This is my first attempt at a deep dive into poetry. I feel like the sea turtle of Buddhist lore who has raised it's head up into a rare yoke floating on the sea:) Your multiple angles of insight and the accompanying art are making this a rewarding pleasure well worth supporting. Thank you again for this.
It’s only Canto III but I am so looking forward to the rest of the year. It’s clear that you love Dante and so much work has gone into this. Very glad to have found your Substack!
"I. Dante’s first experience of Hell is not through sight but through sound.
Dante’s first experience in the ‘timeless air’ and ‘starless skies’ is entirely auditory. He can hear them, he can even smell them, but he is too blind to see them."
Working in many hospital intensive care units, we would encourage loved ones to speak to the unconscious or dying patient. It is belived that hearing is the last living sense to fail. Here we meet it first.
Mind-set. To set your mind on a decision and keeping it there. Being decisive. Acting with will to see a thing through.
Indecisive; hesitant, irresolute.
Unlit by the flames of hell. Flames, heat, the heat of passion.
Unlit by the light of reason. The cold light of reason.
The internet has introduced 'banners' on steroids distracting us as we furiously turn and click creating lots of movement but no forward motion. I can visualize one boring a hole in the ground straight to hell with all the turning:)
We misuse reason when we rationalize poor or harmful choices to explain our actions to ourself or others.
The conversation in chat about Canto III is extraordinary. Readers have offered a host of examples from literature and poetry that show how thrillingly Dante’s insights echo down through the ages to our current moment. These include John Stuart Mill, Elie Weisel, Albert Camus, W. B. Yeats, the Bible, Hannah Arendt, Michelangelo, Søren Kierkegaard, T. S. Eliot, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Émile Zola. For anyone struggling to understand our present moment, I highly recommend joining this slow read of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Our guides are stupendous and generous with their insights.
Dante loses consciousness an the end of Canto 3. He begins Canto 1 as waking from a sleep, or, not know howing he had arrived from a dark wood. Both demonstrating a lack of light. The light of consciousness. The light of the reflective activity of reason.
Banner chasers, distracted, blown by the wind, following the crowd, or fashion, or charismatic leader, or any other master of attention manipulation, they are sheep lacking critical decernment. They not only do not know where they are going next. They don't even know who they themselves are that are going. With no desernable self chosen values or indentity can we even say there is a 'they' there that even exist? They have neglected God's gifts of will and reasoned volition, intentioned choice and action. Self definition. God and Satan don't want them because there is nobody there to want.
Loving the idea of a 'slow read'. A chance to contemplate and digest some of the so much offered here. One item that stood out for me was in the commentary, "right mind-set". This immediately brought to mind right mindfulness. But a set includes multiple items and implies so much more. Right mind set, such a rich term! - right mindfulness, right view, right intention, right speech, right conduct, right effort ( I especially like the term ardency here), right livelihood, right meditation or contemplation. The Noble 8 Fold Path:). I hope this is pertinent.
PS. I promise not to turn my comments into a Buddhist interpretation of a medieval Christian writing. I'm new to poetry. New to forum participation. And trying to strengthen my liberal Christian outlook.
Just starting in to read, but before I forget (again), I wanted to note how gorgeous Luana Montebello’s drawings are!
Thank you so much Susan!! I will share a screenshot of your comment with Luana
This is my first attempt at a deep dive into poetry. I feel like the sea turtle of Buddhist lore who has raised it's head up into a rare yoke floating on the sea:) Your multiple angles of insight and the accompanying art are making this a rewarding pleasure well worth supporting. Thank you again for this.
Thank you so much Dennis!
It’s only Canto III but I am so looking forward to the rest of the year. It’s clear that you love Dante and so much work has gone into this. Very glad to have found your Substack!
Your reporting is so helpful Vashik. I’m loving the richness of the poetry, even when my “intellect” isn’t quite up to the task of understanding.
Just wow! So much depth and richness. Your posts are great!
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this memoir about the author’s tragedy and the solace he found in Dante.
OK. Seems chat is the forum to participate in for this journey. I'm slow but persevering. I get eventually:)
"I. Dante’s first experience of Hell is not through sight but through sound.
Dante’s first experience in the ‘timeless air’ and ‘starless skies’ is entirely auditory. He can hear them, he can even smell them, but he is too blind to see them."
Working in many hospital intensive care units, we would encourage loved ones to speak to the unconscious or dying patient. It is belived that hearing is the last living sense to fail. Here we meet it first.
Also, smell is the oldest.
Mind-set. To set your mind on a decision and keeping it there. Being decisive. Acting with will to see a thing through.
Indecisive; hesitant, irresolute.
Unlit by the flames of hell. Flames, heat, the heat of passion.
Unlit by the light of reason. The cold light of reason.
The internet has introduced 'banners' on steroids distracting us as we furiously turn and click creating lots of movement but no forward motion. I can visualize one boring a hole in the ground straight to hell with all the turning:)
We misuse reason when we rationalize poor or harmful choices to explain our actions to ourself or others.
The conversation in chat about Canto III is extraordinary. Readers have offered a host of examples from literature and poetry that show how thrillingly Dante’s insights echo down through the ages to our current moment. These include John Stuart Mill, Elie Weisel, Albert Camus, W. B. Yeats, the Bible, Hannah Arendt, Michelangelo, Søren Kierkegaard, T. S. Eliot, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Émile Zola. For anyone struggling to understand our present moment, I highly recommend joining this slow read of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Our guides are stupendous and generous with their insights.
Dante loses consciousness an the end of Canto 3. He begins Canto 1 as waking from a sleep, or, not know howing he had arrived from a dark wood. Both demonstrating a lack of light. The light of consciousness. The light of the reflective activity of reason.
Banner chasers, distracted, blown by the wind, following the crowd, or fashion, or charismatic leader, or any other master of attention manipulation, they are sheep lacking critical decernment. They not only do not know where they are going next. They don't even know who they themselves are that are going. With no desernable self chosen values or indentity can we even say there is a 'they' there that even exist? They have neglected God's gifts of will and reasoned volition, intentioned choice and action. Self definition. God and Satan don't want them because there is nobody there to want.
I hope this makes some sense.
Loving the idea of a 'slow read'. A chance to contemplate and digest some of the so much offered here. One item that stood out for me was in the commentary, "right mind-set". This immediately brought to mind right mindfulness. But a set includes multiple items and implies so much more. Right mind set, such a rich term! - right mindfulness, right view, right intention, right speech, right conduct, right effort ( I especially like the term ardency here), right livelihood, right meditation or contemplation. The Noble 8 Fold Path:). I hope this is pertinent.
PS. I promise not to turn my comments into a Buddhist interpretation of a medieval Christian writing. I'm new to poetry. New to forum participation. And trying to strengthen my liberal Christian outlook.