Friday, October 27, 2006
Project Dante
Canto XI
We came along a rim like shoulder 1
All ringed around by massive boulders
We found a crowd most cruelly pent
As air was fouled by dreadful stench 4
So down we go and pray to heaven
Before we enter circle seven
In the meantime troubled breathing
Lay against a headstone heaving 8
Names inscribed upon the stone
List the popes from number one
So sat we down to clear the air
As Virgil then some wisdom shared 12
'Beyond this broken ring of stones
Three rings descend to Satan's bones
The six behind were of their sort
But those below this circle fort 16
Reflect the worst that man can be
All locked in pain eternally
The way that hell is crafted here
From top to bottom make it clear 20
Those cowards who from hell without
Then Limbo ring in thickest cloud
Then the lustful in the second
Sex the sin, just for the record 24
Third ring holds those gluttons most
Who sit in stinking rain as ghosts
The fourth ring is the place to be
If you have been consumed by greed 28
The weight of wealth will drag them down
Upon their death to prison round
We then descend to circle five
Where wrathful and the sullen thrive 32
And then we enter circle six
The burning graves beyond the Styx
Now comes the time to draw a line
That separates these different crimes 36
As all below this bitter rim
Are all those damned by deeper sin
The seventh set in circles three
Divided by severity 40
The first reserved for those who kill
And those that rob and things worse still
The next is there for those that die
By their own hand, in hell they fry 44
The last for those who dare blaspheme
In circle third their ass is reamed
And so we come to circle eight
A place arranged for those too late 48
The lawyers and the liars crash
With flatterers and like same trash
The final ring is number nine
The deepest place for deepest crime 52
Those foulest who betrayed their lords
In lake of ice impaled on swords
And so the souls of traitors born
In hells ninth ring by heaven scorned 56
So there it is boy, top to pit
The lay of layered prison split
The sings arranged from least to worst
A place in death for all those cursed 60
Where every sin is marked in line
How foul it was, how base the crime.'
Though glad I was to know the way
That God did punish sin today 64
Then Virgil stands and looks to sky
To see which stars above fly by
And so we leave for lowest levels
Path that leads us to the devil 68
The rings that hold those left behind
We'd set ourselves to it, we'd bind
Our fate to travel down this trail
From now until the end of tail. 72
Canto XI
We came along a rim like shoulder 1
All ringed around by massive boulders
We found a crowd most cruelly pent
As air was fouled by dreadful stench 4
So down we go and pray to heaven
Before we enter circle seven
In the meantime troubled breathing
Lay against a headstone heaving 8
Names inscribed upon the stone
List the popes from number one
So sat we down to clear the air
As Virgil then some wisdom shared 12
'Beyond this broken ring of stones
Three rings descend to Satan's bones
The six behind were of their sort
But those below this circle fort 16
Reflect the worst that man can be
All locked in pain eternally
The way that hell is crafted here
From top to bottom make it clear 20
Those cowards who from hell without
Then Limbo ring in thickest cloud
Then the lustful in the second
Sex the sin, just for the record 24
Third ring holds those gluttons most
Who sit in stinking rain as ghosts
The fourth ring is the place to be
If you have been consumed by greed 28
The weight of wealth will drag them down
Upon their death to prison round
We then descend to circle five
Where wrathful and the sullen thrive 32
And then we enter circle six
The burning graves beyond the Styx
Now comes the time to draw a line
That separates these different crimes 36
As all below this bitter rim
Are all those damned by deeper sin
The seventh set in circles three
Divided by severity 40
The first reserved for those who kill
And those that rob and things worse still
The next is there for those that die
By their own hand, in hell they fry 44
The last for those who dare blaspheme
In circle third their ass is reamed
And so we come to circle eight
A place arranged for those too late 48
The lawyers and the liars crash
With flatterers and like same trash
The final ring is number nine
The deepest place for deepest crime 52
Those foulest who betrayed their lords
In lake of ice impaled on swords
And so the souls of traitors born
In hells ninth ring by heaven scorned 56
So there it is boy, top to pit
The lay of layered prison split
The sings arranged from least to worst
A place in death for all those cursed 60
Where every sin is marked in line
How foul it was, how base the crime.'
Though glad I was to know the way
That God did punish sin today 64
Then Virgil stands and looks to sky
To see which stars above fly by
And so we leave for lowest levels
Path that leads us to the devil 68
The rings that hold those left behind
We'd set ourselves to it, we'd bind
Our fate to travel down this trail
From now until the end of tail. 72
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Sketches of the Minotaur from Canto XII.It should be pointed out that the minotaur, in its original setting withing the maze, was never described as the head of a bull on a man's body. I had sketched a little bit around the usual minotaur proportions but I couldn't make it work (and anyway, I always thought it looked a bit stupid.)
This I think will work much better, a mans head on a bulls body.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
A scanned page from one of the notebooks. Project Dante has stretched t0 about six or seven so far, and I'm only as far as Canto XI which means theres still 24 to go.The individual at the bottom is performing the first known instance of the Goatse Ritual, a strange and frightening thing that has haunted the internets since it first started being netty (and tubey.)
Its actually based on a drawing by Dore and the guy at the bottom is supposed to be the PM.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Project Dante
Canto X
Now followed we a narrow path 1
Between these scenes of pain and wrath
'O Highest Virtue,' I decried
'Can those within the graves be spied?' 4
My master turned and told me then
'Their spirits burn in flame within
And only on the final day
When Armageddon come their way 8
Will flesh that once before was worn
In time to face the Savior's scorn
Within this crematory lies
The ghosts of those who thought when died 12
That soul would cease to be right there
So life best lived without a care
No those who lived by being free
Must burn in hell for eternity.' 16
Then heard I voice cried out in pain
That begged of me to know my name
And asked me from which city came
And why I journeyed through the flame 20
And how I toured this frightful ring
This shade who once before was king
So Virgil turned and led me t0
Where ghost of Nixon rose on through 24
With head held high, with look of scorn
He stared at me as though I worm
'Who were your fathers?' then he asked
As burned he in the fire basked 28
It made me glad for I to know
This sinner to the bad place go
So told him then of who I was
My name, my church, my favorite cause 32
I told the shade and held none back
As listened he from roasting crack
Then lectures me his manner grand
As future there his vision spanned 36
And told me tales of things to come
And battles made to distant drums
He told me then of wars in line
From Friday next to end of time 40
Right then I grasped the fate of soul
The past and future only know
But not the present could they see
Just echoes of the things that be 44
And when the final portal closed
These souls would burn while others rose
So crept I close then to the brink
And looked I into grave I sink 48
My gaze it falls on writhing mass
That cooked within the steaming gas.
One thousand pairs of bloodshot eyes
There locked on mine as watched I fry 52
Then catch my foot and fall head first
Into the burning grave with cursed
But virgil he then caught my bag
And hauled me back, on fumes I gag 56
So Virgil turns and cautions there
'The way is long and far from fair.'
So walk we on through circle sixth
As gathered then an evil stink. 60
A lot of stuff got left out of this canto for various reasons. There was no real reason to go into the other spirits in the burning graves of the sixth circle, so I left out Farinata's reference to the clergy entombed within and also to the second head that appeared and asked for its son.
The fate of the souls, in terms of their vision and ability to see is discussed in the canto, although it has to be said, that this is discussed earlier in the work as well.
I thought after all the cuts that this one would be too short but it didn't turn out so.
In Canto XI Virgil discusses the structure of hell and the philosophy of punishment that leads some to the first or third circles and the sins that are punished in the last three rings.
Thats next.
PS I'm up to my gills at work so I have only a limited amout of time to draw and write. I seem mostly to be working later at night on the Inferno (Project Dante) but hoepfully I'll be able to get a lot done in the next few weeks.
Canto X
Now followed we a narrow path 1
Between these scenes of pain and wrath
'O Highest Virtue,' I decried
'Can those within the graves be spied?' 4
My master turned and told me then
'Their spirits burn in flame within
And only on the final day
When Armageddon come their way 8
Will flesh that once before was worn
In time to face the Savior's scorn
Within this crematory lies
The ghosts of those who thought when died 12
That soul would cease to be right there
So life best lived without a care
No those who lived by being free
Must burn in hell for eternity.' 16
Then heard I voice cried out in pain
That begged of me to know my name
And asked me from which city came
And why I journeyed through the flame 20
And how I toured this frightful ring
This shade who once before was king
So Virgil turned and led me t0
Where ghost of Nixon rose on through 24
With head held high, with look of scorn
He stared at me as though I worm
'Who were your fathers?' then he asked
As burned he in the fire basked 28
It made me glad for I to know
This sinner to the bad place go
So told him then of who I was
My name, my church, my favorite cause 32
I told the shade and held none back
As listened he from roasting crack
Then lectures me his manner grand
As future there his vision spanned 36
And told me tales of things to come
And battles made to distant drums
He told me then of wars in line
From Friday next to end of time 40
Right then I grasped the fate of soul
The past and future only know
But not the present could they see
Just echoes of the things that be 44
And when the final portal closed
These souls would burn while others rose
So crept I close then to the brink
And looked I into grave I sink 48
My gaze it falls on writhing mass
That cooked within the steaming gas.
One thousand pairs of bloodshot eyes
There locked on mine as watched I fry 52
Then catch my foot and fall head first
Into the burning grave with cursed
But virgil he then caught my bag
And hauled me back, on fumes I gag 56
So Virgil turns and cautions there
'The way is long and far from fair.'
So walk we on through circle sixth
As gathered then an evil stink. 60
A lot of stuff got left out of this canto for various reasons. There was no real reason to go into the other spirits in the burning graves of the sixth circle, so I left out Farinata's reference to the clergy entombed within and also to the second head that appeared and asked for its son.
The fate of the souls, in terms of their vision and ability to see is discussed in the canto, although it has to be said, that this is discussed earlier in the work as well.
I thought after all the cuts that this one would be too short but it didn't turn out so.
In Canto XI Virgil discusses the structure of hell and the philosophy of punishment that leads some to the first or third circles and the sins that are punished in the last three rings.
Thats next.
