like a record

dans_inferno said...
...Seems as though I've got procrastinating readers finally dusting off their copies of Dante's Divine Comedies, particularly the Inferno. Some days it feels good to feel like an English Lit professor.

and then he promptly disappeared after five posts, leaving me (and maybe others- who can say?) on my own to read 'inferno' without anyone but virgil and the translater/commentator to take me through.

i did, in any event, make it to the other side with the help of alice cooper.

'inferno' was a great read. however, because of the kind of twitching brain i have, i found it important and useful to have music on that would set the tone for the journey. call it 'method reading' or whatever.

so here is my listening list (please- in completely random order!) for anybody other than me who finds reading part 1 of dante's magnum opus a bit too- er- poetic for their 21st century adhdMtv aesthetic to stay with for any length of time without some set and setting:

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alice cooper: 'goes to hell'- amazing parallel journey

rick wakeman: 'lisztomania'- classical electronica circa 1975 (soundtrack featuring vox from roger who?)

deep purple: (self-titled) just stare at the album cover for sixty seconds before reading the book and then watch the images appear on the page behind the printed words.

vangelis: 'heaven and hell'- it actually all works for 'inferno'... (definately NOT 'chariots of fire!') can't really imagine listening to this and reading dante's third book.

genesis: 'the lamb lies down on broadway'- peter gabriel's nightmarish journey of a character named rael, bearing some comparisons (note: the album notes are almost as long as dante's work, but they don't have all that rhyming that makes the translated sentences of dante hard to follow sometimes)

andrew lloyd webber: 'requiem'- a very young sarah brightman and a rather old placido domingo's contributions to this album are collectively mentioned in an old elvis costello song.

david sylvian: 'plight and premonition'- tuning radios, cycling tape loops and creating some breathtaking ambience

black sabbath: 'master of reality'(although sabbatoge also works) ozzy at his most coherent!

ginger baker: 'middle passage'- ecclectic percussive curios from around the globe

nine inch nails: 'the fragile'- ('downward spiral' is just too active- the lyrical/musical angst is so thick that it is virtually impossible to concentrate on the book- 'the fragile' is more subtle... and longer)

led zeppelin: 'presence'- the manic slide work and drum pummelling in 'nobody's fault but mine' and 'achilles last stand' seem to go the same places as the book

and, of course, anything by tom waits... 'rain dogs' or 'frank's wild years' tend to be more like musical journeys through a heart of darkness trapped in a sideshow freak.
***

i ignored some really obvious stuff (although black sabbath is listed above and probably shouldn't be for exactly the same reasons)- there is no marilyn manson, no slayer, no rammstein, no pantera, no coal chamber, no leonard cohen, no ACDC, no motley crue, no type-0-negative, no alice in chains, no cradle of filth, no fear factory, no king diamond, no neil diamond, no johnny cash (ring of fire)... you know- just too obvious.
***
and then just when i thought i would never hear from the guy again, out of the pit itself comes dans_inferno himself with an observation about my list...

Cant' believe you didn't listen to Sympathy for the Devil or Pink Floyd.

no, i didn't listen to any floyd because i always listen to the floyd. in my office at the church here i have the green pyramid poster from darkside proudly displayed. if i were to listen to pink floyd whilst reading 'inferno', it would probably be the entire wish you were here album from beginning to end. i always found the hopelessness in the lyrics and the drowse of the title cut chilling in a way that was a little too familiar to my soul...

(eagles' hotel california plays out the same way with all that stabbing but not killing, checking out but never leaving stuff.)

the devil himself doesn't come around much in the book until canto XXXIV, where he is depicted as feasting upon traitors in the 9th circle. he seems to be portrayed more as a classical greek/roman demi-god... you know: hades, lord of the underworld, guardian of the grave? 'sympathy' always felt more like satan's rebel yell or resume than words from a warden...

i might even speculate that the devil in the stones' song is more biblical than the creature in dante.

mick jagger- theologian of the 20th century. R.I.P.

although dans_inferno found it laughable that i hadn't read 'inferno' until prompted by his blog, it really shouldn't be that surprising. bible school wasn't really about 13-14th century poetry.

i think that dante's work is more about quantifying the pain that people inflict upon each other, and then grading these things on a curve that appears to, yeah, spiral downward. although dante was hardly writing in the modern era, i found his stuff to be very categorical in that it takes the whole 'putting selfish needs and desires before all else' thing, speculating on which offences are more objectionable to God and then creatively making the punishment fit the crime in nature and severity.

but see, i'm not sure God is quite so ready to plot sinfulness on a continuum. i mean, what would be the point? all have sinned. Jesus died in our place. 'whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life...'

perish? sitting for all eternity in the spiritual cold going 'damn!'


well, whatever the case, dans_inferno is up and running with the devil... if you are interested in that sorta thing.