at the place where brain is joined to nape:</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">non altrimenti <em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">Tidëo</em> si rose</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">32.130</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">no differently had Tydeus gnawed the temples</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">le tempie a <em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">Menalippo</em> per disdegno,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">of Menalippus, out of indignation,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che quei faceva il teschio e l'altre cose.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">than this one chewed the skull and other parts.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"> </td></tr>
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Ugolino spends eternity gnawing on Ruggieri's skull and other parts, by which I understand his BRAIN!<br />
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<a href="http://italiano.sismondi.ch/letteratura/autori/Alighieri/Iconografia/gustave-dore-divina-commedia-inferno-1861/inf-xxxii-1.jpg/image_preview" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="http://italiano.sismondi.ch/letteratura/autori/Alighieri/Iconografia/gustave-dore-divina-commedia-inferno-1861/inf-xxxii-1.jpg/image_preview" width="320" /></a></div>
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The story of Ugolino and Ruggieri is complicated, even more complicated than the meandering Game of Thrones plot and the names are just a tricky. But, to shorten it a bit, Ugolino betrayed his side in a political feud (the Guelphs) to join with Ruggieri to gain his own power. Ruggieri, not trusting the proven traitor Ugolino, accuses him of being a double-agent against Ruggieri's party (Ghibellines) and imprisons him, along with his sons, and starves them to death. Dante's poem leaves purposefully ambiguous whether Ugolino, imprisoned with his sons, eats them as a sort of mistaken Eucharistic offering to put off his own eventual and inevitable death.<br />
<br />
Here we have a double-betrayal, but where one party Ruggieri receives worse punishment because his betrayal includes innocents, Ugolino's family. Ugolini is not blameless, but he "gets to be on top," so to distinguish the slightly lesser nature of his betrayal...it was just politics, while Ruggieri exacts revenge on an entire family.<br />
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The Game of Thrones picks up on this by having Robb Stark's betrayal, the spurning of a promise to a political marriage, massively overshadowed by Frey's revenge, which takes the blood of the innocent (unborn child) as well as the guilty. Frey's sin, in Dante's language, becomes more grave when we consider that he A. Kills his guest (Ptolomea for Dante) and his lord (Judecca for Dante).<br />
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So, let's imagine Robb Stark and Frey together in Dante's Hell. Stark's sin is lesser but still a political betrayal, so he gets to be on top. While starvation was a key for Ugolini and Ruggieri, in The Game of Thrones we have a nuptial feast. What punishment fits here? Stark cutting up Frey only to feed him to himself, since marriage seeks to use one's own fleshly product (a child) to further one's own power?<br />
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What do you think would be a good punishment? Am I too harsh to say Dante would put Robb Stark in Hell as a political traitor? Maybe his sin is lust? Use the comments button to make your suggestion.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-88383014909265912362013-05-31T03:47:00.004-07:002013-05-31T06:40:22.900-07:00Sin and Punishment vs. Sickness and CureWhile not reading junk fiction based on Dante, or riding my bike up and down Tuscan hills (and in and around Tuscan thundershowers!), I am also doing some real academic work! My current project is a translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's "Minor" Latin Works, or short odds and end that nobody has translated yet. Most of these texts are Boccaccio's Letters, 24 in total, that he wrote to friends and colleagues. I am now preparing the 3rd drafts of these letters, and I have come back to the XXIst, one of my favorites. Why? Because the entire letter describes, in gory detail, Boccaccio's maladies and the cure for these maladies. Written in 1373, Boccaccio is an old man, 60 years old, living in discomfort in his hometown, really a village, of Certaldo. It makes for fascinating reading. I provide my translation of Boccaccio's description of his sickness.<br />
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">"<i>Thus, since the last time that I saw you, whom I
always hold in high honor, my life has been like death, afflicted by
tediousness and annoying even to me. It has not been vexed by just a single
torment. Indeed, first of all I have an incessant and burning itch, a dry rash;
to scratch this dry patch and dead skin it takes the constant application of my
fingernails both day and night. Add to that the heavy constipation of my
bowels, perpetual kidney pain, swollen spleen, conflagration of my bile,
panting cough, stuffed up chest, and congested head, and many other maladies,
which if I enumerated, you would certainly say that all of my body languishes
and my humors are all in discord</i>."</span><!--EndFragment--><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Boccaccio's description of his sickness reminds me of Dante's description of the sin of falsifiers in Canto XXIX:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/ashp/dante_xxix_falsifiers_detail.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/ashp/dante_xxix_falsifiers_detail.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table id="text_display" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Passo passo andavam sanza sermone,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">29.70</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">We journeyed step by step without a word,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">guardando e ascoltando li ammalati,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">watching and listening to those sick souls,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che non potean levar le lor persone.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">who had not strength enough to lift themselves.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Io vidi due sedere a sé poggiati,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">29.73</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">I saw two sitting propped against each other-</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">com' a scaldar si poggia tegghia a tegghia,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">as pan is propped on pan to heat them up-</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">dal capo al piè di schianze macolati;</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and each, from head to foot, spotted with scabs;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e non vidi già mai menare stregghia</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">29.76</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and I have never seen a stableboy</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">a ragazzo aspettato dal segnorso,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">whose master waits for him, or one who stays</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">né a colui che mal volontier vegghia,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">awake reluctantly, so ply a horse</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">come ciascun menava spesso il morso</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">29.79</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">with currycomb, as they assailed themselves</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">de l'unghie sopra sé per la gran rabbia</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">with clawing nails-their itching had such force</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">del pizzicor, che non ha più soccorso;</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and fury, and there was no other help.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e sì traevan giù l'unghie la scabbia,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">29.82</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">And so their nails kept scraping off the scabs,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">come coltel di scardova le scaglie</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">just as a knife scrapes off the scales of carp</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">o d'altro pesce che più larghe l'abbia.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">or of another fish with scales more large.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">"O <em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">tu che con le dita ti dismaglie</em>,"</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">29.85</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">"O you who use your nails to strip yourself,"</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">cominciò 'l duca mio a l'un di loro,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">my guide began to say to one of them,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">"e che fai d'esse tal volta tanaglie,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">"and sometimes have to turn them into pincers,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">dinne s'alcun Latino è tra costoro</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">29.88</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">tell us if there are some Italians</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che son quinc' entro, se l'unghia ti basti</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">among the sinners in this moat-so may</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">etternalmente a cotesto lavoro."</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">your nails hold out, eternal, at their work."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
However, I find Boccaccio's description of his cure much more gory than the description of the sickness itself, which comes across as pathetic. Boccaccio's cure, delivered by a local doctor (Boccaccio does not like doctors, much like his friend and mentor Petrarch), outstrips his description of the sickness.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.altmedicinezone.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/phlebotomy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://www.altmedicinezone.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/phlebotomy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><i>"The doctor, seeing that fiery stain, a sign of
inflammation of the liver, reasoned from that evidence that it was necessary to
immediately expurgate the superfluous and harmful material, and that that
sickness required swift care; and if that cure were done, health would return
on the spot; but if it is put off for a day, within four days certainly I would
be dead. I feared, I confess, and I ordered that they carry out the doctor’s
order. Without delay, the instruments were prepared for my excoriation, iron
and fire. The irons having been reddened, they were repeatedly driven in,
extinguished, and removed from my flesh, which had previously been shaved after
having been burned in the same place. That skin having been broken by repeated
blows, over and over again these hot irons were inflicted on me, not without my
great torment. Taking these ill humors out of me was not done without the loss
of much blood, indeed, as the doctor asserted, the deadly poisoned came out
with the blood: then the doctor said, 'you are healthy.' "</i></span><!--EndFragment--><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Yikes! As Virgil says in Book 12 of the <i>Aeneid </i>(which Boccaccio certainly knew well)</span> "<span style="background-color: white;">Aegrescitque medendo," or the cure inflames the malady, or even more colloquial, the cure is worse than the disease. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Permit me a reflection about the differences between Dante and Boccaccio's representations of physical illness. For Dante, Hell's punishments physically manifest the interior corruption, perversion, or exuberances of the soul. Illness and other physical suffering are allegorical symptoms of spiritual disease: physical disease is punishment for spiritual disease. While in Purgatorio, the diseases are curable, in Hell they are chronic and terminal. But for Boccaccio, here again showing signs of his "Humanism," his disease is only a symptom of old age. Illness keeps him from working, and when healed, albeit with great pain, he picks up the pen and composes the letter describing his ordeal. Writing is a symptom of recuperation, a sign of mental health. Perhaps this is an effect of living through the Black Death, which Boccaccio described most famously in the Introduction to Day One of his <i>Decameron: </i>perhaps their is no explanation for Divine Justice in sickness. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-68551161917946490112013-05-28T06:13:00.003-07:002013-05-31T08:43:56.765-07:00In Dante's Genes: Did Dan Brown's "Inferno" decode Dante's DNA?<h2>
