Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
Buzzfeed has created a list of the “23 Circles of Hell That Should Exist for the Modern Age.” After Dante’s first nine circles, Adam Ellis has come up with thirteen more from the tenth circle (people who talk at the theater) to the twenty-third (Justin Bieber’s tattoo artist). See the complete list on Buzzfeed.
Contributed by Humberto González Chávez
“. . .We, as in the public, are beholden to these people to some extent, because like Dante descending into hell, we need a Virgil to guide us through the terrors that are YouTube and worse (on the Internet, there’s always worse). There has been a severe hamstringing of our agency not only as consumers of art, but also as patrons. What we’ve made up for in efficiency, we’ve lost in potential, and that loss of potential — the feeling that boundaries exist on the artistic world — is immensely dissatisfying. We are becoming increasingly tethered to these algorithms and these influencers, and for a reason: What we’ve created, with the advent of almost unlimited access, is as close as the human race has ever come to the elimination of scarcity. There is still a cap on the amount of movies and TV and music out there waiting for us. But like the edges of space, it is something we’re never going to see.” [. . .] –Kevin Lincoln, The New York Times, March 14, 2014
In the ninth episode of Season One of Matt Groening’s Futurama, the robot Bender is condemned to Hell after violating his contract with the Temple of Robotology. In their search for Bender, his friends track his scent to the Inferno ride at Reckless Ted’s Funland. Meanwhile, the Robot Devil leads Bender around the circles of Robot Hell in a song. The Devil explains: “We know all your sins, Bender, and for each one we have prepared an agonizing and ironic punishment.”
Click here for more information about the episode.
Watch the video clip of the Robot Devil’s song here.
“If you ever feel bad about your own writing, just remember that one of the world’s most well-known works of classic literature is self-insert fanfiction where the author hangs out with his favorite poet and is guided on his journey of discovery by a Manic Pixie Dream Girl version of a woman he met twice.” —“Failure pile in a sadness bowl,” Mister-Smalls, Tumblr, February 2014
Contributed By Victoria Rea-Wilson (Bowdoin, ’14)
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.