PS I'm up to my gills at work so I have only a limited amout of time to draw and write. I seem mostly to be working later at night on the Inferno (Project Dante) but hoepfully I'll be able to get a lot done in the next few weeks.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
Project Dante
Canto IX
I frosted white in growing fright 1
As sat we there in absent light
My guide beside me troubled seemed
While I beside him lost in dream 4
'Does anyone from Limbo come,'
I asked him then in halting tongue
'As deep as We from Lion's Gate
And so down through this Land of Hate?' 8
And answered me and tale he telled
Of journey to the deeps of Hell
That he had made when new born shade
To Judas Ring, a soul to save 12
'My worthy guide!' I gladly cried
'My road is blessed with you beside!'
And then I choked in sudden fear
As saw I Furies standing clear 16
And screamed they down from highest peak
As cowered I in muck and reek.
'If you would live then shade your eyes
Or always here as boulder lie 20
For Gorgon with her deadly gaze
Will petrify!' My Guide then raves.
And all my knowledge, all my knowing
Couldn't stop blind terror growing 24
And all the things that I believed
Right then weren't worth the fog I breath.
And having nothing left but hearing
Heard I sounds most horrid nearing 28
Then facing fast this coming storm
That sounded like a demon swarm
As spirits screamed in mewling fright
And ever louder grew the blight. 30
My guide then he releases me
And raise myself so I can see
I saw there Angel crossing fast
All shining like a lightning blast 34
His blessed feet not touching water
And all around He demons slaughtered.
Breaks he down the cities door's
His face wrapped up in other chores 38
He barely seemed to notice us
As hung we low with heads like thus
So stands he wide and belows loud
'O You Cast Out, O Hated Crowd! 40
Why do you Fallen listen not
When Betters tell you what is what?
Why do you rail against the fates
That told you to unlock that gate?' 44
My bind could hardly take the strain
As entered we the Land of Pain
At every point I cast my gaze
I see ten thousand burning graves 48
And tortured moans and piteous wails
Sailed past me as we walk this trail. 50
'Who can all these people be?'
I asked in awe at what I see. 52
My master said with steely breath
'Those heretics who dared mock death
They looked at world and thought they saw
A kingdom made without God's Law 56
And so they fry as heretics
In burning graves beyond the styx.' 58
So walking on he gestures right
As toil we through torment and fright. 60
Canto IX
I frosted white in growing fright 1
As sat we there in absent light
My guide beside me troubled seemed
While I beside him lost in dream 4
'Does anyone from Limbo come,'
I asked him then in halting tongue
'As deep as We from Lion's Gate
And so down through this Land of Hate?' 8
And answered me and tale he telled
Of journey to the deeps of Hell
That he had made when new born shade
To Judas Ring, a soul to save 12
'My worthy guide!' I gladly cried
'My road is blessed with you beside!'
And then I choked in sudden fear
As saw I Furies standing clear 16
And screamed they down from highest peak
As cowered I in muck and reek.
'If you would live then shade your eyes
Or always here as boulder lie 20
For Gorgon with her deadly gaze
Will petrify!' My Guide then raves.
And all my knowledge, all my knowing
Couldn't stop blind terror growing 24
And all the things that I believed
Right then weren't worth the fog I breath.
And having nothing left but hearing
Heard I sounds most horrid nearing 28
Then facing fast this coming storm
That sounded like a demon swarm
As spirits screamed in mewling fright
And ever louder grew the blight. 30
My guide then he releases me
And raise myself so I can see
I saw there Angel crossing fast
All shining like a lightning blast 34
His blessed feet not touching water
And all around He demons slaughtered.
Breaks he down the cities door's
His face wrapped up in other chores 38
He barely seemed to notice us
As hung we low with heads like thus
So stands he wide and belows loud
'O You Cast Out, O Hated Crowd! 40
Why do you Fallen listen not
When Betters tell you what is what?
Why do you rail against the fates
That told you to unlock that gate?' 44
My bind could hardly take the strain
As entered we the Land of Pain
At every point I cast my gaze
I see ten thousand burning graves 48
And tortured moans and piteous wails
Sailed past me as we walk this trail. 50
'Who can all these people be?'
I asked in awe at what I see. 52
My master said with steely breath
'Those heretics who dared mock death
They looked at world and thought they saw
A kingdom made without God's Law 56
And so they fry as heretics
In burning graves beyond the styx.' 58
So walking on he gestures right
As toil we through torment and fright. 60
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Project Dante
Canto IX
I frosted white in growing fright
As sat we in the absent light
My guide beside me troubled seemed
While I was lost in nightmare dream
'Does anyone from Limbo come,'
I asked him there in halting tongue
'So deep as we from Heaven shunned?'
Its right about here that things go pear shaped. Canto IX is turning out to be a little more complex to work out. Its another one thats laced with a lot of names from classical mythology.
Working through it, hope to have it done in a couple of days.
Canto IX
I frosted white in growing fright
As sat we in the absent light
My guide beside me troubled seemed
While I was lost in nightmare dream
'Does anyone from Limbo come,'
I asked him there in halting tongue
'So deep as we from Heaven shunned?'
Its right about here that things go pear shaped. Canto IX is turning out to be a little more complex to work out. Its another one thats laced with a lot of names from classical mythology.
Working through it, hope to have it done in a couple of days.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Project Dante
Canto VIII
I say, going that long before 1
We reached the distant tower's floor
Our eyes were drawn towards the top
Where fires flashed like burning dots 4
And answer came from distant spire
As flickered there returning fire
Then cross the water comes a boat
That moved as fast as speeding bolt 8
And at its helm one spitting man
Who bears us down as if to ram
And cries he in his dreadful shout
'Now you are caught, O soul without!' 12
But Virgil stands in helmsman's way
And listened I to hear him say
'O Phleg-Yas do not torment your mind
His passing has been blessed you'll find 16
With you and we in binded truce
So ferry us cross muddy sluice.'
Enraged he was the demon red
As one who'd lost on sucker's bet 20
Then Virgil leads me on the boat
As lower then the ferry floats
But Phleg-Yas turns the skiff around
And pointed prow to distant ground 24
A hundred leagues and more did pass
Beneath the speeding demon craft
Then saw I thing before obscene
That rose from mire inbetween 28
A shade there formed of face I'd known
Com-patriot of distant home
Stares at me as I all shivver
Stands O'Reilly (dreadful sinner!) 32
Screams 'Who are you before your time
That floats across this world of slime?'
I answered him 'O slave of sin
You're looking great, so very thin 36
And I may come and I may go
But after all you'll never know.'*
And then I pulled my trusty glock
And had him in the crosshairs locked 40
I shot the fiend in his fiend head
Then spat into the river red
And then my guide, he then rejoiced
As singing raised he up his voice 44
And called he to the heaven's there
With words that burned in blackest air
'This my friend is right, is proper
These foul souls have come a cropper 48
Damned by God, by world forgotten
Curse their souls with curses rotten.'
I to him, 'I'd see him suffer!'
'Underneath this river smothered.' 52
He to me 'You'll get your wish
His torture here provides us bliss!
Our bliss, our bliss, the very joy!
To know his soul is devil toyed.' 56
Layed he then his palms together
Asking God for hell forever.
Continued on to distant gate
Where Phleg-Yas left us to our fate 60
And spikes arose like tongues of flame
Where devils lived and demons reigned.
So stood we there upon the brink
My mind so cowed I could not think 64
And up upon the rampart wall
A thousand devils made the call
'Who is this who without death
Can journey through the land of dread.' 68
My master made a secret sign
That devils knew from former time
Supressed they then their great disdain
These angels who from Heaven rained.** 72
But angel gate would open not
Our path ahead it seemed was blocked
But Virgil turns to me and says
'Now One descends through Lion's Gate.' 76
Who has been charged to clear our way
Till welcome here we must now pray
So knealth we there, with out escape
In fear I wept with mouth agape 80
As parley not the lords of rot
And jeered they from the rampart top.
* you'll never know refers to the punishment ascribed to all sinners that they should know the past and the future but not the present. They could remember and look forward to nothing but pain.
** angels rained regers to the fallen, the angels who aligned with Satan in the Great Rebellion. See Milton, Paradise Lost.
Canto VIII
I say, going that long before 1
We reached the distant tower's floor
Our eyes were drawn towards the top
Where fires flashed like burning dots 4
And answer came from distant spire
As flickered there returning fire
Then cross the water comes a boat
That moved as fast as speeding bolt 8
And at its helm one spitting man
Who bears us down as if to ram
And cries he in his dreadful shout
'Now you are caught, O soul without!' 12
But Virgil stands in helmsman's way
And listened I to hear him say
'O Phleg-Yas do not torment your mind
His passing has been blessed you'll find 16
With you and we in binded truce
So ferry us cross muddy sluice.'
Enraged he was the demon red
As one who'd lost on sucker's bet 20
Then Virgil leads me on the boat
As lower then the ferry floats
But Phleg-Yas turns the skiff around
And pointed prow to distant ground 24
A hundred leagues and more did pass
Beneath the speeding demon craft
Then saw I thing before obscene
That rose from mire inbetween 28
A shade there formed of face I'd known
Com-patriot of distant home
Stares at me as I all shivver
Stands O'Reilly (dreadful sinner!) 32
Screams 'Who are you before your time
That floats across this world of slime?'
I answered him 'O slave of sin
You're looking great, so very thin 36
And I may come and I may go
But after all you'll never know.'*
And then I pulled my trusty glock
And had him in the crosshairs locked 40
I shot the fiend in his fiend head
Then spat into the river red
And then my guide, he then rejoiced
As singing raised he up his voice 44
And called he to the heaven's there
With words that burned in blackest air
'This my friend is right, is proper
These foul souls have come a cropper 48
Damned by God, by world forgotten
Curse their souls with curses rotten.'
I to him, 'I'd see him suffer!'
'Underneath this river smothered.' 52
He to me 'You'll get your wish
His torture here provides us bliss!
Our bliss, our bliss, the very joy!
To know his soul is devil toyed.' 56
Layed he then his palms together
Asking God for hell forever.
Continued on to distant gate
Where Phleg-Yas left us to our fate 60
And spikes arose like tongues of flame
Where devils lived and demons reigned.
So stood we there upon the brink
My mind so cowed I could not think 64
And up upon the rampart wall
A thousand devils made the call
'Who is this who without death
Can journey through the land of dread.' 68
My master made a secret sign
That devils knew from former time
Supressed they then their great disdain
These angels who from Heaven rained.** 72
But angel gate would open not
Our path ahead it seemed was blocked
But Virgil turns to me and says
'Now One descends through Lion's Gate.' 76
Who has been charged to clear our way
Till welcome here we must now pray
So knealth we there, with out escape
In fear I wept with mouth agape 80
As parley not the lords of rot
And jeered they from the rampart top.
