Experientia Docet. Concilio et Labore. Experience teaches. By wisdom and effort.

 A book review of "The Inferno" by Dante Alighieri and "Dante's Inferno" by Marcus Sanders     Originally posted: Oct 21, 2021 at 9:38 PM

 The above incantation could serve as a springboard for a potential leveling up of my blog. You might believe the quality will be determined solely by a little introspection. But you'd be wrong.

CANTO I

     Let's start here: Dante's 35 in the year 1300 AD, a good friend and fellow poet Virgil is asked to be a guide into Hell and the conversations and journey that follow turn toward the blog you've just started. 

• Line 125 `Ciardi` lead me to Peter's gate and be my guide through the sad halls of Hell."
• Line 124 `Sanders` For God's sake just lead me the fuck out of this depressing darkness.

CANTO II

     In this Canto, Dante tentatively questions whether he could go through with this journey or not. 

•  Line 37 `Ciardi` As one who unwills [what he wants] will stay behind, with feeble second thoughts until he spells his first zeal away -

     I'm sure he wants nothing more than to understand why someone like him - a poet in the time of religious Italian politics - would be chosen to turn towards the guts of Earth to document the torments of Hell. I wonder if he felt some level of guilt about being "a flaky burnout Deadhead who changes his mind every two seconds," {Line 37 & 38 `Sanders`}. His reasoning is reflected against Virgil's soothing rationale, pardoning Dante's craving curiosity as not his fault. The reasoning presents itself as more than logical; its biological. Actually, it's pathological, chronic and irrational to descend to many of Hell for posterity's sake. Though curiosity is resilient in Dante, it is so we direct ourselves towards the next Canto. 

CANTO III CIRCLE 1

     Understanding why Dante documents Hell isn't just a thought experiment. It has practical implications. We can actively recognize that no one else in history has faced the obstacles and categorization of damnation either in fiction or "real life" comparatively. The differences in both books that I'm quoting from render clearer messages for each time period written. But also, more important, Dante's Hell is the law of symbolic retribution - as they sinned so are they punished. 

     As Virgil leads Dante into starless air, sucking whirlwinds and a black haze, (think of a magician throwing a smoke bomb at one's feet) Dante hears [A confusion of tongues and monstrous accents toiled in pain and anger.] {Line 24 `Ciardi`}

• Line 24 `Sanders` - There were babbling voices, rantings in different languages, sharp cries of pain and a ceaseless, relentless pounding like drums. 

    It's here that Virgil and Dante begin their trek against the headwinds of soulless sentiment, which in turn encourages relevant determination. 

* NOTES* 

     You might be wondering why, emotional continuity aside, Virgil takes Dante on an empathetical trip, peering into human instincts of nostalgia, spinning long-ago memories of people Dante had known in life in further Cantos? Dante has a stronger drive to celebrate the milestones of these ghosts in effort to keep their bond ironically alive. 

CANTO IV

     For one, public reminiscing translates only if most people agree that something matters. Dante finds himself at the brink of a valley called the Dolorous Abyss.

• Line 22 in `Ciardi` "Now let us go, for a long road awaits us." This is pretty much the First Circle of Hell.
• Line 84 in `Sanders` It was spooky. 

     More often than not more critical thinking about what drives Dante's interests coming play the further down into each passing circle he and Virgil go; I suppose he wants to build a strong and lasting impression for unbaptized sinners as much as possible; who might have actually been descent people during their lives. 

CANTO V CIRCLE 2

     This is the Canto where it starts to get really interesting for me. Dante becomes confused and heartbroken in the stinking winds of Hell's second circle. 

• Line 57 `Ciardi` and lust and law were one.
• Line 72 `Ciardi` and I was swept by pity and confusion.
• Line 84 `Ciardi` borne by the sweet desire that fills each breast - 

{Line 90-93 in `Sanders` "We eventually ended up in bed when we shouldn't have. Now, we're here together in Hell just as we were united by our sin on Earth. Our love for each other led to our deaths and to our torments here," Francesca}

     It reminds me so much of a Xena: Warrior Princess episode in season 5, "Fallen Angel". After her distressful and fatal crus fiction by Romans in the season 5 opener, Xena becomes both an archangel and a demon in order to save Gabrielle from the burning fires of Hell, who also becomes both demon and archangel in her own right. 

