Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
“Then I waited. For a total of two minutes, I stood at the end of the counter and maintained eye contact with the jug of ‘Pumpkin Spice Flavored Sauce’ that happened to be sitting behind the ledge. ‘Tell me your secrets, magical chalice of spicy pumpkin secretions. What exactly are you?’ I asked the jug with my eyes, like Dante seeking help from Virgil.” –Kelli Bender, “My First Pumpkin Spice Latte: A Journey,” People Magazine
Contributed by Victoria Williams (University of Delaware, ’19)
Walls in the Geary Boulevard location of Royal Ground Coffee (a San Francisco Bay Area coffee shop chain) feature a few citations of Dante’s poem, as well as a portrait of the poet.
Contributed by Josh Landy
“XXXV: Cell-Phone Users
The users of cell-phones in quiet places
Have merited scorn from all classes and races.
They talk to their pals with cocky assurance
While you bury your head in your book with endurance.
The gestures they make are of course unavailing
It looks like unseen taxis that they are hailing.
Their punishment, as each millennium passes,
Is to be drowned out forever by the braying of asses.”
“XXXVI: ‘Reply-to-All’-ers
We came to the furthest reach of hell-
A place that email users know well.
The woman or man whose unmitigated gall
Causes him or her to hit “Reply all”.
I don’t mean to work myself into a snith
But they ought to know better-it clogs server bandwidth.
For these folks a punishment fit for their crimes-
They’re surrounded and hounded by fast-talking mimes.”
“XXXVII: Credit Card Coffee Buyers
The lousy cup is called a “tall”–
the cost of it is rather small.
Those who chose to charge the price
In this ring are treated not-so-nice.
If plastic was the tender you used to pay
While the time of those in line wasted away
You will for eternity be burnt like toast
With free trade coffee, decaf dark roast.” –Con Chapman
Available to read on Fictionaut.com (posted July, 2010).
Contributed by Patrick Molloy