* you'll never know refers to the punishment ascribed to all sinners that they should know the past and the future but not the present. They could remember and look forward to nothing but pain.
** angels rained regers to the fallen, the angels who aligned with Satan in the Great Rebellion. See Milton, Paradise Lost.
Fecking (Feck)
An Irish expletive. It has all the benefits of 'fuck' but without the extreme sexual overtone. It can in fact mean nearly anything (including intercourse.)
Example: adjective
I kicked that fecking cat right in its fecking hole, fecking noise it made.
Example: adjective
I was in with the wife last night, fecking whore kept changing the fecking channel on the fecking fecking television. I was going fecking mad.
Example: noun
Come here t'me now yee little feck.
As you can see 'feck' is a hugely useful word. In far parts of the globe where the word 'fuck' may get you beheaded or brutally sodomized or somesuch, 'feck' will cause you no such trouble. In the lexicon of profanity 'feck' is a clear marker of a particular culture and a very particular place. If there be a better everyday expletive than 'feck' I've yet to hear it.
The word was used so prolifically that it almost died out as it was replaced by harder and harsher words in the awful eighties and 'cool' 90's.
An Irish expletive. It has all the benefits of 'fuck' but without the extreme sexual overtone. It can in fact mean nearly anything (including intercourse.)
Example: adjective
I kicked that fecking cat right in its fecking hole, fecking noise it made.
Example: adjective
I was in with the wife last night, fecking whore kept changing the fecking channel on the fecking fecking television. I was going fecking mad.
Example: noun
Come here t'me now yee little feck.
As you can see 'feck' is a hugely useful word. In far parts of the globe where the word 'fuck' may get you beheaded or brutally sodomized or somesuch, 'feck' will cause you no such trouble. In the lexicon of profanity 'feck' is a clear marker of a particular culture and a very particular place. If there be a better everyday expletive than 'feck' I've yet to hear it.
The word was used so prolifically that it almost died out as it was replaced by harder and harsher words in the awful eighties and 'cool' 90's.
I'm working on some sketches from one of the later Canto's. It deals with a charactar called FARINATA which refers supposedly to an Italian Aristocrat.
Blogger is acting up again, I'll post the sketches later.
Blogger is acting up again, I'll post the sketches later.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Project Dante
Canto VII
'Pape Satan, Demon Leader!' 1
Plutus screams O fearful reader
There shook I from demons cries
The gentle sage, my noble guide 4
He taps me on the arm and says
'Stay true upon this troubled day
This monster has no power here
So follow we, the way is shear.' 8
Then turned he to the demon there
And silenced him with stinging glare
'Upon your spite let your-self feed
While down we go on journey deep.' 12
So demon drops like wind starved sail
As walked we on to Devil's Dale 14
And found ourselves by purple shore
Where universe of ills are stored 16
And all around us spirits rolled
Great weights that bound their living souls 18
And all of them before me ranged
Would walk about till bumped then change
To turn and push this useless rock
The other way till again was knocked 22
'Why do you waste?', ''Why do you squander?'
They cry in pain as round they wander
'Who are these souls that toil below?'
I asked my guide with voice set low 26
He answered me with sideways look
And then his head he slowly shook
'These souls to left and those to right
Were squint of mind in former life' 30
'Do I know these?' I quickly asked
As looking I with spite on mass
He looked at me and answered thus
'They're all the same that sin has brushed 34
Those misers who endured the fall
Their faces lost beyond recall
They swapped their souls for worthless gold
Now spend their days in toil and scold 38
Ill giving and ill keeping cost
These sinners in this land of sobs
Away with we, no pity here!'
He scolded as he led me clear 42
'O dullard, o paltroon, how dumb can you be
Why Fortune is goddess of destiny's tree
When God the Almighty the heavens He made
He set Fortune among us to circumstance trade 46
Now all that are born stand on destiny's path
Where your fate she lies wait like a rake in the grass.'
Why then Virgil looks up to check he the time
And says he abruptly 'Now onward we climb.' 50
And so we then toiled to the far distant shore
That filled and spilled from a foaming course
Together by these shadowed waves
That terminate this pathway strange 54
Beside the waters known as Styx
Its surface slimed with spirits slicked
And all of those, against they railed
Their fellows with their arms they flailed 58
And tore each other with their teeth
As legs and hands and heads they beat
'Why here resides,' my guide then says
'Those drawn to rage at every breath 62
And others who did sullen sigh
When air was bright and sun was high.' 64
And so then Virgil gestured on
And skirted me this slimy pond
And as we left by wails were chased
From mire to far towers base 68
Canto VII
'Pape Satan, Demon Leader!' 1
Plutus screams O fearful reader
There shook I from demons cries
The gentle sage, my noble guide 4
He taps me on the arm and says
'Stay true upon this troubled day
This monster has no power here
So follow we, the way is shear.' 8
Then turned he to the demon there
And silenced him with stinging glare
'Upon your spite let your-self feed
While down we go on journey deep.' 12
So demon drops like wind starved sail
As walked we on to Devil's Dale 14
And found ourselves by purple shore
Where universe of ills are stored 16
And all around us spirits rolled
Great weights that bound their living souls 18
And all of them before me ranged
Would walk about till bumped then change
To turn and push this useless rock
The other way till again was knocked 22
'Why do you waste?', ''Why do you squander?'
They cry in pain as round they wander
'Who are these souls that toil below?'
I asked my guide with voice set low 26
He answered me with sideways look
And then his head he slowly shook
'These souls to left and those to right
Were squint of mind in former life' 30
'Do I know these?' I quickly asked
As looking I with spite on mass
He looked at me and answered thus
'They're all the same that sin has brushed 34
Those misers who endured the fall
Their faces lost beyond recall
They swapped their souls for worthless gold
Now spend their days in toil and scold 38
Ill giving and ill keeping cost
These sinners in this land of sobs
Away with we, no pity here!'
He scolded as he led me clear 42
'O dullard, o paltroon, how dumb can you be
Why Fortune is goddess of destiny's tree
When God the Almighty the heavens He made
He set Fortune among us to circumstance trade 46
Now all that are born stand on destiny's path
Where your fate she lies wait like a rake in the grass.'
Why then Virgil looks up to check he the time
And says he abruptly 'Now onward we climb.' 50
And so we then toiled to the far distant shore
That filled and spilled from a foaming course
Together by these shadowed waves
That terminate this pathway strange 54
Beside the waters known as Styx
Its surface slimed with spirits slicked
And all of those, against they railed
Their fellows with their arms they flailed 58
And tore each other with their teeth
As legs and hands and heads they beat
'Why here resides,' my guide then says
'Those drawn to rage at every breath 62
And others who did sullen sigh
When air was bright and sun was high.' 64
And so then Virgil gestured on
And skirted me this slimy pond
And as we left by wails were chased
From mire to far towers base 68
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Friday, October 13, 2006
This is a post I did for a little thing I'm working on.
Dear Reader
It seems that our warning has not been heeded. Therefore we must proceed then.
Welcome sinners to Hell as our heroes arrive at the gates to the underworld. The line starting with ' abandon hope' is often misquoted as being the start and indeed the end of a statement, as oppsed to it merely being the end of a much longer statement. Without further ado I introduce to you Dante's Inferno Canto III
Canto III
'Righteous anger made me be 1
My master is divinity'
These words their meaning so unclear
'Abandon hope, who enter here' 4
Inscribed above the gate it read
The words above my quaking head
Had seen and to my master cried
Who looked at me with counting eye 8
'Beyond this gate' he says to me
'A journey through calamity 10
Now you must set your fear at bay
If you would last this fearsome way 12
For you will see the land of death
Where first to go is intellect
And you must never hesitate
If you would see far heaven's gate' 16
And saying so he took my hand
And entered we among the damned
Where whispers strange and dreadful sounds
Came pouring from the very ground 20
And beating hands fanned turbid air
For those who failed to choose dwelt there
Then Virgil turned to me and said
With words of fear full dipped in dread 24
'These souls that writhe before your eyes
Are those in life who chose no side
And angels who from conflict strayed
When God and Satan battle made 28
And so from world made black and white
These cowards who chose not to fight
The heavens cast them out in shame
Their greatest sin, they lived in vain' 32
'But why so loud do these souls wail?'
I asked him with my lips turned pale
He looked at me with hooded gaze
'I'll say it short I can' he says 36
'The world will let no fame endure
Of these poor souls from heaven spurned
Beyond all hope we must disdain
These wretched souls that live in pain' 40
And so the great one quickly passed
As vision on my eyeball cast
A banner moved across the plain
And conga line there chased in vain 44
A million souls and more I saw
And some I knew to break God's law
The sky was filled with wasps and flies
As tears of blood fell from their eyes 48
That rained onto a mess of worms
Which feasted as their bellies churned
Beyond the press of screaming souls
A river cross the landscape flowed 52
And then I saw the crowded shore
'Who are these souls?' I then implored 54
But Virgil did not answer me
He moved away then beckoned he
And once beside the restless stream
A shape I saw from darkest dream
As boat then sails from out of dark
By Charon helmed with eyes like sparks 60
Then cried he loud in dreadful shout
And gestures as he sorts souls out
'Oh woe to you corrupted souls
By heaven now abandon hope 64
I'll lead you to the other side
To darkness, pain and burning fire'
And then he turns to me and says
'You shall not pass o yee not dead' 68
My guide then Virgil turns to him
And silenced him with sentence grim
Saying 'Charon, don't torment your mind
His passage has been willed you'll find 72
And one should do what one is told
So ferry us cross water cold'
Then silence fell on woolly cheeks
As round him spirits gnashed their teeth 76
And cursed their very lives they did
Then Charon to their fate he bid
I could not grasp this fearful scale
Of evil passed through mortal vale 80
And then the ground began to shake
The red air burned now set ablaze
The burning earth beneath my soles
Was rocking like the Beatles roll 84
And sudden I was in a sweat
As whirlwinds from the pit past swept
My mind recoiled from this fould taint
And keeled I down in sudden faint 88
This is a fairly straight adaption of the real Canto from the Comedy. I like the imagary in it, they'res a lot of very obscure but logical ideas knocking around in the verse. (his not mine)
Dante and Virgil, his guide, enter under the gate into the underworld. Virgil tells Dante that the people he sees in torment are the cowards who failed to pick a side in life and angels that refused to fight for God or for Satan at the great rebellion. Beyond them lies the river Acheron and the boatman Charon, culled from classic legend.
