The Bloodbath That Was, Is, And Will Be Florence: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 58 - 93
In the last passage, Ciacco the glutton seemed to have come to a halt in his conversation. But our pilgrim has not had enough. He prompts this damned shade for more. And more. Until he finds out the f...
10 Jan 202138min
The Curious Case Of Ciacco: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 34 - 57
In the third circle of hell, our pilgrim finds an emblematic glutton, Ciacco. This strange soul offers us a few problems. He mixes gluttony with another sin, thereby complicating the structure of the ...
6 Jan 202131min
Wide Awake With Cereberus: INFERNO, Canto VI, Lines 1 - 33
Our pilgrim wakes up in the weather of the third circle of hell: hail, rain, and snow, making the ground a rancid swamp.But wait, wakes up? How'd he get there?In any event, he and Virgil soon come to ...
3 Jan 202131min
The Case For Francesca: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 88 - 142
Francesca has long been a subject of fierce debate. By the mid-nineteenth century, she had been turned into an almost Byronic hero.Maybe the truth of the matter is that she's bigger than her sin. Not ...
20 Dec 202034min
The Case Against Francesca: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 88 - 142
Dante, our pilgrim, calls the two who are light on the winds of lust to float down to him. When they arrive, he gets more than he bargained for. Francesca (with her Paolo) proves the greatest danger y...
16 Dec 202034min
Damning Lust, Then Confusing It With Love: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 52 - 87
The pilgrim, Dante, has just asked his guide who is tossed in lust's whirlwind.Virgil answers with a list of the "greats" out on the wind: figures from antiquity, the Trojan War, and even medieval rom...
13 Dec 202039min
The Lush Poetry Of The Lustful: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 25 - 51
Our pilgrim, Dante, turns from Minos to discover the hellish hurricane that's the punishment of lustful.It's hard to miss the lush language in this passage: verdant, almost overgrown, especially in a ...
9 Dec 202032min
An Interpolated Episode: An Introduction to the Seven Deadly Sins
Seven deadly sins: They almost seem like a cliché these days. But here they are: lust, gluttony, sloth, avarice, anger, pride, and envy.It wasn't always so in Christian doctrine.Nor in fact is it so f...
6 Dec 202019min
