Song of Solomon response

I'm really impressed at the amount of emotion Morrison can draw out of me. Guitar really infuriates me and draws out an argumentative side that's really not that conducive to interpreting the text. All of this crazy radical racism he's throwing out is just so ignorant, so strange and foreign an idea that I really don't like it. Here I go again, another rant against Guitar instead of a rant about the text.
I think the thing Morrison is trying to get across is how inescapable the cycle of violence is after it has begun. Yes, Guitar is going about his revenge, ahem, Justice, in a very savage way but the crimes that provoke such justice are just as savage themselves. As a reader I am appalled that Guitar doesn't even try to punish the perpetrators and simply picks at random but then i can't help myself from thinking
"Hey, yaknow, the black people we killed at random too."
I dunno, i found the emotion surprising.

Anyway, business.

"White people are unnatural. As a race they are unnatural. And it takes a strong effort of the will to overcome an unnatural enemy"(Morrison 156).

The thing I found most startling about this little tidbit of Guitar's rant was that he paired the idea with the whole Nazi thing. Guitar sits here and calls Whites unnatural and kills them indiscriminately then turns and uses Hitler to justify his actions.
It never occurs to him that people will indiscriminately kill his people and use him as a way to justify his actions.
Think how simple that is, eh? to keep that cycle of violence turning? One single death, justified or not could cause hundreds in that kind of environment and breed the hatred that could continue the killings for years and years to come.
Guitar kills because he claims whites are unnatural and the whites kill back because they claim his people are unnatural for killing indiscriminately which they do because... When, honestly, they are both as inhuman as those they are trying to kill and the only ones that are natural, that are human, are those innocents, those Emett Till's, that have no part in the blood shed beyond being the ones that shed the blood.

The Finish

And following its path, we took no care
To rest, but climbed: he first, then I-so far,
Through a round aperture I saw appear

Some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears,
Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars.
(Cantos XXXIV lines 136-140)

They climbed through his back hair. I am in denial about that, I really am. I can't beleive that they climbed through his back hair.
Ignoring that weird exit from hell I've got to say that the way in which the devil is portrayed is an amazing take on Satan. The idea that he is getting punished himself is so novel and new and yet makes perfect sense following the tenants of the christian religion. If God is all powerful, why should his power over Satan be any different? God should logically be able to punish satan just as much as he punishes any other betrayer or sinner or whatever. Even suggesting that Satan can try and usurp god and get away with it kind of defeats the idealogy of an "All Powerful Being." Hell, he can't even keep his angels in line.
Regardless of the fact that the Bible portrays a completely contrary veiw of satan, Dante's Satan is a very good take on the role of a fallen angel. He was thrown from heaven so hard that he created a crater in which hell now lies. He is forced to eat three bad tasting sinners for all eternity and every movement he makes only makes him suffer more. He can no longer speak out against God because he has sinners in his mouth and he can no longer move against god because he is frozenin ice that he helps maintain. Satan wanted to fight God and take his power and found himself forced to do nothing but gods will. Its terribly evil genius-y.
The back hair thing though. Really? And where do they pop out? The other side of the earth? I really did not think that Dante thought the world was round. That was Columbus right? Well, Galileo a little but no one beleived him. Galileo was later then the 1300s though. Strange, very strange.

Why Dante?

We all really know 'Why Dante,' its not a hard thing to figure out. It's the same reason 'Why the Bible.' We, as humans, want to know where we go after we die. We want to be told theirs more to this world than just what we see now and most importantly we want to know that those that get ahead through underhanded means will pay in the end. That's it, that's why Dante. Its nothing close to why Dante wrote the book, its quite obvious he just wanted to put his political opponents in hell. Who doesn't right?

'In limbo I put my parents cause they didn't give me twenty bucks the other day but, yaknow, they're still my parents. In the ninth ring I put all my teachers...'

