#which incidentally in terms of epics I’ve taught | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hello-delicious-tea · 2 years ago

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This but also: what’s more relatable than “fuck fuck fuck what am I doing with my life, everything I’ve ever cared about seems lost to me or meaningless, and what I’ve chosen to base my life around (God, for Dante) seems lost to me?” combined with “I’m gonna (literally) roast all my enemies, anyone who’s ever wronged me, and that one dude I just don’t like, in writing, for everyone to see”?

The second part is basically Reddit’s AITA where Dante is clearly just making a post to show that someone else (many, many people honestly) is an asshole.

And then he gets to journey back to himself and his convictions and the person he wants to be, and that’s…pretty fucking relatable and aspirational.

And also he’s super gay for Virgil and it’s very funny.

just seen someone criticize the divine comedy by saying that it's not relatable which is of course incommensurably stupid because relatability should never be the only criterion through which one can judge the validity and quality of a piece of work &c but also. just because you tedious unimaginative losers have never been on a journey to hell and purgatory with your long dead favorite writer doesn't mean others haven't. happened to me

#I mean the schisms and politicking is admittedly a bit abstruse to our modern perspectives #and the medieval Catholic worldview is admittedly way more foreign to most Millenials and whatever the next generation is calling itself #than fucking Gilgamesh #which incidentally in terms of epics I’ve taught #Gilgamesh was the most relatable #then the Odyssey #then Beowulf (kids really struggled with that one)#then the Inferno (kids agreed with the person OP is railing against that it’s not relatable)#(though I think they just meant too fucking complicated)#(the emotional content is very straightforward but hoo boy those medieval Catholics)#makes me want to teach Paradise Lost and see if it’s even more incomprehensible #because so far the further back in history it is #the more the kids could get into it #and the closer to our present day #the more incomprehensible they found the worldview

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