In Dante's Genes: Did Dan Brown's "Inferno" decode Dante's DNA?</h2>
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Phew. Reading Dan Brown reminds me of doing-short interval workouts for track and field: sprint 200 meters than jog 200 meters 40 times over. His pacing is schizophrenic. The action sprints, while the descriptive narrative walks. The novel takes place over one day, but our hero starts in Boston, travels to Florence (where the novel starts) and then on two two other cities ( I won't name them to avoid any spoilers). The action forces the characters to run the equivalent of a day-long double marathon. During this mad dash the narrator is delivering a lecture on all things Dante, Renaissance, Art History, Bioethics, Biology, World Politics, all the while providing "product-placement" commercials for ridiculously expensive gadgets that only the very rich, like a world best-selling author, could ever afford to own. </div>
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All credit to Dan Brown; his books are fun to read. So too is "Inferno," if at times painful. Doubly painful for a Dante scholar like me. </div>
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Besides the above, I am not interested in writing about how Dan Brown puts his novel together: it is what it is, brutal but effective. Nor am I going to give a blow by blow account of how Brown reads and , at times, misreads Dante. Why? Because that is already being done by a friend and colleague, Deborah Parker, in a much more systematic fashion. I highly recommend her book for that:</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Interpreting-Dan-Browns-Inferno-ebook/dp/B00CWKZR6S/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369737255&sr=1-7&keywords=deborah+parker">http://www.amazon.com/Interpreting-Dan-Browns-Inferno-ebook/dp/B00CWKZR6S/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369737255&sr=1-7&keywords=deborah+parker</a></div>
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What then is left to say? There is much to say, and I hope that the time and place comes for that (details to follow!)I would like to make two points, one favorable and one unfavorable about Dan Brown's novel. </div>
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First, I admire Dan Brown for taking on the topics that he does, for doing his homework and coming to an understanding of such difficult texts and images, and, most of all, for using the vehicle of his novels to educate his readership. While reading the "Inferno" I could relate with how he stuffs so much contextualizing historical information into the slimmest of narrative spaces. His hero is running for his life, but the narrator has time to explain details of current art historical knowledge about, for example, Florence's Baptistry. It reminds me of the unsettling feeling I get when I realize I have 6 weeks left in the semester to teach that last 6 canti of Purgatorio and Paradiso! How can I rush the reading and still get in all the important facts while preserving the beauty of Dante's vision? Dante seems to have pushed Brown's pedagogical buttons too, transforming his novel into a tour guide. Students coming to my Dante class next Spring having read Dan Brown's novel will be fine.</div>
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On the other hand... Dan Brown's Dante does not seem too familiar to me. The ambiance of this novel is unrelentingly dark, even if there are moments that acknowledge Dante's fundamentally hopeful spirit. The beauty of the poetry, the skill of the author, the message of the importance of knowledge are missing. While Brown has a handle of the historical person of Dante and the importance of his poem in history, he dwells entirely too much on depictions of punishment of the sinners. Virgil's warning to Dante in Canto XXI are appropriate here for Dan Brown:</div>
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<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Quale ne <em class="f_s" style="font-style: normal;">l'arzanà</em>; de' Viniziani</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">21.7</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">As in the arsenal of the Venetians,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">bolle l'inverno la tenace pece</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">all winter long a stew of sticky pitch</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">a rimpalmare i legni lor non sani,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">boils up to patch their sick and tattered ships</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">ché navicar non ponno -- in quella vece</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">21.10</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">that cannot sail (instead of voyaging,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">chi fa suo legno novo e chi ristoppa</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">some build new keels, some tow and tar the ribs</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">le coste a quel che più vïaggi fece;</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">of hulls worn out by too much journeying;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">chi ribatte da proda e chi da poppa;</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">21.13</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">some hammer at the prow, some at the stern,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">altri fa remi e altri volge sarte;</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and some make oars, and some braid ropes and cords;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">chi terzeruolo e artimon rintoppa --:</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">one mends the jib, another, the mainsail);</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">tal, non per foco ma per divin' arte,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">21.16</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">so, not by fire but by the art of God,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">bollia là giuso una pegola spessa,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">below there boiled a thick and tarry mass</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che 'nviscava la ripa d'ogne parte.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">that covered all the banks with clamminess.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">I' vedea lei, ma non vedëa in essa</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">21.19</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">I saw it, but l could not see within it;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">mai che le bolle che 'l bollor levava,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">no thing was visible but boiling bubbles,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e gonfiar tutta, e riseder compressa.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">the swelling of the pitch; and then it settled.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Mentr' io là giù fisamente mirava,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">21.22</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">And while I watched below attentively,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">lo duca mio, dicendo "Guarda, guarda!"</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">my guide called out to me: "Take care! Take care!"</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">mi trasse a sé del loco dov' io stava.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">And then, from where I stood, he drew me near.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
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Take care Dan Brown! Don't get too fixed on watching the punishments of the sinners; learn your lesson and move on or you too will fall into the burning pitch!</div>
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One specific critique illustrates Brown's mistaken fixedness on Hell. Brown's antihero uses Dante's Inferno as a symbol for suffering, citing over and over the 7 deadly sins. However, as all students of Dante understand, the 7 deadly sins are not part of the Inferno, but rather the Purgatorio. The categorization of sin and punishment in Hell are Aristotelean, not Christian, and are divided into passion, violence, and fraud. Brown's antihero, as smart as he is, would have understood this. Indeed, I think Brown has missed an opportunity (many opportunities, in fact). The book is not about punishment but about possible redemption. It is not about past sins but about avoiding future disasters. Indeed, the theme of "Transhumance" is indebted to Dante, who first coined the verb "trasumanar" in the Paradiso. </div>
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<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Nel suo aspetto tal dentro mi fei,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">1.67</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">In watching her, within me I was changed</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">qual si fé <em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">Glauco</em> nel gustar de l'erba</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">as Glaucus changed, tasting the herb that made</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che 'l fé consorto in mar de li altri dèi.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">him a companion of the other sea gods.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Trasumanar significar per verba</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">1.70</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Passing beyond the human cannot be</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">non si poria; però l'essemplo basti</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">worded: let Glaucus serve as simile—</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">a cui esperïenza grazia serba.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">until grace grant you the experience.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://trasumanar.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/dante-paradiso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://trasumanar.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/dante-paradiso.jpg" /></a></div>
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But, Brown seems to be in a dark mood throughout this book, and Inferno fits his mood better, I guess. It turns out that selling billions of books and making billions of dollars won't make you happy (not to mention all of those neat gadgets)!</div>
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And of course, everybody reads Dante's "Inferno," and nobody reads the Purgatorio or Paradiso. </div>
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On the other hand, I am really excited to read this book linked below, recommended to me by an Italian friend and avid reader. It has a paleographer (a student of manuscripts and the handwriting contained in manuscripts) as a hero. I fear that not too far in the future people will laugh mockingly when some refers to themselves as a paleographer, much like we do now at Robert Langdon's title of Symbologist, thinking that title to be an impossible fiction.</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Cato-A-Novel/dp/B003H4RCIO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369743757&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+cato">http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Cato-A-Novel/dp/B003H4RCIO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369743757&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+cato</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-79917865475000265242013-05-25T11:41:00.003-07:002013-06-03T05:40:05.004-07:00Westboro Baptist "Church" uses Oklahoma Tornado: Straight to Hell!<h2>
Westboro Baptist "Church" uses Oklahoma Tornado: Straight to Hell!</h2>
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<a href="http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Doodle_329_Direct_From_Hell%E2%80%94Presenting_Fred_Phelps2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Doodle_329_Direct_From_Hell%E2%80%94Presenting_Fred_Phelps2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I have had some misgivings about playing God, and thus have tried to hedge me condemnations on this blog. Indeed, I have tried make my posts rather light, less serious, in hopes of not making my judgments seem either too moralistic or too political. </div>
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Well, after the terrible tornado in Oklahoma last week that took lives, houses, property, and pets of friends and fellow citizens of Oklahoma, less than 10 miles from my home (when not in Italy, I live in Norman, Oklahoma), here comes news of the arrival of Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church to use this tragedy for his disgusting beliefs.</div>
