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Anne's Reviews > The Inferno of Dante: Translated by Robert Pinsky
The Inferno of Dante: Translated by Robert Pinsky
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Not as funny as one might assume a divine comedy would be.
I read this in preparation for a Great Courses lecture on it, so hopefully I'll come back with more insight on the whole thing.
But upon first reading, my takeaway is that it seems as though Mr. Alighieri just had some bones to pick and a vivid imagination. I've got to read the rest of this set and see how it all turns out for him.
The skinny gist is that Dante gets lost in some woods and runs into the Roman poet Virgil, who then takes Dante on a side quest to Hell. And ew it is not a pretty place.
The sinners stuck there in varying degrees of misery, torture, and in one instance actual shit, all seem to have done the same (ish) sorts of things. So, Dante must have had some kind of internal ranking system that I don't fully understand yet. <-this is what the lecture series will be for, so don't give up on me.
But my point is, none of it was especially titillating or even shocking, and then all of a sudden as we hit the home stretch - OHMYGOD HE ATE HIS DEAD KIDS!
Ok, Dante. I see you.
But for the most part?
Lots of liars in Hell, my friend.
And the people who couldn't resist the sex monster, of course.
And religious leaders.
I was honestly shocked when he ran up on Joel Osteen and Pat Robertson getting spanked by a demon.
Like, wow. Even back then, they were known...
Recommended.<--if for no other reason than to be able to look smug and say you've read that one already.
The narration by George Guidall was great if anyone is looking at the Recorded Books audiobook version.
I read this in preparation for a Great Courses lecture on it, so hopefully I'll come back with more insight on the whole thing.
But upon first reading, my takeaway is that it seems as though Mr. Alighieri just had some bones to pick and a vivid imagination. I've got to read the rest of this set and see how it all turns out for him.
The skinny gist is that Dante gets lost in some woods and runs into the Roman poet Virgil, who then takes Dante on a side quest to Hell. And ew it is not a pretty place.
The sinners stuck there in varying degrees of misery, torture, and in one instance actual shit, all seem to have done the same (ish) sorts of things. So, Dante must have had some kind of internal ranking system that I don't fully understand yet. <-this is what the lecture series will be for, so don't give up on me.
But my point is, none of it was especially titillating or even shocking, and then all of a sudden as we hit the home stretch - OHMYGOD HE ATE HIS DEAD KIDS!
Ok, Dante. I see you.
But for the most part?
Lots of liars in Hell, my friend.
And the people who couldn't resist the sex monster, of course.
And religious leaders.
I was honestly shocked when he ran up on Joel Osteen and Pat Robertson getting spanked by a demon.
Like, wow. Even back then, they were known...
Recommended.<--if for no other reason than to be able to look smug and say you've read that one already.
The narration by George Guidall was great if anyone is looking at the Recorded Books audiobook version.
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Reading Progress
November 5, 2023
– Shelved
October 17, 2024
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Started Reading
October 28, 2024
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Finished Reading
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Misa
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Oct 28, 2024 05:30AM
Lol!
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I'm assuming you know what comedy means in this regard but yes Dante was trying to make a very insistent point with a journey to hell self insert.
Dante is really one of those, "The joke's on ALL OF YOU!" kind of comedians, really.
This is satire right? (Side glance)
mwana wrote: "I'm assuming you know what comedy means in this regard but yes Dante was trying to make a very insistent point with a journey to hell self insert."Yes, I do.
I was a bit surprised that it wasn't more gory than it was, tbh.
Robert wrote: "Dante is really one of those, "The joke's on ALL OF YOU!" kind of comedians, really."A very Seinfeld comic. And by that, I mean that I didn't laugh once during the whole set.
Rosenblue(promoting non-bias reviews & a dislike button on GR) wrote: "This is satire right? (Side glance)"Is what satire? My review or the comments? Or both? It could be both!
Misa wrote: "Lol!"Thank you. You get me, Misa.
Anne wrote: "A very Seinfeld comic. And by that, I mean that I didn't laugh once during the whole set."
I'm insulted that he made money off of his terrible comedy routine.
No, I'm kidding. Everyone has a different sense of humor. BUT!
I tried to watch this last big comedy show that he did (a year or so?) ago and just...couldn't. It was the antidote to funny.
