The second episode on the apocalyptic vision that ends PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII. In this episode, we’ll go over the now-standard reading, popularized by the rationalist, Anglo-American readers of COMEDY. We’ll talk about cracks and rifts in that interpretation. And we’ll discuss ways the vision itself may finally be “uninterpretable.”
Read MoreDante has a vision of the catastrophic end of the grand chariot and perhaps even one of the original trees of Eden, all while standing to the side on the grassy margin with Statius and perhaps the young woman guardian of Eden nearby. This vision is complex and demands that its readers come into the interpretive space to make meaning.
Read MoreThe parade of revelation continues as a griffin pulls a Roman victory chariot between the four living creatures that beside it. Dante the poet is combining military history, Biblical allegory, and Roman mythology into a single passage that has a shocking absence right at its center.
Read MoreOur pilgrim, Dante, is standing at a great observation point as the parade of divine revelation passes by him across the river Lethe. After the twenty-four lords in white, he sees four animals with green fronds for crowns. But he doesn’t have much time to describe them. Just go out and read the Biblical text . . . especially the one I don’t agree with!
Read MoreThe pilgrim, Dante, stands on the shore of Lethe and witnesses the emergent revelation of the light in the forest. The air on fire? No, trees that walk? No, candelabra that walk. They emerge from the forest in a deft act of perception that brings a multiplicity of meanings into the open space of COMEDY.
Read MoreOur pilgrim, Dante, and the beautiful lady walk on, each on their own side of Lethe. They seem to leave the more open space and reenter the forest when a flash of light overwhelms the pilgrim. It’s the signal for the start of the great apocalyptic parade that will take up more of Canto XXIX. It’s also the catalyst for some very pernicious misogyny.
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