My recent glut of games has inspired me to read Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. The specific inspiration was Bayonetta which features,
- the 3 worlds (by name at least): Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso
- numerous enemies from the angel hierarchy
I’m reading Longfellow’s translation at Gutenberg, which is a bit tricky to follow but I’ve been cross referencing it with Wikipedia’s entries for each cantica. So far I’ve made it through Inferno and I’m halfway through Purgatorio.
I also got Darksiders, which has War of the Four Horsemen as it’s lead character and also features angels and demons. So I’m looking forward to that once I’m done with Bayonetta.
So there’s a lot of angelic theory and such bouncing around my head these days. Don’t worry I won’t go all fundamentalist on everyone, it’s just very interesting from a structural point of view.
And in mid February,we have Dante's Inferno which is directly inspired by Dante’s work, although it alters some elements to muscle up the video game. This game will feature the 9 circles of Hell and numerous characters encountered in the poem. Check out the official website for brief overviews of each circle by Guy Raffa and also Guy’s own Dante site.
I too, am fascinated by the Angelic Hierarchy! Your're well ahead of me though, I've haven't read any of Dante's works, although I very much mean to. (In my old shop we had a lovely hardback that had the original language on one page and the translation on the facing page. How I wish now that I'd bought it.) Have you read Paradise Lost?
ReplyDeleteI recently downloaded and played the demo of 'Dante's Inferno' on the PS3 - it was pretty good! Occasionally it seems it's trying a little too hard to be 'shocking' but it's fun. Reminds me a little of God Of War in gameplay.
Check out these lovely leatherbound editions from Barnes and Noble, http://bit.ly/8ChVuX. Modern but gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteParadise Lost is also on the list to read.
I would also love some Gustave Dore posters, http://bit.ly/6Nu1Qn :)
Bayonetta is mental by the way, check it out if you get the chance.