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Taking the "charisma" right out charismatic preacher, this woeful creature and his deranged, inbred, ignorant followers travel from tragedy to tragedy (military funerals, funerals for victims of school shootings, natural disasters), to protest these funerals, claiming that acceptance of homosexuality by society explains and justifies these deaths. This extreme brand of evangelical christianity shows a dark side of American religion.</div>
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Well, they threatened to come to Oklahoma in the wake of the Tornado emergency in Moore last week. Of course, they did not show up (they can count cowardice among their many vices), but used the occasion to generate publicity. I am well aware that I am fueling their fire with this post, but I think that educating my European readership (which is more than half of my readers, according to the stats) merits this discussion.</div>
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<a href="http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/doomsday/westboro-baptist-church-threatens-protest-oklahoma-tornado-victims-funerals-then">http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/doomsday/westboro-baptist-church-threatens-protest-oklahoma-tornado-victims-funerals-then</a></div>
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On the other hand, so many people have responded with kindness and generosity to the Oklahoma tornados last week, for some examples see this blog.<br />
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<a href="http://globalmoxie.blogspot.it/">http://globalmoxie.blogspot.it</a><br />
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As for Dante and his swift condemnation. I feel quite confident that they belong in Inf. XXVIII, the bolgia of the schismatics. Not only is their faith deviant from any form of Christianity, and we have many in Oklahoma!, but their main purpose is dividing people through religion and politics. Indeed, Dante puts a condemned heretic from his own day in this pit, Fra Dolcino, mostly because his apostasy was as much political and anti-papal than theological. And like Fred Phelps, Fra Dolcino used religion to attack others. People can hold odious beliefs; they can even practice these beliefs in their encounters, but these "people" broadcast their beliefs with the intent of creating social division and strife.<br />
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Dante dreams up his most gruesome punishment for these sinners. They are split in half by sword-weilding demons. As they walk the circuit they recompose, only to be split again.<br />
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<table id="text_display" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e qual forato suo membro e qual mozzo</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">28.19</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and then, were one to show his limb pierced through</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">mostrasse, d'aequar sarebbe nulla</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and one his limb hacked off, that would not match</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">il modo de la nona bolgia sozzo.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">the hideousness of the ninth abyss.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Già veggia, per mezzul perdere o lulla,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">28.22</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">No barrel, even though it's lost a hoop</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"><em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">com' io vidi un, così non si pertugia,</em></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">or end-piece, ever gapes as one whom I</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"><em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">rotto dal mento infin dove si trulla.</em></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">saw ripped right from his chin to where we fart:</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Tra le gambe pendevan le minugia;</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">28.25</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">his bowels hung between his legs, one saw</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">la corata pareva e 'l tristo sacco</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">his vitals and the miserable sack</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">che merda fa di quel che si trangugia.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">that makes of what we swallow excrement.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Mentre che tutto in lui veder m'attacco,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">28.28</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">While I was all intent on watching him,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">guardommi e con le man s'aperse il petto,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">he looked at me, and with his hands he spread</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">dicendo: "Or vedi com' io mi dilacco!</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">his chest and said: "See how I split myself!</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
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A foul punishment for a disgusting sin. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church can go straight to Hell!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-66779199685120487532013-05-22T00:59:00.001-07:002013-06-03T05:40:19.591-07:00Pope Francis Battles the Devil: More echoes from St. Francis and Dante<h2>
Pope Francis Battles the Devil: More echoes from St. Francis and Dante</h2>
Italian media (and the drudgereport.com) are hyping a video from last weekend of Pope Francis, apparently, performing a mini-exorcism on a wheelchair bound Mexican man in attendance at Sunday's Pontifical Mass in Rome. The video shows Pope Francis making his way down a line of worshipers laying hands in prayer. When he arrives to the sufferer in question, he speaks with the priest accompanying the man, takes on a more focused and serious attitude, and lays both hands on the man's head reciting a longer prayer. The man can be seen shaking. Later, the priest with the man reported that Pope Francis had indeed performed an exorcism, while Vatican officials have been less forthcoming with confirmation or denial. Here is the video.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/e8B7JNxw-5Q?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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This is yet another remarkable deed from our new Pope, refreshing in candor, even if likely seen by most as evidence of his dangerous simplicity and transparency. What do I mean? I would hazard to guess that most people, many Catholics, in the west do not believe in exorcism and diabolical possession. Seeing the Pope perform an exorcism might offend enlightened sensibilities.<br />
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However, this is more evidence also of Pope Francis' likeness, very intentional, with his namesake St. Francis. St. Francis was fascinated with devils. One famous story has him in Arezzo (where I am today!) expelling or should I say exorcising some devils from the entire city. Here is how Giotto paints it.<br />
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<a href="http://hoocher.com/Giotto/Legend_of_Saint_Francis_10_Exorcism_of_the_Demons_at_Arezzo_1297_99.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://hoocher.com/Giotto/Legend_of_Saint_Francis_10_Exorcism_of_the_Demons_at_Arezzo_1297_99.jpg" width="275" /></a></div>
I hope he got them all out!<br />
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Dante recognizes St. Francis' belligerence towards devils in our world. Indeed, one of the most well-known passages from Inferno, has St. Francis LOSING OUT to a devil. In Canto XXVII of Inferno, the damned shade of Guido of Montefeltro relates how he, having sinned greatly in life as a crooked political consultant (boy, does he have lots of company now), tried to make up for his life of deception by joining the Franciscan order at the end of his life. Tricked by the sitting Pope (Boniface VIII) into continuing his evil ways even after becoming a Franciscan monk, Guido finds a surprise when he dies. To quote one of my favorite undergraduate professors who, when playing a recording of Hildegard of Bingen, preluded a change in vocal tone with these words... "Here comes the Devil!"<br />
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<table id="text_display" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; border-collapse: collapse; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"><em class="f_pe" style="font-style: normal;">Francesco</em> venne poi, com' io fu' morto,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">27.112</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Then Francis came, as soon as I was dead,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">per me; ma un d'i <em class="f_c" style="font-style: normal;">neri cherubini</em></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">for me; but one of the black cherubim</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">li disse: 'Non portar; non mi far torto.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">told him: 'Don't bear him off; do not cheat me.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Venir se ne dee giù tra ' miei meschini</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">27.115</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">He must come down among my menials;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">perché diede 'l consiglio frodolente,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">the counsel that he gave was fraudulent;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">dal quale in qua stato li sono a' crini;</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">since then, I've kept close track, to snatch his scalp;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">ch'assolver non si può chi non si pente,</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">27.118</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">one can't absolve a man who's not repented,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">né pentere e volere insieme puossi</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and no one can repent and will at once;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">per la contradizion che nol consente.'</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">the law of contradiction won't allow it.'</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">Oh me dolente! come mi riscossi</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">27.121</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">O miserable me, for how I started</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">quando mi prese dicendomi: 'Forse</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">when he took hold of me and said: 'Perhaps</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">tu non pensavi ch'io löico fossi!'</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">you did not think that I was a logician!'</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">A <em class="f_c" style="font-style: normal;">Minòs</em> mi portò; e quelli attorse</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">27.124</td><td class="features" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #36648b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">He carried me to Minos; and that monster</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">otto volte la coda al dosso duro;</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">twisted his tail eight times around his hide</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e poi che per gran rabbia la si morse,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and then, when he had bit it in great anger,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">disse: 'Questi è d'i rei del foco furo';</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">27.127</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">announced: 'This one is for the thieving fire';</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">per ch'io là dove vedi son perduto,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">for which-and where, you see-I now am lost,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">e sì vestito, andando, mi rancuro."</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px; white-space: nowrap;">and in this garb I move in bitterness."</td></tr>
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So Francis is fooled, and the devil outwits him. Or at least that is what the soul of Guido wants us to believe. As I tell my students when I lecture on this canto, be careful in reading the words of Dante's sinners: liars in life continue to lie in hell. Do we really think St. Francis would have gotten this wrong?<br />