When Charon sees Dante he tells him that he will not ferry the living. Virgil intervenes telling Charon that his passing has been blessed from above, ref. Dante Inferno Canto III Line 95
A huge spasm rocks the the plain and foul vapors and blasts of light knock Dante into a sudden faint. Beyond this place lies the first circle of hell proper, this place being reserved for those that both heaven and hell refused to house because of their lack of choice.
1 Line one refers to the inscription on the gate which seperates the dark wood from the underworld. It follows by saying 'My Master was divinity.' A reference to God.
4 The traditional incantion that people remember of the gates incription. The reference is actually much longer. It goes (depending on translation) something like this.
THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY
THROUGH ME THE WAY TO ETERNAL PAIN
THROUGH ME THE WAY THAT RUNS AMONG THE LOST.
JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGHEST ARTIFICER;
MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY
THE HIGHEST WISDOM AND THE PRIMAL LOVE
BEFORE ME THERE WAS NAUGHT BUT ETERNAL THINGS MADE
AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY
ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE
10 Once before the gate Virgil turns to Dante and warns him about what he must face.
12 fearsome way Hell
24 Lines 24 and onwards point to the existence of this first circle. Virgil first describes them as 'those who lived without disgrace and without praise.' and 'coward angels' ref Milton Paradise Lost.
43 'A banner moved across the plain' actually refered to by Dante as 'saw a banner that, as it wheeled about, raced on - so quick that respite seemed unsuited to it.' In Dante's deeply ironic vision of the afterlife the fallen souls are often punished with tortures that directly answer their particular sin. Between the gate and the river Acheron which lies ahead the plain is crowded with a multitude and through this a banner flies all about. Behind this the cowards are forced to chase, a metaphor for the choices they refused to make when still alive. What a wheeze.
Your very best friend
Brother Grim
PS My Colleague (Brother Grimy) has promised to provide some sketches (at last) of the work beyond Canto I. I shall post them post haste.
PPS Please consider yourselves warned (yet again.)
Dear Reader
It seems that our warning has not been heeded. Therefore we must proceed then.
Welcome sinners to Hell as our heroes arrive at the gates to the underworld. The line starting with ' abandon hope' is often misquoted as being the start and indeed the end of a statement, as oppsed to it merely being the end of a much longer statement. Without further ado I introduce to you Dante's Inferno Canto III
Canto III
'Righteous anger made me be 1
My master is divinity'
These words their meaning so unclear
'Abandon hope, who enter here' 4
Inscribed above the gate it read
The words above my quaking head
Had seen and to my master cried
Who looked at me with counting eye 8
'Beyond this gate' he says to me
'A journey through calamity 10
Now you must set your fear at bay
If you would last this fearsome way 12
For you will see the land of death
Where first to go is intellect
And you must never hesitate
If you would see far heaven's gate' 16
And saying so he took my hand
And entered we among the damned
Where whispers strange and dreadful sounds
Came pouring from the very ground 20
And beating hands fanned turbid air
For those who failed to choose dwelt there
Then Virgil turned to me and said
With words of fear full dipped in dread 24
'These souls that writhe before your eyes
Are those in life who chose no side
And angels who from conflict strayed
When God and Satan battle made 28
And so from world made black and white
These cowards who chose not to fight
The heavens cast them out in shame
Their greatest sin, they lived in vain' 32
'But why so loud do these souls wail?'
I asked him with my lips turned pale
He looked at me with hooded gaze
'I'll say it short I can' he says 36
'The world will let no fame endure
Of these poor souls from heaven spurned
Beyond all hope we must disdain
These wretched souls that live in pain' 40
And so the great one quickly passed
As vision on my eyeball cast
A banner moved across the plain
And conga line there chased in vain 44
A million souls and more I saw
And some I knew to break God's law
The sky was filled with wasps and flies
As tears of blood fell from their eyes 48
That rained onto a mess of worms
Which feasted as their bellies churned
Beyond the press of screaming souls
A river cross the landscape flowed 52
And then I saw the crowded shore
'Who are these souls?' I then implored 54
But Virgil did not answer me
He moved away then beckoned he
And once beside the restless stream
A shape I saw from darkest dream
As boat then sails from out of dark
By Charon helmed with eyes like sparks 60
Then cried he loud in dreadful shout
And gestures as he sorts souls out
'Oh woe to you corrupted souls
By heaven now abandon hope 64
I'll lead you to the other side
To darkness, pain and burning fire'
And then he turns to me and says
'You shall not pass o yee not dead' 68
My guide then Virgil turns to him
And silenced him with sentence grim
Saying 'Charon, don't torment your mind
His passage has been willed you'll find 72
And one should do what one is told
So ferry us cross water cold'
Then silence fell on woolly cheeks
As round him spirits gnashed their teeth 76
And cursed their very lives they did
Then Charon to their fate he bid
I could not grasp this fearful scale
Of evil passed through mortal vale 80
And then the ground began to shake
The red air burned now set ablaze
The burning earth beneath my soles
Was rocking like the Beatles roll 84
And sudden I was in a sweat
As whirlwinds from the pit past swept
My mind recoiled from this fould taint
And keeled I down in sudden faint 88
This is a fairly straight adaption of the real Canto from the Comedy. I like the imagary in it, they'res a lot of very obscure but logical ideas knocking around in the verse. (his not mine)
Dante and Virgil, his guide, enter under the gate into the underworld. Virgil tells Dante that the people he sees in torment are the cowards who failed to pick a side in life and angels that refused to fight for God or for Satan at the great rebellion. Beyond them lies the river Acheron and the boatman Charon, culled from classic legend.
When Charon sees Dante he tells him that he will not ferry the living. Virgil intervenes telling Charon that his passing has been blessed from above, ref. Dante Inferno Canto III Line 95
A huge spasm rocks the the plain and foul vapors and blasts of light knock Dante into a sudden faint. Beyond this place lies the first circle of hell proper, this place being reserved for those that both heaven and hell refused to house because of their lack of choice.
1 Line one refers to the inscription on the gate which seperates the dark wood from the underworld. It follows by saying 'My Master was divinity.' A reference to God.
4 The traditional incantion that people remember of the gates incription. The reference is actually much longer. It goes (depending on translation) something like this.
THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY
THROUGH ME THE WAY TO ETERNAL PAIN
THROUGH ME THE WAY THAT RUNS AMONG THE LOST.
JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGHEST ARTIFICER;
MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY
THE HIGHEST WISDOM AND THE PRIMAL LOVE
BEFORE ME THERE WAS NAUGHT BUT ETERNAL THINGS MADE
AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY
ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE
10 Once before the gate Virgil turns to Dante and warns him about what he must face.
12 fearsome way Hell
24 Lines 24 and onwards point to the existence of this first circle. Virgil first describes them as 'those who lived without disgrace and without praise.' and 'coward angels' ref Milton Paradise Lost.
43 'A banner moved across the plain' actually refered to by Dante as 'saw a banner that, as it wheeled about, raced on - so quick that respite seemed unsuited to it.' In Dante's deeply ironic vision of the afterlife the fallen souls are often punished with tortures that directly answer their particular sin. Between the gate and the river Acheron which lies ahead the plain is crowded with a multitude and through this a banner flies all about. Behind this the cowards are forced to chase, a metaphor for the choices they refused to make when still alive. What a wheeze.
Your very best friend
Brother Grim
PS My Colleague (Brother Grimy) has promised to provide some sketches (at last) of the work beyond Canto I. I shall post them post haste.
PPS Please consider yourselves warned (yet again.)
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Canto I, III, IV, V & VI are done with some further revision needed at a later date to refine the sins and punishments of the different levels. I'll be posting some sketches later for some of the later Canto's (sketches being drawings not verses.)
Blogger seems to be choking right now so I'll post the sketches later.
PS If you haven't checked out the vid below of the AutoUnion Type D then treat yourself, do it.
Blogger seems to be choking right now so I'll post the sketches later.
PS If you haven't checked out the vid below of the AutoUnion Type D then treat yourself, do it.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
The Auto Union Type D in an event in New York, thats the Audi LeMans in the background at the end. You can see some drawings I did of this car here
Project Dante
Canto VI
Then upon my minds reviving 1
Found myself on ground reclining
Saw I things that chilled my marrow
Souls immersed in graves foul shallow 4
Blinking back the tears now streaming
Eyes stung blind by blizzard screaming
Hailstones gross and raindrops greasy
Rancid stench makes stomach queasy 8
Under tumbled surface moaning
Spirits of the damned lay groaning
Over these a demon towered
Burning eyes of three heads glowered 12
All the while they scream like dogs
Trapped beneath this stinking bog 14
So Virgil stoops while I in awe
And throws he earth into the maw
Who wimpers like a scalded pup
Then over goes till toes were up 18
So walked we then across this field
Of sinners under water sealed
And Virgil told me who they were
The gluttons who did linger there 22
Then saw I spirit in the distance
Questioned I mirage existence
Figure turns to me fast walking
Starts this gargoyle anguished talking 26
Screams he does his face in pain
Battered by the stinging rain
'Oh you that travel through this hell
Recall me fore I downward fell?' 30
'I can't recall' I answered him
'No person with your visage grim
But tell me sir about your flaw
That cast you out against God's law?' 34
'For gluttony I fell in sin
Beyond all hope of risen King
But tell I tale of city great
Where sickness is the native state 38
I tell you this, within three suns
The walls will shake to many guns'
'What happens to these fractured souls?'
In agony I begged to know 42
'Can none be saved?' I almost raved
'The path to hell is merit paved'
He ghastly said with lips all torn
'No none shall live' to me he warned 46
'I need to know' to him I plead
'My fellows all do God's word heed?'
