/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2947193]

Is Dante's inferno worth reading, or is the language so dense its almost undecipherable?

[Anonymous No.2947198]

>>2947193

it's like shakespeare or other old books. it's very old so it's like what's the point? no one understands it even today.

[Anonymous No.2947204]

It's worth reading, just get a copy with footnotes. Nearly every character mentioned is a political rival/enemy.

[Anonymous No.2947205]

Yes, it's pretty kick-ass.

[Anonymous No.2947207]

>>2947204
in high school when reading the scarlet letter, i read the sparknote before each chapter, when i read the chapter i was able to realize what they were talking about. maybe ill do that for this

[Anonymous No.2947209]

Are purgatory or paradise any good?

[Anonymous No.2947214]

Depends on translation and your own dedication and love for the work. If you can read the Inferno (wether in translation or not) go on with Purgatory and Paradise, which are its logical sequels. If you peak a romanoc language, it will be rather accessible (again, depending on translation). A person well-read in modern italian probably wouldn't have problem reading the original (and it's probably almost the same for a spaniard). Whatever your language, it's definitely worth a try (and worth trying various translation to pick the one that better suits you). Additional notes can be very useful in better understanding the text, since most of the obscurity actually comes from the numerous references to 13th century florence, middle age scholastics and classical mythology (dante was a scholar but also a wonderful poet, so his language itself is probably pretty enjoyable).

[Anonymous No.2947215]

>>2947198

(You can't be serious, I really don't believe that you're serious.)

I had a WAY, WAY tougher time with Dante than Shakespeare.

Difficult, but worth reading for sure. I only got to it at age 20, and I was a precocious little fuck in my childhood and adolescence.

[Rocky Racoon !!Sz9aYFda0pg No.2947216]

>>2947209
I've heard paradise argued as better. Never personally read any of the three.

[Anonymous No.2947236]

>>2947209
Inferno goes to great lenghts to describe numerous agonizing punishment with very physical details. Purgatory is full os descriptions of the sky (both daysky and nightsky), coast, montain and Eden (basically a mystical garden). The punishment are dealt with a more phiosophical take, and the whole thing is somehow light-heartred (filled with the exhilarating thought of incoming redemption). The Paradise is more mystical and abstract, brighter but also calmer, less dramatic than the two previous part (except for a few unforgettable moments of pure religious extase). The comedy overall is a poetic and human experience, with terror and pity, consummate erudition and mere common sense, angry rants and lyrical songs. Also, it probably makes more sense to think of the comedy as a single poem with divided in three part.

[Anonymous No.2947237]

>>2947209
Purgatorio is quite good, but I didn't really enjoy Paradiso.

You know how Lovecraft at the end of his stories always ends up exclaiming how terrifying and bizarre the creatures/experience/monsters/etc. but never ends up giving you the details? Paradiso is like that, but with Dante describing God.

[Anonymous No.2947243]

>>2947237
It's mostly at the end of Paradiso but granted. When you think about it, it makes more sense to write good verses about how god can't be described than trying to give an accurate description of a being that is supposed to be beyong the boundaries of human experience. The comedy is an ascension toward god, and this "questy" aspect certainly builds many expectations about what will happens once you get through the end. But it is a poetic vision, not a detective novel, so in the end everything is left to the quality of the poetry.I understand it may be kind of disappointing, but in this case the old saying "what matters is the journey , not the destination" takes all its meaning.

[Anonymous No.2947246]

>>2947243
sounds the end to the dark tower series: a letdown, but it would have been damn near impossible for it not to be a letdown

[Anonymous No.2947253]

>>2947246
A lot of literary academics would scream in utter terror at the idea of the dark tower and the comedy being mentionned in the same sentence. But your comparison is actually quite relevant in that the letting down is a structural necessity: you can't decently pretend to give the reader a view of that which cannot be seen, you can merely describe the experience of facing the unfathomable. The more you can say is "it looks somewhat like that, but still feels undescriptively different". This is pretty much how Dante "describes" God except he get through it in an infinitely more artful way than I do (it is grounded on the Trinity and how in God three persons can be distinguished while they are still the same-very vague, but still amazing).

[Anonymous No.2947873]

>never unsee them headphones

[Anonymous No.2947916]

Opening lines from Inferno which I absolutely love just for what it says about life.

'Midway upon the journey of life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.'

[Screwtape !!tdBUE9PLvpz No.2947968]

>>2947243
I think this is what you were implying, but it should be noted that which translation you choose becomes increasingly important in Purgatorio and Paradisio, particularly how much it attempts to keep it poetical.
eg (Ciardi translation, at the Empyrean)

I have seen masqueraders here below
shed the disguises that had hidden them
and show their true appearances. Just so,/
the sparks and spring flowers changed before my eyes
into a greater festival, and I saw
the vision of both courts of Paradise/
O splendor of God eternal through which I saw
the supreme triumph of the one true kingdom,
grant me the power to speak forth what I saw!

vs

Poi, come gente stata sotto larve,
che pare altro che prima, se si sveste
la sembianza non sua in che disparve,

così mi si cambiaro in maggior feste
li fiori e le faville, sì ch’io vidi
ambo le corti del ciel manifeste.

O isplendor di Dio, per cu’ io vidi
l’alto triunfo del regno verace,
dammi virtù a dir com’ io il vidi!

Maybe I've just read Dante too many times, but the original Italian builds to a climax better and while you still get the triple rhyme on "I saw" you miss some of the things like feste-manifeste. I probably posted this more for myself than you, honestly; it's really one of my favorite parts of the Paradiso next to when he's ascending to the stars and gets all Pale Blue Dot calling the Earth a "sorry show" and stuff.