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Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

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Undertale Video Game (Toby Fox, 2015)

November 10, 2021 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

undertale-game-screenshot

The 2015 video game Undertale, created by developer Toby Fox, features implicit references/similarities to Dante’s Inferno. These citings are frequently discussed and debated in online forums by the game’s fanbase.

“In Undertale, your character falls down a hole in a mountain that takes him to a bizarre world full of many unique characters. The characters you encounter are each plagued by their own different vices and you as the player get to choose how to deal with them. If you treat the characters with respect and befriend them peacefully, you lead them all out to the surface at the end, but if you choose violence, you remain in the underworld forever. The character’s similarities with the souls that Dante encounters and the concept of contrapasso are just some examples of how Undertale relates to the Comedy.”    –Contributor Tucker Onishi

To see some fan conversations about the link between Undertale and the Inferno, click here.

Contributed by Tucker Onishi (University of Arkansas, ’22)

Categories: Consumer Goods, Digital Media
Tagged with: 2015, Contrapasso, Digital Games, Inferno, United States, Video Games

Homer Simpson’s Donut Hell

May 8, 2018 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

Hell-Ironic-Punishments-Division-Door-SimpsonsThe Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror IV” (S05E05): after losing his soul to the devil in a bargain over a donut, Homer is subjected to punishments in Hell’s “Ironic Punishments Division,” where the demon in charge of force-feeding him donuts is astonished at his capacity.

See a clip from the episode on YouTube.

See also the action figure released by MacFarlane Toys (pictured below).

Donut-Hell-Ironic-Punishment-Simpsons

Categories: Odds & Ends
Tagged with: 1993, Animation, Contrapasso, Hell, Humor, Punishment, Television, The Devil

Westworld S01E05: “Contrapasso” (2016)

November 4, 2016 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

Episode 5 of the first season of the HBO original series Westworld is called “Contrapasso.”

westworld-contrapasso-ed-harris

To read about key moments from the episode, see this October 30, 2016, blogpost on The Hollywood Reporter (beware of spoilers!).

Categories: Performing Arts
Tagged with: 2016, Contrapasso, Fantasy, Punishment, Science Fiction, Television

“Three Lost Cantos From Dante’s Inferno”

April 30, 2011 By Professor Arielle Saiber

three-lost-cantos-from-dantes-inferno “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

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2010, Blogs, Coffee, Contrapasso, Humor, Inferno, Poetry, Punishment, Technology

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How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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