Inferno, Canto 21 with Dr. Andrew Moran

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@RaymondMaxwell 3 жыл бұрын

I love the way Dr. Moran relates Canto 21 to Canto 20 in Inferno and then projects beyond, even to the third book, Paradiso. As I relate each Canto and these videos to another reading I am doing, August Wilson's American Century Cycle, I am seeing and learning that one informs the other and it goes both ways. Splendid lecture! Can't wait to see how Tony LA Books and Bryan Denton treat Canto 21.

@penelopegough6050 3 жыл бұрын

That was a great Canto and lightened the mood of the journey. Thank you for your interpretation Dr Moran.

@jeremywjohnston 3 жыл бұрын

This was brilliant. Outstanding commentary.

@pjhammond494168 3 жыл бұрын

Dr Andrew, you are also a comedian yourself. Well done!

@billhagen5050 3 жыл бұрын

The only thing missing in Moran’s energetic account is the reference to Dante’s life. Virgil tells him to hide because the devils will seek to claim him. And indeed they smirk and menace him even after Virgil has negotiated their passage. The false accusation that caused Dante to exile himself from Florence was, in fact, political graft.

@bakebr 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent point! Hadn't thought about that!

@curiousing 3 жыл бұрын

Phenomenal video. Great delivery. Very engaging. Thank you, Dr. Moran!

@brendantannam499 3 жыл бұрын

Wow! I never would have thought to see the canto in that way.

@patcamerino5456 3 жыл бұрын

[OK, this is one of the best lectures thus far in the series as an overall summary of Dante's Comedy! However, I'm still including my usual "review" of the canto.] Canto 21 & 22: Although Dante viewed simony, a form of graft undertaken by clergy, to be sinful, he held swindling undertaken by corrupt politicians to be a worse sin, punishable in a bolgia closer to Lucifer than the one occupied by simoniacs. These sinners against the trust held by the citizens who had elected them, had dirtied their hands with graft. Their bodies were now, in this contrapasso, covered in pitch, a form of tar. They were forced to exist beneath the bubbling liquid, like pieces of meat pushed down by cooks who were gargoyles, devils with wings and evil tails. These Malebranche, using billhook-knifes or grappling hooks, tore apart the flesh of sinners, who tried to break out of the pitch, like dolphins leaping from the ocean. Although Dante, the pilgrim, fearfully hid from these “Evil Claw” demons, while Virgil negotiated passage through their realm, Dante, the author, viewed them more as modern “Keystone Cops,” who could be outwitted by their victims, causing the custodians to fight among themselves and fall into the pitch. Their leader, Malacoda, assigned ten fellow demons, with outlandish nicknames, to lead Dante and Virgil towards another bridge to the next bolgia, since, he said, the nearest one had been demolished 1,266 years ago, when Christ had “harrowed Hell.” However, Malacoda had lied; all of these bridges had been destroyed and the travelers had to escape in a different manner, but not before Dante, the author, could make references to trumpet-like fart jokes and raspberry calls: la lingua stretta coi denti.

@Gustolfo 3 жыл бұрын

A magnificent lecture.

@nodonkey4125 3 жыл бұрын

This reminds me of Edward Mendelson's paper "Encyclopedic Narrative, from Dante to Pynchon" in which the author shows how a handful of major works use and display the whole of a social, linguistic, and cultural range of a nation/society. I can see now how in Dante that is not only true in his use of 'real life' to illustrate and populate heaven, hell, and purgatory, but also in his attempt to unite those seemingly separate layers of the world into a whole - and divine - order. Great mini-lecture, this helping me make good connections to Dante!