Beatrice continues to demolish the pilgrim Dante’s doubts by turning to Plato’s TIMAEUS and using it as a turn from her notion that revelation requires accommodation to a much larger discussion of free will in the face of astral (or planetary) influences on human behavior.
Read MorePiccarda may have vanished, but the pilgrim still has his questions. Or are they doubts? He can’t voice them, so Beatrice steps up and articulates them, makes one very personal, and muddied the notion of a rational free will. He’s paralyzed . . . and maybe as frustrated as old King Nebuchadnezzar.
Read MoreDante meets his first soul in Paradise, the former nun Piccarda Donati. We’ve already encountered her in COMEDY through her brother, Forese, among the gluttons on Mount Purgatory. And she is also a refraction of an infamous figure, Francesca in INFERNO V. Piccarda’s speech is like the moon itself: mottled with dark and light.
Read MoreIf Dante has a question about how his body can transit other bodies in the universe, Beatrice doesn’t answer it. Instead, she launches into a discussion of our natural instincts and how they lead us to our natural ends, unless we swerve from what’s intended for us or find our pleasure elsewhere.
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