“. . .But the novelties come thick and fast, beginning (so far as I was concerned) with the suggestion on page 10 that Dante and other poets he associated with in Florence as a young man might have given their visionary and dreamlike imaginings a boost with the stimulus of love-potions. These herbal stimulants, cannabis perhaps, may, it turns out later, be what Dante is referring to in the comparison, near the start of Paradiso, between his own ‘trans-human’ experience and what Glaucus felt ‘on tasting of the herb’ (nel gustar dell’erba) which made him into a sea-god. As Reynolds explains at greater length when she comes to the final vision of the Godhead, mystics did often use drugs of one kind or another in conjunction with fasting and meditation in their pursuit of visionary illumination. There is no reason, she argues, why Dante should not have done so too. Dante as a substance abuser? It is not a key argument and Reynolds may be being provocative, even mischievous. She herself gives much more importance to her decoding of the two prophecies that have always been a problem for Dante commentators. . .” –Peter Hainsworth, The Times Literary Supplement, October 18, 2006 (accessible only with a subscription)
Contributed by Jenny Davidson
“My First Day in Hell”
“It is odd, but Hell can be a lonely place, even with so many people around. They all seem caught up in their own little worlds, running to and fro, wailing and tearing at their hair. You try to make conversation, but you can tell they are not listening.” [. . .] –Jack Handey, The New Yorker, October 30, 2006
Contributed by Darren Fishell (Bowdoin, ’09)
Gary Larson’s The Far Side: Hell and Back
Gary Larson’s iconic comic strip The Far Side, which ran from 1980 to 1994, frequently featured hell, devils, Satan, and various forms of infernal punishment, often in Dantean fashion. In one panel, Larson illustrates a projector slide reel of the recent vacation photos of a couple. Showing a picture of a grinning Satan with his arm around a sunglasses-and-beachwear-clad woman standing in front of a raging fire, the man narrates, “Oh! Now this is from last summer, when Helen and I went to hell and back.”
Contributed by Dennis Looney
The New Yorker: “Abandon All Hope” (1998)
“The Secret Letter From Iraq”
A Marine’s letter home, with its frank description of life in “Dante’s inferno.” —Time Magazine, October 6, 2006
