Reading Diary B: Dante's Inferno

The second half of the Dante's Inferno unit was not an easy read. There was so much suffering and anguish in the later tales! This is understandable given the location of the traveler and his guide, but I had to read something happy after finishing this unit because it was just a little too depressing to dwell on.

As with the first half, the amount of detail and imagery provided in the second half of the unit was astounding. It made me feel like I was going along on the journey, which is good from the literary sense but creepy because I would never like to go on such a journey. The descriptions of the characters in The Giants was particularly chilling. I made the mistake of reading this late at night, and it creeped me out quite a bit. The giants all seem like beings with whom I would never want to interact, which is why it surprised me that Dante wanted to look at one in particular. Also, I thought it was interesting that the giant responsible for the different languages was here and tried to communicate in his gibberish. This detail gave me goosebumps.

(Terrifying Giants)

Ugolino was even more unsettling to read about. Everything about his life and fate in the afterlife is sickening, particularly the fact that he had to spend the rest of eternity eating the one who starved him to death. If fans of horror movies would only read Dante's Inferno, they would be satisfied with how horrifying and unnerving it actually is.