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 Robert Langdon Follows Some Artsy Clues

Inferno by Dan Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I always like Dan Brown books. He knows how to write a thriller that keeps you guessing and takes you all over the world. For me, that's fun. 4 stars.

Ever since the Da Vinci Code, he's been the target of haters, and I don't get it. If I don't like an author, they disappear from my life. But people will hate-read his books and then bang on about how badly written they are or how they hate the tropes he uses, whatever. And a lot of Catholics seem to think, still, that he's trying to take down their religion, and he gets accused of anti-Catholic bias because of it. It's a fundamental misreading of fiction. We *know* this is a made-up story, and we aren't confused by that. Rome is real; Robert Langdon is not. Conspiracy theories make for fun stories, where wild ideas that are *theoretically* possible are strung into a great "what if?" and we all take a ride.

That's what we do here. Nobody thinks this is journalism. Nobody's picking on you or attacking you.

Final word on that sermon--if it's not fun, don't read it. So many other good books to read. Skip this one.

I had forgotten how quickly he drags you from chapter to chapter, from scene to scene, whisking the reader into a confusing state of chases, riddles, exotic locales, and literature coming to life. It's a great mix, and most of the time it works well. Bestsellers are about movement and excitement and action, about big ideas splashing across wide landscapes, and that's what we get in this novel. One of the best things about his writing is that he has a great formula. One of the worst things is that sometimes you get tired of the formula. For me, that's why this is a great 4-star book but I couldn't go to five.

My favorite stuff is the travel. I've not been many places in Europe, but I've been to Florence, and it's amazing to see all of the things behind the scenes, or in the attics, or under the stones. That's a big part of his formula. There's also Venice, with all kinds of behind the scenes looks at St. Marks. then there's Istanbul, which gets a similar treatment. Robert and his allies are trying to stop someone from doing a thing that will be real bad, and hints and clues have them hopping from one city to the next, always a little late... but--all together now--that's the formula.

He also gives us the brand names of everything the professionals use--what kind of helicopter, what kind of laser pointer, what kind of boat--and I actually dig that. It's super easy to lampoon, especially if you read it in your head in a Leslie Nielsen kind of voice, but despite that I still like it, and he knows it lends a kind of competence to his characters, as if they know they are using the very best equipment because they are professionals. It works for me.

What I'm tired of are the twists, the reversals. He's the enemy! No, he's on your side. They're attacking me! No, they're trying to save you from someone else. A little of that goes a long way, and Dan Brown does it relentlessly. This hurts my appreciation for the story, because I'm one of those "found family" kind of readers; I love team-ups, people coming together to save the world. I hate having to retcon all of my understanding of the novel to this point by believing the good guys have been the bad guys and the bad guys were the good guys. It makes me feel like I need to go back and reread everything in the light of the new evidence. It's dramatic, but I hate it.

That disagreement aside, I really enjoyed reading the book. It was fun to pick up over and over again instead of other books I'm reading that are less compelling, and it never felt like work the way some novels do. So I give him credit--he writes stuff I like to read.

From my brother Jon's collection. Still thinking of you, brother.

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