Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Paterson (2016 film)

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“Paterson (dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2016) is an Amazon Prime original film about a bus driver named Paterson (Adam Driver) who writes poetry in his free times and on his breaks from work, though his only audience for them is his wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani). The movie follows the bus driver/poet on a weeklong journey of everyday experiences, watching him observe the sights, sounds, and people of the town of Paterson, New Jersey. During the first day, the film shows Paterson sitting down to eat his lunch which was packed by his wife, and shows that she had put a Dante Alighieri postcard in it, which he looks at and acknowledges verbally before eating his lunch and writing his own poetry.”   –Contributor Robert Alex Lee

Contributed by Robert Alex Lee (Florida State University, MA 2024)

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love (2006)

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eat-pray-love“The Italian we speak today, therefore, is not Roman or Venetian (though these were the powerful military and merchant cities) nor even really entirely Florentine. Essentially, it is Dantean. No other European language has such an artistic pedigree. And perhaps no language was ever more perfectly ordained to express human emotions than this fourteenth-century Florentine Italian, as embellished by one of Western civilization’s greatest poets. Dante wrote his Divine Comedy in terza rima, triple rhyme, a chain of rhymes with each rhyme repeating three times every five lines, giving his pretty Florentine vernacular what scholars call a ‘cascading rhythm’ –a rhythm which still lives in the tumbling, poetic cadences spoken by Italian cabdrivers and butchers and government administrators even today. The last line of the Divine Comedy, in which Dante is faced with the vision of God Himself, is a sentiment that is still easily understandable by anyone familiar with so-called modern Italian. Dante writes that God is not merely a blinding vision of glorious light, but that He is, most of all, l’amor che move sole e l’altre stelle. . .

“‘The love that moves the sun and the other stars.’

“So it’s really no wonder that I want so desperately to learn this language.”

– Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love (2006)

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

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Beauty-Awakens-Soul-to-Act-Lavender

“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

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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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