"We built Dis city! We built Dis city on pain and woe!"

You are listening to 66.6 Hell FM, coming to you live from the ninth circle! That right there is the jingle that plays around Hell on the loud speakers. (You know like the one in SM.)

Kidding aside, let's get to the point. Reading about the first few circles, I remember finding the punishments so vile and agonizing that I didn't even want to imagine what the lower circles would be like. Especially when Ms. Arawiran brought up the point that after the Second Coming, these sufferings would be not only spiritual, but physical. Can you imagine? On second thought, don't imagine. Even thinking about thinking about it makes me feel queasy. Something so terrible is just difficult to wrap my mind around. It makes me sad and afraid to think of people going through such sufferings. Then again, they are in Hell.

This brings me to my dilemma while reading The Inferno. In principal, it is very clear to me that God, our God, is the most compassionate and loving being who specifically commanded us "Love your enemy as yourself." So it does confuse me that Virgil actually feels happy when Dante wishes even more evil on the souls who are already in eternal torture. Sure, they're in Hell and they deserve to be there. But that's just it. They get the punishment they deserve. Nothing less, and therefore nothing more. It is not our right to decide how much punishment someone deserves. That privilege is solely reserved for God. So, I still do not believe it is right to wish more suffering on those who are already suffering.

I also think Dante's pity for the souls is actually justifiable, no matter how much Dante the author stresses that it is not. We can feel pity for the souls in Hell because they have not seen the Divine Light, they made the choice to ignore it. Yes they made that coice and yes they were damned. But shouldn't we feel sorry for the lives they could have led if they decided not to sin? Is that not something to feel sorry for? Must we not wish all our neighbors into Heaven? These souls in Hell were lost to us when they could instead have been a valuable addition into the kingdom of God, and for that I do feel pity for them.

Okay I just wanted to get that off my chest.

On a positive note, I like how the story from this point on gets more exciting, because it follows no uniform pattern as it did in the upper circles. It makes it more like a story than just a poem. The descriptions of the city and all the monsters add that much to the interest of the book. It's really amazing how Dante can even think of these things. Evidence that the mind of a genius is almost always pretty twisted. (Conclusion: One must be quite sane to think clearly. But to think deeply, one can be quite insane. -Nikola Tesla)

On a side note I really like reading the notes! I like learning cool new trivia, and the notes supply that in between each Canto like a little rest from the sometimes overwhelming descriptions of Hell.

That's all for now folks! *cue Looney Toons theme song

XOXO, Camille

[:)) yuck]