9/17/08

Pleasure Reading: Divine Comedy

I think I'm going to try to read Dante's Divine Comedy. Then, I'm going to write dystopian novel about it. The reason for the latest Ray Bradbury love fest was that the point of the exercise was to help you realize how YOU want to sound as a writer. Admittedly, I'm to shy to flirt with fiction, so this was a good way to try and hear what I'd like my storyteller's voice to sound like. If at all possible, I'd like to sound like Ray Bradbury.

Various books I've enjoyed, including Fahrenheit 451, Last Book in the Universe (OK, I didn't enjoy this one too much) and Brave New World. In all of these books, society no longer accepts books or other forms of literature as normal. Some are persecuted, others are ridiculed, other are put to death. I'm not sure why, but I love this kind of stuff. So it's my hope that the Divine Comedy will bring me some inspiration for a dystopia where poetry is against the law.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How fun!

Don’t let the modern English translations fool you; Dante was a closed verse poet: terza rima rhyme pattern with 11 syllables per line.

I haven’t worked through the beast yet. But every few months I take out my copy and pet it.

Keep us posted on how it's going :)

Sarah said...

lt would be safe to assume you have also read Orwell's 1984 then. :)

Eva G. said...

@ kevin, yes, I think the only way I'll get through any significant part of it is by sharing with the class.

@ sara, I have indeed read 1984. Lately though, I've been thinking I should probably reread both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. Love that stuff.