Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
“The following citing is taken from an essay about the 1980s rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. I quote: ‘Scrabble is a game. Popomatic Trouble is a game. Major League Baseball is a game. But any situation where [Larry] Bird is boxing out Magic [Johnson] for a rebound that matters is not. That is a conflict that dwarfs Dante.’ (NY: Scribner, p. 104)” –Cody Reis
Contributed by Cody Reis (NYU)
“Dante, torn between heaven and hell and between good and evil, must collect the heavenly Soul Jewels to determine his place in the hereafter, along the way Demons will try and thwart Dante by destroying the landscape of purgatory making it impossible to collect the Soul Jewels, but there is good on his side in the form of Cherubs that will lend a hand placing power-ups and special items to help him in his task.
Will the forces of good win out and lay open the gates to heaven? or will the Denizens of Hell, the vile Demons strike back and force Dante to a Millennia of Torment?, Dante’s fate is in your hands, do not fail him.
Fully Optimized for the iphone 3G and ipod touch, Dante’s Conundrum is a fast paced fun filled arcade style puzzle game that will provide hours of not stop action and fun pushing reflexes and mental prowess to the limit, enjoy dazzling graphics and multiple levels of play with the upgraded version or play the first level for free.” —http://mobile.e-axis.com/dante/ (retrieved July 22, 2009)
Contributed by Patrick Molloy
“Robert Cohen’s Amateur Barbarians raises the question of whether the novel of male midlife crisis is suffering a midlife crisis of its own. . .
If we exempt from consideration the Dante of The Divine Comedy, who finds himself lost in dark woods and shortly thereafter enters the Inferno (this remains preferable to joining a men’s group), writers have been making narratives of midlife crisis since the ’60s, when an increasing level of economic prosperity and a loosening level of morality freed men to stare rapturously into their navels.” [. . .] –Will Blythe, The New York Times, July 16, 2009
“This extraordinary painting depicting 103 figures from world history in striking detail has become the latest internet hit.
“Message boards have erupted with contests to identify all those featured, who range from instantly recognisable figures like Gandhi to some more obscure figures such as Liu Xiang, the Chinese hurdler who limped out of the Beijing Olympics in the summer.
“An element of mystery also surrounds that origins of the picture, which appears to have drawn inspiration from Raphael’s Renaissance fresco The School of Athens. [. . .]
“Another clue comes from the three undistinguished men in contemporary dress who survey the scene from behind a wall at the top right of the picture.
“Internet detectives have identified these three as little-known Chinese/Taiwanese artists named as Dudu, Li Tiezi, and Zhang An.
“They created the oil painting – titled Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante – in 2006, although it has only become a viral internet hit in the past few weeks.
“Alastair Sooke, art writer at The Daily Telegraph, said that the work reflected a trend of contemporary Chinese artists adopting Western styles and subjects.
“‘But the Dante reference makes us wonder whether we are looking at some nether-circle deep inside the Inferno: this is a vision of Celebrity Hell,’ he added.” —Matthew Moore, London Daily Telegraph, 16 March 2009
Click here to view a high-resolution, annotated version of the painting. Dante may be seen with his Commedia in the upper right hand corner of the painting, standing among the three artists.
“S.A. Alenthony’s The Infernova is the new book that. . . [turns] the classic vision of the Christian hell upside-down. Retelling the poem from an atheist’s perspective, the story parallels Dante’s descent through nine infamous circles where increasingly pernicious sinners endure their symbolic punishments. The upper circles house the minor offenders: those who lacked clarity or promoted fallacious arguments. The middle levels incarcerate those who preyed upon-and profited from-irrationality: paranormalists, conspiracy theorists, astrologers, and their ilk. Lower and yet darker realms are reserved for religion’s criminals, such as televangelist-frauds, pedophile-priests, and terrorists, while at the pit’s nadir reside the legions of the world’s prophets and a virtual menagerie of the countless gods born of their imaginations.
Dante was famously accompanied on his journey by his revered hero, the Roman poet Virgil. In The Infernova, it is the satirical and irreligious gadfly Mark Twain who takes the role of guide and companion. As their odyssey continues, the dangers of irrational and mystical thinking grow more clear, and their dialogues and encounters with hell’s residents provide a unique tableau on which to set out the arguments against supernaturalism.” —Amazon
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.