He looked at me and ghastly said
'They all fell here upon their death 50
Six billions souls and more on earth
But only one or two of worth
For every million doomed to burn
There might be one who heaven earns' 54
He goes all quite and dips his brow
My guide says 'He will rise not now
Until the final judgement come
When answer all to Saviour's drum' 58
Then walking down Inferno's path
He brings us close to Plutus wrath 60
Canto VI
Then upon my minds reviving 1
Found myself on ground reclining
Saw I things that chilled my marrow
Souls immersed in graves foul shallow 4
Blinking back the tears now streaming
Eyes stung blind by blizzard screaming
Hailstones gross and raindrops greasy
Rancid stench makes stomach queasy 8
Under tumbled surface moaning
Spirits of the damned lay groaning
Over these a demon towered
Burning eyes of three heads glowered 12
All the while they scream like dogs
Trapped beneath this stinking bog 14
So Virgil stoops while I in awe
And throws he earth into the maw
Who wimpers like a scalded pup
Then over goes till toes were up 18
So walked we then across this field
Of sinners under water sealed
And Virgil told me who they were
The gluttons who did linger there 22
Then saw I spirit in the distance
Questioned I mirage existence
Figure turns to me fast walking
Starts this gargoyle anguished talking 26
Screams he does his face in pain
Battered by the stinging rain
'Oh you that travel through this hell
Recall me fore I downward fell?' 30
'I can't recall' I answered him
'No person with your visage grim
But tell me sir about your flaw
That cast you out against God's law?' 34
'For gluttony I fell in sin
Beyond all hope of risen King
But tell I tale of city great
Where sickness is the native state 38
I tell you this, within three suns
The walls will shake to many guns'
'What happens to these fractured souls?'
In agony I begged to know 42
'Can none be saved?' I almost raved
'The path to hell is merit paved'
He ghastly said with lips all torn
'No none shall live' to me he warned 46
'I need to know' to him I plead
'My fellows all do God's word heed?'
He looked at me and ghastly said
'They all fell here upon their death 50
Six billions souls and more on earth
But only one or two of worth
For every million doomed to burn
There might be one who heaven earns' 54
He goes all quite and dips his brow
My guide says 'He will rise not now
Until the final judgement come
When answer all to Saviour's drum' 58
Then walking down Inferno's path
He brings us close to Plutus wrath 60
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Project Dante
I've done all the canto's up to VI which I'm now working on. I skipped Canto II altogether for the moment, I just couldn't get it to work. I'll deal with it later, maybe when I figure out how to end the entire thing after XXXIV. More on that later. I've done a lot of sketching and I think I have Virgil and Dante designed somewhat to my liking but nearly everything else is in a state of flux.
I have to say that things are going faster than I thought they might. Perhaps because the story and framework are already provided, I don't know yet. Anyway, the Inferno is turning out to be a fascinating study.
I told my father what I was doing when he was here on vacation (as you Americans say.) He seemed somewhat shocked asking 'do you know what thats about?' I know what its about, who else does, no one really seems to have read it. It sometimes appears that as a species we don't particularly have need for the thing instead of the symbol. What I mean is that 'Dante' or the 'Inferno' is enough, basically we have replaced the entire poem with a reference to its author or its first part. But whats inside? Maybe it doesn't matter and things such as this contain something different for each person. Maybe the very reference of 'Dante' simply conjures up for us our own level within its boundaries. It is enough that it be and that someone else has read it.
I've done all the canto's up to VI which I'm now working on. I skipped Canto II altogether for the moment, I just couldn't get it to work. I'll deal with it later, maybe when I figure out how to end the entire thing after XXXIV. More on that later. I've done a lot of sketching and I think I have Virgil and Dante designed somewhat to my liking but nearly everything else is in a state of flux.
I have to say that things are going faster than I thought they might. Perhaps because the story and framework are already provided, I don't know yet. Anyway, the Inferno is turning out to be a fascinating study.
I told my father what I was doing when he was here on vacation (as you Americans say.) He seemed somewhat shocked asking 'do you know what thats about?' I know what its about, who else does, no one really seems to have read it. It sometimes appears that as a species we don't particularly have need for the thing instead of the symbol. What I mean is that 'Dante' or the 'Inferno' is enough, basically we have replaced the entire poem with a reference to its author or its first part. But whats inside? Maybe it doesn't matter and things such as this contain something different for each person. Maybe the very reference of 'Dante' simply conjures up for us our own level within its boundaries. It is enough that it be and that someone else has read it.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Canto IV
I woke to heavy thunderclap 1
As if two titans met and clashed
And stood then I and stared around
To see what place had me surround 4
I found myself upon the brink
The burning edge of hell's first ring
And looked I down into abyss
Deep valley that was filled with mist 8
And cries and wails assailed my ears
Moans of sadness dim and drear
Whispers by me slowly drifted
From a crowd of people lifted 12
Children sighed in sadness born
Before the savior crowned in thorns
Guide Virgil leads the way ahead
As followed I in growing dread 16
So we traversed that lonely way
With halting breath I softly prayed
And on the road through Limbo town
I saw a host all spread around 20
'You know the crime for which we dwell
Upon the bitter slopes of hell?'
I answered 'No' as down I climbed
He stumbled then as if struck blind 24
'The only sin we've ever known
Is not to worship God alone
These born before the risen Christ
Salvation lost for un-baptized' 28
'Can none be saved?' I begged to know
He told me this in voice full slow
'When first I came to this foul place
I saw a Lord descend in flames 32
And gathered he the kings of old
Were lifted in his golden robe
And all the lords of Israel past
Were saved as helpless demons gnashed 36
Now thirteen hundred years have gone
And yet poor Virgil lingers on
For always and a day we'll bide
In death beyond the risen Christ' 40
That God would let these souls be damned
In burning pit their spirits crammed
Because they knew not God alone
He cast them from his shining throne 44
So on we walked through hell's first ring
With subjects filled but with no king
And so beyond this Limbo town
We found the gate to second round. 48
I woke to heavy thunderclap 1
As if two titans met and clashed
And stood then I and stared around
To see what place had me surround 4
I found myself upon the brink
The burning edge of hell's first ring
And looked I down into abyss
Deep valley that was filled with mist 8
And cries and wails assailed my ears
Moans of sadness dim and drear
Whispers by me slowly drifted
From a crowd of people lifted 12
Children sighed in sadness born
Before the savior crowned in thorns
Guide Virgil leads the way ahead
As followed I in growing dread 16
So we traversed that lonely way
With halting breath I softly prayed
And on the road through Limbo town
I saw a host all spread around 20
'You know the crime for which we dwell
Upon the bitter slopes of hell?'
I answered 'No' as down I climbed
He stumbled then as if struck blind 24
'The only sin we've ever known
Is not to worship God alone
These born before the risen Christ
Salvation lost for un-baptized' 28
'Can none be saved?' I begged to know
He told me this in voice full slow
'When first I came to this foul place
I saw a Lord descend in flames 32
And gathered he the kings of old
Were lifted in his golden robe
And all the lords of Israel past
Were saved as helpless demons gnashed 36
Now thirteen hundred years have gone
And yet poor Virgil lingers on
For always and a day we'll bide
In death beyond the risen Christ' 40
That God would let these souls be damned
In burning pit their spirits crammed
Because they knew not God alone
He cast them from his shining throne 44
So on we walked through hell's first ring
With subjects filled but with no king
And so beyond this Limbo town
We found the gate to second round. 48
Canto V
So then we neared hell's second gate 1
I saw a vision carved from hate
The demon Minas flicked his tail
To whip the damned until they wailed 4
With stripes he left on peoples souls
Their place in hell was bound to roll
Then seeing me the demon cried
'Welcome to hell, the way is wide!' 8
My guide then quickly turned to him
And silenced him with sentence grim
'O Minas don't torment your mind
His passing has been blessed you'll find 12
And one should do just what ones told
So carry us through portal cold'
The demon Minas lashed his tail
But us he could not we assail 16
As walked we through to hell's next round
My ears were numbed by dreadful sound
Saw I a flock of starlings there
Now down now up in burning air 20
In a cloud of millions tattered
Down and out and in they scattered
Screaming all the time in voices
Cursing God for lifes poor choices 24
Blown about by hells hot fury
Doomed by God alone, no jury 28
I asked my master 'Who are these'
'Who struggle on this restless breeze?' 32
My master stood with brows crease covered
'Tis the fate for mankind's lovers
See the souls who broke God's laws
Queen of old who scandal caused 36
Cleopatra follows next
Her sinful soul denied all rest
Next the heroes of fair Troy
Immortal souls by cyclone toyed' 40
Ladies great and knights full bold
Were tossed within this blizzard cold
And spied I then some souls I'd known
Who suffered in the tempest blown 44
'Master might I call these two?'
I asked as by me hot wind blow
'I'm sure they'll come' to me replied
So called I then as by they flied 48
So came they over circled me
And listened to my begging plea
'Oh battered souls Inferno blow
How came you to this place most low?' 52
They answered me with heartfelt cry
'Our souls were cast here when we died
While books we'd read of Lancelot
Have cast us out, our souls it cost 56
Though we had loved each other well
It damned us both to live in hell'
They spoke to me of all they were
And wept I then with tears unspared
These gentle souls by God's define
Had desecrate the human shrine 60
My mind recoiled from hellish strain
So down I went in faint again 62
So then we neared hell's second gate 1
I saw a vision carved from hate
The demon Minas flicked his tail
To whip the damned until they wailed 4
With stripes he left on peoples souls
Their place in hell was bound to roll
Then seeing me the demon cried
'Welcome to hell, the way is wide!' 8
My guide then quickly turned to him
And silenced him with sentence grim
'O Minas don't torment your mind
His passing has been blessed you'll find 12
And one should do just what ones told
So carry us through portal cold'
The demon Minas lashed his tail
But us he could not we assail 16
As walked we through to hell's next round
My ears were numbed by dreadful sound
Saw I a flock of starlings there
Now down now up in burning air 20
In a cloud of millions tattered
Down and out and in they scattered
Screaming all the time in voices
Cursing God for lifes poor choices 24
Blown about by hells hot fury
Doomed by God alone, no jury 28
I asked my master 'Who are these'
'Who struggle on this restless breeze?' 32
My master stood with brows crease covered
'Tis the fate for mankind's lovers
See the souls who broke God's laws
Queen of old who scandal caused 36
Cleopatra follows next
Her sinful soul denied all rest
Next the heroes of fair Troy
Immortal souls by cyclone toyed' 40
Ladies great and knights full bold
Were tossed within this blizzard cold
And spied I then some souls I'd known
Who suffered in the tempest blown 44
'Master might I call these two?'
