Books I've read so far this year...
Jun. 22nd, 2007 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nekosensei1. The human Christ: the search for the historical Jesus by Charlotte Allen. [I forget this one. Ancient history interests me, but I thought this one was a little on the dry side.]
2. Lisey's Story by Stephen King
3. Orientalism by Edward Said
4. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
5. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
6. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
7. Language death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect by Nancy C. Dorian
8. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
9. The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. Tranlated by Robert Pinsky. -- This was a book that I should have read for a class years ago, but I never made it all the way through. I decided to pick it up last Sunday because I had just finished Atlas Shrugged, the library was closed, and I was bored. I got about half-way through it over the weekend and then finished it this afternoon. I must say that it was definitely not an easy read. There were many references to Greek and Latin poets, historians, and philosopers as well as names of Dante's contemporaries. I often had to refer to the notes at the back of the book to make sense of it and then re-read the Canto in question.
So...if I get this right, Dante considered works by Greek and Latin writers to be tragedies because they were written using classical rhetoric, but he considered The Divine Comedy a comedy because he used the same style of the gospels. Huh? Okay. Here's a simpler explanation. If you ask me, putting people that you don't like-- such as the pope who was responsible for your exile from the city you grew up in-- in hell is both pretty funny and cathartic at the same time. He must have had a serious axe to grind because he put people who betray kin, country, guests, and benefactors in the ninth circle of hell.
Oh...he put homosexuals in a lower circle of hell than murderers. Ow...harsh!
Another interesting note is that many consider Dante to be the forerunner of many monster stories written by Romantics in the nineteenth century, who in turned influenced the modern day monster movie. It does make sense, especially in the case of the circle of hell containing thieves. You had people people being attacked by serpents, fusing with them (an "appropriate" punishment since, in life, they had a hard time discerning what was there's and what belonged to someone else), and turning into monsters. Stories of being bitten by a werewolf and then turning into one yourself on a full moon aren't that far off.
While I was reading the book, I sometimes wondered if Dante was trying to raise his work up to the level of myth by juxtaposing references in classical literature with references to his contemporaries in thirteenth and fourteenth century Italy. I'm not sure if that last thought made any sense there, but whatever. I'm tired and I should probably go to bed...
At any rate, I can sort of understand why academics have been fascinated by this book for centuries. I'll probably pick up Purgatorio and Paradiso one of these days, but not now because his style is really hard to read and I need a break. It's definitely time to read something much simpler. Whatever. The next book I plan to read is Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. It should be interesting.
2. Lisey's Story by Stephen King
3. Orientalism by Edward Said
4. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
5. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
6. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
7. Language death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect by Nancy C. Dorian
8. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
9. The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. Tranlated by Robert Pinsky. -- This was a book that I should have read for a class years ago, but I never made it all the way through. I decided to pick it up last Sunday because I had just finished Atlas Shrugged, the library was closed, and I was bored. I got about half-way through it over the weekend and then finished it this afternoon. I must say that it was definitely not an easy read. There were many references to Greek and Latin poets, historians, and philosopers as well as names of Dante's contemporaries. I often had to refer to the notes at the back of the book to make sense of it and then re-read the Canto in question.
So...if I get this right, Dante considered works by Greek and Latin writers to be tragedies because they were written using classical rhetoric, but he considered The Divine Comedy a comedy because he used the same style of the gospels. Huh? Okay. Here's a simpler explanation. If you ask me, putting people that you don't like-- such as the pope who was responsible for your exile from the city you grew up in-- in hell is both pretty funny and cathartic at the same time. He must have had a serious axe to grind because he put people who betray kin, country, guests, and benefactors in the ninth circle of hell.
Oh...he put homosexuals in a lower circle of hell than murderers. Ow...harsh!
Another interesting note is that many consider Dante to be the forerunner of many monster stories written by Romantics in the nineteenth century, who in turned influenced the modern day monster movie. It does make sense, especially in the case of the circle of hell containing thieves. You had people people being attacked by serpents, fusing with them (an "appropriate" punishment since, in life, they had a hard time discerning what was there's and what belonged to someone else), and turning into monsters. Stories of being bitten by a werewolf and then turning into one yourself on a full moon aren't that far off.
While I was reading the book, I sometimes wondered if Dante was trying to raise his work up to the level of myth by juxtaposing references in classical literature with references to his contemporaries in thirteenth and fourteenth century Italy. I'm not sure if that last thought made any sense there, but whatever. I'm tired and I should probably go to bed...
At any rate, I can sort of understand why academics have been fascinated by this book for centuries. I'll probably pick up Purgatorio and Paradiso one of these days, but not now because his style is really hard to read and I need a break. It's definitely time to read something much simpler. Whatever. The next book I plan to read is Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. It should be interesting.
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Date: 2007-06-23 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-23 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-23 10:19 pm (UTC)One of the reasons Dante used Virgil was to connect himself to the Roman tradition. After all, both Dante and Virgil were Italian.