Divine GR

[ckaratnytsky at nypl.org]

     Whilst I mull over Monte's intriguing post, here's some more 
     connective tissue to the Divine GR:
     
     The episodic plot; the cinematic structure; the overall sense of 
     mystery, confusion and peril; the insights that come in flashes; the 
     symbolic role of lightness, darkness and color; the symbolic role of 
     geography, astronomy and astrology; the horror, the horror; the high, 
     black comedy (although this is limited in the Commedia to a single 
     episode of the Inferno -- the Canto involving the Malebranche demons); 
     the suffering and superior moral position of children and, in GR, 
     animals (the dogs, the dodoes, the pigs) and nature (the trees -- hmm, 
     the trees speak to Slothrop and the bushes inhabited by the suicides 
     speak to Dante); the dramatic enactment of the Augustinian injunction 
     to "Descend, so that you may ascend."
     
     Chris (too tired for either complete sentences or complete thoughts)