INFERNO, Episode 220. Reading INFERNO, Cantos 4 - 7

A reading of INFERNO, Cantos 4 - 7, not a series of interpretive knots, classical allusions, or meta-poetical games. Rather, a reading for what it is: a story. Or the story of one person’s walk across hell—and eventually, his known universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for my translation of INFERNO, Cantos 4 - 7, with nothing more than the text itself.

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INFERNO, Episode 219. Reading INFERNO, Cantos 1 - 3

We’ve walked through INFERNO point by point. We’ve discussed so many angles. We’ve tried to untie so many knots. But we’ve missed something: the narrative through-line. As a conclusion to the first canticle of Dante’s masterpiece, COMEDY, let’s read through INFERNO. Here’s the first part: Cantos 1 - 3 in my English translation.

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INFERNO, Episode 215. The Way Down Is The Way Up: INFERNO, Canto XXXIV, Lines 70 - 93

Dante the pilgrim and Virgil pass the middle point of the universe—which is Satan’s anus. Or maybe his genitals. Does Satan need a digestive tract? Do angels need genitals? And while we’re at it, why is Satan the center of the universe? Because he’s the way out. Because he’s the axis on which the heavens turn. Because the way down has been the way up all along.

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INFERNO, Episode 214. Noshing On The Worst Sinners In Hell: INFERNO, Canto XXXIV, lines 46 - 69

The last vision of hell: Satan’s mouths stuffed with the three worst sinners. Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius. Wait . . . what? Brutus and Cassius. Walk with me through the last moments in hell: a backward glance across Cocytus (the ninth circle) and a troubling passage that leaves us with lots of questions as well as a typical moment of Dantean bawdy humor, here at the bottom of everything.

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INFERNO, Episode 213. A (Very) Brief History Of Satan Up Until Dante's Vision

Dante the pilgrim has the final vision of INFERNO: Satan, stuck in the ice of Cocytus. But perhaps it’s wise to step back and talk about this figure of Satan, both from Hebraic traditions and in medieval thought. It’s hard to see Satan without the Reformation and even modern horror movie depictions of him in our heads. But perhaps we should, to try to see Dante’s vision of this grandiose figure.

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INFERNO, Episode 209. The Zombie Apocalypse: INFERNO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 118 - 157

Brother Alberigo is the last sinner to speak in Dante’s INFERNO—and his speech is one of the last chances for Dante’s capacious imagination to open wide. We get zombies. We get theological problems. We get classical references. In other words, we get a final moment when Dante can sum up his work in INFERNO with one of the most unforgettable sequences in the canticle of pain.

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INFERNO, Episode 208. Virgil Returns For No Reason, Dante The Poet Slips, And More Fun On The Ice Sheet Of Cocytus: INFERNO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 91 - 117

Dante and Virgil continue on down to the third ring of Cocytus where 1) the text itself gets funky, 2) Virgil returns to the text to tell us he’s not necessary, and 3) the poet Dante may make a gaffe in his plot. Hey, it’s slippery out on the ice. Oh, and the last of the damned who speak in hell cries out, asking for a kindness from our travelers.

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INFERNO, Episode 207. Of Narcissists, Purgatory, (Heretical?) Rage, Ugolino, And Our Poet Dante: INFERNO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 1 - 90

One final episode on Count Ugolino, one of the most troubling and appetizing (!) figures in Dante’s INFERNO. Ugolino as a master manipulator and a narcissist, found particularly in the ways he breaks his own narrative flow. And then questions of the ethics of the passage. Why is Archbishop Ruggieri in hell? How can Dante condemn all Pisans if sin is an individual’s choice? How can Dante control a passage so full of irony and ambivalence?

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INFERNO, Episode 205. Placing Count Ugolino Inside The Scope Of Dante's Hell: INFERNO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 1 - 78

Count Ugolino is given the longest speech in Dante’s INFERNO. And he’s the last great sinner of hell, the last big monologue that has caused centuries of interpretive debate. In this episode of the podcast, I try to place Ugolino in the larger rubric of INFERNO. How does he echo other sinners we’ve met? How does he sum up much of the work of INFERNO? Why does Dante leave us with him as our last memory before the final revelation?

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