Dante's Inferno ITunes App

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-inferno/id338035197?mt=8


Interestingly enough Dante's work of literature has inspired our generation to recreate the story as many different form of entertainment.  My blog is about one of the video games they have created. The actual full scale game made for game systems is visually astounding work, but my blog is about the Itunes app for Dante's Inferno. The developers changed the plot line a great deal by changing the story of Dante the pilgrim on a moral journey, into the journey of a heartbroken soul trying to save his love from judgment in hell. In the game she is said to have "betrayed" her husband for Dante, but if he goes into hell and reaches her in time he can save her from hell's judgment and punishments. The app is 121 levels with  5 distinct circles of hell. This includes challengers and "bosses" in the forms of the Minotaur, Cerberus, Medusa, and Lucifer as the main enemies to defeat, as well as the other challenges of the game. I like the inclusion of the scenery described in The Inferno such as the inclusion of fire pits, swamps, and the frozen level of hell. It truly is an entertaining way to bring about interest in the literature in our technologically interested society.

Jennifer Strange's Illustrations of Inferno

            Jennifer Strange is an artist who currently lives and works in Indianapolis, Indiana. She has created a series of illustrations depicting the happenings of “The Divine Comedy.” There are images for Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Her work, inspired by “The Divine Comedy,” has received international acclaim and has been put on display in: New York, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and several other exhibitions. In 2006, her illustrations were put on display in Rome at Temple University (the Rome Campus) and at the Palazzo Casali Museum in Cortona, Italy. Though her work on “The Divine Comedy” has been featured at such prestigious venues, Strange still insists that her illustrations on “The Divine Comedy” are not yet complete. She hopes to add many more in the coming years.

            Her depiction of Canto 5 can be seen by clicking the following link: http://www.inspiredbydante.com/Inferno/Entries/2010/3/28_Canto_V_-_The_Carnal.html The first image is a depiction of the whirlwind which we encounter in the second circle – Lust. It is important to note the lack of any sort of vibrant colors in these images. By restricting the colors to only black and white, Strange is able to create a morose and dreary environment, which complements the motifs of hopelessness, misunderstanding and miscommunication that are so incredibly present in the poem. If you look at the zoomed in, or more detailed images further down the page, you can see that the souls are lacking any sort of distinguishable facial features. In fact, they appear to be lacking of any sort of facial features with the exception of a brow line. This is meant to prevent us from distinguishing the souls from one another, again complimenting the motif of confusion. There is a lack of light, a metaphor for clarity. In the next link we can see her illustration of Paolo and Francesca: http://www.inspiredbydante.com/Inferno/Entries/2010/3/28_Canto_V_-_Circle_II_-_The_Lovers.html

            Strange’s illustration of the gluttons in the third circle can be found by clicking the following link: http://www.inspiredbydante.com/Inferno/Entries/2010/3/28_Canto_VI_-_Circle_III_-_The_Gluttons.html Here we can see the souls of the third circle, as Dante describes them, lying in filth while being forced to endure snow, hail and rain which is symbolic to their worldly appetites and addictions which they were unable to satiate. Again, there is no use of color in Strange’s illustrations and similarly to the first two illustrations, the souls depicted in this third illustration are also lacking any sort of distinguishable facial features. It is also important to note the degree of the obesity of the souls. It is almost as if they are morbidly obese – so fat to the point that there is somewhat of deathly undertone to their appearance, which is quite suiting as the pictures take place in Hell.

            In the following link we can view Strange’s depiction of the poisoned wood – the suicides of cant 8: http://www.inspiredbydante.com/Inferno/Entries/2010/3/28_Canto_XIII_-_Suicides.html I found it quite interesting that the canopy of the trees’ leaves is so dense that there is no view of the skyline. The views of the souls who dwell here are so restricted, and we can see that in this illustration by means of the dense canopy. This again establishes the motif of blindness, confusion, etc.

Dante Quit Smoking?!

In the movie The Man Who Quit Smoking, the director Tage Danielsson came up with the idea to revive characters from Dante's epic to place in the story of his modern day movie. The film was released in 1972 in Sweden as a comedy but within ten years the movie gained international acclaim through it being included in multiple international film festivals.