On Thursday Dante was compared to Shakespeare. Thats inaccurate. Dante is timeless yes, I'll probably help my kinds cheat their way through an analysis of Dante someday, but it is no Shakespeare. Shakespeare is timeless and downright wonderful because he had a way with words, he knew how they fit and he could mold the English language until it was soft and smooth and brilliant. Dante is crude and crass in English.
(this is to say nothing of his Italian, I don't know Italian and this is an English not and Italian course so honestly, how good Dante's Inferno sounds in Italian does not really matter in the slightest)
Dante, however, has a way with ideas and symbology which is why he can be analyzed to such an extent as this. Dante could easily be replaced with something like "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" or any equally allegorical peice of writing. Dante's writing, however, is more timeless, more "classic" because it involves religion, the unknown and most imporantly what happens after death. This gives the story the illusion of deeper meaning, the same as the Bible, when really its just a political jab.
Honestly, how could such a story be taken seriously? With Dante's constant breaking of the the fourth wall and chatting with the reader about how horrible the experiences were. Does he beleive that people actually thought he went to hell? Is such mad beleif possible, even way back in the 1300's? I really don't think so. He used his writing and his symbology as an outlet for his political opinions on the wrongdoings of his opponents and rivals.

Canto XXI - XXIII

Wheeling along the left bank. But first
Each signaled their leader with the same grimace:
Baring their teeth, through which the tongue was pressed;

And the leader made a trumpet of his ass.
(Canto XXI lines 136-139)

I honestly do not know what to think of Cantos 21 and 22. Did Dante believe he needed to lighten the mood in hell for a bit? That's all I can figure. The Demons are stupid and goofy to begin with and then they are further humiliated as they show themselves to be cowardly, then the whole farting incident. I really do not even know what to think. Especially since Dante dwells on the fart! Whats the deal with that? The demon farts are Dante spends the beginning of the next Canto talking about how he's never heard an army march off to such a strange trumpet. REALLY WEIRD.
I looked up the names of the demons, they were in Italian so I figured they meant something:
Malacoda: "evil-tail."

Calcabrina: "he who can walk on brine."

Cagnazzo: "big dog,"

Libicocco: "winds,"

Barbariccia: "curly beard."

Draghignazzo: "big dragon."

Circiatto: "hog."

Farfarello: "evil ghost."

Rubicante: "he who grows red."

Graffiacane: "he who scratches dogs,"

And again I've got to point out how low a level we are in hell now and we're punishing more political crimes, not murder, not suicide. Simony. And honestly its not even real simony, its like pseudo-political simony, the selling of political offices. I really do not understand! I guess I can see where he is coming from though, these are the sins closest to his own person, he probably deals with them everyday. Its the same as me putting drivers who cut off bikers in the ninth level of hell, its not that they are the worst, its just that I know them and I personally hate them. Another thing I noticed about this section of hell is that the punishment seems slightly lighter than other levels. So they are being burned alive in boiling pitch, that sucks, but they seem to get relatively used to it and they only have a bunch of stupid demons to watch over them. They reportedly make signals with eachother which seems to constitute having conversations with one another. I dunno, it doesn't seem as bad as some of the other ones...
Second thought, maybe it is, burning pitch beats burning sands hands down but i dunno if it really trumps boiling blood and arrows. Boiling blood probably hurts just as much as boiling pitch and the centaurs seem to be a lot smarter than the demons. Boiling pitch definitely does not beat being turned into a tree, that's really awful.
Hmmm, it just seems that these sinners don't seem to mind the pitch so much, it's weird but it's there.

Canto XIII - XX:

The art of Mars will always make her grieve.
And if his semblance did not in part remain
Still at the Arno, she would survive-

And later, when they pitched the city again
Over the ashes left by Attila, those
Striving to refound it would have worked in vain.

And I-I made my own house be my gallows."

For some reason being turned into a tree seems a very fitting punishment for those inclined to suicide. You can't very well give them a new body because they're likely to just kill it again. Its evident that Dante thought out the punishment for this sin so that it fit the crime especially that part about judgment day whereupon the bodies of the suicides would be brought down and hung from the trees, that's an intense image. Virgil seems to act strangely out of character in this scene though, he purposefully tricks Dante into causing harm to a soul then kind of feels bad about it and tries to make up for it. That contrasts strongly with the super-powerful way Virgil has been portrayed previously.
Something that comes up every so often in Dante's work is the idea that people try to escape hell. This is a weird idea to me. Hell doesn't seem like a place you can break out of but the Centaurs are there to shoot you if you get out of the blood water and the harpies attack you if you try to run through the forest. Does Dante believe that people can run away from their sins? Or maybe the whole idea is that they can't, no matter how hard they try and the harder they try the more gruesome the punishment.