I asked as by me hot wind blow
'I'm sure they'll come' to me replied
So called I then as by they flied 48
So came they over circled me
And listened to my begging plea
'Oh battered souls Inferno blow
How came you to this place most low?' 52
They answered me with heartfelt cry
'Our souls were cast here when we died
While books we'd read of Lancelot
Have cast us out, our souls it cost 56
Though we had loved each other well
It damned us both to live in hell'
They spoke to me of all they were
And wept I then with tears unspared
These gentle souls by God's define
Had desecrate the human shrine 60
My mind recoiled from hellish strain
So down I went in faint again 62
Poor MichaelI talked to a friend yesterday about the Suzuka result. He thought I was going to gloat about Micheals engine going boom but was suprised to find me saying that the entire thing was a pity.
It was a pity, it was a pity just like the stewards stepping in at Monza was a pity. I wanted to see these guys race, I wanted to see a competition to the bitter end, not a mechanical failure and certainly not an arbitary judgement from a partisan steward in one or other drivers favor. On the one hand I'm very sorry for Michael, the title is lost. On the other, well I have been pushing for Alonso to win for the season. I've supported Alonso because he could take the fight to Michael and Ferrari, not because he was dominating the competition but with him there is a competition.
When I saw the Ferrari lump go I was stunned, Ferrari's don't break do they?
They do.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Friday, October 06, 2006
I need to get down and design the she wolf properly and theres a hell of a lot of polishing, but I'm ready to move on. The style isn't nearly developed enough for me to lock this down, stuff will develop on further pieces so I choose not to waste time now doing stuff that in all probability will be changed later.Its a good start for the entire series of pieces rather than being an admirable finish for an individual piece.
Heres a snapshot of how far I've gotten. Mostly detailing for now. I need to get back to pay money work.The image size is 7x10" for a page dimension of 8x11. I'm thinking about dropping the splash images into stroked boxes with about a half inch to the edge of the page. I know that I need a page dimension thats taller than it is wide because the verses of the 'Inferno' are so bloody long and I'll need to get a lot onto each page if the project is to be contained and hopefully printed.
Oh yeah, I'm laying off a second color for now. I think that setting it up for a 1 color press is the way to go for now. I can add a spot later for highlights on a few chosen pages. If I do decide to accent I want the option of using a few well chosen colors in a logical progression when the layouts start to come together.
Just adding more and more shapes in the background color layer (layer 1)The method is pretty simple, just drawing like irregular shapes with the odd curve thrown in underneath the ink and highlight layers (layers 2 and 3 respectively.) I've got the middle of the piece well on its way, now I need to start pushing out to bring the whole thing together.
I like my Virgil, its not typically as the charactar appears in classic illustration, certainly nothing like the Gustav Dore version. I think I've based mine more on a Obi-Wan kind of figure, fairly gentle but not without a sharp word. Dante is just the amiable idiot required for the plot to move forward.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Starting to get closer to the artboard to start to lay in some detail. The detail, all picked out in black is all on a new layer on top of all the others. You can see the hard edged shapes I used to put down behind the drawing layer itself, thats the kind of look I want to play around with first to see if I can make it work.
Work continues on Project Dante. This is me messing about with an illustration for Canto I, not exactly sure which ways its going to go just yet.I'm spending the day ferrying my father and his friend around, so I'm kind of glad blogger decided to work this morning (for once.)
I picked a blue line for this because I need it to stand out while I do the tracing. Red would have worked too, but blue seemed more fitting somehow.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Project Dante
Canto III
'Righteous anger made me be 1
My master is divinity'
These words their meaning so unclear
'Abandon hope, who enter here' 4
Inscribed above the gate it read
The words above my quaking head
Had seen and to my master cried
Who looked at me with counting eye 8
'Beyond this gate' he says to me
'A journey through calamity
Now you must set your fear at bay
If you would last this fearsome way 12
For you will see the land of death
Where first to go is intellect
And you must never hesitate
If you would see far heaven's gate' 16
And saying so he took my hand
And entered we among the damned
Whispers strange and dreadful sounds
That seemed to come from neath the ground 20
And beating hands fanned turbid air
For those who failed to choose dwelt there
Then Virgil turned to me and said
With words of fear full dipped in dread 24
'These souls that writhe before your eyes
Are those in life who chose no side
And angels who from conflict strayed
When God and Satan battle made 28
And so from world made black and white
These cowards who chose not to fight
The heavens cast them out in shame
Their greatest sin, they lived in vain'
'But why so loud do these souls wail?'
I asked him with my lips turned pale
He looked at me with hooded gaze
'I'll say it short I can' he says 36
'The world will let no fame endure
Of these poor souls from heaven spurned
Beyond all hope we must disdain
These wretched souls that live in pain' 40
And so the great one quickly passed
As vision on my eyeball cast
A banner moved across the plain
And conga line there chased in vain 44
A million souls and more I saw
And some I knew to break God's law
The sky was filled with wasps and flies
As tears of blood fell from their eyes 48
That rained onto a mess of worms
Which feasted as their bellies churned
Beyond the press of screaming souls
A river cross the landscape flowed
And then I saw the crowded shore
'Who are these souls?' I then implored 54
But Virgil did not answer me
He moved away then beckoned he
And once beside the restless stream
A shape I saw from darkest dream
A boat then sails from out of dark
By Charon helmed with eyes like sparks 60
Then cried he loud in dreadful shout
And gestures as he sorts souls out
'Oh woe to you corrupted souls
By heaven now abandon hope 64
I'll lead you to the other side
To darkness, pain and burning fire'
And then he turns to me and says
'You shall not pass o yee not dead' 68
My guide then Virgil turns to him
And silenced him with sentence grim
Saying 'Charon, don't torment your mind
His passage has been willed you'll find 72
And one should do what one is told
So ferry us cross water cold'
Then silence fell on woolly cheeks
As round him spirits gnashed their teeth 76
And cursed their very lives they did
Then Charon to their fate he bid
I could not grasp this fearful scale
Of evil passed through mortal vale 80
And then the ground began to shake
The red air burned now set ablaze
The burning earth beneath my soles
Was rocking like the Beatles roll 84
And sudden I was in a sweat
As whirlwinds from the pit past swept
My mind recoiled from this fould taint
And keeled I down in sudden faint 88
This is a fairly straight adaption of the real Canto from the Comedy. I like the imagary in it, they'res a lot of very obscure but logical ideas knocking around in the verse. (his not mine)
Dante and Virgil, his guide, enter under the gate into the underworld. Virgil tells Dante that the people he sees in torment are the cowards who failed to pick a side in life and angels that refused to fight for God or for Satan at the great rebellion. They are forced to chase a banner, a metaphor for the choices they refused in life. Beyond them lies the river Acheron and the boatman Charon, culled from classic legend.
When Charon sees Dante he tells him that he will not ferry him across until Virgil intervenes. A huge spasm rocks the the plain and foul vapors and blasts of light knock Dante into a sudden faint. Beyond this place lies the first circle of hell proper, this place being reserved for those that both heaven and hell refused to house because of their lack of choice.
Canto III
'Righteous anger made me be 1
My master is divinity'
These words their meaning so unclear
'Abandon hope, who enter here' 4
Inscribed above the gate it read
The words above my quaking head
Had seen and to my master cried
Who looked at me with counting eye 8
'Beyond this gate' he says to me
'A journey through calamity
Now you must set your fear at bay
If you would last this fearsome way 12
For you will see the land of death
Where first to go is intellect
And you must never hesitate
If you would see far heaven's gate' 16
And saying so he took my hand
And entered we among the damned
Whispers strange and dreadful sounds
That seemed to come from neath the ground 20
And beating hands fanned turbid air
For those who failed to choose dwelt there
Then Virgil turned to me and said
With words of fear full dipped in dread 24
'These souls that writhe before your eyes
Are those in life who chose no side
And angels who from conflict strayed
When God and Satan battle made 28
And so from world made black and white
These cowards who chose not to fight
The heavens cast them out in shame
Their greatest sin, they lived in vain'
'But why so loud do these souls wail?'
I asked him with my lips turned pale
He looked at me with hooded gaze
'I'll say it short I can' he says 36
'The world will let no fame endure
Of these poor souls from heaven spurned
Beyond all hope we must disdain
These wretched souls that live in pain' 40
And so the great one quickly passed
As vision on my eyeball cast
A banner moved across the plain
And conga line there chased in vain 44
A million souls and more I saw
And some I knew to break God's law
The sky was filled with wasps and flies
As tears of blood fell from their eyes 48
That rained onto a mess of worms
Which feasted as their bellies churned
Beyond the press of screaming souls
A river cross the landscape flowed
And then I saw the crowded shore
'Who are these souls?' I then implored 54
But Virgil did not answer me
He moved away then beckoned he
And once beside the restless stream
A shape I saw from darkest dream
A boat then sails from out of dark
By Charon helmed with eyes like sparks 60
Then cried he loud in dreadful shout
And gestures as he sorts souls out
'Oh woe to you corrupted souls
By heaven now abandon hope 64
I'll lead you to the other side
To darkness, pain and burning fire'
And then he turns to me and says
'You shall not pass o yee not dead' 68
My guide then Virgil turns to him
And silenced him with sentence grim
Saying 'Charon, don't torment your mind
His passage has been willed you'll find 72
And one should do what one is told
So ferry us cross water cold'
Then silence fell on woolly cheeks
As round him spirits gnashed their teeth 76
And cursed their very lives they did
Then Charon to their fate he bid
I could not grasp this fearful scale
Of evil passed through mortal vale 80
And then the ground began to shake
The red air burned now set ablaze
The burning earth beneath my soles
Was rocking like the Beatles roll 84
And sudden I was in a sweat
As whirlwinds from the pit past swept
My mind recoiled from this fould taint
And keeled I down in sudden faint 88
This is a fairly straight adaption of the real Canto from the Comedy. I like the imagary in it, they'res a lot of very obscure but logical ideas knocking around in the verse. (his not mine)
Dante and Virgil, his guide, enter under the gate into the underworld. Virgil tells Dante that the people he sees in torment are the cowards who failed to pick a side in life and angels that refused to fight for God or for Satan at the great rebellion. They are forced to chase a banner, a metaphor for the choices they refused in life. Beyond them lies the river Acheron and the boatman Charon, culled from classic legend.
When Charon sees Dante he tells him that he will not ferry him across until Virgil intervenes. A huge spasm rocks the the plain and foul vapors and blasts of light knock Dante into a sudden faint. Beyond this place lies the first circle of hell proper, this place being reserved for those that both heaven and hell refused to house because of their lack of choice.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Started messing about with the first image for my Project Dante, just laying down lines in a bright color on my original scan.I want to keep this quite graphic and yet loose. I'm thinking of putting all the black line (ink) on a top layer and placing further layers of quite hard shapes below to get a kind of '101 dalmations' look.