I did like his show where he talked to comedians, though. He seems funny in real life. But I'd be pissed if I paid money to listen to his set.
Anne wrote: "I tried to watch this last big comedy show that he did (a year or so?) ago and just...couldn't. It was the antidote to funny.Fair enough, I really am not familiar with much of his work since Seinfeld, to be fair. Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee was all right though I only watched a few episodes. The Chris Rock one was particularly good, I felt.
We watched almost all of CiCGC and I was actually excited to see his show when it came out on...whatever streaming service it hit. But DAMN! They must have paid the audience to laugh at those jokes.
Anne wrote: "mwana wrote: "I'm assuming you know what comedy means in this regard but yes Dante was trying to make a very insistent point with a journey to hell self insert."Yes, I do.
I was a bit surprised ..."
I love that it's considered the first self insert fanfiction
Had to start somewhere, right? lol
Anne wrote: "Had to start somewhere, right? lol"I'd like to show him how fanfic is now predominantly omegaverse, harem stories where the girlies have all their favourite characters having orgies. For science
![[Name Redacted]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1347082397p1/287915.jpg)
I've been learning Italian this year so I can read the original text. While I'm sure it'll give me a wonderful new appreciation for Dante (my favourite was always "Purgatorio"), it has currently given me a deep, deep loathing for the Italian language. At present my opinion of the Romance Language Family is as follow: 1) Spanish (glorious, consistent, clear), 2) Portuguese (fun, but 90% vowels), 3) Romanian (helps you sound like a vampire!), 4) Italian (no consistency, no clarity, but at least it helps me sound like Mario & Luigi when playing with my kids), 5) French (this language must die).
[Name Redacted] wrote: "I've been learning Italian this year so I can read the original text. While I'm sure it'll give me a wonderful new appreciation for Dante (my favourite was always "Purgatorio"), it has currently gi..."Hahahaha!
I want to sound like a vampire. Just...period. That's awesome.
mwana wrote: "Anne wrote: "Had to start somewhere, right? lol"I'd like to show him how fanfic is now predominantly omegaverse, harem stories where the girlies have all their favourite characters having orgies. For science"
FOR SCIENCE. <--100%
Example of how idiotic Italian is:"Piano" simultaneously means "plan," "building floor/level" and "piano." As well as a few other things.
At this rate Romanian seems better and better every day.
Anne wrote: “I read this in preparation for a Great Courses lecture on it, so hopefully I'll come back with more insight on the whole thing.�
What made you choose the Great Courses lecture on Dante?
Why Dante over, for example, Milton?
The Great Courses presentation seems interesting. And free(ish) on Audible.
”But upon first reading, my takeaway is that it seems as though Mr. Alighieri just had some bones to pick and a vivid imagination.�
Dante set the template for the Christian understanding of their Hell.
We still haven’t shaken it and the place still houses the same cast of characters.
As far as imagination, have you seen Hieronymous Bosch’s artwork? He lived a couple of centuries after Dante. Dutch. Born in den Bosch. My sons have toured the museum there that honours him. He took Dante and mixed it with some hallucinogenics and…voila!
(view spoiler)
Have fun with the Great Courses lecture. Hopefully, it has their more traditional fanfare and the requisite polite applause. Please share your insights, too.
[Name Redacted] wrote: "At present my opinion of the Romance Language Family is as follow: 1) Spanish (glorious, consistent, clear), 2) Portuguese (fun, but 90% vowels), 3) Romanian (helps you sound like a vampire!), 4) Italian (no consistency, no clarity, but at least it helps me sound like Mario & Luigi when playing with my kids), 5) French (this language must die)."
Interesting opinion.
I am married to an Italian. Understanding has taken me a while (because I can be dense), but Mario and Luigi are more than mildly offensive stereotypes to her.
YouTube:
9viT8bRrLFU
My Wife would wholeheartedly agree with the content creator above (although the caricature upsets her a lot more because she is not a gamer).
All fun and games until someone loses an eye�
I speak Portugese fluently (at least the Paulista version of it) and can read and largely understand spoken Spanish (so, so many dialects…my friend spent some time in Barcelona and my youngest brother in Santiago…the disparity in pronunciation is more jarring than Portugese vs Spanish).
I tend to characterise Portugese as “Spanish with mud in one’s mouth�. Even “muddier� in Brasil as you move towards the equator.
