{"id":61774,"date":"2013-10-28T11:00:33","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T15:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=61774"},"modified":"2014-03-08T15:03:16","modified_gmt":"2014-03-08T20:03:16","slug":"recapping-dante-canto-iv-or-the-halloween-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/28\/recapping-dante-canto-iv-or-the-halloween-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Recapping Dante: Canto 4, or the Halloween Special"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dore\u0301large\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Full disclosure: canto 4, despite the ominous nature of canto 3\u2019s ending and<\/em> the fact that 4 is meant to open in hell, is not that scary. There is a distinct shortage of zombie\/ghost-chase\/door-gag montage scenes in this segment, and almost<\/em> no haunted houses. So, we are probably meant to assume that Dante decided to take this holiday episode in a slightly more cerebral direction\u2014he\u2019s skipped right over the cheap scares, and has decided to hit us with a sort of theological horror show. Indeed, as Dante awakens from his spell, and walks beside Virgil, he notices that his guide\u2019s face is stricken with a fearful pallor. When Dante inquires, Virgil informs him that it is not fear, but pity, that has altered his expression; the pair are entering limbo, where those who might have been able to enter paradise, had they lived in the time of Christ, are instead forever confined. Which is to say, no matter how saintly you are, if you had the misfortune of being born during one of the richest cultural eras in human history (like Virgil himself), you\u2019re still out of luck, if not in hell proper.<\/p>\n

Dante asks Virgil if anyone has ever made it out, and in the slightly embittered tone of someone who has watched countless coworkers get promoted above him, Virgil tells Dante of Moses, Noah, and a few others who were \u201cplucked\u201d from limbo and taken upward by some mysterious stranger. (Jesus, obviously, but how could Virgil know that?)<\/p>\n

At this point, Dante and Virgil come across a band of poets\u2014Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. The poets join our travelers to help them solve the mystery of how two unvaccinated poets are going to make it safely through hell. The poets also make Dante part of their poets club. It\u2019s probably no coincidence that seeing these great writers animated lends them a sense of immortality (both in body and in their work), and that anyone who should join them may also be graced with a similar literary significance; after all, Dante writes that \u201ctheir honorable fame \u2026 echoes\u201d in his life on earth. It\u2019s also difficult to tell whether Dante is nerding out and imagining what it would be like to hang out with his heroes, or if he\u2019s pulling some sort of lyrical power move and trying to assert himself as one of the greatest poets of history (again, only time will tell).<\/p>\n

Dante briefly describes their conversation by saying that they spoke \u201cof things that here are best unsaid, just as there it was fitting to express them.\u201d This can be interpreted\u00a0more or less as \u201cWe were talking about poet stuff\u2009\u2026\u2009you wouldn\u2019t probably get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the band of six approaches a haunted castle (ruh roh) with a giant river, they walk across the water without difficulty. A clue! It looks like the river is meant to keep the less than great or those who aren\u2019t poets or philosophers or the out of this beautiful pastoral scene in Limbo. Time to investigate.<\/p>\n

Dante names the shades he sees inside\u2014Socrates, Plato,\u00a0 Diogenes, Cicero, Seneca, and, roaming all alone, Saladin. (Hollander points out that the moderns in limbo, though Dante considered them infidels, are \u201crepresentatives of\u2009\u2026\u2009Islamic culture\u201d). But there\u2019s one shade that Dante does not call by a name, and refers to only as the \u201cmaster.\u201d It\u2019s old man Aristotle!<\/p>\n

But Dante and Virgil, having come this far escorted by the four poets, must go on alone. Dante writes \u201cThe company of six falls off to two,\u201d which we all know really just means he\u2019s really just saying \u201cLet\u2019s split up, gang!\u201d Poet stuff.<\/p>\n

This fall, we\u2019re recapping<\/a> the <\/em>Inferno. Read along<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

To catch up on our Dante series, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alexander Aciman is the author of <\/em>Twitterature<\/a>. He has written for the <\/em>New York Times, <\/em>Tablet, the <\/em>Wall Street Journal, and <\/em>TIME. Follow him on Twitter at @acimania<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full disclosure: canto 4, despite the ominous nature of canto 3\u2019s ending and the fact that 4 is meant to open in hell, is not that scary. There is a distinct shortage of zombie\/ghost-chase\/door-gag montage scenes in this segment, and almost no haunted houses. So, we are probably meant to assume that Dante decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[11951,5861,2930,11950,11988,11651,12094,11680],"class_list":["post-61774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-alexander-aciman","tag-aristotle","tag-dante","tag-divine-comedy","tag-inferno","tag-john-hollander","tag-lucan","tag-virgil"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRecapping Dante: Canto 4, or the Halloween Special by Alexander Aciman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 28, 2013 \u2013 Full disclosure: canto 4, despite the ominous nature of canto 3\u2019s ending and the fact that 4 is meant to open in hell, is not that scary. 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