Description
Dante the poet is having great fun with light. He's playing with its various meanings: illumination, revelation, sunrise, sunset, concealment, power--all this as we approach the middle of PURGATORIO and even find ourselves in the middle of COMEDY as a whole.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore these last moments on Purgatory's terrace of the wrathful before we find ourselves again among the stars.
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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:41] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 40 - 72. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[04:16] A dizzying interplay about light: physical/metaphysical, imaginary/revelatory, sunrise/sunset, illuminating/concealing.
[06:46] Desire and the necessary (physical) fulfillment: a lead-in to what's ahead on the journey.
[08:37] Virgil's reply, a pastiche of Biblical and classical sources.
[12:37] The beatitude that ends this terrace, plus a non-Biblical addition to it that then complicates our notion of anger.
[16:51] Stars and the center of COMEDY.
[17:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 40 - 72.
Virgil seemed to have come to a resting place in his monumental discourse on love: "Here's all I know . . . and all I don't know."
But the pilgrim is less than satisfied. He wants Virgil to continue on, to show his work for these complex syllogisms.
And Dante the poet is not done with Virgil...
Published 11/24/24
We've come to the middle of PURGATORIO . . . and indeed the middle of COMEDY as a whole. Let's take a breather and review where we've been in Purgatory since our very slow approach sometimes (or often?) causes us to privilege the trees over the forest.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I walk you...
Published 11/20/24