Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Wallace Zane, Taxi Inferno (2014)

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“Taxi InfernoA death and violence, deceit and fraud, cab-driving, police-chasing translation of Dante’s Inferno.

“Set in the hellish world of cab-driving in Los Angeles in the year 2000, Taxi Inferno is an idiomatic interpretation/translation and transposition of Inferno. In place of Dante walking through hell with Virgil as the guide, the author is driving a cab in LA with Charles Bukowski. The narrative is shot through with the feel of dim and smoky death and the thrall of disgust that impels one on, as is Dante’s.

“Taxi Inferno is written as a mirror image of Inferno. Virgil becomes less competent the deeper into hell they go; Bukowski becomes more so, and even heroic in his guidance. Each location in Los Angeles compares with one of the circles of hell, corresponding to Dante’s description of the terrain and its punishments.”    —Amazon.com

Contributed by Wallace Zane

Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem (2009)

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MayhemTyrese Gibson’s 2009 comic follows a vigilante protagonist known as Mayhem, whose real name is Dante.

“Los Angeles, the City of Fallen Angels, is a city swept up by a brutal crime wave led by a kingpin known only as Big X. The body count builds as only one man can stop the flow of drugs and violence, only one man can stop Big X. He is the embodiment of vengeance and raw justice, the faceless arm of those who cannot defend themselves. He is known as Mayhem, and along with his sexy but deadly partner Malice, their goal is to dismantle the kingpin’s organization, unravel the dark secret that mysteriously links them to Big X, and save the city they grew up in.”    —Amazon

“Heaven, Hell, and Dying Well: Images of Death in the Middle Ages” at the Getty Museum (May-August, 2012)

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getty-museum-images-of-death-in-the-middle-ages“Denise Poncher before a Vision of Death”
Master of the Chronique scandaleuse
French, about 1500
Tempera colors, ink, and gold on parchment
5 1/4 x 3 7/16 in.
MS. 109, FOL. 156
“Heaven, Hell, and Dying Well: Images of Death in the Middle Ages” at the Getty Museum

See also: film screenings

Leslye Headland, “Bachelorette” (2010)

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leslye-headland-bachlorette-2010“…Bachelorette was the second in Ms. Headland’s series based on Dante’s seven deadly sins. The company has been presenting the plays in the order she has written them since she started in 2007 with Cinephilia, her lust play.
Bachelorette is about gluttony, which in Ms. Headland’s contemporary take is expressed through self-destructive addictions to alcohol, drugs, shopping, bad boyfriends and binge bulimia. With greed (Assistance), sloth (Surfer Girl), and wrath (Reverb) also under her belt, she is now completing Accidental Blonde, about envy.” [. . .]    –Celia McGee, The New York Times, July 13, 2010

See Also: IAMA Theater Company, Los Angeles

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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