Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

10th Circle: Sycophants on Social Media

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“If Dante would be alive today and visited India, he would have added a tenth circle of Inferno (hell) in his famous poem, Divine Comedy, and assigned it to Sycophancy on the Social Web. He wouldn’t have to resort to allegory, it is all over Facebook, Twitter and comment boxes on blogs, for everyone to see…
“Sycophancy is defined as the overly fawning behaviour of a suck-up. A sycophant is a person who attempts to win favour at the cost of his own pride, principles, and peer respect…
“Dante would have been certainly shocked by the new fad of thoughtless hero worship in India’s IT hubs, universities and urban hang outs where the youth of the country are subjected to and fall victim for modern propaganda. Dante would have been surprised at the idiots, despite having a degree or two can’t apply the least bit of logic or discerning to what they are told by the media, politicians and the rest of the carpet baggers.” — cited from Sreedhar Pillai on Lasting Rose, July 16, 2013

Nine Circles of Employee Engagement Hell

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“If you have spent any time traveling in the HR landscape, chances are at some point or another you’ve found yourself in what I would call ‘Employee Engagement Hell.’ With a nod to Dante, I thought it might be fun to map the challenges to engagement a la the 14th century epic poem Divine Comedy… In Dante’s famous Inferno, the poet is led through the nine levels of the underworld by the Roman poet Virgil. The journey through each level (or circle) represents an allegorical journey of the human soul. My interpretation may be somewhat less allegorical—and definitely less epic!—but I do hope to offer some Virgil-like advice as to how to escape from each very real level of disengagement.” — Darcy Jacobsen, Globoforce, August 13, 2013

Read the full article here.

Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum’s Café G

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cafe-g-isabella-stuart-gardner-museumAn introductory note on the menu of the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum’s Café G:

“Isabella Stuart Gardner’s love for the medieval extended to literature as well as to art, and she was particularly devoted to the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Gardner was a member of the Dante Society and collected several rare copies of the Divine Comedy, including a manuscript of the poem written within a century of the author’s death. She stored these precious books alongside a death mask of the poet in the ‘Dante Case’ in the museum’s Long Gallery. [. . .] We hope you enjoy this special menu, inspired by Inferno. It features fiery hot peppers in a variety of different forms.”    —Café G Menu (click to see full menu)

Contributed by Nancy Vickers

Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell if He Were a Parent Today

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“As parents there are a lot of things we smile our way through for the love of little John and Jane when, if we’re honest, we’d rather be getting a root canal. If Dante

lived today and wrote his famous literary tome Inferno from the perspective of a parent, the eternal punishments doled out in his nine circles of hell might look something like this…” — This Michigan Life, October 8, 2013

Find out Dante’s Nine Circles of Parenting Hell by reading the full article here.

dante-parent-michigan-life-2013

 

“Fall Sweeps”: A Dante Read-Along

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DanteDetailLarge“Something is gnawing at the nape of your skull: on the one hand, your favorite fall shows are coming back…”

“You want to watch Boardwalk Empire—what will happen to Nucky Thompson, or Richard Harrow? You want to catch up on The Walking Dead, but then you remember that synaptic pruning, and a frightening question about the difference between you and an actual zombie floats through your head.

“The convenience of hour-long shows is that they often air on Sunday night, when you have nothing to do. We have a compromise. Don’t spend an hour on the latest would-be cable sensation; instead, tune in for the first season of The Divine Comedy, the hot, new (relatively speaking) series by Dante. Every week, ideally on Sunday at 9 P.M., read one canto—often less than 140 lines!—of what may be the best poem ever written. Season 1 is called the Inferno—think of it as your new Home Box Office.” [. . .]    –Alexander Aciman, The Paris Review, September 30th, 2013

See also Aciman’s Recapping Dante (the Inferno)

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How to Cite

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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