Where Grimdark Got Its Start

The Divine Comedy, Volume 1: Inferno by Dante Alighieri
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My score of 4 is a bit of a fudge. As a world classic, you'd think it deserves a time-tested 5. Based on how fun it is to read (not very) it's probably a 2 or maybe a 3, and even that is due more to curiosity more than genuine reading pleasure. But the version I read--the Penguin classic--is very useful, with excellent notes throughout and helpful drawings, making the reading much easier, and that support makes me give this volume an overall 4. You wanna read the Inferno? This edition works for that.

As a story, it reads like fantasy, though there's no real plot--no main conflict, no real danger or trouble for the main character. But at least it's in a fanciful, exotic setting, if horrible, and that imagination is probably the most interesting part of the work for me. It wasn't meant to be taken as fantasy, though. Even in its time, people knew the story wasn't literally true, of course, and could read it like a dream or vision or guess about hell, but Dante treats his work as if it really could be true, as if the whole thing was mere extrapolation from church teaching. That hell existed was a given. That sinners (as defined by the church) would go to hell was also a given. That they would be punished eternally was the same thing. Exactly what that looked like was an open question; I don't know whether Dante thought he was even in the ballpark, but my guess is he kinda did.

The work serves as spectacle, like reading cosmic horror along the lines of H.P. Lovecraft, allowing the reader to imagine more fully a barely-glimpsed idea of a hidden universe. That alone is a pretty good selling point, back in the day anyway. But it also teaches religious lessons like you'd only find in fire and brimstone preaching like "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Do the right thing or you'll end up like the liars or the gluttons or the scammers in the Inferno. Probably scared a few straight.

For me, though, it reinforces the emptiness of that kind of faith, the kind of faith motivated by fear of eternal, horrible, unrelenting punishment, an idea so evil that it's hard to imagine it held in the same brain as the idea of virtue. What could be more evil than subjecting a sentient creature to horrible pain, not just for a moment or an hour or a year even but for all eternity? Be good or god will have you tortured. Forever. It's beyond my imagination, though it made perfect sense to Dante and a lot of other people for centuries.

There's a lot to think about, anyway, from art to religion to history to government, and even if you've read it before, or pieces of it, Present You might see more here than Old You did. Who knows?

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Where I Liked It and Didn't, All at Once

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this a light, brisk read, and rather enjoyed it. Fun. Funny. Some good moments. But it seemed thin, in a way, though, and I cannot be more enthusiastic, even though I don't have any heavy criticism. (I sorta feel like I do when I drink diet soda--it's sorta good, and I kinda like it, but then I don't. Not really. Same here.)

The writing is clever and witty and sort of cracked, like Willy Wonka for adults, and the action feels like a cartoon in sensibility--serious events are treated as fodder for humor. Death and damnation for laughs. That kinda works, making it possible to read a story about a monster without throwing it across the room, but it makes me a little unhappy just the same.

I liked the ending and found it satisfying for the kind of make-a-bet-with-the-devil story we find ourselves in. And though I acquired some sympathy for the main character, I still don't like him, which makes it a harder sell for me to go on to the sequels.

I like the premise, at least--a necromancer making a bet with the devil to try to win back his soul--and if the thought of that contest in a humorous fantasy sounds good to you, you might be the exact audience for this. I'm close, but not quite it.

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Where I Share an Uninformed Opinion on Marlowe's Dr. Faustus

Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So, this is kinda cool. Marlowe's Dr. Faustus turns out to be quite readable and entertaining, with a straightforward story and not too many characters, though it helps to have notes to explain the more obscure bits. I like the pdf version available at ElizabethanDrama.org. Tell them I sent you. (They won't care. Don't bother.)

I can see, as I read this play, why it would appeal to an audience of his time. There is a lot of spectacle possible here that would surprise and entertain, a lot of magic and shocking detail. To a modern audience--me, in this case--there's a lack of conflict that makes it feel like a story without a plot. Sure, Faustus has internal conflict, arguing with himself about continuing down the path to hell, but the play is only partly about that; his internal debate is not central to the action. Seeing all the cool sights and pulling up spirits of the dead (like Helen of Troy) is really what the play is about.

IMO--this is more pageant than play, but fun for all that, and remarkable for Marlowe's language. I wanted to read it just for the "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" line. It was fun finding it in its natural habitat. Others might have better reasons.

Anyway, this is surely worth spending an hour or two on, particularly if you are interested in Elizabethan drama. :)

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