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.
Canto 3 of the Inferno, wherein Dante is challenged by the Gates of Hell, passes through the area of the non-descript souls, who have done nothing with their lives and spend eternity being stung to follow furiously behind meaningless banners, and then is ferried over the first river of Hell – but faints as soon as he gets across. Music by Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Amiri Baraka, Robert Johnson, Randy Newman. You are invited to attend.
Three parts to the show: a story illustrating that “Evolutionism” and “Creationism” are not opposing views; Canto 2 of Dante’s Inferno, as he backs out of the journey and then consents to the journey, now for the right reasons; Leonard Cohen’s “Paper-Thin Hotel”, illustrating the lesson Dante also must learn, “You go to Heaven once you’ve been to Hell.” Also included is the impromptu opening moments, when the Sky News failed to appear, and RLA offered a different kind of “sky” news. You are invited to attend.
Series Four of Evening under Lamplight is taking us through Dante’s Inferno, bringing to life this great story, this great poem. We start in the middle, and e start lost. You are invited to attend, to jump into the middle of things, and to find yourself lost
As we come to the final parts of “Song of Myself”, Walt Whitman rushes us along, since he can stay “only a minute longer”, and we must put the poem aside and move on into the future. But there’s time to talk about the merits of being inconsistent, about barbaric yawps over the rooftops, and of what happens when the poet disappears as the book comes to an end – but then stops some where (beyond the words on the page), waiting for us. And so, we come to the end of our journey through “Song of Myself” and to the end of Series Three of Evening under Lamplight. What will Series Four bring us? We’ll find out next time, and meanwhile, you are invited to attend.
