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July 19, 2021 By

“The Wines of Dante’s Inferno”

“We, the Ancient Wine Guys (Dr. Dana DePietro, Dr. Jeff Pearson, Ti Ngo, and Ryan Wihera), are thrilled to be collaborating once again with renowned winemaker and chef Pietro Buttitta of Prima Materia Winery to present the latest in our ongoing series of wine lectures and S.H.A.R.E. fundraisers: The Wines of Dante’s Inferno. In a unique retelling of this classic and foundational text, we follow Dante Alighieri and his guide, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil), as they journey through the Underworld and meet a litany of unfortunate souls condemned there to atone for their sins. The evening will feature nine unique and delicious wines (one for each level of hell!) inspired by Dante’s text and world, along with three full courses of food pairings created and professionally prepared by Pietro. We hope you can join us for this special summer evening of literary, oenological, and culinary exploration!”   —S.H.A.R.E. Ticketing Page

The sold-out event will be held on July 30, 2021, at the Prima Materia Winery (Oakland, CA). All proceeds benefit the Society for Humanitarian Archaeological Research and Exploration (S.H.A.R.E.), a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that uses archaeology as a tool to promote peace and dialogue in Israel/Palestine.

Contributed by Rachel Duke (Florida State University)

Categories: Dining & Leisure
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June 16, 2021 By

Guide to Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell

“Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy is considered an epic masterpiece and a foundational work of the Western canon. We offer this short guide to the nine circles of Hell, as described in Dante’s Inferno.

“First Circle: Limbo
The first circle is home to the unbaptized and virtuous pagans. It’s not Heaven, but as far as Hell goes, it isn’t too bad: It’s the retirement community of the afterlife. Hippocrates and Aristotle will be your neighbors, so any attempt at small talk will probably turn into Big Talk in a hurry. You’ll have television, but all of the channels will be set to CSPAN.” [. . .]    –Matt Staggs, Penguin Random House

Categories: Written Word
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June 16, 2021 By

Trump and his Enablers belong in Dante’s 9th Circle of Hell

each-betrayal-begins-with-trust-martin-luther“If Dante’s deepest circle of Hell did exist, it would be reserved for Trump and his enablers. It would be reserved for those who betrayed our country and this beautiful blue world for profit. It would be reserved for those who allowed a pandemic to take tens of thousands of lives and affect millions. It would be reserved for those who are silent about the bounties placed on our active duty troops’ heads, who disparage our military, intelligence agencies, our scientists, and health care professionals. It would be reserved for those who place all that we love in danger.

“It would be reserved for those who supposedly care for us, but expect silence about their support of Trump or of those who support him.

“The list of betrayals in my life is long and old.” […]    –Onomastic, Daily Kos, September 15, 2020

Categories: Written Word
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June 16, 2021 By

Dante Alighieri’s COVID-19

person-wearing-mask“‘Lasciate ogni Speranza, voi ch’entrate.’ Abandon all hope, ye who enter.

“The words inscribed on the gates of hell, according to Dante Alighieri in the Divina Commedia, could be the best way to describe the tumultuous year we have experienced so far…

“The COVID-19 world crisis has shed light into how broken some systems are, how a social net would have helped the ‘most developed country in the world’ be the hero it is in the Hollywood movies.

“Instead, residents of the United States find themselves trapped in a hell only known to them and a select group of countries, like Brazil and Mexico. We currently have no Virgil that will guide us through the complex planes of hell. At this rate, Dante would have never gotten out of the Inferno to ever meet the concentric circles of the Paradiso.” […]    –Jorge Luis Galvez Vallejo, Iowa State Daily, July 30, 2020

Categories: Written Word
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June 16, 2021 By

William Barr’s Circle of Hell

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[. . .] “There are circles of hell for men such as Trump, and also for their enablers. For people who ought to know better but who go along with the inane, violent, crooked impulses of The Boss for reasons of political expediency. Barr is one such man.

“Dante reserved an entire section of hell for opportunists. Such people would, he wrote, be condemned to chase banners, and in turn to be chased by hornets and wasps, for all eternity.

