The people complaining are really full of shit. If anything, it's less plausible than that repellent anti-Tolkien rant by that stupid bitch a few weeks ago. The passage about Judas being chewed is interpreted liberally as "anti-Semitic" - I wonder if that makes Dante anti-Italian as well considering the other two traitors being chewed are Cassius and Brutus? Essentially, the anti-Semitism is simply in the fact that Dante has the betrayer of Christ in the maw of Satan, and these dipshits have extrapolated that to blanket anti-Semitism (I wonder what their opinion of the New Testament is?).
The Muhammed phrase is cited solely because he's rendered in half the same way that all sowers of dissension are, and that some comparison is made to a wineskin, and wine is "not permitted in Islamic law". That is extrapolated to show "a lack of respect for Islam", despite the fact that, as you pointed out Averroes is in with virtuous non-Christians and other Islamic influences were brought to bear, and that, given the times he was writing in, Dante is actually not all that anti-Muslim.
Then there's the fact that the sodomites (homosexuals) are being punished - is that at all surprising, given that homosexuality is explicitly listed as a sin in the Old and New Testaments? While modern Christians are moderating those lines, it is hard to escape the literal impact of the statements, and Dante can hardly be faulted for listing as a sin something that was considered a sin in the world in which he was writing. Despite that, there are many scholars who feel Dante may have had some homosexual tendencies or at least sympathies, given that some of the most sympathetic people in Hell are the sodomites.
Essentially, they're grasping at straws just to get some controversy. People like that deserve to be dumped into raw sewage and forgotten.
The Muhammed phrase is cited solely because he's rendered in half the same way that all sowers of dissension are, and that some comparison is made to a wineskin, and wine is "not permitted in Islamic law". That is extrapolated to show "a lack of respect for Islam", despite the fact that, as you pointed out Averroes is in with virtuous non-Christians and other Islamic influences were brought to bear, and that, given the times he was writing in, Dante is actually not all that anti-Muslim.
Then there's the fact that the sodomites (homosexuals) are being punished - is that at all surprising, given that homosexuality is explicitly listed as a sin in the Old and New Testaments? While modern Christians are moderating those lines, it is hard to escape the literal impact of the statements, and Dante can hardly be faulted for listing as a sin something that was considered a sin in the world in which he was writing. Despite that, there are many scholars who feel Dante may have had some homosexual tendencies or at least sympathies, given that some of the most sympathetic people in Hell are the sodomites.
Essentially, they're grasping at straws just to get some controversy. People like that deserve to be dumped into raw sewage and forgotten.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
Divine Comedy is "offensive and discriminatory", says Italian NGO
20/03/2012 07:25:08 PM
- 1325 Views
Duh?
20/03/2012 07:38:41 PM
- 779 Views
It does kind of feel like we should know more about how it's taught in Italian schools.
20/03/2012 07:50:36 PM
- 710 Views
Isn't the fundamental basis of Christanity mutually exclusive to Judaism and Islam?
20/03/2012 08:33:51 PM
- 697 Views
That's a really good point that I hadn't considered. I agree. *NM*
22/03/2012 09:05:00 AM
- 315 Views
Just because someone is in Hell doesn't mean you should discriminate against them
20/03/2012 08:23:22 PM
- 835 Views
Not having read any Dante is kind of hurting my ability to reply to that.
20/03/2012 10:08:52 PM
- 1072 Views
Odd, considering you linked the "offending passages"
20/03/2012 11:54:34 PM
- 748 Views
Yes, well, I was semi-serious with the "pretending to understand Italian".
21/03/2012 07:58:35 PM
- 731 Views
I rather agree with you
21/03/2012 10:09:01 PM
- 896 Views
Taking the Divine Comedy off the curriculum would be like taking Shakespeare out in the UK.
21/03/2012 10:48:15 PM
- 691 Views
But some works of Flaubert aren't considered OK for compulsory reads...
22/03/2012 05:27:04 AM
- 697 Views
The last part of Hell is Giudecca because of Judas.
21/03/2012 10:30:36 PM
- 814 Views
And you don't see what's offensive about that?
21/03/2012 11:11:16 PM
- 699 Views
You are making an assumption that Dante named it after Jewish quarters.
21/03/2012 11:24:47 PM
- 1135 Views
Wait, let's be clear just how bat-shit Rick Santorum crazy these assholes are.
21/03/2012 01:06:49 AM
- 779 Views
They also dont seem to realize just how many Muslim nations are calling for the eradication of Israe *NM*
21/03/2012 04:33:53 PM
- 424 Views
There's some things in that paragraph one can roll one's eyes at, aye - but that's as far as it goes
21/03/2012 08:06:32 PM
- 672 Views
Are you serious?! Did you read the whole paragraph?
21/03/2012 10:24:56 PM
- 699 Views
I certainly did. Though as it turns out I had not read their other articles...
21/03/2012 10:59:51 PM
- 743 Views
I saw that. Seems a little misguided
21/03/2012 07:04:06 AM
- 717 Views
That's what they're advocating. And I wouldn't know - they seem to think it is. *NM*
21/03/2012 08:08:53 PM
- 303 Views
I think that sometimes people take "politicly correct" tooooo far... *NM*
21/03/2012 08:20:31 AM
- 409 Views
Let me sum up my opinion on this as succinctly and clearly as I can:
21/03/2012 11:50:37 PM
- 689 Views