Blog Post #23

Last week we finally started our Dante's Inferno project. We all chose a specific Canto of Hell to research and evaluate, and I chose the 8th Canto-the Wrathful level of Hell. We were given time in class to work on  citing and planning our project, and so far everything has been pretty easy. I know it will get harder, but for now all I have to worry about is my visual presentation and paraphrasing the text. It is challenging enough to simply read the text and understand what is going on, but to find the deeper meaning of it is going to take some serious research. I have a general understanding of Dante's Inferno, but I still don't know it as well as I would like to. I honestly don't know why we are even reading this apart to test our evaluation skills and have a better understanding of classic literature and satire. 

I haven't thought about it much, but for my visual I was mauling the idea of making a painting of some sort. The river of Styx is in the 8th Canto of Hell, and the entrance to the city of Dis is at the end of it. I could have a dark painting of the city in the back, and Dante and Virgil in the skipper crossing the river of Styx in oil paint. It might be hard to make it all come together, and I think I will be using mostly black and red for this, but I never really liked dioramas or models. They seem awkward to carry, and usually end up getting bent or broken. I might also just make a fake map of the 8th Canto to present, although I don't think that would be as interesting as a painting. Either way, I am enjoying this project and know that I will get something out of it even if I get an "F" on the final grade. I hope it doesn't come to that, but it might.