Would anyone like to discuss Dante? I'm looking for topics for a final paper, preferably about Purgatory or Paradise. Hope it isn't in bad taste to blatantly ask but I hope /lit/ could help with ideas through discussion.
That pagan dude who Dante sticks in purgatory despite that he was a suicide and fought against Caesar
>>7422646
Dante is shit
>>7422646
I'm not in the mood to post anything long, but perhaps you could examine the influence of the Troubadours (particularly Arnaut Daniel) or Cavalcanti on his verse style? Assuming you're working in the original. Not a very hard paper
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/inferno/study.html
>>7422663
Wonderful meme, friend.
>>7422646
Write about why Purgatorio and Paradiso were so much much shittier than Inferno. It's like the book that steadily disappoints you more with each page. I'd rather have read 600 pages about the badass pagan philosophers at the gates of hell.
>>7422950
>Write about why Purgatorio and Paradiso were so much much shittier than Inferno
You can't possibly believe that, right? Inferno is by far the weakest canticle
>>7422954
At least Inferno was entertaining as a vivid revenge fantasy. Purgatorio just felt like a light version of Inferno, though some levels were interesting. Paradiso was just saints dancing on the sun and Beatrice being a complete and utter bitch.
You're the first person I've seen think that the other two books are better than Inferno.
>>7422954
Seriously? I didn't like Inferno but it was still much better than the other two.
Paradiso was a fucking bore, couldn't even finish reading it. I really liked Inferno and Purgatorio though.
>>7422960
fuck, I hit backspace and lost my post. Here's a short version:
"en the soul is wholly centred, on one of our senses, because of some pleasure or pain, that it comprehends, it seems that it pays no attention to its other powers, and this contradicts Plato’s error, that has it, that one soul is kindled on another, inside us. So, when something is seen or heard, that holds the soul’s attention strongly fixed, time vanishes and man is unaware of it, since one power is that which notices time, and another that which occupies the entire soul: the former is as if constrained, the latter free.
I had a genuine experience of this, while listening to that spirit and marvelling, since the sun had climbed fully fifty degrees, and I had not noticed it, when we came to where those souls, with a single voice, cried out to us: ‘Here is what you wanted.’"
Purgatorio IV, lines 1-18
These are some of Dante's most beautiful, Dantesque lines. Inferno has little of this, Purgatorio the most. Inferno is still Dante far from his artistic peak. I say he peaked around late Purgatorio and early Paradisio as a poet.
I think the problem is that you're not well read enough -- not even for allusions, but poetry in general, because you're reading Dante for the fucking basic symbols and plot -- and that's the fault of high school curriculums introducing him so early when really he's an exit-tier poet.
>>7422989
Wow, bro, did I piss on Dante hard enough that you need to be pulling some dick assumptions on my readership? I'll admit, I haven't touched it in years, and my opinion may be different if I did. I don't honestly have much of a desire to reread it because when it comes to epic poetry, Dante is at the bottom of my list. I remember some standout parts of Purgatorio, which I did acknowledge liking parts of in my last response.
Few high schools teach Dante because parents lose their shit over the content, even though they construct Christian hell from Inferno. Most people read it on their own or in college. I read him in my first year of college.
Btw, I'm an English professor, but you know, I'll work at being well-read like you one day, anon.
>>7422999
Shit is Dante your spirit animal or something? I deeply love the Iliad but I don't call people plebs if they say that the Odyssey is the better Homeric epic.
>>7423016
>dick assumptions
No, I gleaned that from your clear misreading of Dante. I really don't know what to say other than that you have no idea how to read Dante.
> Btw, I'm an English professor
Doesn't impress me much. I don't care what title you have, you still misread Dante. I would be embarassed if I had any professor, who had a PhD or was working towards one, who said about Paradiso:
"Paradiso was just saints dancing on the sun and Beatrice being a complete and utter bitch."
Even on a banter like 4chan. Because if you're banting it, you're at some level believing it.
>>7423030
>Christfags actually believe this
>>7423030
Two other people posted on here not being fans of Paradiso. I even admitted I haven't read it in years because it didn't do much for me. Dickens is an exceptional writer and he doesn't do shit for me either. Didn't say I was an expert at Dante and because his style doesn't grab me I have no desire to be. But you can keep being pissed and belittling me for an offhanded comment on 4chan. You gave me the motivation to finally get off of /lit/ and grade some more papers. Thanks, anon.
>>7423048
I mean, you're the one who's taking personal offense, know what I'm sayin? Don't banter if you can't deal hearing that your banter betrays your lack of reading comprehension.
Have fun grading those papers, maybe one of your students actually read their assigned books before talking about them. Make sure to fail them for offense to you, though!
>>7423061
Why are christfags always so unpleasant and arrogant?
>>7423048
>Two other people posted on here not being fans of Paradiso
one final thing before I go:
An english professor who takes the opinions of 4channers seriously?
Some english professor, kek.
>>7423067
Why should your opinion be taken seriously?
>>7423061
Are you that unaware of your own words or just trolling? I can't even tell. Hoping you're just young.
I'll be sure to go flog myself in utter shame of my inadequacies. Thanks for the help.
>>7423067
I don't take any of it personally because I really don't give a shit, this is 4chan. I just think it's dickish to take a brief comment and make broad assumptions on someone's readership and whatnot. Literature isn't remotely objective, you can't pin shit like that down based on people's taste.
Oh yeah, top kek, you rustled my jimmies hard, junior. If anything, I'm pretty easy-going and open-minded compared to most of my coworkers.