The next sin Dante visits is that of sodomy. I honestly did no catch that the first time around and Dante seems to be reasonably nonchalant about this one. I thought it was blasphemy or something the first time I read it (that one big guy said something about defying Jove)but I reread it and they are called the sodomites. I ended up googling it to see what sodomy entailed back then and its pretty much any sex outside of missionary. I can't blame Dante for not thinking this sin is a big deal when he visited but he must of thought something of it seeing as how its so deep in hell. Maybe its not so much a sin against man as a sin against god, Dante has been reasonably uncaring about the wrathful and the violent but sodomy, on the whole, is between a person and god.

I did not get that part about the purse people at all. Did. Not. Understand. I did look it up though and evidently those crests on their purses stand for various Florentine houses and the fact that they are purses means they were bankers. Evil greedy bankers? It seems like a little side note that slaps the Florentine bankers in the face and is there only to serve that thinly veiled political purpose. As a matter of fact some of the evil-bankers he wrote about in that scene weren't even dead. People were still alive and he threw them in hell. So much for a forgiving christian.

Strangely enough the part about the flying/furry/snake/man/scorpion/thing was by far the most realistic part of the book so far. Dante feels the need to tell us in detail about the feeling of flying and the way the thing looks and all the thoughts that were going through his head. I could really picture it 'swimming through the air.' Its odd that he would focus on that, I wonder what good ol' Geryon symbolizes.

Lastly, Jason. Dante, really? Gonna throw Jason in hell? It seems a little harsh is all, especially throwing him way down here. And all because of tricking women, I agree that that's no good but this is a good three levels after murder and mass genocide. It's very strange the way he prioritizes things.

Canto VI - XII

Each pushes a weight against his chest, and howls
at his opponent each time they clash:
"Why do you squander?" and "Why do you hoard?" Each wheels

To roll his weight back round again: they rush
Toward the circle's opposite point, collide
Painfully once more, and curse each other afresh;
(Canto VII lines 27-30)

In Canto VII Virgil and Dante descend into the second layer of hell that's filled with the greedy people of the world. They shout "Why do you squander" and "why do you hoard" because hoarding and squandering are the two ways to be greedy. You are either greedy in that you want money to buy a bunch of stuff with or you are greedy in that you want more money for the sake of having money. It's ironic that these two greed-sects are forced to co-exist since they exist in perfect contrast to one another, perhaps that is part of their punishment.
I think its very important to notice that many of the greedy individuals are called clergy members. This is yet another Guelph/Ghibelline quip against the church. Dante was a leader of the white Guelphs (the white ones didn't like the pope so much)and by saying that the clergymen were in the greedy part of hell he was definitely saying something. Its interesting that Dante keeps trying to recognize people in all these circles, he always says to Virgil how he'd like to look at them to see if he knows them, I find that very odd. Perhaps Dante is a perceptive gentlemen and has noticed sins in his acquaintances... I dunno.
Little note about this part, Dante doesn't name any of the greedy people as he does with all the other sinners. Virgil actually goes out of the way to say that they are "unrecognizable." I looked this up to see why this might be (Were there just no well known greedy people in ancient times?) and found that many people thought he did that to sort of lump all clergymen in that group. By not naming any specific clergymen he shows that any of the dead clergymen could have been down there knocking their weights together in a circle.

Another thing that stuck out to me:
Sometime later Virgil and Dante go to the city of Dis and Dante describes a ton of Mosques in there. I think its weird that a city full of fallen angels would have a plethora of temples dedicated to god but no doubt the Muslim/Christian history explains that. Regardless of what Mosques really stand for (Gods glory and whatnot) Christians then probably thought of them as havens for the enemy. The Crusades were not that long ago and the Moors were probably still in Spain (is that right?), so Mosques were not something Christians thought of as Godly and therefore Dante threw them in Dis. I guess it could also be inferred that he was saying that cities with Mosques are hell on earth for Christians... I think that's a pretty fun way of thinking about it...

