Modern day Dante's inferno

Discussion in 'The Bookshelf' started by WestCoastDragon, Jul 8, 2012.

  1. :smoke: im in a good mood-but hear me out
    Personally i love old literature, despite it's difficulty and ambiguity, it provides one with such imagery. Seriously some classics like the Aeanid or Gilgamesh would make amazing movies if hollywood invested tons of $ into it. Imagine watching Dante's Inferno on an Imax screen, tossed around with all the technology we do today, i'd kill to see that (not really) :)
    I love the Inferno, why? Because unlike Purgatorio or Paridiso, it provided people with a literal image of hell, the fire and brimstone we all fear (if your religious)
    For those of you who never read the inferno, it's written by Dante aligheri, an italian poet living around the 1200's-1300's. The book is his journey through hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, all divded into circles leading to the center of the earth.
    He encounters hordes of people, all condemned to a life of eternal suffering which depended on the sins they commited in life- ie: murder, gluttony, lust etc. the worst offenders are chewed upon by satan- in this case Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius.
    Throughout hell he encounters tons of people, either from literature or history, men like Alexander the Great, Achilles, Plato- all in hell
    Which leads to me ask- if you somehow had to rewrite the inferno, but writing relevant to our modern context, who would you put in hell, who would be chewed upon by satan, what sins/punishments would you create?
    Ill start- there would be a circle for celebrities who never valued the power they had, excessive partying, promiting Yolo(eyes roll) or always getting arrested- the punishment would have the sinner strapped to an upright platform, eternally condemed to suffer the burns from millions of cameras in front of them.
    lol im pretty high, but it's interesting none the less- Rihanna would be my first choice lol
    im interested to see what you guys think of. :wave:
     
  2. I lost you on Rihanna reference
     
  3. politicians. the religious extreme. basically anyone who imposes their own moral conduct on the masses and enforces it with imprisonment, death, or any cause of suffering.

    the problem with this is everyone does it. we all do it, even in small form. either we condone it (which is just as bad as doing it in my opinion), sitting back and not doing anything about it (which is worse than condoning it, you know its wrong but do nothing), or actually participate in doing it. even the premise of the inferno is the punishment for not abiding by the moral code imposed by someone. rendering my version of the book hypocritical and wrong.

    :smoke: I think im too high for this topic, lol.
     
  4. I'd rewrite as if we were already in hell.
     

Share This Page