• Line 100-103 in `Ciardi` [Love, which permits no loved one not to love, took me so strongly with delight in him that we are one in Hell, as we were above.]
• Line 101 & 102 `Sanders` How can they deserve this kind of punishment just for being in love with each other?

     In Ciardi's own Notes of line 102 he is mindful of souls fastened so blindly into their own guilt that it's difficult for them to find any pleasure in the presence of another. It is so that they add to the other's anguish as mutual reminders of their sin and shade within the body which once felt such great passion. 

     Some version of that exchange has played out millions of times - in vehicles and pubs and cafes, among people of all ages and genders, in every year of human existence. 

     There are several more Cantos and Circles left in Hell to dissect so I will wrap up this first part of my book review here. If you'd like to read some of my past posts on Coyote Conscious, please check them out HERE

     If you happen to know me on the social medias, please feel free to share this blog post on your platforms as well!

     Also, here's a link to another useful resource if you wish to further understand "The Inferno" 

I'm always open to questions or comments on either this blog platform, or my website.

 "Your Teacher and Guide knows the truth of this."
~The ghost Francesca, in the second of Hell's circles. Line 102, Canto V  

De Profundis Audeamus. From the Depths let us dare.

 Part 2 of The Inferno book review. Originally posted Oct 26, 2021 at 10:28 PM

     I hold emphasis on, rather urge, you to read the blog post previous to this. 

Hold your breath and onto your butts, we're marking off Cantos III - IX as Dante conquers the upper levels of Hell and Damnation itself! 

CANTO VI Circle 3, The Gluttons

     Here, the weather is a sleet type mixture, making for really nasty and foul-smelling mud. The three-headed dog, Cerberus lives here, forever weighing which sinner to devote his gnashing jaws and energies. Dante wasn't supposed to necessarily conversate with the wraiths he observed here. Yet he seemed to catch the attention of one anyway who called from the slush underfoot.  He tells the soul: "Perhaps the pain you suffer here distorts your image from my recollection. I do not know you as you now appear." `Lines 43-45 in Ciardi.`

     As the poet struggles to recall some cryptic remarks from the sinner's spewed attempts, it instead gives Dante a hard, deadpan look and falls face first back into the mud. In Ciardi's notes he explains that {save for the souls in the lowest depths of Hell whose sins are so shameful that they only wish to be forgotten, all of the damned are eager to be remembered.} In view of that fact, there's a possibility the sinner had meant to give account of who he was when alive?

CANTO VII, Circle 4, The Hoarders.

     Here, sinners are forced to carry weights with limited sight. They never knew how to apply meaning to their lives and sought only the decision of mankind while obsessing of monetary wealth and gain. 

• Line 53 `Ciardi` In their sordid lives they labored to be blind, and now their souls have dimmed past recognition.

     Naked and carrying their weights through a slimy bog line 121 in Ciardi, `Sullen we were in the air made sweet by the Sun; line 124, `sullen we lie forever in this ditch.` Moreover, in Sanders' translative view, these souls are furious and rabid, throwing punches and their weights at one another, kicking or pulling out their own hair or of anyone's within reach.

CANTO VIII, Circle 5, the Upper Level of Hell. 

     The Charybdis, a famous whirlpool in the straits of Sicily, marks the backside of where Dante and Virgil had found themselves at the swamp. The former poet is appalled by the polluted black spring boiling out of some subterranean passage. As his wisdom grows about Hell, his heart grows hardened as well. The lower into Damnation he descends there's noticeable development with the many themes he carries and builds upon.  Even beyond the descriptive and gory details, Dante's power is structural: everything relates to everything else. 

