"Frye Me." A relflection on our good buddy Northrop's interpretation of Dante's Hell.
On page 57 of "Words with Power" is written:
"The souls in Dante's hell represent the aspect of life in which one is
imprisoned forever within the sum of one's past deeds, when what one is
and what one has done become, at death, the same thing."
I see a very clear connection between this sentiment and the discussion of demonic time in the Cave section of the book. An eternity reliving the misdeeds of one's life. Several years ago, in the midst of a fairly crushing depression, I wrote a similar sentiment in my own journal. Something along the lines of Hell being a repeated life where a person knows what they do is wrong, but keeps doing it over and over, unable to make the right decisions. So hell becomes, in effect the knowledge of the right path, but inability to take it. Applied to the myth of Sisyphus, hell would be if Sisyphus knew he should just quit pushing his boulder, and could do so at any time, but just kept choosing over and over ad infinitum, to keep pushing the damn thing. Ignorance of ability to change would be bliss. Ignorance of another state of affairs existing would be bliss. It is precisely the knowledge of the ability to, and possibility for altering circumstance, but the inability to take the action that one knows would cause that change that would make a life hellish.
"The souls in Dante's hell represent the aspect of life in which one is
imprisoned forever within the sum of one's past deeds, when what one is
and what one has done become, at death, the same thing."
I see a very clear connection between this sentiment and the discussion of demonic time in the Cave section of the book. An eternity reliving the misdeeds of one's life. Several years ago, in the midst of a fairly crushing depression, I wrote a similar sentiment in my own journal. Something along the lines of Hell being a repeated life where a person knows what they do is wrong, but keeps doing it over and over, unable to make the right decisions. So hell becomes, in effect the knowledge of the right path, but inability to take it. Applied to the myth of Sisyphus, hell would be if Sisyphus knew he should just quit pushing his boulder, and could do so at any time, but just kept choosing over and over ad infinitum, to keep pushing the damn thing. Ignorance of ability to change would be bliss. Ignorance of another state of affairs existing would be bliss. It is precisely the knowledge of the ability to, and possibility for altering circumstance, but the inability to take the action that one knows would cause that change that would make a life hellish.
posted by adam at 4:41 PM
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