tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10905712.post4682300472479540443..comments2023-03-31T06:15:48.139-07:00Comments on Suitable For Mixed Company: Daunted by Dante (or not)Kathryn Judsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06459741827801474808noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10905712.post-89266963623645919752008-02-23T18:45:00.000-08:002008-02-23T18:45:00.000-08:00Good review - entertaining to read. I'd forgotten...Good review - entertaining to read. <BR/><BR/>I'd forgotten that excerpt from Niven's and Pournelle's <EM>Inferno</EM>. I recall the parts about bad drivers...<BR/><BR/>It's one of the unfortunate and often remarked traits of Dante that he is at his best when writing the Inferno... but in general it might be easier to write good horror or satire than more uplifting stories (like Paradise). Or maybe it says something about us that we find the descriptions of Hell, and the more ambivalent Virgil more interesting than Heaven and the supposedly holy Beatrice. OR - maybe the fact that Dante's Paradise and Beatrice are a bit boring means the afterlife will not be like that - that Dante makes God and Heaven too vanilla, too clean, too neat, too (yawn).Steve Emeryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08628329561652344403noreply@blogger.com