The movie tells the story of a man who's name is quite relatively, Dante Alighieri. Dante is trying to quit smoking and does everything he can to escape from this "Hell" of his, which is smoking. His love of his life is also non coincidently named Beatrice. The main point of Dante quitting smoking is so that he will inherit the large fortune that his father has left him. If he does not do this in a certain amount of days (14), his uncles will receive the large sum of money.

Throughout the story there are many allusions made to Dante's Inferno. One such instance is towards the start of his quitting, Dante hires a detective agency to help him quit smoking. This service has many similarities to the role of Virgil in the actual poem. The agency keeps him on the right path, keeps him from being frustrated or angry or sad, and ultimately leads him to his goal.

During 1972 this movie was largely being advertised in Sweden as having a large amount of similarities to the poem itself. What is interesting though, is that Danielsson did not read the poem himself before the beginning of the movie, but had his screenwriters come up with comparisons so that his movie would relate and be similar to the great poem that would surely give his movie the press that he wanted for it.

Below is the link to the internet movie database page of the movie which has more detailed information about the history and plot of the movie, hopefully if you can get your hands on an english translation of this movie you will like it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068916/

Return of Dante: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/return-of-dante-the-guelphs-and-the-ghibellines-850012.html

             As I was searching for a post for this week, I stumbled upon an article, which discussed the political career of Dante, which eventually contributed to his exile. The article discusses a Florentine court, which called into the issue of Dante’s exile, almost 710 years after it happened. Pope Boniface VIII exiled Dante for his political beliefs and insisted Dante to appear before a Florentine court. When Dante refused to show up before the court, he was immediately banished from the city of Florence. However, on June 19, 2008, a Florentine court reopened the case and the Florence’s cultural committee revoked the poet's exile and conferred the city's highest honor, Il Fiorino D'oro (the Golden Florin) on his heirs.

            Dario Nardella, the city's cultural commissar, stated that the committee did not completely agree with such a decision. Most of the committee members said “it was superfluous, meaningless in today's world.” Five members voted against, and many others didn't show up for the vote at all, but Dario and his fellow members won the vote, with 19 votes, to publically revoke Dante’s exile. One of the opponents, Giovanni Varrasi pointed out that Dante clearly accepted his exile, since he did not ask to be rehabilitated. Had he asked for rehabilitation in his life, one would have probably granted it. However, this does not change the fact that though much time has passed, Dante did eventually receive the revocation of his exile.

             As we learned in Inferno in canto XI with Farinata, Dante belonged to the Guelfs party, which backed the power of the pope over that of the Roman Empire. Dante, as liberal believed that the pope should not be given too much power. His rise in politics was initiated in 1300, when he was appointed the ambassador to San Gimignano. It was his bad luck that his rise in politics coincided with the rise of Pope Boniface VIII. Dante did not reject the power of the pope; he simply did not believe in Florence’s contribution in the indulgences for the church. When Boniface sent his envoy to Florence to collect the indulgences, the city of Florence, led by Dante, rebelled against the pope. When the pope called in Dante to Rome to discuss the matters, he went to Rome with two of his fellow Florentines and was held in Rome and eventually exiled.

            Overall, I found the article very interesting – as it tells us how the city of Florence feels about Dante in today’s world. The cultural committee of Florence does care about their renowned poet, almost 710 years after his exile. Canto VII introduces us to the political aspects of Florence and those of Dante, but this article further explains the political life of Dante, as was not discussed in Inferno. It gives a brief overview of Pope Boniface VIII and his interactions with Dante, which eventually led to the exile. The article also discusses the corrupt aspects of the Holy Roman Empire, and how Dante’s stance against it determined his future. 