"We have to get disturbed for change to happen." - Annalynne McCord, actress, podcaster, Unzipped

     The first major "geological" division separating a third of Hell from the lower levels is the river Styx. The poets duo wait at the shoreline for Phlegyas, the ferryman, who takes the dead down into the darker spirit realms. Reluctantly, he gives them passage. 

• Line 32 `Sanders` [Phlegyas] "Who the fuck do you think you are that you can come down here while you're still living?"
• Line 34 `Sanders`, and Virgil said, "Don't worry, we're not staying long in this pit."
• Dante in lines 35 & 36 `Ciardi`, "But you, who are you, so fallen and so foul?" And he: "I am one who weeps: I lost hope of returning to the world."
• Further in line 114, {his pain showed in his face.}

     The end of this Canto finds Dante and Virgil at the underworld of Dis, the metropolis of Satan. 

CANTO IX, Dis

     Within the city walls of Satan's architecture lies all the Lower Hell; it's here that fire is used for the first time as a torment and punishment. The city is made of iron and heated red hot by great fires within. Dante starts to experience some anxiety again, in line 1 `Ciardi`, "My face had paled to a mask of cowardice."  

     I imagine his inner dialogue would be similar to this.

     Virgil reassures him with generalizations of faith, reinforces the limits of Human Reason. 

• Line 25 `Sanders`, "I know the way from here - don't fret, dear pilgrim."
• Line 28 `Sanders`, "When we go in there, prepare yourself for the worst."

• Line 116, `Sanders` Calmly, he turned to the right, and I stumbled along after him between the flaming pits and the walls of Dis.

     That completes Part 2 of my The Inferno, book review. Stay tuned for Part 3 in a few days as we'll explore Cantos 10-15, the middle regions of Hell, you don't wanna miss it!

To leave questions, comments or to read my other works, dig it. Thank you! =+)

A Very Tough Decision, but I HAD to do it.

     When I read Dante's "Inferno" I felt the need to do a book review of the Cantos I'd somehow fallen in love with. I really appreciated a certain type of platform that I could showcase my skills on around the time I shelved this particular blog. Going back after a couple of months to finish a thus far Four-Part blog series of my "Inferno" book review, I lament to say that the platform had undergone a website update that somewhat left my previous work something left to be desired. I think a recharging facelift is in order! Afterall, I didn't drain a year's worth of work into a masterpiece for nuthin'!

    While I must thank my readers here and now for sticking with this book review of mine for over a year, I had no hesitation to scrape together what I could salvage and repost it here on Coyote Conscious.

The following posted will be somewhat edited though not by much; it is mostly some YouTube links and certain Lines from book comparisons I've researched that went missing from my original posts. 

    I feel I can maximize my final entry of Part Five on this platform in a more easily accessible way for my readers to experience what Dante recorded during his visit into Hell. 

                                           BUT FOR ALL YOU LOYAL FOLKS, KEEP READING!

    One morning last week, I logged into this blog account to discover that a number of readers had viewed and shared posts from 2019/2020. 

    I thought to myself, "Welcome to fall, ya'll!" As I write this on a cool autumn day in a Halloween decorated Reno, Nevada, I can only imagine the anticipation that I feel for those reading a Hell inspired book review in one fun size bite. I will be pleasantly relived on the day when Part Five is published in the near future. I've even lit an acorn-scented candle to set the mood and mentally move forward into the blog content transition from one platform to another. But wait, there's more!

    There's a bonus aspect! The rest of the year gets better from here! 

    I was able to escape the sweltering muck of nearby forest fires and the heavy dense haze of smoke for a short vacation to the Gold Coast of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia last month. I dipped my toes in the inner-city lagoon of Streets Beach and cruised through outdoor malls and breweries almost completely on foot. Although I didn't spot any marsupial werewolves, I was content with the possibility that I could write about my experiences and brush with greatness by finishing my "Inferno" book review masterpiece. While there, I stayed in a relatively large high-rise one-bedroom apartment building. It was there and then that I realized, I am seriously in love with traveling and writing about it. 

    Sharing my work through content creation and writing about travel experiences are what I want.

    

Hang tight for weekly posts all month long!