Walking With Dante

Our poet steps out of the shadows with an important message: "Go home."
Because PARADISO is hard. Because we might get lost. Because we're not prepared.
The stark address to all readers--or perhaps to a much more limited set of specialty readers--that opens Canto II is one of the most unusual moments in COMEDY. When does an author ever warn his readers to stay away?
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we attempt to find a way survive with the other Argonauts as our Jason begins to plow his own field.
Consider supporting this work with a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:04] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto II, lines 1 - 18. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[02:41] Introductory remarks: Don't skip this canto but don't be too optimistic.
[05:10] The rhetoric of the new: PARADISO is not Virgil, not Statius, not the Apocalypse of St John, not PURGATORIO, not INFERNO, and not the CONVIVIO.
[10:08] The bread of angels: the Eucharist, theological study, or something less well defined?
[12:11] Jason, the Argonauts, and the rewriting of Ovid's METAMORPHOSIS.
[15:25] An address to any reader or an address to a more limited audience, like fellow poets?
[19:41] The grace of partial understanding with metonymies.
[23:19] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto II, lines 1 - 18.

Beatrice continues in her discourse about our natural instincts, making the bold claim that they can lead us to our natural ends . . . which are the good, not the catastrophic bad.
Her Scholastic theology is tinted with poetic metaphors in a bold move to explain how the arrow, once shot, can deviate from its preordained track.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the conclusion of Beatrice's first major discourse in PARADISO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:39] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 115 - 142. To read along or continue the conversation about this passage, please find the entry for this podcast episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:50] Paraphrasing Beatrice's discourse on instinct, order, and ends.
[06:41] Keeping the instinct to a predetermined end fuzzy.
[09:29] Highlighting Beatrice's poetics in two metaphors: archery and art.
[14:43] Swerving with the lightning.
[16:02] Drawing further conclusions from Beatrice's first major discourse in PARADISO.
[21:05] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto I, lines 115 - 142.

Beatrice has answered Dante's first doubt, but he has another. He can't quite understand how he, maybe in his body, can make his way across the universe.
She doesn't have a quick answer. Instead, she has a theory of how the whole universe works.
Her answers are always bigger than his questions.
And in this case, she brings him out onto the great sea of "to be" as he begins to sail into port.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first part of her great schematic for the universe: its diverse order is a reflection of its unified creator.
If you'd like to support this work, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:14] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 94 - 114. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:14] Dante's agitation, Beatrice's smile.
[10:00] His implicit question: my body v. all the heavenly bodies.
[13:25] The first part of her answer about the orderliness of creation.
[20:10] Order and disorder: Dante's and our dualities.
[23:43] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto I, lines 94 - 114.

Our pilgrim finds everything doubled in brightness . . . because he's begun to fly up to the heavens, although he doesn't know it at first.
He's too busy figuring out all that light . . . and listening to the music of the spheres.
But Beatrice is there to set him straight and tell him that his ascent is faster than he could ever understand.
She also redefines "home"--not the Italian peninsula, nor the Garden of Eden, but the highest heaven, where they're headed in this journey to the final vision.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin our flight among the planets and stars to head home.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[00:49] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 61 - 93. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please find this episode's entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:34] Glaucus, the fisherman who becomes a sea-god.
[05:01] Glossing lines 61 - 72: the changing light and pilgrim.
[10:14] Glossing lines 73 - 75: the mind/body problem.
[13:19] Glossing lines 76 - 84: the sempiternal music of the spheres.
[18:55] Glossing lines 85 - 93: Beatrice's answer to an unasked question.
[21:00] How a guy transhumans--and how this guy translates some hard lines.
[28:06] There is always more light.
[30:06] Wonder and awe are not ends in themselves.
[32:03] Life is an on-going redefinition of "home."
[34:30] Rereading PARADISO, Canto I, lines 61 - 93.

The plot gets underway in PARADISO.
Our pilgrim Dante turns to Beatrice . . . who is paying him no attention. She's staring at the sun.
So he does the same! He hasn't even left earth, yet the miraculous nature of his story is already in high gear.
As is his understanding of the universe ahead of him. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we experience Beatrice's return to the poem and the pilgrim's new mode of reflecting her glory.
If you'd like to help underwrite this work, please consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend using this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:19] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 37 - 60. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me through a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:23] In PARADISO plot comes second.
[06:06] Where are we? Cosmology and geography in the first three tercets.
[12:26] Dante explains the vernal equinox by the geocentric crossings of various circles around the globe.
[16:16] PARADISO is based on locations that its readers can observe in real time.
[19:18] Beatrice returns to the poem and manifests her ray of light.
[26:07] The pilgrim wishes to return home--but where is that?
[28:21] PARADISO excels at unanswered questions.
[30:24] The sparks fly from the sun . . . or from the sphere of fire.
[34:00] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto I, lines 37 - 60.