Dante's Inferno: The Ride

Out of curiosity, I typed in “Dante’s Inferno” into Youtube. One video that caught my eye was “Dante’s Inferno, Coney Island”. When I clicked the link, I realized this was an amusement park ride at the famed Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York – an amusement park that I had frequented as a child. Upon further research and watching the video several times, I realized I had actually been on this ride many times – it was a very mild bumper car/roller coaster type ride (akin to a “Mouse-Coaster”, which isn’t incredibly fast but has random drops and sharp jerky turns), that took you through two levels of a house, displaying “horror show” like exhibits along the way, with various noise and special effects. Though meant to portray a haunted house level of terror, I distinctly remember it being absolutely hilarious rather than scary. Parts of the ride were completely in the dark and uneventful, the exhibits meant to look grotesque didn’t look remotely real, and there were cobwebs, painted flames that looked out of place, and random sounds of evil laughter. It seemed like the creators of the ride had attempted to take you through a journey into hell, in the form of a haunted house that was haunted by the demons of hell, but it seemed like a colossal mess.

            My child hood observations weren’t entirely false, but I did some reading and this ride is actually a really interesting, albeit a bit far reaching, interpretation of Dante’s Inferno. The ride exterior is decorated with a purple Cerberus statue, as well as a large devil. The artwork on the walls includes Medusa’s severed head and a Grim Reaper over the entrance, which could be a reference to Phlegyas, the one who mans the boat that transports Dante and Virgil across the river Styx, or Charon, the initial guardian of the entrance into Hell. (Though, the Grim Reaper I believe is an Angel of Death of sorts, and not actually the one that ferries the dead souls over, so that wasn’t entirely accurate. Perhaps it is a reference to all the guides in Inferno). I also remember one of the “exhibits” had a coffin with limbs climbing out of it – perhaps a reference to the fiery tombs the Heretics were trapped in. The long periods of darkness in the ride, which were meant to build suspense, could have been a reference to Dante waking up in the dark, lost and alone, as well as periods throughout Inferno where he passes out. I remember random flame designs along the walls of the ride, and I also distinctly remember the one part of the ride where there was lighting: it was a semi-steep, very short but very abrupt drop, where the walls were lined with flames, the lights were bright, and it was accompanied by evil laughter. The flames, prevalent in Inferno, as well as the laughter that was perhaps an allusion to Satan, could be interpreted as a descent into Hell.

The rest of the ride has little bearing to Dante’s Inferno or Hell – cobwebs lined the walls and occasionally draped over the unsuspecting riders pathway, there are fake werewolves, a mummy case, and, for some reason gorillas. But it was an entertaining Haunted House type ride, and I am sad to report that it was torn down in 2009 after Coney Island went through some renovations. Click here to "experience" it for yourself.  

The Minotaur

For a picture of Dore's engraving, click here.                

                Often when an artist is interpreting and illustrating some scene based on another’s piece, the new artwork will have some of the artist’s own ideas and influences mixed in. Yet often Dore seems to follow the prose found in the Inferno to the slightest details. His illustrations flow well with the poem because he followed Dante’s epic so meticulously.

                But the two artists seem to differ in their descriptions of the guardian to Canto 12, the Minotaur. The poem describes the Minotaur as being “like a bull…unable to walk but jumps here and there” (12. 22-24). This sounds like the beast is hopping around on four legs, as a bull would do. But this would reverse the physical features of the mythical being. Instead of having the body of a man and the head of a bull, as you find in the myths, the Minotaur is given the body of a bull and the head of a man. The notes in the book claim that this may be due to the fact that Dante did not have the ancient artwork displaying the actual appearance of the Minotaur. Furthermore, Ovid’s description that was available to Dante only says the beast was half-man and half-bull, yet fails to denote which half was which.

                And so we return to Dore’s engraving of the Minotaur. In the scene Virgil and the pilgrim look upon the guardian as he was imagined in the ancient myth, not as Dante saw the creature. Previously, Dore followed Dante’s words so closely; now he strays from the text. I find this very interesting. Dore seems to be giving more credibility and authority to a pagan myth rather than the retelling of a journey through Christian Hell by a fellow Christian. It would seem that even if Dante misinterpreted the features of the Minotaur, Dore would have shown a more devout Christian attitude in illustrating him as the poet says. In this instance it was more important for Dore to correctly depict the Minotaur rather than be true to Inferno. While Dante’s idea of the wedding of animalistic instinct and human rationality remains the same, the appearance is changed. It just seems interesting that a mythical story was given more authority than the “recounting” of a Christian man’s personal journey through Hell.

Inferno the Musical: Can You Take the Heat?

