The name's Blair. I have spent a few too many hours with a dead Italian and figured i needed some format in which to begin regurgitating ideas. This blog will be dedicated to all things Divine Comedy.
Let me divulge a few things i plan to discuss and what I (hopefully) envision will evolve in this space. First off, this is not going to be a summary breakdown of individual Cantos. There are many, many resources available, both online and in dusty volumes, written by people far smarter than myself, deconstructing the Divine Comedy. (one such resource which I would highly reccommend would be http://www.worldofdante.org/ . Informative, essential reading for those who wish to decipher the many names, places and events that enrich the text.)
What this blog will try to be is a prism in which to look at today's society with respect to the world of Dante. The Divine Comedy is one man's journey inward. Dante used this piece of literature as a form of self-reflection. He looked at humanities' flaws and he looked at his own flaws. He used the stories and events of his time to create an architecture of morality. He elevated the virtues and castigated the vices.
It seems to me that today's society, while exponentially more complex, is not much different than Dante's. We still see constant examples of virtuous and vice-filled behavior on an individual as well as communal level. Perhaps by looking back to Dante we can look forward to a better world. Perhaps there is some method of reading Dante that can inform individuals searching for internal happiness in today's outwardly materialistic world. Is this thinking utopian? Possibly, but who wouldn't want to live in a society actively engaged in a process to become better humans? This blog will only survive with the input of others, so for those six or seven of you reading this, please infiltrate me with ideas, criticisms and other musings. I want this to be bigger than me.
I will leave you with a short passage from Paradiso, Canto I, translated into English.
O godly force, if you so lend yourself
to me, that I might show the shadow
of the blessed realm inscribed within my mind,
then you would see me underneath the tree
you love; there I shall take as crown the leaves
of which my theme and you shall make me worthy.
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