/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.8402929]

Which depiction of Satan do you prefer, Dante's or Milton's?

Obviously Dante's is much less heretical than Milton's, but from a literary perspective which works better?

[Anonymous No.8402956]

>>8402929
Mephistopheles is better

[Anonymous No.8402958]

>Dante
>less heretical

[Anonymous No.8402978]

>>8402929
Infinite Jest's version was better.

[Anonymous No.8403658]

>>8402929
Dante's Satan is an immobilized giant body that does nothing but cry and chew three people in a few cantos. He isn't a character at all. Milton's is a full-fledged protagonist. How can you compare them?

[Anonymous No.8403682]

>>8403658
But Dante's vision is way better than Milton's. Milton took on a problem he couldn't really handle. Dante's satan is, in many ways, self-deception, so that he doesn't really have to be a character. It's the source of everything else you see in hell and purgatory.

Anyone seriously considering Milton is as good as Dante needs to stop memeing.

[Anonymous No.8403694]

>>8402978
idk david foster wallace seems like a pretty nice guy

[Anonymous No.8403708]

Milton's.

[Anonymous No.8403711]

>>8403682
Milton's is far superior, sorry. Dante's is interesting, but as you say, he's a source, not a character, and the Comedy would be basically the same if he never appeared.

[Anonymous No.8403714]

>>8402929
In Milton's time, his depiction of satan wasn't actually that heretical. Many of the traits we see as positive today would have been perceived as negative at the time

[Anonymous No.8403721]

>>8402956
This tbqh.
Good 'ol Scratch > Promethean Hero > Shackled Titan.

[Anonymous No.8403737]

>>8402956
Which one

[Anonymous No.8403793]

>>8402929
Nagai's

[Anonymous No.8403808]

Best Faust translation in English?

[Anonymous No.8403841]

>>8403711
Stop memeing. Dante's universe is way deeper than Milton's satan.

Everyone from Beckett to Pound knows it's no contest. Dante is the only poet.

[Anonymous No.8403919]

>there are people on /lit/ RIGHT NOW who think Satan is the hero or protagonist of Paradise Lost

[Anonymous No.8403929]

>>8403919
Blake did, but knew it was accidental.
Author intention doesn't always translate very well, causing people to hate what are meant to be sympathetic characters and root for what the author intended as despicable villains.

[Anonymous No.8403982]

>>8403841
Why is Dante the only poet?

[Anonymous No.8403990]

>>8403808
Marlowe

[Anonymous No.8403992]

>>8403982
dante invented poetry, similar to how shakespeare invented the human

[Anonymous No.8403996]

>>8403992
the autism has reached new levels

[Anonymous No.8404003]

>>8403996
you make papa bloom sad anon. go stand in the corner and think about what you did.

[Anonymous No.8404019]

>>8403929
In the case of Paradise Lost, that's be ause of the Romantics. I do not think that it was accidental. Milton knew very well what he was doing with the character of Satan. If people thibk Satan was a heroic figure it's because they lack knowledge of the context in which the poem was written, and also of Milton's politics.

[Anonymous No.8404360]

>>8403841
>Dante's universe
Even if that's the case (it's not) the issue is the character of Satan. Dante's Satan is a side-show, he's not a character at all. This might be interesting (it is) but it pales to the universal depth* of Milton's Satan.

* ;)

>>8404019
I'd argue that Blake was right but go further: Satan is a heroic figure, and Milton absolutely intended him to appear so. But what Blake and the Romantics missed was that this was precisely the point: heroes are anathema to the Christian project, the stuff of pagan error. He wants to move beyond the worship of the individual, which necessarily gives rise to autocracy, and into the obedient priesthood of the believers.

[Anonymous No.8404650]

>>8403996
>>8403992
>>8403990
>>8403982
>>8403841
I doubt he really believes that. It's bait, perhaps to spark discussion from controversy.