Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

“Beauty Awakens the Soul to Act,” Blogpost by Bruce Cryer

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“I awoke again this morning as a stunning pastel sunrise formed over the Bay. I never tire of these glorious mornings, even when the sun is hiding behind fog or clouds.

“There is no question for me that ‘beauty awakens my soul to act.’ Beauty inspires me to share my heart, share my feelings, to communicate deeply with myself as well as with others. Beauty uplifts me to that wondrous state called awe. Discovering, expressing and creating beauty is the reason I live. Whether it’s music, a gesture, a cloud, a sunrise, a smile, a tear, a moment of tender vulnerability… in whatever beauty expresses itself I allow myself to be touched and transformed in its presence. What a gift in this life to be able to experience and express beauty in any of its infinite forms. How do you express beauty in your life? In what ways has beauty inspired you to act?”    –Bruce Cryer, “Beauty awakens the soul to act,” brucecryer.com (Retrieved October 25, 2022)

“Beauty awakens the soul to act,” a letter to an editor (Chico, CA)

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“I love this Dante Alighieri quote: ‘Beauty awakens the soul to act.’

“A few months ago, a friend of the Jesus Center offered a gift of a person, Shannon McConney to use her creative gifts to complete the beauty part of the Jesus Center space. I realized quickly that Shannon was not merely a decorator, but an artist so I introduced her to my good friend, Jess Mercer (known for her work in therapeutic arts and installations up on the Ridge). Well, magic quickly followed.

“Together they have designed, created, crafted, and installed an interactive art piece in our women’s multipurpose room where we hold most of our classes for the entire shelter population. When someone comes into our space, we want them to experience something other than rules, walls, doors, windows, and a safe place to store their things.

“Those are all great, but what is emerging here on Fair Street is art, words, color, texture, interactive elements that will awaken together with the handmade quilts, warm welcome, beautiful meals a human to act on their own behalf to find a pathway to their best life. This wall of 400 tiny houses will serve to awaken the imagination of those who may still be stuck in the darkness that comes when all hope is lost. As they choose to write their name and put it on one of the little houses, they are allowing themselves to dream of a life blessed by God and full of goodness and beauty.”   –Laura Cootsona, Letter to the Editor, Chico Enterprise-Record, December 11, 2021

Joshua Mohr on his novel Fight Song (2013)

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joshua-mohrIn an interview with Royal Young, Josh Mohr describes the research he did in San Francisco, as he prepared to write his novel Fight Song (Soft Skull Press, 2013): “I did four days of terrible reconnaissance work, where I went to a couple suburbs in the East Bay and South Bay and took some pictures and notes. Then I wrote the most horrific place I could possibly envision. If Dante was writing The Divine Comedy in 2013, he might very well have set part of it in the suburbs.”   —Joshua Mohr, interview with Interview Magazine (2013)

Read the full interview here.

 

“Abandon all hope, ye who live in blue states” (2022)

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“The migration of families out of big blue cities to more affordable environments will only make those cities more uniformly Democratic. Those left behind are more likely to be renters, and studies have shown that renters are far more likely to vote for Democrats than for Republicans.

“The trick for red states that want to stay red while taking on blue state refugees may just be doing everything they can to keep housing affordable. The more blue-state renters that red states can turn into red-state homeowners, the more Republican voters there will be to keep red states red.

“New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are all becoming playgrounds for wealthy old people and ambitious young people. They will always be nice places to visit (well, at least the parts they don’t let the homeless take over). But increasingly, they are not places for raising a family.” [. . .] — Conn Carroll, “Abandon all hope, ye who live in blue states,” Washington Examiner, April 28, 2022.

Circle 9 Brewing, San Diego

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“Small craft brewing operation decorated with imagery inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy — the brewery gets its name from Dante’s nine circles of hell. Fortunately, the beer is cold, and tasty, and often a good pairing with the abundance of Asian restaurants in the area.”     –description on the San Diego Reader

“Lager up, sinners, or wait till the next batch. . . While the Japanese rice lager they served abroad wasn’t served at the opening, an Americanized version of the beer, dubbed Limbo, was.” [. . .]     –Ian Anderson, San Diego Reader, August 21, 2017 (retrieved November 27, 2021)

Learn more about Circle 9 Brewing on their FaceBook page here. (Note: The official website for the brewery appears to be inoperable as of posting.)

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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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