Sunday, February 26, 2006
The Man Who Sold The World
I feel good tonight. My final year project is getting nearer and nearer to completion. Still a couple of things to do over the next few days but it is almost 'playable'. Considering i took an entire week out it still appears on track. The transfer system is the only thing that stands in my way =/
Still big yay for Sigur Ros, but also David Bowie, Nirvana, Zero 7, Bon Jovi, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, UNKLE and Fun Lovin' Criminals for the past few days. Quite a mix really =)
I watched the program on E=MC2 yesterday. It wasn't so much a documentry, more a reenactment of how it was discovered. Very clever people were involved. You might've seen it, i think it was on over summer. Well i thought it was good, i seem to be into my science atm for some reason.
I presumed people already knew what Dante's Inferno was, but people have asked me about it. Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet who was around at the begining of the 14th century. He wrote an epic poem called The Divine Comedy, which was split into the three parts of Inferno (Hell), Purgatory and Paradise (Heaven). It's very famous. The first part, Inferno, is considered the best and is by far the most well known. It's used as reference in many books and films (Se7en is a good example). Dante was a Christian.
Basically, Dante himself becomes lost in a dense forest and is saved by a poet, who Dante admired in real life, Virgil (he's dead). Virgil has to guide Dante through Hell in order to escape the place he's ended up. Hell is split into 9 circles: Limbo, The Lustful, The Gluttonous, Misers, The Wrathful, Heretics, The Violent (Murderers, Suicides, Blasphemers/Sodomites), The Fraudulent (Seducers, Flatterers, Simoniancs, Magicians/Fortune Tellers, Barrators, Hypocrites, Thieves, Counsellors of Fraud, Sowers of Discord, Falsifiers) and The Treacherous (Betrayers of Family, Country, Guests, Benefactors). These circles form a cone shape, leading down to Lucifer.
He generally speaks to someone at every level and learns of their story and mentions who he sees down there (a lot of names, from the world and from myth).
I thought i'd just give you an insight there. Sod it I'll tell you how it starts.
Inferno I, 1-9
Halfway along our journey to life's end
I found myself astray in a dark wood
Where the right way was nowhere to be found.
How hard a thing it is to express the horror
Of that wild wood, so difficult, so dense!
Even to think of it renews my terror.
It is so bitter death is scarcely more.
But to convey what goodness I discovered,
I shall tell everything that I saw there.
Peace x
Comments:
Good stuff. You should try reading some H.P. Lovecraft when you're done with Dante.
And what about Milton's Paradise Lost, whilst we're on epic poems?
If you're going to read epic poems then Homer's; The Odyssey is a must read, with hunky men, sea monsters and beautiful seductive women, it's got everything :)
*grin* Dante's Inferno is fun, although it does get a bit pernickity in places ("and that woman who cut in front of me in the bus queue, yes, her, she's in the Eighth Circle being slowly roasted... and oh yes, there's a place specifically created for old schoolmasters of mine, hm...").
Direct quote, that.
Paradise Lost is lovely. I've never made it past the first half. But all the impressive, better-to-reign-in-Hell bits people quote are in the first half, so perhaps this is a common problem.
Still big yay for Sigur Ros, but also David Bowie, Nirvana, Zero 7, Bon Jovi, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, UNKLE and Fun Lovin' Criminals for the past few days. Quite a mix really =)
I watched the program on E=MC2 yesterday. It wasn't so much a documentry, more a reenactment of how it was discovered. Very clever people were involved. You might've seen it, i think it was on over summer. Well i thought it was good, i seem to be into my science atm for some reason.
I presumed people already knew what Dante's Inferno was, but people have asked me about it. Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet who was around at the begining of the 14th century. He wrote an epic poem called The Divine Comedy, which was split into the three parts of Inferno (Hell), Purgatory and Paradise (Heaven). It's very famous. The first part, Inferno, is considered the best and is by far the most well known. It's used as reference in many books and films (Se7en is a good example). Dante was a Christian.
Basically, Dante himself becomes lost in a dense forest and is saved by a poet, who Dante admired in real life, Virgil (he's dead). Virgil has to guide Dante through Hell in order to escape the place he's ended up. Hell is split into 9 circles: Limbo, The Lustful, The Gluttonous, Misers, The Wrathful, Heretics, The Violent (Murderers, Suicides, Blasphemers/Sodomites), The Fraudulent (Seducers, Flatterers, Simoniancs, Magicians/Fortune Tellers, Barrators, Hypocrites, Thieves, Counsellors of Fraud, Sowers of Discord, Falsifiers) and The Treacherous (Betrayers of Family, Country, Guests, Benefactors). These circles form a cone shape, leading down to Lucifer.
He generally speaks to someone at every level and learns of their story and mentions who he sees down there (a lot of names, from the world and from myth).
I thought i'd just give you an insight there. Sod it I'll tell you how it starts.
Inferno I, 1-9
Halfway along our journey to life's end
I found myself astray in a dark wood
Where the right way was nowhere to be found.How hard a thing it is to express the horror
Of that wild wood, so difficult, so dense!
Even to think of it renews my terror.It is so bitter death is scarcely more.
But to convey what goodness I discovered,
I shall tell everything that I saw there.
Peace x
Comments:
Good stuff. You should try reading some H.P. Lovecraft when you're done with Dante.
And what about Milton's Paradise Lost, whilst we're on epic poems?
And what about Milton's Paradise Lost, whilst we're on epic poems?
If you're going to read epic poems then Homer's; The Odyssey is a must read, with hunky men, sea monsters and beautiful seductive women, it's got everything :)
*grin* Dante's Inferno is fun, although it does get a bit pernickity in places ("and that woman who cut in front of me in the bus queue, yes, her, she's in the Eighth Circle being slowly roasted... and oh yes, there's a place specifically created for old schoolmasters of mine, hm...").
Direct quote, that.
Paradise Lost is lovely. I've never made it past the first half. But all the impressive, better-to-reign-in-Hell bits people quote are in the first half, so perhaps this is a common problem.
Direct quote, that.
Paradise Lost is lovely. I've never made it past the first half. But all the impressive, better-to-reign-in-Hell bits people quote are in the first half, so perhaps this is a common problem.