Portugese is also probably the easiest of the Romance languages to learn as the second person (formal) conjugations…vos and vosotros…are no longer used. Only four conjugations per verb per tense.
Interestingly enough, my Wife is fluent in Italian, Spanish and French, but not Portugese. Why we married. So I could help her with Portugese. And she could help me with Italian. 🙂
I would suggest that English is even less consistent than Italian.
English is the product of an island being repeatedly conquered by speakers of different languages over a period of several centuries.Of all the languages I have studied, Sahidic Coptic is probably the most consistent and elegant. But it also suffers from too many Greek loan-words which are neither consistent nor elegant... Second in line is Spanish, but again -- the Greek influence rears its ugly head. Portuguese is fun, but again, too vowelly and those pesky Greekisms persist there as well.
[Name Redacted] wrote: "English is the product of an island being repeatedly conquered by speakers of different languages over a period of several centuries.�
And then English became the product of an island conquering the world and absorbing many influences from distant lands from the 17th to mid-20th century.
English is very common throughout the world. Partly due to the British Empire. Possibly more due to American cultural influence in the mid- to late 20th century.
One McDonald’s to rule them all. (I’m sure that is the fast food place in Dante’s Inferno. Richest clown in the world. Although Starbucks� siren is rapidly gaining.)
English was (is?) the official maritime navigation language. No matter where we were on the seas (especially the multi-national Strait of Malacca), everyone spoke (passable) English.
”Of all the languages I have studied, Sahidic Coptic is probably the most consistent�"
Dead languages, originally spoken by a relatively small group of people in a limited geographic region, tend to be more consistent.
“Elegant� is a very subjective descriptor.
I am very limited in my language ability. Language does not come naturally to me. Not even the language of the land that formed me.
My Wife, on the other hand, has a gift for languages.
She does not speak/read any dialect of Coptic, but of the languages she knows (mostly Romance languages then Dutch and English), she prefers English (at least for reading). She finds it more expressive and versatile…easier to transmit meaning. But that is not equivalent to “elegant�.
Good god! You guys are making me feel even worse about my zero extra language skills. I'm going to go watch some cat reels on Instagram now to comfort myself.
Dave wrote: "What made you choose the Great Courses lecture on Dante?"This was free (a few weeks ago) and so is the Great Courses on Dante's Divine Comedy.
I thought...why not? lol
Anne wrote: "Good god! You guys are making me feel even worse about my zero extra language skills.
I'm going to go watch some cat reels on Instagram now to comfort myself."
Anne…I can’t speak English properly.
Portugese feels like a party trick.
Learning Portugese was not really my choice. Just kinda happened.
I promise you that if you spend a few years in another country, you will absolutely learn the language.
Like most Americans, I had a couple of years of Spanish (and then a year of French…je ne sais porquoi) in high school. I couldn’t speak Spanish upon completing those two years if my life depended on it. The teacher had “interviews� for our second year final. My attempt was nothing more than “Me llamo Dave�, “Tu hablas Español?� and “Repita, por favor� said with different inflections hoping the teacher wouldn’t notice that I only had three phrases.
My Wife makes me feel ashamed (without meaning to). Watching how fast and seamlessly she can go between Dutch, English and Italian (her “Big 3�) is amazing. She will start speaking Dutch without realising it and I just nod my head appropriately and wait for her to finish. “Hey dear, I didn’t understand a word you said.�
Did the cat reels help?
I watch Morrissey. He’s my cat. *purrr*
Anne wrote: "This was free (a few weeks ago) and so is the Great Courses on Dante's Divine Comedy.
I thought...why not? lol"
I already have the Great Courses on the Divine Comedy downloaded to my phone.
I’m trying to cleanse my palate of Jay’s Journal (worse than Twilight…that “author� should have been flayed) and giving Audible books a rest for a bit.
I need my Morrissey cat. *purrr*
Did you really get a cat and name him Morrissey? *purr?*What the hell is Jay's Journal?
And yes, the cat reels always make me smile.
Mostly I remember that in the inferno, the condemned had a lot to do, they could hear all the gossip and even take the occasional break. The blessed did a whole lot of the same thing all the time and forever.Try this during Q and A period: There is no pain greater than a pleasure erepeated for too long. I think is Thoreau, tho Dante has a v different variation.