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<a href="http://www.stradepossibili.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Canto-XXVIIb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://www.stradepossibili.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Canto-XXVIIb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So, St (Pope) Francis and the devil. Yet another moment when medieval meets modern in today's Italy.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-57574531849087172922013-05-17T05:42:00.001-07:002013-06-03T05:40:33.340-07:00The Descent (ooh, That Smell) into Inferno<h2>
The Descent (ooh, That Smell) into <i>Inferno.</i></h2>
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Holding my nose, gag reflex suppressed, I have downloaded (on the iPad; the physical book I will not admit to my library) Dan Brown's <i>Inferno</i>. I will begin reading it when I have nothing else to do, which, unfortunately, might be very soon. I am currently in a "transition" space between my old MacBook and a new MacBook, Victor having mistaken the former for a flower, dousing it with a nice cup of water. So, my new MacBook is shinny and new, but does not have Microsoft Office installed, so little more than a toy. </div>
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In any case, my Summer and my lack of computer to work on my real work has given me the time to read Dan Brown's <i>Inferno</i>. But for now, the rain has stopped and I am going for a bike ride!</div>
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Those of you that have read the book or are reading it now, please offer your comments, critiques and/or praise via the comment button on this blog. No spoilers!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-85314325823849229412013-05-10T02:59:00.000-07:002013-06-03T05:40:48.621-07:00Graduation Day: Virgil's Valedictory <h2>
Graduation Day: Virgil's Valedictory </h2>
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<a href="http://dali.parkwestgallery.com/images/purg_27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://dali.parkwestgallery.com/images/purg_27.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
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It is a happy time on college campuses as graduation season gets into full swing. Many students are finishing 4 or 5 years (or maybe more, I am not judging) of study, writing, and other activities at university. With better job prospects seemingly on the horizon, Spring's green seems a little brighter this year than in the recent past. Underclassmen and faculty also welcome the arrival of the long Summer break, with visions of travel, relaxation, fulfilled research goals, and other pleasures.</div>
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Here in Arezzo we say goodbye to yet another great group of OU students who have spent the past 4 months studying and living in Italy. While they are certainly happy to return home and see friends and family, I notice that as their days in Italy draw to a close, many of them are already scheming to get back to Italy soon. I share their bittersweet sentiments; for me, this has been my life's occupation. </div>
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Let's recall the great Valedictory speech that Virgil delivers to Dante as he exits Purgatory in Canto XXVII. Graduations speeches today are almost always conventional, ritualistic. Reading Virgil's words reminds us how OLD this ritual is and how enduring the need for words of wisdom at this time.</div>
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<table id="text_display" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">e disse: "Il temporal foco e l'etterno</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">27.127</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">“My son, you’ve seen the temporary fire</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">veduto hai, figlio; e se' venuto in parte</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">and the eternal fire; you have reached</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">dov' io per me più oltre non discerno.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">the place past which my powers cannot see.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">Tratto t'ho qui con ingegno e con arte;</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">27.130</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">I’ve brought you here through intellect and art;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">lo tuo piacere omai prendi per duce;</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">from now on, let your pleasure be your guide;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">fuor se' de l'erte vie, fuor se' de l'arte.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">you’re past the steep and past the narrow paths.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">Vedi lo sol che 'n fronte ti riluce;</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">27.133</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">Look at the sun that shines upon your brow;</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">vedi l'erbette, i fiori e li arbuscelli</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">look at the grasses, flowers, and the shrubs</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">che qui la terra sol da sé produce.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">born here, spontaneously, of the earth.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">Mentre che vegnan lieti li occhi belli</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">27.136</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">Among them, you can rest or walk until</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">che, lagrimando, a te venir mi fenno,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">the coming of the glad and lovely eyes—</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">seder ti puoi e puoi andar tra elli.</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">those eyes that, weeping, sent me to your side.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">Non aspettar mio dir più né mio cenno;</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">27.139</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">Await no further word or sign from me:</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">libero, dritto e sano è tuo arbitrio,</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">your will is free, erect, and whole—to act</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">e fallo fora non fare a suo senno:</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">against that will would be to err: therefore</td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="line ital" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">per ch'io te sovra te corono e mitrio."</td><td class="tercet_number" style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">27.142</td><td style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"></td><td class="line eng" style="background-color: #f9f3e9; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap;">I crown and miter you over yourself.”</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Virgil enjoins Dante to let pleasure be his guide. Take time to "stop and smell the flowers" as our cliche has it. I know most of our graduating seniors want to get off to a running start in their careers, but Virgil's words merit some attention. Perhaps not right now, but sooner or later, the present will be a memory, growing ever distant. Attend to pleasure, delight, and dalliance, as they will become the background to the portrait you paint of your own past. </div>
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<div>
Dante has passed a intellectual and ethical test in exiting Inferno and climbing Mt. Purgatory. Graduating seniors have also passed tests, both intellectual and ethical, in graduating from college, hopefully less harsh. Dante has perfected himself intellectually and ethically and awaits only the final rituals before his ascent to Paradiso. Seniors are beginning new tests of intellect and of character and have a long way before their own ascent to the the "Great old folks home in the sky." You will make mistakes, as Dante does as he meets his new guide and, in a moment of fear, looks back for Virgil, only to find him absent. But, also just as Dante does, admit your errs, ask for advice and wisdom, and keep moving up!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-808493522907178782013-05-08T02:19:00.002-07:002013-06-03T05:41:02.360-07:00Giulio Andreotti faces Minos- The Tale of the Tail <h2>
Giulio Andreotti faces Minos- The Tale of the Tail</h2>
<div>
One of Italy's most powerful, loved, hated, enigmatic politicians, Giulio Andreotti, has died. Even though I follow Italian politics, medieval, Renaissance, and modern, pretty closely, the case of Andreotti is beyond my reckoning. Read the New York Times obit and just note the either/or rhetoric that they use to describe his incredible (in the sense of unbelievable to our sense of politics) political career.</div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/world/europe/giulio-andreotti-premier-of-italy-7-times-dies-at-94.html?ref=giulioandreotti&_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/world/europe/giulio-andreotti-premier-of-italy-7-times-dies-at-94.html?ref=giulioandreotti&_r=0</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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What strikes me about Andreotti is how long he held power-- politically active from the 1940s until the 1990s and even beyond into the 21st century. He maintained power without scruples, making unfathomable deals with political enemies (as the leader of the Christian Democrats he unified with the Italian Communists), terrorists, foreign governments (CIA), the mafia, and many Popes. The only thing it seems that mattered to Giulio Andreotti was the Giulio Andreotti remain in power because, it seems, he knows what is best for Italy. </div>
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<a href="http://www.milanotoday.it/~media/Articolo_normal/60816468109633/andreotti-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.milanotoday.it/~media/Articolo_normal/60816468109633/andreotti-2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div>
The movie "Il Divo" is hard to understand for an American audience, it is such "Inside baseball" of the Italian post-war political scene, but I recommend it for any interested in seeing what a mess Italian politics were and why it is so hard for Italians to move ahead today OR to trust their politicians.</div>
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<div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Il-Divo/dp/B0037FOXXK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368004743&sr=8-2&keywords=il+divo+sorrentino">http://www.amazon.com/Il-Divo/dp/B0037FOXXK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368004743&sr=8-2&keywords=il+divo+sorrentino</a></div>
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<a href="http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/156/a/8/minos__inferno__s_judge_by_schytelizard94-d2j9h3i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/156/a/8/minos__inferno__s_judge_by_schytelizard94-d2j9h3i.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
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Much in the Italian press on his death has focused on the secrets that Andreotti will take to the grave. But, Minos, as God's judge in Inferno knows all. How many times will Minos' tail wrap itself around the infernal judge? Where does Andreotti go in Dante's Hell? Or, does he belong in Purgatorio? Can he be redeemed? I invite comments/suggestions from my Italian readers.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-38966398595634333432013-04-23T00:22:00.001-07:002013-06-03T05:41:22.709-07:00Bersani the snake: Peculato<h2>
Bersani the snake: Peculato</h2>
<table id="text_display"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">25.97</td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">Let Ovid now be silent, where he tells</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">of Cadmus, Arethusa; if his verse</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">has made of one a serpent, one a fountain,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">25.100</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">I do not envy him; he never did</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">transmute two natures, face to face, so that</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">both forms were ready to exchange their matter.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Oh, what a week it has been in Italian politics! This rump of a parliament has responded to the loud cry for change that the electorate delivered in February by doing something so new it has never happened before...re-elected Giorgio Napoletano their 85 year old President to a second 7 year term! This is change!?!?<br />
<br />
The sense of frustration with politics as usually in Italy-- the caste system of the politicians (left and right), the inability of politicians to find a reasonable solution to any of Italy's myriad problems, the massive salaries and benefits of their bloated parliament-- has reached a new level this weekend. After months of mud slinging, posturing, and wars of words in the press (all the groups have done their fair share, including Sig. B. Grillo), Italy's two great enemies, the center-left PD (Partito Democratico) and the center-right PDL (Popolo dell Libertà) have joined forces to re-elect an ancient man as President of Italy. An example of blatant and disgusting politics of self-conservation.<br />
