tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post2793967669591418419..comments2023-08-10T04:03:44.387-04:00Comments on This Book and I Could Be Friends: Purgatorio, Cantos 1-10Eileenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11058705381647529328noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-12750989707116332442010-08-15T13:07:20.559-04:002010-08-15T13:07:20.559-04:00I have tons and tons of paperwork from that class....I have tons and tons of paperwork from that class. There were so many interesting things to learn that I pretty much started writing as soon as the professor started talking and finished only when the professor finished. For homework we also had to do outlines of the most important cantos.<br /><br />Unfortunately, in my follow-up post, I didn't talk about exile and <i>locus amoenus</i> imagery in the rest of the canticle. But obviously, it's huge in the last several cantos, when Dante arrives in the Earthly Paradise, the last stop before Divine Paradise.Eileenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11058705381647529328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-993567010463065062010-08-14T23:51:58.042-04:002010-08-14T23:51:58.042-04:00Sorry for the delay in commenting on this, E.L. Fa...Sorry for the delay in commenting on this, E.L. Fay, but your class notes were so extensive that I've been reading them in installments. Wow, lots of good stuff! Interesting to think about the <em>locus amoenus</em> imagery, too, esp. coming on the heels of <em>Inferno</em>. Cheers!Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746599416342846897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-17632736167694056372010-08-12T21:13:03.543-04:002010-08-12T21:13:03.543-04:00Bibliophile: Oh please at least read Inferno somet...Bibliophile: Oh please at least read <i>Inferno</i> sometime. There's a reason Dante's been around 700 years - he is THAT AMAZING.<br /><br />Jill: Yeah, Cato rubbed me the wrong way too but I don't know if that's just due to cultural differences between 21st-century USA and 14th-century Italy. A lot of the really holy characters are kind of insufferable by our standards. RE: "blond" angels - I can't read the original Italian so I don't know if that refers to their hair or the light they emit. My edition's notes didn't address it.<br /><br />Yes: "the Divine is inscrutable"! Such a cop-out!<br /><br />simplerpastimes: Yeah, we think of people in times past as being more theocratic but that's not always the case. I was surprised to learn that separation of church/state was invented long before the Enlightenment! And I think Dante's longing for the Roman Empire or something similar is definitely rooted in some ideal image he has. They didn't have anything resembling social history back then so all he knows about Rome is what he read in its literary and philosophical works, which isn't going to give him a full, well-rounded picture.Eileenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11058705381647529328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-61579120849242754702010-08-11T21:37:26.671-04:002010-08-11T21:37:26.671-04:00OK, now that I'm reading through your notes, I...OK, now that I'm reading through your notes, I see all the metamorphic images. There are certainly plenty to choose from! It's funny what we focus on when reading, isn't it? I think I was looking more at Dante's opinions on religious vs. secular leadership, which I found intriguing for being unexpected. I wonder, though, if maybe he longed for the Roman empire in a sort of nostalgia for an ideal, not necessarily for what it actually was in reality?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-3880391045066339192010-08-10T23:56:16.549-04:002010-08-10T23:56:16.549-04:00Your notes have been so amazing!
A couple of th...Your notes have been so amazing! <br /><br />A couple of thoughts - I'm surprised that Cato is such an unpleasant character. He was such a heavenly sort of hero in plays - and it seems that suicide was his only fault in life, so why did he turn into such a jerk in death? And blond angels? What's up with that? I wasn't aware Dante was into the valorization of the Greek ideal but it looks like he was? And poor snakes - they just can't win in any of these heaven/hell stories, although one would presume God would love ALL the creatures He created, even snakes and scorpions and so on (in other words, the denizens of Tucson). And then there's always that fall-back cop-out phrase, but the Divine is inscrutable. Ack.<br /><br />Wonderful post, as have all your Dante posts been. I've been enjoying them so much. But I have confidence in you that they will continue to excel even now that your old notes have run out!rhapsodyinbookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07041412748239010264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687975489922145220.post-24282584296166969522010-08-10T19:53:28.252-04:002010-08-10T19:53:28.252-04:00I scaled through school never having to read this....I scaled through school never having to read this. Funny though now I want to. I applaud you.(Diane) Bibliophile By the Seahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10519875632878992728noreply@blogger.com