No doubt that the answer will present itself after I play around for a while.
Project Dante
I started writing Canto III last night after skipping II for now. I just need to figure out what the crucial element of II is, I think it might be that Dante is told that Beatrice is the one who sent Virgil to lead him through the underworld and on to the purgatoria etc. Canto III is going well, I've just reached as far as Charon and the river Acheron and his curse and incantation.
This is is a fast marker sketch over pencil for the first page of Canto I. I scanned it inot photoshop and then dropped a multiply layer of a middle grey over it before cutting it back to get my light and dark. The only color will be small splashes of red, a little on Dante himself and in each of the animals eyes.
Monday, October 02, 2006
This is the same page except staged from the other side, looking up into the wook as opposed to looking out of it.The composition is based on a drawing by Gustave Dore. The leopard is in the tree on the left, the lion in the dark between the trees in the center and the wolf is nothing but a dark shadow against a tree at the top of the composition. Thats the shade of Virgil on the right hand side and Dante is front and centre in the frame.
Project Dante
For project Dante I decided to design the illustrations so they are very stark. Mostly black and white with the odd splash of color. The format I want to use has to be taller than it is wide because I'll need a lot of space for the poem which is long and complex. So I want to panel off the illustrations onto one side or other and use little spots much like my dog book. This is just a quick sketch to try and work out the first page which has to introduce Dante himself and set the scene.
Since I only have the first Canto written so far I'm just to try to get a sense of how big a job this might be. I want to do everything I can to minimize the amount of trouble I experience later on when I get further in. Anyway, the first Canto deals with Dante lost in a dark wood as various visions and metaphors stalk him before he meets Virgil, the Roman poet who offers to lead him through the underworld. The lion, leopard and she wolf are referenced from the Inferno and from my own rewrite.
In an attempt to get a handle on project DANTE I've goon back to polish my dog book from earlier in the year.I'm hoping to pass it out among some printer friends hoping they might have some suggestions on ways to optimize the process and get it printed as cost effectively as possible. I just want one final 'good' pdf so theres as few problem files as possible. Lots to fix, spot colors and such, transparencies etc.
This is the page spread for Constantine, the top layer is the blood and arm, the bottom is the figure and background and all that jazz.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
The Grand Prix from Bejing was run today, it was an incredible race. Schumacher came from fifth to win and Alonso made do with 2nd after a botched pitstop and a lousy set of tires. I was on the edge of my seat for the whole thing but I loved it, even though Michael won.
The championship is effectively tied, Alonso and Schumacher have exactly the same number of points. Ferrari and Renault are within a point of each other for the constructors championship, it just couldn't be closer with two races to go. I'm rooting for Alonso, but Ferrari aren't making any mistakes and won the race with a perfect strategy for Michael.
Massa is another story, I have nothing but contempt for him as a racing driver. The question for me is how long Ferrari can afford to keep him and his poor judgement and his rotten luck.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Qualifying from Bejing
And then it rained. It looked like disaster for the Renaults when they took to the track with the intermediate tires and both spun off within seconds. Was it too wet for even the Michelin tires, had the team miscalculated and sent the drivers out too early?
And then something amazing began to happen. On the next lap the Renaults started to lap consistantly, each lap faster than the last. Quicker and quicker they went, round and round, resetting P1 and fastest sector times every lap. And then it cut to Schumacher.
Schuey was fighting the car as the front washed wide on almost every turn. The Ferrari seemed like it was ready to snap on every entry, tear loose on every exit as its 2.4 litre V8 chugged under the traction control on the treacherous surface. But the inferior Bridgestones were no match for the French rubber and Michael struggled to stay in the top half of the final qualifying before slipping back to sixth place on the grid. With Massa starting from 23rd, after his ten place penalty and blown engine, Michael finds himself sandwiched between the two Maclarens with both Honda's occupying the row in front of him heading into an extremely tight first corner.
I don't know whats going to happen, but if this was a game of poker I'd say that Renault just took the Ferrari teams raise and re-raised back at them. The pressure is all back on the red team and Michael is left on his own to fight against a dominant qualifying performance by the Renault team in their title defence.
PS Go Alonso!
And then it rained. It looked like disaster for the Renaults when they took to the track with the intermediate tires and both spun off within seconds. Was it too wet for even the Michelin tires, had the team miscalculated and sent the drivers out too early?
And then something amazing began to happen. On the next lap the Renaults started to lap consistantly, each lap faster than the last. Quicker and quicker they went, round and round, resetting P1 and fastest sector times every lap. And then it cut to Schumacher.
Schuey was fighting the car as the front washed wide on almost every turn. The Ferrari seemed like it was ready to snap on every entry, tear loose on every exit as its 2.4 litre V8 chugged under the traction control on the treacherous surface. But the inferior Bridgestones were no match for the French rubber and Michael struggled to stay in the top half of the final qualifying before slipping back to sixth place on the grid. With Massa starting from 23rd, after his ten place penalty and blown engine, Michael finds himself sandwiched between the two Maclarens with both Honda's occupying the row in front of him heading into an extremely tight first corner.
I don't know whats going to happen, but if this was a game of poker I'd say that Renault just took the Ferrari teams raise and re-raised back at them. The pressure is all back on the red team and Michael is left on his own to fight against a dominant qualifying performance by the Renault team in their title defence.
PS Go Alonso!
Friday, September 29, 2006
Alfa Romeo pictures from Paris Motor Show.I'll take it, I'll take it over any modern ferrari you can name.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
This is the original sketch for the ape in the page spread below. I really like this drawing, it has a lot of character and its one of my favorite drawings of the ape I ever did.Now that I'm older I'm prepared to live with the work I've done previously which I could not do in the past. I used to draw something and within days decide that it was no good. I'm more inclined to the idea that a drawing is more like a moment in time, it is what it is and doesn't have to stand up to anything else that you do, now, later or before.
What I mean by that is that a drawing exists in two ways, as an expression of an idea in a given place in time and as a memory of an expression of an idea that occured independent of time.
Basically, a piece of art is just that, a piece. A finished image is only a snapshot of a thought that was followed through from an idea or concept, each stage is as valid as the original, or the final destination. Whether you're prepared to look back on your own work and decide that you like, or no longer like it is irrelevant to the position of the artwork in your previous existence. It may as well have been done by a different person, it was in fact done by a different person, namely you aged 30, or 25 or 20. As we age we grow and change and the art that we produce may not have a particular relevence to you now, at this point in time, but it has a relevence to a history of you and unto itself for no other reason than it exists. Get it? Its like the difference between a blade of grass and a lawn, both might achieve the same thing, but a lawn isn't measured by one blade of grass and a blade of grass isn't measured by a lawn. They each exist within their own framework and dimension, related though they are, and so each exists for its own sake and unto itself.
This is a page spread from the ape book. The idea was that the creationists and the evolutionists put the ape on trial each trying to prove the other wrong. The ape is an unwilling pawn in argument over evolution. The verses were on the left hand side.The creationists wanted to prove the ape is a debased human, the evolutionists that he is an evolved ape. In our modern political climate can you guess who might win if the Scopes Monkey trial were held today? I would bet a dollar both ways and break even. At least then I could say that I hadn't lost.
I did a sketch of the monkey dressed in a badly fitting suit with one of those hats like the one in 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.' The hitler moustach was a slip of the pencil but when I looked at it I roared with laughter. It seemed like the perfect metaphor for judicial bias to dress the ape like a confirmed idiot, not that such a thing might ever happen in an american courtroom...
Did you know? Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was directed by the great Frank Oz, yes that Frank Oz.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
1968 Lotus Type 49BBeautiful car from the start of the Ford DFV 'downforce' era of Formula 1 period.
Lotus's next car would be the Lotus 72 for 1969 which for all intensive purposes is the format on which all modern F1 cars are built.
In 1968 wings were added to F1 cars to supply downward lift, or downforce, to hold the cars to the road. If you look at the photos you can see that the wings are actually mounted to the suspension to transmit the downforce generated to the wheels and tyres of the car. They would be banned early in 69 following two near identical failures at the Spanish Grand Prix held at the Montjuich Park track in Barcelona. Both Lotus's would crash out when the rear wings failed. Driving for Lotus in 69 were Graham Hill and Jochan Rindt following the death of Jim Clark the previous year in an F2 race at Hockenheim.
From 1968 through 1971 Lotus raced in the red and gold livery before switching to the famous gold and black of the JPS cars in 1972.
Four Kings
I was playing Full Tilt Limit Hold'em last night. I had a K4 unsuited. This is a hand I wouldn't usually play because the kicker was so low.
Now I was on the big blind so I already had some chips in the pot. I think that I'm going to see the flop. The pot gets raised before the flop and I think to myself 'Hey, I'm already half way there, why not?' Right?
So I call on the raise and the flop comes up KKK. Three Kings laying out as neat as you please and at least two of them are smiling at me, one looks kind of glum and the one in my sweaty paw is laughing his ass off.
How the hell do you play four kings?
If I bet does everyone fold?
Does anyone really believe that four kings are going to show up in a short handed game?
Should I bet and try to make the other players think that I'm trying to pretend I flopped four kings? Is that too much to believe?
Would you bet at a 3 king flop hoping that no ones going to believe you even though you had the nuts?
So I check and determine to bet on the turn no matter what. A 10 comes up on the turn and I bet out. I'm raised and I raise again. People are mucking hands all around the table until its me and one other guy. I'm called and the turn comes up. Its a 4, a pretty junky card and I reckon that anyone left is going to fold, unless they made a pair and have a full house.
I won, but the kings spooked everyone except the guy who raised (he had a pocket 10.) Great hand, less than average pot. Bugger.
Anyway, thats the best hand I ever had at Hold'em. Its probably the best hand I've ever seen in poker. The only thing that was ever going to beat me was four aces or a royal flush and theres no chance of a royal or quad aces, I know I've won. The problem wasn't winning, the problem was getting the others to pay me off.
This was the hardest, most frustrating hand I've ever played. I think if I was sitting there without a king and a three king flop had showed I'd be thinking two things.
1 I don't really believe that anyones got a pocket king, I just don't expect to see one, so I need a card to make a full house.
2 I'm going to fold unless I get a card on the turn or unless I already have a pocket pair which means I've already got a full house.