<br />
It was unfathomable that the party of former communists, socialists, and Green party supporters lead by Pier Luigi Bersani would unite with the party of Silvio Berlusconi and the Lega Nord separatists. But the advent and popularity of the Movimento Cinque Stelle and their unwillingness to set aside its scruples and "fare l'inciucio (underhand schemes), has brought Left and Right together to create a new type of government in Italy. They have created a monster.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.dagospia.com/img/foto/08-2012/vignetta-benny-bersani-183232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="http://www.dagospia.com/img/foto/08-2012/vignetta-benny-bersani-183232.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/ashp/dante_xxv_brunelleschi.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/ashp/dante_xxv_brunelleschi.gif" width="320" /></a><br />
<br />
this political cartoon offers the best definition I could find for the Italian word "inciucio" <br />
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I have already put Berlusconi in Hell, so I can't move him (Divine Justice does not make changes!), but Bersani and his PD conspirators have yet to receive Minos' bestial judgment! <br />
<br />
The bestial union of two opposites into a new monstrosity recalls most vividly Dante's description of the transformations of the thieves in Inf. XXIV and Inf. XXV. Dante describes three different types of transformations, but the one the fits these the best describes the sin of <i>Peculato</i>, or theft of a public good.<br />
<br />
These sinners are attacked by a reptile and then merge with that reptile to form a new monstrous serpentine beast. Bersani here takes a majority of the blame for the PD's collective sin, and he has merged with the slimy reptile Berlusconi (leader of the PDL) to form this new hideous government.<br />
Why is this a monstrosity and not a positive moment of bi-partisanship? The motive for this unnatural union is the preservation of the two-party system, the caste system, that benefits both parties while not serving Italy's interests or respecting the clear call of the <i>vox populi</i>. <br />
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The crime of <i>Peculato</i> is the specifically theft of a public good. What has public good has the PD and PDL stolen here? Democracy itself. Nobody can deny Italians voted for change and specifically for change in the politics of the parties (and their massive government funding), but they got an unprecedented "more of the same" outcome. PD and PDL ignored the voters will; even their own voters who are now protesting the idea of unifying with their enemies. PD's self-immolation is the only consolation for voters feeling stunned and dismayed at this new low.<br />
<br />
Italians are mad and disillusioned, and I understand why better now than ever. The best we can hope is that the young Italians who voted M5S or PD keep their heads up, as they did this weekend with their peaceful march in Rome.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.citynews-romatoday.stgy.it/~media/originale/59915699047628/movimentocinquestellecolosseo-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.citynews-romatoday.stgy.it/~media/originale/59915699047628/movimentocinquestellecolosseo-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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We can hope that they continue to make their voices heard democratically and refuse invitations to violence or despair. After all, an 86 year old president is like a 76 year old Pope with one lung: a temporary solution.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-6378953607192238552013-04-16T12:50:00.002-07:002013-06-03T05:41:38.001-07:00Inferno is In-Vernal<h2>
<span style="color: red;">Inferno is In-Vernal</span></h2>
<h4>
Winter </h4>
Canto 32 <br />
<table id="text_display"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">32.70</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">And after that I saw a thousand faces</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">made doglike by the cold; for which I shudder- </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">and always will when I face frozen fords.</td>
</tr>
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<td class="line ital"></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
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<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">32.73</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">And while we were advancing toward the center</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">to which all weight is drawn-I, shivering</td>
</tr>
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<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">in that eternally cold shadow-I</td>
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<td class="line ital"></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
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<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">32.76</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">know not if it was will or destiny</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">or chance, but as I walked among the heads,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">I struck my foot hard in the face of one.</td></tr>
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One thing that often surprises students of Dante when the come to the
end of the Inferno, as it surprised me when I first read these canti, is
that Dante's lowest depths of Hell are cold, frozen, not hot. The souls at the bottom of Hell are frozen nearly inanimate in a lake of ice, the worst of them all entirely submerged.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://it-it.abctribe.com/Disegni/Guide/Generiche/infpa_XXXII.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="http://it-it.abctribe.com/Disegni/Guide/Generiche/infpa_XXXII.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Dante has us understand that this coldness results as a product of the distance these souls are from God, the source of all light and heat.<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ckXALWn1M">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ckXALWn1M</a><br />
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While this answer is theologically satisfying, as is his description of Lucifer's wings functioning as a huge swamp cooler at the bottom of Hell, I have come to learn another way in which frozen Inferno makes sense.<br />
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Have you ever spent a winter in Tuscany? Under the Tuscan Sun, especially in Arezzo, becomes "Within the Tuscan Frozen Fog." This place is bone-chillingly cold during Winter, and it lasts a long time--October to April. Now let's imagine it in the Middle Ages with no heat, refrigeration, and antibiotics. A uncomfortable existence today was miserable, precarious, and isolating in 1300. Winter is the time of death, disease, and, if you our lucky, survival.<br />
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<h4>
Spring</h4>
<br />
So how great a relief it is that Spring has arrived in Tuscany, a little late. Because easter was early (Pasqua bassa), it was not a seasonal re-birth, only a spiritual one. However, an April Easter, which Dante surely had in mind in his Commedia, means the arrival of Spring. So, when Dante arrives at the top of Purgatorio, having left Hell a few days earlier on Good Friday, he finds Spring waiting for him, the eternal Spring of the uncorrupted Garden of Eden:<br />
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Purg 28<br />
<br />
<table id="text_display"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">28.7</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">A gentle breeze, which did not seem to vary </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">within itself, was striking at my brow</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">but with no greater force than a kind wind’s,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">28.10</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">a wind that made the trembling boughs—they all </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">bent eagerly—incline in the direction</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">of morning shadows from the holy mountain;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">28.13</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">but they were not deflected with such force </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">as to disturb the little birds upon</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">the branches in the practice of their arts;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">28.16</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">for to the leaves, with song, birds welcomed those </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">first hours of the morning joyously,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">and leaves supplied the burden to their rhymes—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">28.19</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">just like the wind that sounds from branch to branch </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">along the shore of Classe, through the pines</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">when Aeolus has set Sirocco loose.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The Locus amoenus, the pleasant place, is decidedly springlike in its gentility and freshness. Rebirth is metaphorical but only after it is actual and practical.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Summer (Minor)</h4>
<br />
But we have Summer to arrive, and that brings more misery to the Tuscan micro-climate. Just before Dante enters the terrible cold of lower Inferno, he passes through the stifling humidity of the last ditch of the malebolge, where the alchemists and other falsifiers are punished. Here all are misshapen by diseases of purification, like leprosy and dropsy. He compares this too the summers in Tuscany, and the area around Arezzo, the Val di Chiana. <br />
<br />
<table id="text_display"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">29.40</td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">When we had climbed above the final cloister</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="features"><span class="f_pl" style="display: inline;">PL</span></td>
<td class="line eng">of Malebolge, so that its lay brothers</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">were able to appear before our eyes,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">29.43</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">I felt the force of strange laments, like arrows</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">whose shafts are barbed with pity; and at this,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">I had to place my hands across my ears.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">29.46</td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">Just like the sufferings that all the sick</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="features"><span class="f_pl" style="display: inline;">PL</span></td>
<td class="line eng">of Val di Chiana's hospitals, Maremma's,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="features"><span class="f_pl" style="display: inline;">PL</span></td>
<td class="line eng">Sardina's, from July until September</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number">29.49</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">would muster if assembled in one ditch- </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">so was it here, and such a stench rose up</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">as usually comes from festering limbs.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Stradano_Inferno_Canto_30.jpg/250px-Stradano_Inferno_Canto_30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Stradano_Inferno_Canto_30.jpg/250px-Stradano_Inferno_Canto_30.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Things are better now. The swamp has been drained and malaria eradicated. But I am certainly going to enjoy Spring while it lasts.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-82199157970591101192013-04-11T14:43:00.003-07:002013-06-03T05:41:53.805-07:00Dante Through Song and Dance: OU in Arezzo students do Dante<h2>
Dante Through Song and Dance: OU in Arezzo students do Dante</h2>
<br />
Teaching Dante in Italy
is a joy. From here in Arezzo I can often just point out the window of
our classroom and say "see, that is exactly what Dante is talking
about!" Another pleasure is the small class size, less than half of what
I have in Norman. This has allowed me to include a new assignment for
the class. My "creative interpretation" assignment (I lack creativity,
hence the boring name), invites students to create something that, in
their own way, interprets Dante. I invite songs, interpretive dance,
drawings, whatever each students feels inspired (amor mi spira, Purg.
