Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
Pandemonium is the highest-level zone in Shadowlands, Funcom’s 2003 expansion for its 2001 MMORPG Anarchy Online.
Its four parts are named after the four parts of the Ninth Circle of Hell: Caïna, Antenora, Ptolomaea, Judecca.
Learn more about Anarchy Online here.
“Miracle Strip Amusement Park opened in 1963 with the Starliner Roller Coaster as it’s main attraction. Located across from the beach in Panama City, the park did not look like your average theme park and resembled the traditional seaside boardwalks of the past. The park featured many of the typical rides you would find at any carnival nowadays including scramblers, bumper cars, a carousel and a haunted house. Some of the rides, such as the Abominable Snowman and Dante’s Inferno, were enhanced by placing them in dome structures and adding lighting effects, temperature changes, smoke effects and music.
In 2003, it was announced that the park would close the following year due to lack of interest, loss of money and increased expenses to keep the rides maintained and running. Many of the rides were either sold off or disappeared, some being found and reopened under the same name. Any of the remaining structures or rides that weren’t sold were later demolished.”
Read more at AbandonedFL.com
“The Dante’s Inferno Test was born in March, 2003. Since then, literally millions of people have taken the test and had their souls damned to hell. Links to the test sprung up immediately after it was put up. Sites like fark.com sent thousands of people to see which level of hell they would spend eternity in. During the first few days, the server ground to a halt under the volume of test-takers. The code had to be quickly revised to allow only 28 people to take the test per minute. Beyond that number, server performance would begin to degrade (keep in mind we have other things running on this server as well). In those early days, that quota would be maxed out within the first 10 to 15 seconds of each minute.
“After the first month, traffic began to drop and then level off. The test now averages about 4,000 takers each day. Links to the test appear on countless blogs and message boards. Many people paste their results into online profiles. The test ranks number one in Google for ‘dante’ and ‘dante’s inferno’ and number two for ‘divine comedy.’ Test takers hail from all around the world, including such countries as Denmark, Germany, Brazil, India, and Malaysia.
“In December 2005 a companion test was created, the Seven Deadly Sins quiz, so that you can see which of these mortal sins you are guilty of.” — Dante’s Inferno Test, Background Information, 4degreez.com
Take the test here.
In the Japanese anime One Piece, there is a prison called “Impel Down” with five levels.
“Impel Down seems to be heavily based on how Hell is described in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Both are level-based, ‘inescapable’ prisons with unique forms of punishment per level, and the lower one traverses, the worse the punishments become.” —One Piece Wiki
Contributed by Nicholas Hentges
All submissions will be considered for posting. Bibliographic references and scholarly essays are also welcome for consideration.
Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.
