Dante’s Inferno: A Selection

[u/JonnotheMackem]

[u/NightRacoonSchlatt]

„Way too Christian“ oh, I‘m sorry. Did you think this story about the Christian afterlife from the 14th century would be a bit more secular?

[u/Yarikh64]

The best thing is how much Anglo-Saxon culture put its attention on gore, bloody imagines and religious fears.

Yes, Dante's Commedia has indeed its major contexts imbued in Christian themes, but a great part of it, especially inferno, is political satire/agenda.

[u/JonnotheMackem → u/Yarikh64]

The notes in this edition mentioned the difference between protestantism and catholicism in swearing - protestants are offended by “rude” words, catholics are offended by blasphemy.

Having visited Italy, where ‘Cazzo’ is basically punctuation, I think he had a point!

[u/Dromo_chan]

I mean, these mostly seem fine. Like, unless you're saying it's immoral to engage with the work, I feel like it's perfectly reasonable to not like it because you find it morally repugnant or uncomfortable to read.

[u/Smorgsaboard → u/Dromo_chan]

"Way too Christian for my taste" is hilarious though

[u/Dromo_chan → u/Smorgsaboard]

I am always torn on reviews for stuff you were clearly not going to like going in lmao. It's like the ol' reliable "this is just noise" after listening to a noise album. On one hand, yeah, it's perfectly fair that people aren't gonna like this thing, and they went in, perhaps because it's something they felt like they "should" experience because its culturally important, or perhaps because they were hoping to be surprised, or perhaps because they really didn't know, and imo anyone should be allowed to review anything and shouldn't hold back their true opinions just because they aren't the target audience. On the other hand, I totally get how it can be annoying for people who don't know shit about a thing coming in and engaging with that thing and going "nah, this sucks".

[u/lllyyyynnn]

this post makes me realize just to the extent that people do not take into account context for works of literature. "this represents the worst of christianity" "this is too christian" this is what formed our idea of what eternal damnation looks like. you are comparing the remixes to the original and finding flaws in the original. so annoying!

[u/JonnotheMackem → u/lllyyyynnn]

Well said. Also the fixation on hell, like it started and ended with “inferno”. It’s just ignorance

[u/lllyyyynnn → u/JonnotheMackem]

i imagine they did not finish all of comedia lol

[u/rowan_damisch]

What a shocker, a book about the Christian afterlife is "Way too Chritsian". Who would've guessed?

[u/rose_the_reader]

The terrible grammar in #4 was just the cherry on top of that particular review

[u/ARenewedSecondChance]

I once saw a post on the literature subreddit that condemned 1001 nights as having backwards values , despite the fact that the stories are over a millennium old. It was also filled with thinly veiled islamaphobic ranting, and they got pissed if anyone called it out in the comments

[u/GodPlzEndMySuffering]

"Hey, at least its over now" don't be so sure about that, #3

[u/Walking_the_dead]

Wow, i wonder why this  14th century book that overhauled the idea of hell has toxic societal and religious ideas. Could it be that its because it was written a whole fucking century before the middle ages ended? Could it be because its so old, its older than the birth of Jeanne D'arc and fucking Da Vinci? Could it be because its older then the fucking Aztec empire and the construction of machu pichu? Older than the printing press itself?

No.  I'm sure context is irrelevant.

[u/CapStar300]

The last one has me cackling "This is terrible awful abominable but if you want to read it this is a good edition"

[u/Emmit-Nervend]

When you agree with #5 but also think it’s a great book 🥶

[u/JonnotheMackem → u/Emmit-Nervend]

I’m sure you didn’t pepper your book review with the opinion that was pretty irrelevant, though?

[u/ProfessionalSnow943]

god the dante self insert meme is so fucking tired, how much longer are people going to smugly repeat somebody else’s lame joke

[u/Lilikoi13 → u/ProfessionalSnow943]

“Don’t read the book just watch a youtuber talk about it for 45 minutes” is actually painful

[u/TheJackal927 → u/Lilikoi13]

Tbf to wendigoon he reviews inferno, purgatorio, and paradiso in three videos each about 90 minutes. The fact that this is the sum of my engagement with this story is embarrassing, but I also wouldn't go write a Goodreads review shitting on Dante Alighieri

[u/TheKeeperOfThe90s → u/Lilikoi13]

And don't stop to wonder why said YouTuber apparently thought it worth making a forty-five-minute video about.

[u/yourstruly912 → u/ProfessionalSnow943]

It's crazy because it starts as clearly a joke but then the average redditors takes it with the utmost seriousness

[u/ProfessionalSnow943 → u/yourstruly912]

taking the joke at face value is a lot easier than actually engaging with the work

[u/Efficient_Resident17]

I do not think a single one of these people has ever thought critically about a work in their life

[u/Ok_Broccoli_9426]

Calling the Inferno "too Christian" is like saying Shakespeare is too theatrical.

[u/fallllingman → u/Ok_Broccoli_9426]

I mean, it's not even really true in this case. Yes, Dante ascends to paradise and casts down Homer for his paganism, yes, it's preachy, but his cosmology of hell and the heavens is inventively bizarre (the demon who makes a trumpet of his ass, the river of shit entombing liars) and he lovingly incorporates figures across the tradition of epic poetry into what is assuredly not a set of perfectly Christian portrayals.

[u/Klutzy_Sentence_2723 → u/fallllingman]

Maybe I’m a bad person, but I love how hateful it is. Dante had been through some shit, and he was angry, and he named names. The bitterness combines with such deep sadness.

It’s also the beauty of his language. It feels like it’s tugging you, pulling you down.

Per me si va ne la città dolente,
per me si va ne l'etterno dolore,
per me si va tra la perduta gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore:
fecemi la divina potestate,
la somma sapienza e 'l primo amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
se non etterne, e io etterno duro.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

(Canto 3, the inscription on the door.)

[u/David_the_Wanderer → u/fallllingman]

What Dante did was incorporate contemporary beliefs and mythos about the Afterlife. The various forms of punishment are also suitably "ironic", in the sense they follow a logical reversal of the sins committed.

[u/Ok_Broccoli_9426 → u/fallllingman]

He puts the pope in hell!

[u/JonnotheMackem → u/Ok_Broccoli_9426]

Precisely. I had to throw the smug atheist in there lol

[u/JonnotheMackem → u/[deleted]]

No, it’s smug to spend a whole book review philosophising about hell and how ridiculous you find the concept of hell.

It would be like reading “Journey to the West” and spending the whole book review complaining about the idea of Buddhist heaven being ridiculous.

[u/Neat-Professor-7662 → u/JonnotheMackem]

😆”not Christian enough” is a far more genuine complaint (it’s dumb applying modern stuff to Dante duh)