XXIV), to create. Below are three videos examples of what my students
did. I enjoyed evaluating these assignments, and I think the students
really enjoyed the change of pace. These three are below are fitting for
this blog.<br />
<br />
First, Amanda and Michela did a
"interpretive dance" of Inf. XXVI. I often joke that students should do
an interpretive dance of Dante, never imagining that someone would be
bold enough to do it. Well, I guess I have to change my stock line.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/leyja3NQt-c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
The second video is of Kolby and Tanner who perform their rewritten version of the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Noting my gray hair, the students kindly explained to me who Will Smith is.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZccfKUHQjJ4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
Finally, Jordan and Will did a 70's classic rock medley with lyrics to some great songs rewritten to tell of Dante's journey. Noting my gray hair, the students assured me that I would recognize some of the songs (from the 60s and 70s).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/IN34snEYO2M?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Thanks to all the students who gave me permission to post their performances.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-49380622828941812962013-04-10T13:43:00.004-07:002013-06-03T05:42:10.338-07:00Donte's Inferno : Mad Men does Dante<h2>
Donte's Inferno : Mad Men does Dante</h2>
Don Draper reads Dante! What more could we dantista want then to have the poster-boy for Hollywood cool reading and reciting Dante aloud to begin the new season of Mad Men!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWcJtLN5wcx1Nd7dmgUqtDX2VGQQv_1jUMRF55aA2a8aIbOJExniXIrC6wNQNyP2vWBgCnYMI4ycZS3jIpgf-KHNvFg1M07Kkcs9EeTK3GD04Z61EBfecmfXpwp21IMWNfdAx9-1_stWo/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWcJtLN5wcx1Nd7dmgUqtDX2VGQQv_1jUMRF55aA2a8aIbOJExniXIrC6wNQNyP2vWBgCnYMI4ycZS3jIpgf-KHNvFg1M07Kkcs9EeTK3GD04Z61EBfecmfXpwp21IMWNfdAx9-1_stWo/s320/image.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I don't have too much smart to say about what this means just yet, but I will certainly keep an eye on the series this season to see if this thread continues.<br />
<br />
If you want a quick take on Don as Don-te (hat tip for the title of this post), see this link:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/don-draper-does-dante/2013/04/08/c8bf563a-a062-11e2-9c03-6952ff305f35_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/don-draper-does-dante/2013/04/08/c8bf563a-a062-11e2-9c03-6952ff305f35_story.html</a><br />
<br />
What did initially strike me was the setting for the opening scene, Hawaii, or America's antipodes. Don does seem to by a Ulysses (Inf. XXVI)character doesn't he? Convinced of his own skill, full of noble intentions, and willing to lead others on his "mad" course away from self knowledge.<br />
<br />
What this scene does remind me of his the subject of my next post. How inappropriate Dante's Inferno is for summer (or beach) reading. Inferno is in-vernal. Of course, it is hot in winter in the antipodes!<br />
What do you think Don is doing reading Dante? Leave a comment. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-79774999926477806682013-04-02T05:35:00.000-07:002013-06-03T05:42:28.301-07:00La Dolce Vita and the Face of Fraud <h2>
La Dolce Vita and the Face of Fraud</h2>
Many have celebrated, and many have loathed, Fellini's modernist epic La Dolce Vita. It is a break from so much in Italy's past. It is Rome undone; the Rome of the new suburbs, not of the Roman ruins. Rome as prostitute with debauched suitors trying to win her love.<br />
<br />
But, would Dante find Fellini's Rome so different from his Rome or from his Florence? Indeed, how "dantean" is La Dolce Vita? Rather than focusing on the entire movie, which might be seen as Marcello's own descent through the levels of sin in Hell, without the promise of salvation, I would like to look at one scene the renders a final "dantean" judgment on the film. Of course this scene is at the end of the film when Marcello is in his moral free-fall.<br />
<br />
The debauched party goers greet the arrival of dawn at the end of the revels by leaving their villa signorile to go out to the beach. Tired from their drinking, dancing, and "debauching" (three times that word already!), they see a group of men doing something novel....working. None of these elites actually has a job, beyond being gadflies, but these fishermen instead are working hard to pull in the bounty of the sea. What emerges from their efforts? A sea monster!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://thefashioneaste.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/ladolcevita38.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="http://thefashioneaste.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/ladolcevita38.png" width="320" /></a></div>
The huge sea monster is a marvel, a wonder. The fisherman swear that they will make a million off of it! The party goers are repulsed and attracted to the beast. Marcello in particular, can't take his eyes off of it, particularly of the all-too human large eyes. He says, "And how it insists on looking at you."<br />
<br />
The creature from the deep with a human aspect that hides its monstrosity, reminds me of a central image in Dante's Hell. Geryon. This beast represents fraud. He has the fair face that hides a monstrous body. His face is a lie to hide the wickedness of his essence.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/gallery/0929geryon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/gallery/0929geryon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table id="text_display"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital">E <em class="f_c"> quella sozza imagine di froda</em>
</td>
<td class="tercet_number">17.7</td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">And he came on, that filthy effigy</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital">sen venne, e arrivò la testa e 'l busto,</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">of fraud, and landed with his head and torso </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital">ma 'n su la riva non trasse la coda.</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">but did not draw his tail onto the bank.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><em class="f_c">La faccia sua era faccia d'uom giusto</em>,
</td>
<td class="tercet_number">17.10</td>
<td class="features"><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">The face he wore was that of a just man,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital">tanto benigna avea di fuor la pelle,</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">so gracious was his features' outer semblance;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital">e d'un serpente tutto l'altro fusto;</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">and all his trunk, the body of a serpent;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital">due branche avea pilose insin l'ascelle;</td>
<td class="tercet_number">17.13</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">he had two paws, with hair up to the armpits;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital">lo dosso e 'l petto e ambedue le coste</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">his back and chest as well as both his flanks</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital">dipinti avea di nodi e di rotelle.</td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">had been adorned with twining knots and circlets.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
So, why is Geryon at the end of Fellini's La Dolce Vita? First of all, Geryon is the image of fraud and treachery, and I think Fellini is hinting that Marcello has moved beyond his simple debauchery to real moral corruption. The suicide of his friend, the breaking off of his engagement leaves Marcello without a brake on his vice. He is transiting from venial to mortal sins.<br />
<br />
In Dante, Geryon also stood in for the risk of Dante's own poetry: telling a lie (the dream vision of his supposed journey) to get at a deeper truth (an ethical lesson). So too, perhaps, the monstrosity of the sea monster reminds us of Fellini's craft as a filmmaker. His interest in spectacle, absurdity, beauty seem to be a cover for a moral critique of contemporary Italian society. How Dantean!<br />
<br />
Italytodaywithdante is going to Paris this week! Let's see what Dante finds there to judge harshly (besides the weather!) I can tell you one thing, we are going to go looking for Street of Straw (Par. X).Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-67193874336531128632013-03-29T07:12:00.003-07:002013-06-03T05:42:52.357-07:00Italy Today with Dante on the Radio!<h2>
Italy Today with Dante on the Radio!</h2>
Newish media meets relatively ancient media!<br />
<br />
I was recently interviewed for a segment dedicated to the historical precedents for Benedict XVI's resignation of the Papacy (Celestine V) and of Bergoglio's choice of the name Francis for his Papal name. As my readers' know, these are subjects of great interest to me (and to Dante). This show will air on KGOU (Oklahoma's NPR affiliate at the University of Oklahoma) on Good Friday 4:30 and 6:30 CST. I link below to a transcript of my interview and to KGOU's home page where you can stream the show live or after it airs. The award winning show is called World Views, and it is hosted by Dr. Suzette Grillot, the Dean of the College of International Studies, and it is well worth a listen every week.<br />
<br />
<br />
The link to the World Views page. <br />
<a href="http://www.kgou.org/programs/world-views">http://www.kgou.org/programs/world-views</a><br />
<br />
The link to a transcript of my interview. <br />
<a href="http://www.kgou.org/post/pope-emeritus-benedicts-lessons-700-years-ago">http://www.kgou.org/post/pope-emeritus-benedicts-lessons-700-years-ago</a><br />
<br />
Happy Easter everybody. Let's remember, this is the exact time in 1300 that Dante took his little trip through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Remember that when you feel like Easter dinner has gone on too long.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-3700166899320313552013-03-26T04:11:00.001-07:002013-06-03T05:43:08.883-07:00Dan Brown "DaVincis" Dante<h2>
Dan Brown "DaVincis" Dante</h2>
<h2>
</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://doznajemo.com/knjiga/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/dan-brown-inferno.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://doznajemo.com/knjiga/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/dan-brown-inferno.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h2>
</h2>
Although this cloud will have a silver lining, I can't say that those of us who read, study, teach, and love Dante professionally (Dantisti, we call ourselves) are thrilled to hear about Dan Brown's upcoming new book <i>Inferno</i>, apparently based on the first canticle of Dante's <i>poema sacro</i> (I would typically insert a link here to the website for his book, but he does not need my help). This will likely result in more students in our Dante in translation courses, but what will these students bring with them after reading Dan Brown? To listen to our colleagues in Art History and Religious Studies, who have suffered the collateral damage of his earlier books, these students will have some outlandish ideas.<br />
