Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno Part A

I read The Inferno portion of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy - one of my favorite stories.  I've always found the concept of this epic fascinating, so I was eager to be able to read parts of it for this course. 

Dante.  Courtesy of wikipedia

In his epic poem, Dante details the nine circles of hell.  He writes about the setting of each circle, and the inhabitants, in great detail.  My portfolio is based on immorality, so what better story to read and write about than this one?

I haven't done many continuous stories like this one, so it's a little strange to do the reading notes over each particular section, but I'll try for the sake of consistency. 

The Gate of Hell and Charon

This is the second portion of Part A's reading, and it stuck out to me the most.  The words presented above the entrance to the gates of hell reminded me all too much of the notorious words that were present on the entrances to Nazi concentration camps: Arbeit Macht Frei which translates to "Work will make you free."  Obviously this was not the case. 

The entirety of this reading resonated with me quite a bit, and I couldn't bring my mind away from concentration camps.  In my opinion that is based off of my somewhat limited knowledge of history, those camps were the closest we humans have come to mimicking hell on Earth.  I feel as if the things Dante describes in his writing are chillingly similar to the camps.  Once you entered, you were not expected to ever leave. 

Auschwitz: A true hell on earth.  Courtesy of wikipedia

I would hate to write a story about concentration camps, because I would hate to disrespect the people that endured so much there, but I can't find inspiration in any other idea or reading. If I chose to do this, I would try to draw parallels to the hell described in Dante's story to the experiences of Jews (and others) in the camps. 

But I may end up just doing a story planning post, in which I think about all of these elements, and determine if this is something I should pursue.  Perhaps Limbo could be Earth (at the time of WW2?) - people were indifferent to the suffering of many.  Although I would normally argue that people indifferent of religion or what have you don't deserve hell necessarily, I think there are cases when indifference is just as bad as the "sin" - that especially applies to the indifference of much of the world in regards to concentration camps. 

Until then...

On a somewhat lighter note, there was a quote in Paolo and Francesca that I enjoyed, and find to be true:  "There is no greater pain than to remember happy times in misery..."