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Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

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Satire from The Onion: “Hell Now a Thriving Epicenter of Gay Culture”

April 9, 2014 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“THE MALEBOLGE, NETHER REGIONS OF DARKNESS—Noting the incredible rate at which the community has grown, sources confirmed Thursday that Hell, the Endless Kingdom of Misery, is now a booming haven of gay culture.

“The Great Abyss, home of the damned, is reportedly inhabited by some 600 million condemned homosexual or transgender souls, a large proportion of its total population, and has by many accounts blossomed into an oasis of gay activism and community events.

” ‘I’ve only been here for a few months, but I’ve already fallen in love with it,’ said 49-year-old Daniel Edelson,..” […]

“The gay community has really flourished here, and I have to say, they’ve been great for the place,” said Nephirem the Malevolent, a 10,000-year-old, 70-foot-tall minotaur who has resided in hell since rising from the ashes of a smokeless flame. “At the end of the day, they’re just like anyone else. Everyone has the right to express their love for whomever they want. They don’t bother me in the slightest, and if anything, we in the Dark Lord’s Army encourage any and all public displays of affection between same-sex couples.”    —The Onion, September 19, 2013

Contributed by Olivia Holmes

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2013, Hell, Homosexuality, Humor, Inferno, LGBTQ, Malebolge, Satire

Malbolge: an Esoteric Programming Language

April 5, 2014 By Gretchen Williams '14

malbolge-programming-language“Malbolge, invented by Ben Olmstead in 1998, is an esoteric programming language designed to be as difficult to program in as possible. The first ‘Hello, world!’ program written in it was produced by a Lisp program using a local beam search of the space of all possible programs. It is modeled as a virtual machine based on ternary digits.” [. . .]

“The language is named after ‘Malebolge,’ the eighth level of hell in Dante’s Inferno, which is reserved for perpetrators of fraud. The actual spelling ‘Malbolge’ is also used for the sixth hell in the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game.”    —Wikipedia

Categories: Odds & Ends
Tagged with: 1998, Computers, Inferno, Language, Malebolge

“A Rough Guide to Hell”

December 23, 2012 By Professor Arielle Saiber

economist-a-rough-guide-to-hell“Hell is steadily losing adherents. The Infernal Tourist Board (chief field-researchers Dante Alighieri and John Milton) has therefore produced a promotional flyer. . .
Dining:
-Chez Tantalus: See your dinner hover over you, but never quite get close enough to eat!
-Bar Lethe: A popular, even crowded, establishment, despite the slow and surly service of barmaid Medusa. You’ll soon forget everything, including why you came. . .
Accommodation:
-Holes of the Simoniacs: Dive head-first into these funnels of fun, and let a devil set the soles of your feet on fire!
-The Sacks@Malebolge: Ten delightful mini-ditches in the trendy 8th Circle, specially designed for liars and flatterers. Enjoy an in-room massage from attentive demons.” [. . .]    —The Economist, December 22, 2012

Contributed by Guy Raffa

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2012, Guides, Hell, Humor, Journalism, Malebolge

“Tenth Circle Added to Rapidly Growing Hell”

September 15, 2006 By Professor Arielle Saiber

tenth-circle-added-to-rapidly-growing-hell“CITY OF DIS, NETHER HELL. After nearly four years of construction at an estimated cost of 750 million souls, Corpadverticus, the new 10th circle of Hell, finally opened its doors Monday. The Blockbuster Video-sponsored circle, located in Nether Hell between the former eighth and ninth levels of Malebolge and Cocytus, is expected to greatly alleviate the overcrowding problems that have plagued the infernal underworld in recent years.”    —The Onion, September 23, 1998

Contributed by Ted Reinert (Bowdoin, ’05)

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 1998, Circles of Hell, Hell, Humor, Inferno, Journalism, Malebolge, Tenth Circle

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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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