<br />
Let me be clear, and my students can attest to this, I love outlandish ideas about Dante, provided that they are my students OWN outlandish ideas. Don't bring me anther's outlandish ideas about Dante. If you are going to go kooky, at least do it yourself.<br />
<br />
So, I read the first 10 pages of the book, made available on Dan Brown's Templar's church of a website. I also admit to having read, out of professional necessity, the <i>DaVinci Code</i> and <i>Angels and Demons </i>but not his latest offering to Baphomet <i>The Lost Symbol</i>. Based on this incomplete picture of what Dan Brown will do to Dante I will make outlandish conclusions about where Dan Brown belongs in Dante's afterworld, but like Dan Brown (sans the 3 billion readers), I will come up with the most heinous possible interpretation.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Dan Brown in Hell?</h4>
Canto XVII-The Usurers <br />
<table id="text_display"><tbody>
<tr><td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">When I had set my eyes upon the faces</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">of some on whom that painful fire falls,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">I recognized no one; but I did notice</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td class="tercet_number"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">that from the neck of each a purse was hung</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">that had a special color and an emblem,</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="line ital"><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td><br /></td>
<td class="line eng">and their eyes seemed to feast upon these pouches.</td><td class="line eng"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Like Dante's Usurers in Canto XVII, Violent against God, Dan Brown makes profit by unnaturally and wantonly reproducing meanings from symbols. The sin of usury is violence against god because money cannot reproduce itself, since it is only a symbol of the wealth generated naturally (from work, or from natural resources, etc.), which involves interaction with God's creation. Dan Brown reproduces art from art. He is not a plagiarizer, but his books profit from the art (and names) of others. His violence is not as much against the individual authors themselves (what does Dante care?), but against the idea of artistic creation, thus against God's originally act of creation. The punishment of the Usurers also fits poetically. They are unrecognizable in their suffering, with the only hint to remind of us their earthly infamy a symbol placed on a money pouch hung from their necks. Their unnatural wealth now weighs them down while offering a possible identification. Dan Brown's symbol? A cross between Harvard and Florence's symbol. The Fleur-de-Lis with Harvard's "Ve Ri Tas" replaced with Am Big Uitas.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.worldofdante.org/media/images/more/full/011778.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="164" src="http://www.worldofdante.org/media/images/more/full/011778.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Of course it is not by chance that these sinners also sit on the precipice of the descent to Fraud, only accessible by the beast Geryon, the very figure of literary fraud.<br />
<br />
Maybe after reading the whole thing (again, a professional responsibility), I will feel more generous and move him to Purgatorio (Pride comes to mind) or even Paradiso (Love marred by Wantonness, perhaps? Let's leave every possibility open.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-17171713518244652482013-03-21T13:34:00.001-07:002013-06-03T05:43:29.051-07:00Francis the Archimandrite<h2>
Francis the Archimandrite</h2>
Habemus Papam! I know I am a bit late on the scene, but I was vacationing on the Gargano Peninsula in Puglia and news travels slow there. More to the point; I had no internet connection; Ah, rustic Puglia! I find it more than coincidental that I came to know of our new Pope shortly before visiting the castle in Vieste where the previous Pope to have given up the Papacy. Celestine V, was imprisoned there by Boniface VIII (with the help of the Templars? Dan Brown take note!)until his death.<br />
<br />
Bergoglio's choice of the name Francis, specifically in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, distinguishes this man's Papacy from many previous occupants of St. Peter's throne. Bold or audacious? I can only think of two possible names that would have been more striking, Peter II or Pope Christ! Why is it that no man, Italian or otherwise, has chosen Francis as a name when he is, after Christ, the most popular and well-loved Christian ever? <br />
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Let's look at what Dante has to say about St. Francis to find an answer to why Francis has been, and remains today, a problematic name for the Pope.<br />
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Dante's presentation of St. Francis, as part of a quartet of saints, two Dominican (St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas) and two Franciscans (St. Francis and St. Bonaventure) emphasizes Dante's opinion for the need of reconciliation of competing ideologies in his church. Our Pope Francis' choice of names, a Jesuit who nods openly to a Franciscan while also possibly saluting one of his own. St. Fracis Xavier, matches Dante's reconciling agenda.<br />
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Dante follows the tradition of St. Francis' biographies, already codified in his day, by focusing on St. Francis' rejection of material goods and embrace of Lady Poverty, both material and spiritual. This too, our Francis has done, and wonderfully I might add. His lumbering simplicity in gait and in speech has given him credit with everyday Catholics and others, that goes far beyond geography (being from Argentina) or theology (Liberation Theology). But a poor church was hard in Francis' day, even among Franciscans (even before Francis died, it split his order in two factions); what our Francis means when he wishes for a poor church to serve the poor remains a big question. After all, it takes quite a bit of soldi to build a church like this.<br />
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<a href="http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/italy/images/assisi-01-500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/italy/images/assisi-01-500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So our Francis is like St. Francis in his humility, simplicity, and poverty. <br />
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But Dante saw the contradictions in St. Francis that made him such a unique individual, one that could have been potential dangerous to his church, to his Popes. His the "giullare di dio" or God's fool; a man so resistant to systematic philosophy that his greatest ideological statement is a simple poem. Moreover, the 12-14th centuries in Italy is a hotbed of charismatic heretics preaching poverty and humility (Valdo and Fra Dolcino to name just two). What makes St. Francis a new Christ, the hero of the institutional church?<br />
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To understand how radical St. Francis' life was, see this new biography of St. Francis by my old teacher Fr. Augustine Thompson.<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Francis-Assisi-A-New-Biography/dp/0801450705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363897545&sr=8-1&keywords=augustine+thompson">http://www.amazon.com/Francis-Assisi-A-New-Biography/dp/0801450705/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363897545&sr=8-1&keywords=augustine+thompson</a><br />
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Now a simple answer to my previous questions. Obedience. Dante calls St. Francis the Archimandrite, the head shephard of the church of his day. The word itself is as "fancy" a word as Dante will use, really an Italianized version of a Greek word he likely found in a specialized dictionary of his day. His readership would have been awestruck with this word, so elegant. But the word itself relates contradiction of the office of head shephard, leader of the lowliest, a fancy word to relate a humble office.<br />
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So St. Francis is the lowly leader of the lowest and gets his office from the Pope, to which he pledges obedience (along with poverty, and chastity, the three rules for Franciscans). What does our Francis do with that aspect of St. Francis? His obedience to the Papacy?<br />
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Poverty and chastity and obedience. How can Pope Francis be obedient to the Papacy that he controls? Will he follow the lead of his immediate and living predecessor? Will he be obedient to the forces behind his election? Or, will he be, like St. Francis, be God's fool and really change his Church? If so, maybe he will join St. Francis and others in the joyous dance in the heaven of the Sun.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-20467992046512589712013-03-11T09:18:00.000-07:002013-06-03T05:43:47.915-07:00Il Cavaliere Berlusconi! : Il Cavaliere esistente<h2>
Il Cavaliere Berlusconi!</h2>
<h3>
Il Cavaliere esistente</h3>
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The most surprising result of last month's elections in Italy as reported by most media, in Italy, Europe, and the US, was the continued strength of Silvio Berlusconi's center-right PDL coalition (Partito della Libertà, or Party of Liberty). Let's leave aside the fact that this part plummeted from 48% of the vote in 2008 to 29% in 2013, Silvio Berlusconi had, in the now conventional understanding of the media (controlled by Berlusconi!), had fended of political death to be reborn at polls. But, the below political cartoon captures the public opinion in Italy about Berlusconi's continued, relative, popularity.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPheTTCzW3S-edsUeWAKAIFmscSIGKGlrdVoy6Fc-sg2o88oAtMpMmR2kZqNqLD_Jtm6bRIZilyqW26z4eETNA6I1UBBc84mwAxRUjBgmLjvUbLq9PtGGkW2yTfGoAM7pKrd-U4V2n9g/s1600/berlusconi_in_mezzo_gregge_di_pecore_italiani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPheTTCzW3S-edsUeWAKAIFmscSIGKGlrdVoy6Fc-sg2o88oAtMpMmR2kZqNqLD_Jtm6bRIZilyqW26z4eETNA6I1UBBc84mwAxRUjBgmLjvUbLq9PtGGkW2yTfGoAM7pKrd-U4V2n9g/s320/berlusconi_in_mezzo_gregge_di_pecore_italiani.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
For some reason, Italians keep voting for Berlusconi and his party, despite the near universal knowledge of his corruption and licentiousness. He just won't go away; in fact, Italians don't seem to want him to leave.<br />
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What would Dante have made of this man? Berlusconi can lay claim to enough sins, just limiting ourselves to those public known!, to merit placement in almost any of Dante's divisions in Hell. Lust? Oozing out of every pore. Greed? Italy's riches man. Violence against Nature? Look at what plastic surgery has made of his face.<br />