How would you play this monster hand? If anyone has an idea, do me a favor and let me know.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Some quick marker sketches of the first page spread. The lion, leopard and she-wolf would need to be on the right hand side, probably as a fairly abstract design motif. The first half of Canto I will be on the right hand side too.If anyone just tuned in I want to dampen expectations here. This is a project I've been thinking about for years and I expect it might take years more to complete. I may, as work presents itself, be forced to abandon it for weeks if not longer. This is a personal project that I think I can safely say has no hope of any financial return. Therefore it has to be considered a low priority.
Sometimes the things we want to do and the things we have to do are the same thing. Most of the time this is not the case, the things that we want to do are usually exactly not the things we have to do. THIS IS A FOLLY!!!
First few sketches from the margins of my reference copy of the Divine Comedy with the first rough sketches for Dante and the first two page spreads on the left hand side. The lion, leopard and wolf are major elements for the first page spread along with the wood. I'll use visual imagery refered to in the poem even though I will have cut it out of the abridged rewritten poem. Thats just my way of making it a little richer, pictures being worth many words after all.Its time to move onto Canto II and rewrite that next. It won't be long as most of it will be left out. Canto II is a conversation between Dante and Virgil about how the shade came to Dante's aid and references artistic muses and other things that won't make the final cut. I hope to do Canto II in one page spread with not more than 8-12 lines of the poem remaining.
PROJECT DANTE
Canto I
When I was near two score years old 1
I found myself in forest cold
For I was lost, from path I'd strayed
In forest dark with shadows frayed
Then from the foot of hill I reached 2
A path that rose through mountain breached
And almost where the hill did rise
I saw a le0pard thin and lithe 3
And then a lion I beheld 4
Full ravenous with fearsome head
And then a she-wold showed herself 5
Her leaness seemed to bring despair
This very sight so frightened me
I lost all sense or so it seemed
And having there abandoned hope
Of climbing up that mountain slope
That restless beast she stalked me down
Retreated I to lower ground
Before my eyes there then appeared
A vision faint of silence speared
A man I saw in vastness wild 6
'Oh pity me,' were words I cried
'Whatever you may be.' I said
He answered me with ghostly breath
'Not man but once before was man
From Lombardy my parent came
Sub Julio I sang the praise 7
Of Anchises and Troy in flames 8
A poet I was born before
The son of one true God was born.' 9
'And you are Virgil,' I replied
'The stream of all fair speach,' I cried
'It is another path you'll take,' 10
He answered as he watched me shake
'I think and judge it best for you
To follow me, I'll lead you through.'
And so the poet moved away
And followed him to my dark fate
On journey deep he guided me
So soul of mine could be complete 11
Just a few notes on where and why I abridged the first Canto.
The Divine Comedy and the Inferno that I'm concentrating on are extremely complex. They contain many images and metaphors of life in Italy in the late 13th and early 14th century. They do not rhyme as they are translated into english and this make them difficult to undertand. Most of the lines and references that I have left out relate to the more difficult images and connections as they appear in the translation.
1 Dante was 35 years old when he started to write the comedy (Fun fact: I'm 35 too, it was my birthday in mid September.)
2 The hill, or mountain refered to is a higher path to salvation from the dark wood where Dante has strayed.
3 Usually interpreted as a symbol of lust.
4 The lion is generally understood to represent pride.
5 The she wolf is thought to represent avarice. In the Canto there are many lines that refer to her appetite and evil will. The wolf is countered by a greyhound, another animal symbol, which was prophetic of a change to come to save the land and church from the she-wolf.
"Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions strengthened" (Jeremiah 5:6)
6 The shade or ghost that Dante sees is Virgil, a Roman poet.
7 'Sub Julio I sang the praise,' Beneath the Ceasar lived Virgil.
8 Anchises (Aeneas) from Virgil's Aeneid tells the story of the burning of the city of Troy after its capture by the Greeks. Aeneas was a Trojan prince who escaped the destruction of Troy and escaped to Latium in central Italy where he established a colony whose descendants founded Rome.
9 Virgil was born and lived before the birth of Christianity and so he is condemned to the afterlife beyond the light of God.
10 The other path that Dante must take is the lower road through hell since the path upwards is blocked to him by the she-wolf.
11 The journey that Dante undertakes is for his soul, which relates back to his straying from the path etc.
I'm going to link to the entire first Canto here so that you can compare if you like where I began and where I ended up. I personally think that most of the hardest and most obscure references have been removed to make it more easily understood as a story, and since I intend to illustrate the poem once complete I think that it should work. Stay with me, this could take a lot of time.
Heres the Wikipedia entry on the Divine Comedy, its worth a look and covers most of the major themes of the poem.
Heres another link, to a project called Danteworlds which explores all the major regions of hell as it appears in the Inferno. Lots of usefull reference. Thanks to the fine people at the University of Texas at Austin for this one.
Canto I
When I was near two score years old 1
I found myself in forest cold
For I was lost, from path I'd strayed
In forest dark with shadows frayed
Then from the foot of hill I reached 2
A path that rose through mountain breached
And almost where the hill did rise
I saw a le0pard thin and lithe 3
And then a lion I beheld 4
Full ravenous with fearsome head
And then a she-wold showed herself 5
Her leaness seemed to bring despair
This very sight so frightened me
I lost all sense or so it seemed
And having there abandoned hope
Of climbing up that mountain slope
That restless beast she stalked me down
Retreated I to lower ground
Before my eyes there then appeared
A vision faint of silence speared
A man I saw in vastness wild 6
'Oh pity me,' were words I cried
'Whatever you may be.' I said
He answered me with ghostly breath
'Not man but once before was man
From Lombardy my parent came
Sub Julio I sang the praise 7
Of Anchises and Troy in flames 8
A poet I was born before
The son of one true God was born.' 9
'And you are Virgil,' I replied
'The stream of all fair speach,' I cried
'It is another path you'll take,' 10
He answered as he watched me shake
'I think and judge it best for you
To follow me, I'll lead you through.'
And so the poet moved away
And followed him to my dark fate
On journey deep he guided me
So soul of mine could be complete 11
Just a few notes on where and why I abridged the first Canto.
The Divine Comedy and the Inferno that I'm concentrating on are extremely complex. They contain many images and metaphors of life in Italy in the late 13th and early 14th century. They do not rhyme as they are translated into english and this make them difficult to undertand. Most of the lines and references that I have left out relate to the more difficult images and connections as they appear in the translation.
1 Dante was 35 years old when he started to write the comedy (Fun fact: I'm 35 too, it was my birthday in mid September.)
2 The hill, or mountain refered to is a higher path to salvation from the dark wood where Dante has strayed.
3 Usually interpreted as a symbol of lust.
4 The lion is generally understood to represent pride.
5 The she wolf is thought to represent avarice. In the Canto there are many lines that refer to her appetite and evil will. The wolf is countered by a greyhound, another animal symbol, which was prophetic of a change to come to save the land and church from the she-wolf.
"Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions strengthened" (Jeremiah 5:6)
6 The shade or ghost that Dante sees is Virgil, a Roman poet.
7 'Sub Julio I sang the praise,' Beneath the Ceasar lived Virgil.
8 Anchises (Aeneas) from Virgil's Aeneid tells the story of the burning of the city of Troy after its capture by the Greeks. Aeneas was a Trojan prince who escaped the destruction of Troy and escaped to Latium in central Italy where he established a colony whose descendants founded Rome.
9 Virgil was born and lived before the birth of Christianity and so he is condemned to the afterlife beyond the light of God.
10 The other path that Dante must take is the lower road through hell since the path upwards is blocked to him by the she-wolf.
11 The journey that Dante undertakes is for his soul, which relates back to his straying from the path etc.
I'm going to link to the entire first Canto here so that you can compare if you like where I began and where I ended up. I personally think that most of the hardest and most obscure references have been removed to make it more easily understood as a story, and since I intend to illustrate the poem once complete I think that it should work. Stay with me, this could take a lot of time.
Heres the Wikipedia entry on the Divine Comedy, its worth a look and covers most of the major themes of the poem.
Heres another link, to a project called Danteworlds which explores all the major regions of hell as it appears in the Inferno. Lots of usefull reference. Thanks to the fine people at the University of Texas at Austin for this one.
Monday, September 25, 2006
I'm off to the premiere of 'Open Season' tonight with my brother, he worked as an animator on the film. It should be interesting, a little bit of a smooze fest.This is a spread from the ape book that took a long time to put together. After the initial concept was worked out I ended up drawing it layer by layer. I'd work out a theme or detail, make a sketch and scan it, trace it in Illustrator and then drop it into place in the document. It took an awful long time to get it all together, but I liked the results. Its easier to work hard on a piece thats working, hanging together as is were, than to continue bashing away on a troublesome image thats falling apart.
I actually had a lot more elements in this one, I ended up dropping quite a few animals because it had got too busy. If I can find a sketch for this one I'll post it later. Because it was inspired by childrens book illustrations from the 50's and 60's I wanted to give it hugely bright colors which I really dug.
PROJECT DANTE
I finished rewriting and condensing Canto I of the Inferno yesterday, in between a long afternoon snooze and the amazing race. I have the authors 136 lines down to mine 40.
Canto II is going to be a bit of a problem as it deals with the issue of why Virgil is there to help the poet, but nothing actually happens. I think it may work if its reduced to to 8-10 lines, just a note to pave Virgil's way to Dante's path. One single page spread should do it, though I have no ideas about what that might me yet.
I finished rewriting and condensing Canto I of the Inferno yesterday, in between a long afternoon snooze and the amazing race. I have the authors 136 lines down to mine 40.
Canto II is going to be a bit of a problem as it deals with the issue of why Virgil is there to help the poet, but nothing actually happens. I think it may work if its reduced to to 8-10 lines, just a note to pave Virgil's way to Dante's path. One single page spread should do it, though I have no ideas about what that might me yet.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Hipster Doofus Monkey on a Sunday morning...
So I'm hunting around for some stuff to do. The Dante project is on hold while I have a rethink, more on that soon. I want to start doing some t-shirt designs using F1 cars from the early sixties, that needs a lot of work but I'm looking forward to it. I have another book project that I want to start, the story is layed out but I have to start writing it yet. Feels like a kind of limbo, lots to do, but I have to choose a direction. These things take time to clarify and set right after all.
This is one a number of sketches for a page from my ape book, it was a bitch. I'm messaging my sister in Ireland as I post this, by god that girl does the typepad thingy fast, you'd swear she was dictating.
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