So as I was searching for this fortnight's Dante post, I stumbled upon something dark and scary.  Evidently there is a musical dedicated to Dante's Inferno.    In its own website's words the musical  "“Inferno” is the story of a young person navigating the moral vagaries of modern life, who by force of both human nature and events walks on the sordid side of the city of man, while trying to avoid eternal damnation for his deeds."  

The standard description of the musical makes it sound like it might be somewhat faithful to the plot of the comedy, in a similar way that Sandow Birk's film is faithful to the text.  There is a brief hope that the musical would be a modernized version that would speak to current generations through song and dance.  It had the potential to be tolerable, if it wasn't too cheesy. That hope is dashed by both the next line "Inferno is a musical dramady loosley based on Dante’s Inferno." (spelling errors aside a loosely based rendition is bad news) and then the brief glimpses of the libretto that are on the website reveal Dante and Minos chatting, like poker buddies, in hell.  For example, when Minos asks Dante why he is in hell the response is as follows:

DANTE
Oh Minos, we get so bored with heaven. Its one curse is a lack of drama. We need a distraction. An entertainment that, yea, still may answer some curious questions we have.
God cares not of our movements so busy is he with coming up with new ways and theories to keep the scientists down on earth from discovering truths which reason will not bear.
He’s given them string theory to ponder and the Higgs Boson. But is having a damned time trying to keep the big bang idea from falling apart. He never thinks these things through-who would if he were all powerful-and then has to play pick up with the humans-they think so much. Dark matter, accelerating expansion of the universe, all manner of strategies to keep them from having to ponder what really happened—that he created it all in a day and spent the next six eating Cheetos and playing with it like a video game. When you’re all powerful, you do get bored.

I suppose there is something to be said... wait, no, there is really no way to justify the above.  Between the obvious disregard for the text, the disdain for the attitude of the time it was written in, the apathy of the religious feelings that the text is supposed to speak to and the truly terrifying attempts at making puns about God "having a damned time," the justifications for this text belong somewhere between idiocy and treacherous fraud.

It's possible that I'm being particularly hard on this musical for unjust reasons, but in my own defense its existence has been in the back of my mind for a couple of days now.  (I started this fortnight's research during a lull in a paper I was writing.)  One of the things that really upsets me, is that the quote from above is supposedly from a work in progress, with various copyrights from 2010, 2011 and 2012. 

The problem here is that in 2009 in the NYC Fringe Festival there was another musical called "Inferno The New Rock Musical""Hell Has Never Been so Hot!" (warning: that website gives you a sample of music.)


Now first of all I can't tell if the two shows are related at all.  But if they are, this older version actually seems a little more palatable.  Firstly it was for a fringe festival, so it was supposed to be an interesting idea, tried in a low tech way, and only run for a short period.  What is really actually cool about the 2009 version, is that  the music is findable (they have merch!,) the lyrics are all there on the site, and the lyrics are actually legitimate in regards to the text.  Each Canto has its own lyrics and while certainly not verbatim, they are based on a translation and they preserve the text.

And again he spoke
From the ship he steered
 “Abandon All Hope
You who enter here”

“Charon it is willed”      
You know you must oblige
The ferryman held still
With wheels of flames in his eyes

We reached the shore
Through the cursing crowd
The earth shook just before
I fell to the ground

Ok, so the rhyme scheme is still cheesy and it is extremely over simplified.  But it picks up the important parts of the text and show them accurately.  (It's also pretty cool that the website also has a works cited page for the musical!)

So.  Musicals from texts are usually bad.  Lord of the Rings lasted for only a very short time on the West End and in Toronto, Jane Eyre, Little Women, Jekyll and Hyde etc are often decent representations of their respective books but as far as most musical goers are concerned they often have a couple good songs but are not great musicals. The top example of Inferno the Musical, the one we can look forward to in the future (if it survives),  is not even a good representation of the text, in fact it completely mutates the text until it is a mockery of itself.  The second, Inferno the New Rock Musical, seem interesting.  It looks like it was intended to represent the text, to convey the meaning and to be an experiment.  All in all I'd spend 15$ to see the second, and I will run away from the first as if the Harpies were chasing me.