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But unlike Purgatorio, it seems the Dante only allows for souls to spend time in one part of Hell, the lowest. So, again, where does Dante put Berlusconi, with such an embarrassment of choices?<br />
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Berlusconi's political misdeeds, as well as personal, seem to so venial. He is a slave to his own ego, to his own wealth, to his own personal political image. Indeed, Berlusconi's debauchery is transitory, although not without victims. Dante's lower Hell is reserved for tragic figures who believe themselves epic: Vanni Fucci's disdainful "double-bird" to God, Ulysses's epic self-delusion, Ugolino's monstrosity, not to forget Brutus, Cassius and Judas, whose treachery changed history. Berlusconi among these great (if greatly evil) souls? No. With the amount of power he amassed as political leader and financial titan of a G7 country for nearly a decade, he could have ruined this country: geopolitical war games, chipping away the Constitution, derailing Europe, or anything else on a grande scale. Instead, he grafted more money for to build his villas while paying nearly underage girls for sex and exotic stripteases. How despicable, how pathetic: what a farce his brand of evil!<br />
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So, he goes in the 5th Bolgia of the 8th Circle, with corrupt public officials, just like any other grafting politico trading public trust for a "little taste." Dante portrays these sinners in a little comedic farce that lasts more than two canti; his disdain for this sin might indicate his disgust at the fact that he was accused of this sin as a pretense for his exile from Florence in 1301. What is clear is that Berlusconi's purely political, pecuniary, and petty (although on a grand scale) corruption fits right in with these scheming, cheating, and sly sinners that continue their subterfuge even in Hell. They can chose between boiling pitch or the hooks and claws of the devils that torture them. In any case, their negotiating between these two fates, and empty attempts to bargain for a better fate, mimics their corruption and hidden dealings as public officials.<br />
Be careful both sinners and devils in Bolgia V; Berlusconi is on his way, and he is as tricky as any of you. <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-80127693777074462522013-03-09T09:52:00.000-08:002013-06-03T05:44:07.624-07:00Locating Dante Today<h2>
Locating Dante Today</h2>
My friend and colleague Arielle Saiber from Bowdoin College in Maine has hosted a collaborative website that collects "sightings" of Dante in contemporary culture. Her website has seen contributions from students, faculty, Dante scholars, and many other fans of Dante over the past 5 years. I link to it and encourage readers of this blog to check it out and add your recent "sightings" of Dante--but be quick, she updates her website often.<br />
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<a href="http://learn.bowdoin.edu/italian/dante/images/paolo_francesca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://learn.bowdoin.edu/italian/dante/images/paolo_francesca.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>
Paolo and Francesca teddy bears! (Canto V, <i>Inferno)</i><br />
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<a href="http://learn.bowdoin.edu/italian/dante/">http://learn.bowdoin.edu/italian/dante/</a> <br />
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Dante has been thinking long and hard of exactly where Berlusconi is going to end up (so many possibilities!). Check in tomorrow to find out.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-58689186423743383342013-03-06T10:56:00.003-08:002013-06-03T05:44:30.096-07:00Beppe Grillo, Dante's Greyhound?<h2>
Beppe Grillo, Dante's Greyhound?</h2>
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Besides Popes, nothing exercised Dante's poetic vehemence more than politics. In fact, it was the Papacy's political involvement that so piques his ire in the <i>Commedia</i>. But Dante's anger went far beyond the Popes. Dante himself was involved in politics in his hometown of Florence, before being exiled for life, at the hand of Pope Boniface VIII and a local faction of politics. Dante uses his 6th canti in the <i>Commedia</i> (the scene above is from VI of Inferno) to talk about contemporary politics in an ever-widening context: first Florence, then Italy, and finally all of Europe. In other parts of the poem Dante makes a point to criticize and condemn political leaders and the corruption of his day.<br />
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So, what would Dante make of Italy's political situation today? Of course, that question is too broad for one blog entry, or even one blog. So, today I start with the newest and most peculiar entry into Italy's political scene: Beppe Grillo.<br />
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It is too early to say what Dante would make of this charismatic leader of the MoVimento 5 Stelle group, which made news throughout Europe for taking nearly a third of the vote in last month's general elections. Grillo's movement is young, popular, anti-establishment, and ideologically incoherent. While I find M5S a compelling story, Grillo is just the next of a type of political phenomenon that Dante himself would have recognized.<br />
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Grillo represents the same hope that Italians have for a leader to come to Italy and offer a hope of political unity. In Dante, this idea is best found in the "greyhound" who Dante has Virgil describe in prophesy in the first Canto of the Inferno.<br />
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Here's the catch. We have no idea what Dante is talking about with his greyhound and two felts. Did he have hopes for a new political leader to come and unify the factional divisions that were ripping asunder Dante's Italy (the Guelphs and Ghibellines were Dante's PD and PDL or Republicans and Democrats)? Did this greyhound promise reform, unity, virtue? We don't know because it never happened. Dante's Italy remained factional, dysfunctional, and corrupt. So it is today, and Grillo is the next great hope, subject of almost prophetic hopes and near deification among his supporters.<br />
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So the jury is out on Grillo. Will he be just another charismatic leader to flash across the Italian horizon and end up a footnote of history? Or we he merit notice of historians and poets, either for hsi fall from grace into the filth of political corruption (INF. XXI-XXII), or we he take his place in the heaven of the just Rulers (Par. XIX-XX)? All across Italy, the monuments to Dante are watching Grillo and the Grillini in judgment.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-4981226761690410612013-03-05T10:37:00.000-08:002013-06-03T09:59:13.089-07:00The Great Refusal: Benedict XVI and Celestine V<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Benedict XVI visits the Basilica of Collemaggio which contains the remains of the relics of Celestine V, the last Pope to resign the Papacy in December of 1294.<br />
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Perhaps already in 2009, when Benedict XVI visited the relics of the last Pope to have resigned his office, the idea of resigning the Papacy (<i>renuntiatio)</i> was already present with the immediate-past Pope. Ratzinger (the Pope's given name) must have at some point thought about what his predecessor's act might promise for his own legacy. Dante played an important voice in the formulation of Celestine's legacy; Dante puts Celestine in his <i>Inferno</i> III (he mentions him in XXVII as well), not quite in Hell proper, but with the Neutral angels and lukewarm souls who, to paraphrase the great Geddy Lee of Rush says, have made a choice by not choosing. <br />
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Ratizinger is a student of Medieval theology. Indeed, long before he was a Pope, I read Ratzinger's treatise of the philosophy of history of St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan theologian who had an important influence on Dante. No doubt, Ratzinger knows his Dante. Did he think about Dante's judgment of Celestine V when he made his choice?<br />
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For Dante, Celestine's resignation probably irked him most because of its immediate results: the election of Benedetto Gaetani (notice the name--coincidence?) as Pope Boniface VIII, Dante's arch-enemy. But, Dante certainly say Celestine's choice, his Great Refusal in Dante's words, as an act of despair or even cowardice. The papacy then as now, certainly not less but maybe not more, was the sight of political intrigue, factions, scandal, and deceit. Celestine took the hermits path and happily lived out his last year in Boniface's prison. Benedict XVI is a theologian, so we can probably expect new writings from him, but, and this is the question, what has become of the Papacy and of politics in Italy because of Benedict's own Great Refusal?<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7817589221371161817.post-36521374145278888502013-03-05T05:32:00.000-08:002013-06-03T05:45:27.129-07:00Dante's Italy Today<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h2>
Dante's Italy Today</h2>
Since my first reading o Dante's <i>Commedia</i> at the age of 15, which itself was spurred by my first trip to Europe same year, I have always wondered what it would have been like to live in Dante's Italy. Of course, as I learned more about daily life in the Middle Ages, I became less enthusiastic about living in a historical period without central heating or antibiotics, but my fascination with the Italian <i>Trecento</i> (1300's) has persisted. <br />
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Now, almost 25 years later, I am living out part of that juvenile dream. I am currently living and working with my family in Arezzo, Italy, a city very near Dante's Florence, in an Italy which bears two notable similarities to Dante's Italy: as of the elections of February 24-25, Italy has no functional central government due, and there is no Pope. Both of these occurrences in themselves are not rare. Italy's government has seen periods of instability, particularly since the end of WWII ; the Papacy remains vacant after the death of every Pope until the new one is chosen. However, the particular nature of today's political situation in Italy reminds me of Dante's Italy, which was without a central government and without a Pope, as the Papacy had moved to Avignon in modern-day France for most of the 1300s.<br />
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As a scholar and teacher of Dante , I see Dante everywhere. In this blog, I am going to put that talent (obsession?) to good use! This blog will look at today's Italy (politics, culture, sports, arts, etc.) and speculate on what Dante's take might be. Sometimes this blog will consider the opinion of a guest, Giovanni Boccaccio, Francesco Petrarch, Niccolò Machiavelli, as well. Of course, my main intent is humor, but I also hope, as a teacher, that thinking about what Dante has said about politics and culture of his day might give us some insight into today's Italy.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02335627284858976928noreply@blogger.com6