The Inferno, Oct 31, 2024
(The rest of The Divine Comedy sometime in November.)
Somehow appropriate timing. Finished while waiting for my laptop to reboot.
Beginning and ending. A dark night, comes out to see the stars, which leaves me with hope; such a beautiful way to end the trip through hell.
The Inferno is the least interesting of the three books; it's more external and spectacle. The adjustment to the experience of the afterlife. (Physical, because it's pilgrimage. I remember walking with an American man in 2005 who was carrying a hardcover copy of the Divine Comedy in his backpack.)
Purgatorio is more introspective, philosophical. It's about love, freewill and misdirection, what leads one astray. It's about recognition of one's sins, and a desire to atone, to move toward perfection. As Dante ascends each tier, he becomes lighter. And in the end, God was always waiting for humans to return to Eden. To choose it with our own free will rather than being forced. Love instead of obedience to rules we had no choice over. Responding to grace.
There's a fire to burn off our sins, the a river to forget the bad we did. Later there is a river to remember the good we did
I've read both of those 2x in order to go deeper and find more meaning. I've only read Paradiso once, and so I'll only say that as he ascends toward God, as he passes from one level to the next his senses are better able to withstand holiness.
