“. . . What the poets find, in other words, is a postmodern Dante, a text that each reader collaborates in writing. This Dante has power but not authority; he is a great artist but not a commanding model, and certainly not a compelling religious example. This fits perfectly with the eclectic spirit of contemporary poetry, in which no one style is dominant and each poet must invent his own language and idiom.
Dante’s appeal to ordinary readers seems more mysterious. After all, TheDivine Comedy is suffused with Aristotelian philosophy, medieval astronomy, and the petty political rivalries of 13th-century Italy—not exactly best-seller material. What is it about this difficult masterpiece that would make today’s readers want five different Infernos and three Purgatorios?” [. . .] –Adam Hirsch, Slate, March 26, 2003
“Dante’s Inferno” Board Game (2003)
“Dante’s Inferno is a new boardgame from Twilight Creations. The object of the game is to rescue enough sinners (resources) to gain entry to the 9th Circle of Hell and defeat Lucifer while preventing the other players from doing so first.” —Twilight Creations, Inc.
“The Close Reader: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime”
“If sheer cultural influence is the measure of greatness, though, Dante Alighieri should probably rank higher than Shakespeare, since Dante dreamed up something that, sadly, has had even more impact than depth psychology. He invented the infernal. Dante’s ‘Inferno’ gave us our first glimpse of a universe we once again inhabit: a topography of graphic, gruesome suffering. The Dante scholar John Freccero might have been talking about Kosovo or Rwanda or any other post-genocidal landscape when he wrote, ‘The ruined portals and fallen bridges of Hell are emblems of the failure of all bonds among the souls who might once have been members of the human community.'” [. . .] –Judith Shulevitz, The New York Times, March 9, 2003
