Failed Book Hero

[cesaretech]

Dante, both the poet and the pilgrim, from the Comedy's Inferno is a failed book hero.*

He's told from the very beginning there's no point feeling pity for the sinners, because God's punishments are just, and to feel pity would be to question God's judgment. Yet he just disregards this and weeps (and even faints) for a few of the sufferers in the

Comments

[pnkngrnd3]

I liked the Inferno, too. I did a group project on it in high school, but my independent paper was on how I disagreed with Dante's organization of hell (I don't even know how that topic got approved, to be honest). It was a lot of fun to write. I also disagreed with the very center of hell being frozen. My teacher didn't really like some of my "sources" (one was an Iced Earth song called Dante's Inferno), but she still gave me an A for creativity.

[polarisdib]

I got to compare the versions of hell presented by Dante's Inferno, Sartre's No Exit, and Vasquez's Johnny the Homicidal Maniac! My teacher loved it, ended up checking the JtHM references and going, "Uh, er, um, I should be upset about you reading this, but your essay was good, so...."

--DiB

[m_aenea]

self-insert Bible fanfiction.

HAHAHAHA

Best description of Dante's work ever.

It's been years since I read Inferno and I never touched Purgatorio or Paradiso but I am very tempted to go back and read the whole thing wearing like, fanfic goggles.

then maybe post about it on fanficrants and see if anyone recognizes it.

"YMMV, but seriously...nine levels of hell? There's nothing in the source material that supports your theory! Plus I don't think it's in good taste to work out your grudges in your fanfic, that kind of thing is best left for your personal LJ. And oh man, don't even get me started on your thoughts on yaoi..."

[polarisdib]

Exactly, I think there's something wonderful in reading a vengeful, embittered Italian almost literally going through the list of people he knows and saying, "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.... you're cool.... fuck you, and holy Hell God in Heaven, motherfucking goddamn FUCK YOU! ...and you, and you, and.... oh, you're not that bad.... and you... and you..." and knowing that it is centuries lasting, infinitismally (?) crafted terza rima.

--DiB

Good News

[natureboy87]

Wanna see Dante be a little more heroic? Well, they have made the epic poem into a video game: http://www.dantesinferno.com/home.action

Can not wait until that is released.

Re: Good News

[missazrael]

Holy crap... that looks like it'll be worth buying an Xbox 360 for!

Re: Good News

[natureboy87]

Hopefully, it will be released for the PC as well and I will be all over it. They take some liberties but they need to for a video game. I mean, come on, Cleopatra as the boss for Lust? Awesome!

[gaspardgroupie]

Haha, I had to read this during my first term at uni. I think most of my class agreed that he fained at very convenient moments and had a bit of an Ego problem. Also, his fangirling over Beatrice was a bit much.