Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Dante’s Inferno and The Flying Car (1994 Short Film)

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“It’s that time in everyone’s lives again. Where we all come together and return to the lives of Dante and Randal: our favorite Quick Stop employees. And when I say everyone’s, it’s more of an encompassing generalization than specific to every person. From the 1994 original, the animated series, The Flying Car, Clerks II, and through the newly-released trilogy-capper, Kevin Smith’s Clerks series has found a way to speak some honest truths.

“After Kevin Smith figuratively and literally closed the book on the View Askewniverse with 2001’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Smith dipped back into the lives of Dante and Randal with a six-minute short film that debuted on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in early 2002. A handful of years before Dante and Randal took their particular set of skills to Mooby’s with Clerks II, Dante and Randal found themselves in a car ride for the ages.”    — Robert Chipman, “Dante’s Inferno: What Would You Do for the Flying Car?”, FilmObsessive, 2023.

Epigraph to the Novel Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson

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“In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to tell what a wild , and rough, and stubborn wood this was, which in my thought renews the fear!”    –David Guterson, Epigraph to Snow Falling on Cedars, September 1994

Check out Snow Falling on Cedars on Amazon here.

Contributed by Daniel Christian.

“The Battle for a Baseball Season,” The Daily (July 24, 2020)

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On the July 24, 2020, episode of the New York Times podcast The Daily, host Michael Barbaro chats with reporter Mike Schimdt about the 2020 baseball season, which had difficulty getting off the ground due to disputes between owners and players on how to safely and successfully play ball amid the 2020 outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The episode compared the troubled negotiations of the 2020 season with that of 1994, which was halted following a contractual dispute between players and owners that resulted in a players’ strike. In archived audio recordings in the episode, fans respond to the canceled 1994 season. To the question, “So what are you going to do [now that the season has been suspended],” one fan replied:

“I already know what I’m going to start doing. I’m going to start rereading Dante’s Inferno, because that’s where I think they should send the whole lot of them.”

You can listen to the episode here or read the transcript here.

Go Nagai’s Dante Shinkyoku (1994-95)

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dante-shinkyoku-cerbero-nagai-go-inferno“Dante Shinkyoku is a manga adaptation of Dante’s Inferno by Go Nagai. Nagai is faithful to the text, as he includes snippets of the original poem (in the vernacular). Though he chooses not to include the entire poem word for word, he shortens main ideas for the sake of comic style dialogue and transitions. He also includes an intro introducing the Guelphs and their struggle.”   –Contributor Savannah Mikus

The full Dante Shinkyoku series (originally released in 1994-1995) is available to read online here (last accessed July 27, 2021). [Please note: the url for accessing the full version of Dante Shinkyoku (through sites like mangaowl.net and mangadex.org) changes frequently, occasionally bringing up content that could be unsuitable for young viewers. Please click with caution.]

Click here for a discussion of Go Nagai’s work in relation to three other Dante-inspired graphic novelists (article in Italian).

Contributed by Savannah Mikus (Florida State University BA ’20, MA ’22)

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Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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