ANOTHER thing that stuck with me:
Sometime after the greedy folks and before Dis a guy gives Virgil and Dante a ride across the mucky river Styx. During this ride a soul actually rises out of the water, grabbing the boat, and talks to Dante and what does Dante do? He's really mean to the guy! The river is full of the wrathful and the sullen (Its where I was sent by that quiz we took)which I would think are relatively forgivable sins, (who doesn't get mad or feel sad sometimes) but Dante is mean! Lemme find the passage...
"Then added, "Who are you, who have become/So brutally foul?" "You see me: I am one/Who weeps," he answered. And I to him, "In weeping/And sorrow remain, cursed soul-for I have seen...
I thought previously he had responded to the damned with relative pity, this though, this is mean. I wonder what Dante has against us sullen and wrathful sinners?

Notes on Limbo

St. Augustine's "City of God" and "City of Men"
Augustine said you either love God or love yourself, no in between.
In the last judgment all men will be separated by which love they possess, either the spiritual city of God or the Spiritual city of Man. Both of these cities are striving for peace on earth but the city of man is striving for peace for their own good while residents of the city of god strive for peace because god wills it.


The other two parts of the Divine Comedy: What are they and how do they relate to this part? What was Dante's overall vision?


Who is Virgil and why do you think Dante would choose him to guide him, Dante, through the bowels of hell?
Virgil was a great poet and considered the herald of Christianity but he is also considered very intelligent so he has both of those characteristics. Which is cool. Virgil's writing also heavily influenced the Divine Comedy, Virgil wrote about going to hell? I dunno. Dante might have felt kinship to someone that was both intellectual and religious and since Virgil has already written about hell he has experience.

The political climate of the era of Dante's allegory
The main political movements were the Gs and Gs... and nothing else i guess. Guelphs were more religious followers of the Pope while the Ghibelines were more secular followers of the Holy Roman Empire.


The church's role in life during the time period
The Church was all there was, it was a huge deal. The church did not start to falter until after Dante's death. Rampant Nepotism among the church and papacy. Pope had kids. The age where you could buy indulgences to pay for the forgiveness of your sins.

What is allegory and what is its specific purpose. Why choose allegory?
Allegory is a story with two meanings, literal and symbolic. Doesn't have to be a writing, could be any kind of art. People use allegory to communicate in a way that is not preaching to you its subtle and more accessible. Its a way of exposing people to things in ways they don't expect. An allegory is made when the WHOLE story is symbolic. Other stories can have symbols and no be allegories, an allegory is when every single thing is a symbol. Allegories usually have political meanings or intentions.

Why is Beatrice important to Dante?
Beatrice is some girl that Dante only met twice. He met her once when she was nine and he had a courtly love for her where he writes about how much he loves her but doesn't really want to do anything about it. She is his muse and savior, he does not love her lustfully he just loves her as an artistic muse, the extra push to do things.

Canto I - V

So I descended from first to second circle--
Which girdles a smaller space and greater pain,
Which spurs more lamentation. Minos the dreadful

Snarls at the gate. He examines each one's sin,
Judging and disposing as he curls his tail;
That is, when an ill-begotten soul comes down,

I picked this quote because it was one of the few that I actually understood and could visualize. I also kind of liked the part about the boatman that took people across the river styx but that got confusing halfway through and I honestly couldn't tell if they got ferried across or went and found another boat. On the whole though I am pretty unimpressed with the writing so far. I guess its a translation but its reasonably confusing most of the time. People start talking and then you find out later and the dialogue and the descriptions co-mingle and get all mixed up with one another. I've also found it lacking in imagery, maybe I'm used to having images shoved down my throat but for the most part nothing is described in any sort of startling detail. That's not really fair, he does describe things, maybe they're just not as graphic as they would have to be now. He goes on about "Black wind" for a while and I guess thats really scary or something but I just picture the tornado from the Wizard of Oz and it kind of takes it down a notch. Oh well, I'm only a fraction of they way through maybe I hear something new and it'll completely change my mind but for now, I'd have to say its no good.