Minotaur, centaurs, landslides, boiling blood: all this and more when we come with Dante and Virgil to the area of the Inferno dedicated to Violence. And, as always, music to match, including, of course, a tribute to the Nobel Laureate. This is the expanded version, containing the discussion of Violence and Donald Trump that there was no time for when the show was broadcast on Cambridge 105. You are invited to attend.
In this episode, Dante learns that violence stinks, and he needs to sit for a while and acclimatise his nose to what he’s about to encounter. He learns that harming people’s possessions is as bad as harming people themselves, and ruining our own things is as bad as ruining ourselves. Lots of examples here to play with, and lots of interesting music to play. You are invited to attend.
Dante’s macabre/comic dialogue with two heretics becomes the occasion for us to judge how well our interpretation of what’s going on around us allows us (in Gil Bailie’s words) “to live fully and deeply and meaningfully, relating to the real world”. Come along: you are invited to attend.
Dante and Virgil come to the Gates of Lower Hell, but are blocked by devils and then the Furies (who are flying around in the picture here, but in the poem are just jeering from the walls of the city). In the poem, we attend to how Dante and Virgil manage to get the gate open. In our life, we attend to how we manage to descend deeper into ourselves when the resistance is so strong we feel we might be turned to stone. Lots going on here. You’re invited to attend.
Tune in as Dante crosses the River Styx, a marshy area filled with anger of various sorts. What happens when he meets the reflection of his own anger, rising up and threatening him? You are invited to attend and find out.
We’ve been having some heavy shows as we descend through Hell with Dante, and so having a cold gave me the excuse to lighten up a bit and re-broadcast a show from the end of 2015, the kind of show that keeps you smiling throughout. With my guests Neil Henry and Andrew Ab, we play around with Professor Longhair, Soupy Sales, “Grizzly Bear”, “Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear”, a sentimental Christmas carol redeemed because we attended to it, Afroman, Fraggle Rock, whistling with a robin, a Yiddish radio commercial from the 1940s, a mock commercial by the Who, Danny Kaye, Shel Silverstein and Dr Hook, the Kinks, and Tommy Cooper. You are invited to attend and join us.
Canto 7 now with (1) those who took money to two contrary extremes – misers and wild spenders, (2) Dame Fortune and her Wheel, (3) the angry, ripping each other apart, and the sullen, eating mud and making bubbles under the water. As usual, we go round and round with Dante and all these images, with various interesting and relevant pieces of music. You’re invited to attend and join us.
The Third Circle of the Inferno, the place of the Gluttons, suffering under a constant, freezing rain and stinking mud, with the three-headed Cerberus snapping at them and raking them with its claws. We also attend to the Greek myth of Erysichthon, an example of gluttony and addiction, and the consequences of these things. You are invited to attend, and to allow these images to help you explore the state of your own soul.
Dante’s Inferno, Canto 5, wherein we find the lustful, and discuss modern and the mediaeval notions of lust – is it a passion, or is it a specific kind of action? We meet the horrible judge of Hell, Minos, and many personages from legend and history famous for their lustful behaviour. And we encounter Paolo and Francesca, perhaps the most famous episode in all of Dante. Music by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, the Band, Bob Dylan, the Clovers, and Purcell. You are invited to attend.
[The sound begins at 1:59. We apologise for this unnecessary blank space. Perhaps we can use it as a time of silence, to prepare for what’s coming. Perhaps it will be corrected as soon as possible.]
We are in the Second Circle of Dante’s Inferno, the circle of Limbo, where we find the rational, honourable soul that feels no pain, but also no delight because it never stretched itself to share the joys of surprise, blind leaps in the dark, and holy chutzpah. Music from Chubby Checker, Jimmy Cliff, and a touch of Rumi. You are invited to attend.
