/lit/ - Literature

>>23248885
I keep meaning to read the Longfellow translation. It's on my list of books to read this year. A poet translating another poet is bound to be better than some prose writer or mere academic translating it, right?

On the subject of the center of Hell, we can observe that, from being placed right at the bottom, the nadir, of Hell, Dante is asserting that the worst of all sins is treachery.

Do you agree?

What if you're such a great artist that you make art that survives the downfall of your civilization, and comes to influence the civilization that replaces it?

I mean, that's essentially what Vergil did, right? So much of Medieval and Enlightenment art and literature flowed from his poetry, especially the Aeneid, which was read extensively by the Medievals.

Why do you think Dante regards him as his teacher and master, and he's the guide through Purgatory and Hell?

There is considerable speculation that the Paradiso, and the Comedy as a whole, get some of their content from a mystical vision Dante had. He was a pretty serious Catholic, and visions are not a joke in Catholicism.

To me, even now in 2023, fiction and poetry do things that no other media can do. Not film, not television, not the visual arts, not music, not dance. When literature is really firing on all cylinders--when you're reading something truly great--you get a sense of enjoyment that is unique in the arts. All the arts are unique, and all of them have an effect on you different from the effects the other arts have. This includes literature.

That's why I truly believe literature will never be replaced. It might become less popular, or it might become more. But film or television can't "replace" it, because they don't stimulate the mind in the same way literature does. They don't press the same buttons.

I have written three books and one short story in an enormous work that I hope will, upon commpletion, be my masterpiece. It's a work of science fiction, told partly in prose and partly in various manners of poetic verse. For inspiration it draws heavily from Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Lord Of The Rings, The Book of the New Sun, the Divine Comedy, and Plato's Republic.

I just need to find a way to get people to read it. I have a buddy who's been reading it from the time I started it back in 2020, and he's convinced I'm a genius. But I can't get any literary agent or small press to touch the first book, perhaps owing to its length (it's a hair under 140,000 words). I have considered trying to self-publish it serially and use my social media to promote the chapters/sections as I put them out.

I deeply enjoy writing it and consider it the story I was born to tell.

This could be a fun thread. Post art, drawings, paintings, etc. that depict scenes or characters from books. Can be classical works of art or just typical fanart. As long as it's depicting something from a work of literature.

If you went on a journey to hell which author would you want to be your spiritual guide?

I'd probably go with Dostoevsky.