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/lit/ - Literature

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4207887 No.4207887 [Reply] [Original]

Thoughts on The Divine Comedy?

>> No.4207898

Good descriptions, a bit confusing at times

>> No.4207895

>>4207887

Dante had anger issues

>> No.4207910

i enjoyed legoff's the birth of purgatory more than the divine comedy, but then again it was probably a shitty translation.

>> No.4207924

Everyone tells me that I'm lucky because I can read the original text, but i don't feel so much excited, is it really so good?

>> No.4207939

>>4207898
>exactly

also the book is very subjective. He puts people in hell just because he doesn't like them, That fact pisses me of a lot bu other than that sure, it's a good one if you are patient enough.

>> No.4207969

>>4207887
There are surely thoughts in the Comedy, but fucking /lit/ isn't the place to get them. Look up the podcast Entitled Opinions, hosted by a dante scholar at Stanford. He did a few episodes on Dante and they're very informative and help to give you a sense of what he's doing with the whole plan of the Comedy.

>> No.4207974

What's the best translation?

>> No.4207977

>>4207969
So you think that /lit/ can't get The Divine Comedy?

>> No.4207982

>>4207887
It wasn't funny at all.
I thought this was going to be some Richard Pryor killing shit. Instead it was about some bummed out idiot who gets shown the world just like Dickens did with the Christmas Story. Why he hasn't collected on that copyright infringement, I don't know.

>> No.4207987

>>4207924
You should read it in Italian if you have the ability. It's one of the first works that used the vernacular Italian.

I'm also an Italian speaker/reader. May I ask if you're a native speaker?

>> No.4207988

>>4207924
Think of one foreign piece you enjoy in a language you don't master. That's how it feels.

>Thoughts on The Divine Comedy?
Scandal.
I think it's pretty neat how he went all monkly monk in a scriptorium in a monastery on a rock somewhere in exile laughing at the world as he scribbled them into Hell.

>> No.4207992

>>4207987
I am

>> No.4208998

It wasn't very comedic.

>> No.4209785

I'm Italian and I have been studying Divine Comedy since 5 years; everyday there is somebody with his opinion about this masterpiece.
Ask everything.

>> No.4209824

>>4209785
*for 5 years, sorry.

>> No.4209847

>>4209785
>ask everything

We might be a tad hard-pressed to do that.

>> No.4209855

>>4208998
*badumtss*

>> No.4209862

>>4209847
No problem, my friend.
----
A recurring question:
"why is it called comedy? We don't laugh at all"
This is a misunderstanding: "comedia" means it will finish in a good way, and it will: Dante will see Mary, glorify her and he may even see God's face. Comedy is showed also in some Inferno canticae: think about Vanni Fucci, the group of devils in which there is Barbariccia e Graffiacan and the famous "ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta", synonimous of a popular-like style, as devils are rude beings.

>> No.4209873

>>4209862
It doesn't always necessarily mean it will end in a good way. Most of them, especially when Dante was around, works of literature were classified into two categories. Tragedy and Comedy.

The former works were often considered high-brow literature, the latter low-brow.

>>4207887
I really liked it. Perhaps the greatest epic ever written. The original Italian is beautiful. And Mark Musa's translations are easy and pretty fun to read.

>> No.4210013

>>4207887
I think i should read it soon. I'm italian so, i'm a bit excited.

>> No.4210051

Hell was interesting.

I didn't read the rest.

>> No.4210071

>>4209873
>The former works were often considered high-brow literature, the latter low-brow.

Indeed - think also in this context about fact that Dante is writing in vernacular

>> No.4210084

Never read it. I need to find a good translation and read it.

>> No.4211224

>>4207974
>>4210084
read Sinclair for preservation of sentence, or Carson for style/musicality

>> No.4212845

>>4210084

>I need to find a good translation and read it

There are none. Which is kinda sad, since you'll never be moved to tears by the end of the fifth canto, unless you read the original.

>> No.4212860

>>4212845

vid related:
youtube.com/watch?v=FfvQS0B5lYo&t=4m7s

>> No.4212864

>>4212845
lol. do you really think if you keep repeating that line you'll actually convince someone to waste their time and learn antique italian?

>> No.4212928

>>4212864

you're right. Those grapes look sour anyway.

>> No.4212942

>>4212928
then don't try and force other people to eat them.

>> No.4212948

I read few pages out of my English translation one, but I didn't really like it so I stopped.

>> No.4214073

>>4212864
>"anique italian"
there's very little difference between modern italian and 13thC. it's less of a shift than there is from Shakespeare's English to ours, which is sweet fuckall

>> No.4214463

>>4212845
....fifth canto. You should rest lower for your treachery. The story of Ugilino is the most heartbreaking in all of literature.

>> No.4215436

>>4214463

>Ugilino

next time try to at least spell the name right.

>> No.4215451

>>4207895
It's God that had anger issues. Dante the Pilgrim is actually compassionate with some of the condemned and finds their punishment overly severe

>> No.4215455

>>4207974
I'm enjoying Esolen's translation and check the original side by side occasionally. The intro makes clear he loves the Medieval mindset and hates modernity and has been criticised for being homophobic and whatnot. If I'm going to read a translation of a 14th century classic don't want it spoiled with Feminist/Marxist interpretations.

>> No.4215458

>>4215455
Plus the Teaching Company introductory lectures are great too.

>> No.4215466

Beautiful and outdated.

>> No.4215473

>>4215455
>something can be "spoiled" by Feminist/Marxist interpretations
bourgeois misogynist homophobic scum detected

>> No.4215481

>>4215473
Fix your detector. Modern debate needs more leftist and feminist voices. Dante, however does not need to be converted into the modern thinker he never was.

>> No.4215521

>>4215481
>Modern debate needs more leftist and feminist voices.
My sideredoodles.

>> No.4215545

I've only read Inferno, but it was pretty damn cool

>> No.4215662

>>4215436
>being this much of a cunt in 2013

>> No.4216640

I find the Divine Comedy boring and I hate the character of Dante. What's wrong with me?!! :(

Funny thing is that I love the poetry of Shakespeare, but I find Dante's poetry very dry, very arid and logic: he hardly uses metaphors, and what I love most in poetry are metaphors (which are almost the very flesh and muscle of Shakespeare's verbal texture)

>> No.4216652

>>4216640

It is also interesting that, if I was his contemporary and said this to him, he would throw me in some shithole in Hell regardless of my personal morals (I could be as gentle and kind as the Dalai Lama, but I would nevertheless end up in the land were all hope is dead and dreams are putrefied).

>> No.4216850

>arrogant