I’m midway through the Divine Comedy lecture and it’s “ok�. Lots of political history and whatnot.
For all of his genuine religious fervor, DA loved gossip.
I read Inferno when I was a teenager. I particularly remember the lawyers condemned to eternally have excrement pouring out of their mouths.
Mircah wrote: "I read Inferno when I was a teenager. I particularly remember the lawyers condemned to eternally have excrement pouring out of their mouths."I don't remember that part! I remember people being buried in it...
Maybe the lecture series will go over that?
Phrodrick wrote: "For all of his genuine religious fervor, DA loved gossip."Don't we all?
Well, except my husband, who can never seem to care enough to get the good gossip from friends/co-workers. He's USELESS! Ugh. I get so frustrated with that man. lol
If we are going to be serious about DA and his gossip, he had serious reasons to follow it.Who among the priestly and secular higher ups was winning the inside battles mattered. The right guys take over and his exile and wanderings might be over or that much more deadly.
Having it be your hinder in the grinder can attune your senses.
Yeah, he was writing after his exile, right? Maybe writing about the current pope's reserved place in hell wasn't the best idea?
Anne wrote: "Did you really get a cat and name him Morrissey? *purr?*�
No. No cat named “Morrissey� or otherwise.
But…my Wife, my youngest son and two of his friends and I saw Morrissey this past week. My Wife’s first time seeing Morrissey. Probably my last. Great concert. He and his band sounded amazing.
YouTube:
Listen to that bass line. RiP Andy Rourke.
Y4GObc6Jdvw
From the first and only encore. A fitting way to end a 30-year “live� journey with my hero�
zoYHcBk5yMk
Jay’s Journal is pandering Mormon drivel that was at the heart of the “Satanic Panic�. I read it as a teen living very close to the city where “Jay� lived. I remember feeling more confused than terrified. More than a few adults had warned us (me and fellow teens) away from the demonic forces contained within the book. That’s a gilded invitation. When you mentioned “Satanic Panic�, I decided to re-listen. Abysmal. 🤮 More disturbing when you realise most of the narrative…especially the “occult� parts…are coming from a woman’s imagination not a troubled teen’s diary. Raul??? Really???
h t t p s :// w w w .sltrib. c o m /artsliving/2022/09/21/heres-how-teens-death-took/
We should all have something that makes us smile. 🙂
Haha! Jay's Journal sounds terrible. It's crazy what some people dream up. And anytime someone tells me about Satanic "vibes" now I go back to my childhood. It's fun to unpack all of that as an adult. lol
Anne wrote: "And anytime someone tells me about Satanic "vibes" now I go back to my childhood.�
When “Satanic� is mentioned, my mind reverts to a couple of episodes in Brasil. *shudder* The mind can do very interesting things…especially if pre-conditioned.
The only thing I felt listening to Jay’s Journal was either boredom or disgust…maybe a bit of hatred.
”It's fun to unpack all of that as an adult."
I largely avoid my childhood.
If I visit for nostalgia’s sake, I don’t stay long enough to unpack. Leave the skeletons where they are. They are not hurting anyone anymore.
I agree. Let our childhoods stay packed up tight. lol
If you're looking for more explanation of Dante's work, look up Dorothy Sayers' translation of Inferno and Purgatorio. The translation itself isn't awesome- but the essays before the text are very useful.
I can't believe all the stuff you get into 😁(compliment)
Michael wrote: "If you're looking for more explanation of Dante's work, look up Dorothy Sayers' translation of Inferno and Purgatorio. The translation itself isn't awesome- but the essays before the text are very ..."I'll keep that in mind! I finished The Great Courses: Dante’s Divine Comedy and those two explained a lot about the history of Dante himself and what was going on in the world at the time he was writing. It was informative but ended up not being something I was ultimately interested in learning more about.
Tony wrote: "I can't believe all the stuff you get into 😁(compliment)"Thanks, Tony! I'm trying to keep it fresh. lol
I think you need to follow up your great courses on Dante with Dan Brown's Inferno just for kicks.
Haha! You're probably right, Chad.
I’ve read this one already 😏 but I want to reread it after this review.
Ha! I'll probably have to listen to it again now that I know more of what he's talking about.
