Does anyone else here agree with me that The Divine Comedy

>>8296462
No.

Is not overrated. Stop this shit.
Works from the past are regarded as great not because they are in and of itself beautiful or masterfully written, but rather that they helped literature progress and inspired other great authors.
Don Quixote is now not as impressive as it was the moment it appeared but is still good literature
Divine Comedy was huge at its time but nowadays is just beautiful

>>8296473
>Divine Comedy was huge at its time

Of course.

>but nowadays is just beautiful

Maybe not so much.

>>8296473
To really understand and appreciate Don Quixote I think you need to have an understanding of the uniqueness of Spanish culture and society in that moment. And know and have read (at least about) the works Cervantes references and makes fun of. It becomes really funny then. It's funny from the prologue. The edition I own (in Spanish, I am fluent) was edited by the Real Academia Española, which is the body that regulates the language. It has updated orthography and footnotes, and without these footnotes I would regard it as just a witty book. The only lustre that Don Quijote has lost through the centuries is the novelty of satire.

>>8296473
Stop this historical relativist tripe, a good piece of literature stands to itself throughout the ages. If history made the mark of things then ten thousand year old dinosaur shit must be far more profound than the shit of today's colossal squid.

>>8296529
Good post.

>>8296462
but did you read it in the original language?

>>8296473
>Works from the past are regarded as great not because they are in and of itself beautiful or masterfully written, but rather that they helped literature progress and inspired other great authors.
This is pure bullshit. Great art is great all the time.

>>8296683
You'd say Homer is genre fiction YA shot if it was published in 2007 and written by some random american fucking wiatt mail

>>8296462
Dante is the best poet to have ever lived. The Paradiso is the best piece of literature ever written. You have to read it in italian to fully appreciate it, and even then you should dedicate an entire life of study just to grasp a part of its greatness

>>8296471
Nope.

>>8296694
Sure

>>8296473
I guess that goes for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea too
I'm reading it, and it's alright, but not nearly as good as i'd have expected

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No, Dante's verse is some of the greatest ever crafted in any language. As a writer, he's only equaled by Homer and Shakespeare.

>>8296694
>You'd say Homer is genre fiction YA shot if it was published in 2007 and written by some random american fucking wiatt mail
I hope this is bait. Even in English *pic related), Homer is incredible, in Greek he is practically a spiritual experience.

>>8296799
I'd say he is just a moron. Homer, both of them, are so good because they already went through rigorous and extremely long process of quality selections. You have to remember that only good pieces survived through antiquity. He lived full 400 years before library of Alexandria was established, and he was immediately put into it as a classic work. He was considered genius by all the subsequent civilizations. Not ages, or artistic movements, that we have today, but by full fledged civilizations!

Reading Paradiso at the moment.

He wasn't kidding when he warned the average reader to stop reading. Thank god for the annotations in my version (Hollander).

Putting aside questions of personal and historical relevance for the moment The Divine Comedy is first and foremost a poem. And any non scholarly translation needs to be able to bring that across. To me Terza rima is almost impossible to write well in English and I’d argue that any English, read for enjoyment, Dante translation should be written with an Iambic meter. Examples include the WS Merwin,Clive james and Dorothy Sayers translations. (or you know just learn Italian …) . Read as a poem with flowing and smooth sentences the Commedia is vastly more enjoyable, and also easier to understand. The loops of self reference, and the scope of writing becomes more palatable .

I know people want to get away from the medieval religious aspect of the text to make it more relevant to them but i dont think you can. Dante dosent have to try and be relevant to you, you have to try and understand him. There is an effort involved in looking at the world through a difficult but beautiful prospective .


Also, going back to the question of historical relevance the poem is a perfect summation of medieval society and Dantes relation towards it. That allowes for a better understanding of the period and mindset that lead to the italian renaissance.

>>8296799
Which translation is that?

no

go back to r/books and kill yourself

It's REALLY hard to deny the influence and significance of Dante. That being said, I really don't like reading him all the much. The Divine Comedy just feels so topical and politically charged that I have a hard time connecting with a lot of it.

>>8296487
How so? Too Christian for your fedorah?

It's too politically charged, what with the absurd name-dropping of legions of lords and popes.

Paradise Lost is much more enjoyable.

>>8297514
Maybe you're overreacting a bit. Maybe stay on 4chan until you kill yourself because behaving this way I promise you don't belong anywhere else.

>>8296642
yes.. I thought it was implied

>>8296462
this shit aint even funny how is a comedy?

>>8296949
When did he say that?

>>8296462
underrated

>>8296520
>Real Academia Española
they're assholes

>>8298178
At the beginning of Paradiso. He warns that the challenge for him to describe in mere language the transcendant glories of Paradise may move him beyond comprehension. Then he calls the reader a pleb and effervesces to the moon.

>>8296725
>genre fiction

>>8298229
>genre comment

To be fair, it's not very good, but i just wanted to read one of the classics, though i guess i picked the wrong one

also, even though you're right in this case, your comment is still shit

>>8297653
Nah, it's just not as beautiful as people say it is.

>>8297514
Sensitive much?

>>8297353
I would also like to know this.

Also, does anyone have the chart comparing translations of The Divine Comedy?

>>8298698
not him but you should also kys

>>8298802
Sensitive much?

>>8298824
not him but you should also kys

>>8298802
>>8298883
>triggered

>>8298894
not him but you should also kys

Lmaoing @ your life to this Catholic neckbeard telling people to kill themselves because they don't like Dante.

>>8297353
>>8298717
The translation Rodney Merrill's. You can find his complete translation of the Odyssey here
http://www.press.umich.edu/17212/odyssey/?s=look_inside

>>8298906
not him but you should also kys

>>8298914
Thanks dude, appreciate it.

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>>8298717

>>8298948
No problem, you can see the reviews here
https://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Homer/dp/0472088548

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>>8296696

>>8298956
That chart has been "incomplete" for quite some time now.

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>>8297743
I thought it was pretty funny when the thief pisses Dante off by putting up two figs (equivalent to a middle finger, perhaps more offensive) directly to god

>>8299451
>by putting up two figs

kek. Is that the gesture where you put your thumb between your index and middle finger?

>>8299489
That's the one. Michelangelo supposedly hid some angels in a corner of the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescos giving a fig to the pope too.

>>8299650
Funny.

I'm Italian so I can enjoy the original and even though I never went past Inferno I can say that the choice of words and the Terza rima alone make it the masterpiece it is.
A 300 page poem without a plot written by Dante would still be a great read to me

>>8300481
Is Italian worth learning? For some reason it seems like the worst language for literature.

>>8300678
Yes, it is. I'm not italian, but I've been living here for 12 years, and studying Dante was one of the best reads I've ever had. It's so dense; all of it.

>>8296462
It is not overrated, it is just not as enjoyable to us in the same sense some other works can be. However, in other aspects it is still a masterpiece. The enjoyableness of a work is not the only factor you use if you want to evaluate the worth of a work. Yes, you can use it in subjective reasoning about a work, but objectively speaking (as controversial as it sounds), there is a great amount of value to it.

>>8301084
If it's so good why haven't you read the other 2 parts