“And this blind life of theirs is so debased,
They envious are of every other fate.
No fame of them the world permits to be;
Misericord and Justice both disdain them.”    –Sasha Abramsky, The Abramsky Report, April 27, 2019

Categories: Written Word
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June 16, 2021 By

France Štiglic’s The Ninth Circle (1960)

“After the qualification of the digitally restored Štiglic’s film The Valley of Peace (1956) for the 2016 Cannes Classics competition, the celebration of the 60th anniversary of its making, and its Cannes premiere, the same director’s film The Ninth Circle (1960) was the third work of his that was screened in Cannes (the first one had been the 1949 film On Our Own Land).” [. . .]    —The Film New Europe Association, July 28, 2020

Categories: Performing Arts
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June 16, 2021 By

IKEA: The 10th circle of hell

Ikea

“It’s fitting that IKEA stores are organised in a series of winding circles with no easy escape. It’s not unlike the circles of hell that the protagonist of Dante’s Inferno must wander before heading on to Purgatory and then Heaven.

“But unlike the soul in Dante’s epic poem, you never get to Heaven. What awaits you once you’ve managed to locate and then purchase your Tuffing and Malfors is yet another circle of hell. This one is in your own home and the instrument of torture is an Allen key.” [. . .]

–Kasey Edwards, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 15, 2019

Categories: Consumer Goods
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June 16, 2021 By

The 10th Circle of Hell is Southwest Airlines

 

airplane

In her blog, Geraldine DeRuiter takes issue with her experience with Southwest Airlines’ seating policy, writing, “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO NOT HAVE ASSIGNED SEATING. Everyone has an “it’s me or them” mentality that extends to the entire flight.  I want to sit here. . .”

“There is a special circle of hell for all of these people” [. . .]    –Geraldine DeRuiter, The Everywhereist, March 8, 2017.

Categories: Dining & Leisure, Written Word
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June 11, 2021 By

COVID-19: Indians Going Through Nine Circles of Hell

“Akin to how characters in Dante’s poem paid for their sins in hell, Indians are paying with their lives during a pandemic for electing a government that is utterly incompetent and bigoted. [. . .]

“Dante and his imaginary guide Virgil were travelling through nine circles of hell on their way to heaven. Hell was used as a metaphor for human suffering for sins committed on earth. Although the punishment was severe, Dante’s poem portrayed them as fair and proportionate to the sins committed. The sufferings in India are not imaginary, but real, taking place while people are still alive, and most importantly, whatever their sins are, the fairness and proportionately of the punishments are definitely questionable. Yet the reference is fair and this column is designed to explain why.

“India is now in the proverbial ‘Ante-Inferno’ with a clear inscription written all over her, ‘Abandon all hope, you who enter here.’ India is now the case study of ‘what not to do’ in a pandemic, thanks to the conceit, egotism, and self-approbation of the Modi government.” [. . .]    –Debasish Chakraborty, The Wire, May 20, 2021

Categories: Places, Written Word
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June 3, 2021 By

Nirvana Sued For Use of “Upper Hell” Map

“Move over smiley face. Welcome to the Seventh Circle of Hell.

“Nineties grunge-rock band Nirvana, already embroiled in a long-running legal battle against fashion company Marc Jacobs over its ‘happy face’ t-shirt designs, now finds itself on the less happy end of a new copyright infringement lawsuit worthy of Dante’s trip through the underworld.

“The complaint, filed in federal court in Los Angeles [in April 2021], claims that Nirvana infringed an illustration first published in a 1949 English language translation of Dante’s Inferno. The drawing depicts Dante’s circles of Upper Hell and, like Nirvana’s smiley face logo, has been featured on the band’s merchandise for decades. [. . .]”   –Aaron Moss, “Foreign Works, US Rights: The 7th Circle of Copyright Hell?” on Copyright Lately (April 30, 2021)

The disputed image was featured on the B-side of Nirvana’s debut album Bleach (Sub Pop Records, 1989).

Contributed by Jared Brust (Florida State University ’21)

Categories: Consumer Goods, Music, Visual Art & Architecture
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