A while back, a friend and I were talking and (somehow or other) Dante's Inferno came up in the conversation. I've always had an admiration for Dante, who (exiled from his native Florence for his political connections) wasn't afraid to speak truth to power, and did so loud and clear in his Divine Comedy. Our conversation got me thinking: if Dante was writing today, how would he tackle contemporary issues (such as rampant capitalism, globalization, and the environment?)
In particular, where would Dante put climate change deniers in his Inferno? (I don't mean people who are simply ignorant about climate science, or who are apathetic about the environment, or even who are genuinely convinced that anthropogenic climate change doesn't exist. I mean the so-called "scientists" who work for, say, the Heartland Institute, or Enbridge, or the Koch brothers, to deliberately confuse people and spread lies about climate change.)
After giving it some thought, I decided that Hell needed...a small expansion. So I pulled up a new document, channelled Dante (as best I could), and -- voila! A long-lost "Dante" canto, wherein climate change deniers finally receive the punishment their deeds deserve. (Incidentally, when I gave my friend the same challenge, he came up with a solution identical to mine.)
First, though, a short primer on Dante. (The initiated can skip down below the eternal orange flame right to the Canto, if you'd like.)
- The Inferno is only one of three books that form the "Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy)" -- a poem, originally in Italian, consisting of 100 cantos (rather like chapters). Together, they tell the story of Dante's (imagined) voyage through Hell, Purgatory, and finally Heaven. However, the Inferno (Hell) is undoubtedly the best known by far.
- Dante is both the author and the narrator within his own story. He (the character) is guided through Hell by the Roman poet Virgil. In my own "canto", I myself am the narrator and my "guide", accordingly enough, is Dante himself.
- The entire poem is written in three-line stanzas, or tercets. The tercets follow a rhyme scheme known as terza rima: ABA, BCB, CDC, DED, and so on. (This looks simple on paper but can actually be rather tricky to produce, since it's such an interconnected form!)
- Hell, far from being an amorphous mass of fire and brimstone, is actually a highly ordered place. Though Dante's system is quite complex, one simple rule more or less sums it up:
THE HIGHER THE CIRCLE NUMBER, THE DEEPER THE CIRCLE (level) and THE WORSE THE SIN AND THEREFORE THE PUNISHMENT.
So in Hell, the worst place you could be is Circle 9 -- the very bottom of hell, where traitors (to Dante's mind the worst sin) are trapped beneath a lake of ice. However, the souls way up on Circle 1 are guilty of nothing more but leading apathetic, self-centered lives and their only punishment is to chase an elusive banner in circles for eternity while pursued by stinging insects. (Yawn.) All other sins fall somewhere in between. In most cases, the punishment "mirrors" or represents the sin -- e.g. the Gluttonous are ripped apart by the monstrous three-headed Cerberus, Sowers of Discord are hacked to pieces, Flatterers sit for eternity in -- quite literally -- human excrement, and so on.
And finally, one very important disclaimer:
- Though there are many, many aspects of Dante's system that I disagree with (e.g. the idea that heresy or homosexuality are sins!) I nonetheless respect his work for its meticulous logic and complexity. And above all, for its beautiful poetry!
Still with me? Awesome. See you on the other side of the Gate of Hell!
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