Dante VI

 Jimmy Loong

11/8/21 to 31/8/21

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatory_(Dante)

 

Part Six (Third segment of Dante’s Purgatory Adaptation)

 

Introduction and Notes to the last passages of Tale II (Dante’s Purgatory Adaption).

Again, I will stress the challenges of re-writing this tale. As in the words of BBC article; ‘Sandra Newman, the author of How Not to Write a Novel, has said that “The Divine Comedy is a typical science fiction trilogy. Book one, a classic. Book two, less exciting version of book one. Book three, totally bonkers, unwanted insights into author’s sexuality, Mary Sue’s mask slipping in every scene.” Who Is Mary Sue? No idea. ( https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180604-dante-and-the-divine-comedy-he-took-us-on-a-tour-of-hell)

When I took on this challenge (sounding like Bob Marley’s record but played on a cracked disc, I am (, I read Dante’s Inferno, and was intrigued by the tale. Maybe the concept of Hell was the driving factor then or was I wanted to see how my sins will be processed then. And I delved into it with my journey hence Dante was not into the original; Hello, I am here for a walk and decided to add in my flavor, with the SCI-FI scenes. When I reached an obstacle or a dead end at the maze of Canto’s, I reached for my SCI-FI chainsaw and cut myself a new path. Pardon me, too many slash-slashing movies the last weekend…

A revelation hit me then when I was doing Dante V; shall I peek into the future… aka what did Dante write in Paradise; the final part. I did a swift HERMES coming through, and almost fell to the ground as if ARTEMIS shot me with a CUPID arrow in the rear.

Darned, as in the words quoted here earlier; Book three, totally bonkers, unwanted insights into author’s sexuality, I tried to picture the ‘sexuality’ in there or rather will make mine there --- It makes the reading more intense --- I may have it, I think, and I would as like the famous quote, I came, I saw, and I conquer. I think it will be the full-blown climax. It helps to build up the atmosphere in the vision and hope the actual event will be as seen in the vision…. (Grinning… I did not plan that but I came.) Kind of throws me back on the idea of Dante towards Beatrice, he may be disappointed if he does with her like; ‘Dante darling, shall we start at page One of the Kama Sutra? I bet you have not read that yet.’.

And onto Dante VI.

 

21/08/21

I stopped for a week without writing with my mind on other matters (at my age, sex was the least of it) but I am back. I took on Canto XIX; which was tough (every new Canto was tougher) and did some soul searching of my own. What I am about to say, as Dante did his version, you --- or rather myself write the tale without putting your views to the plot here. In Canto XIX, I pushed onto the concept of free will and freedom which is explained or rather brought up, and I will let it stay there for a new Canto to come.

 

31/08/21

Finally ended Canto XXII which was another challenge. It took me some days with the different scenarios to work on. The subject matter was Glutton. How do you construct glutton into words? With huge chunks of greed, I guess. The original poems Dante wrote were about the consummation of greed in us but I am factoring in my ver4sion with the backdrop of sci-fi, so I had to adapt the tale. That was the difficult task and pulling my hair out to re-write the passage. I hope I got it… and to thank Asimov who gave me ideas, and some imaginative selection of ‘what AI will be in the coming era’. Incidentally, l discovered my old Sigmund Freud notes, and the whole plot came back to my mind.

I completed CANTO XXII and end Dante 6 for now.

I will embark on Dante 7 soon.