Dante Performs Surgery On Virgil

The earlier Dante claim returns in compressed form: the final secret of The Divine Comedy is that we are in God and God is in us. Source trail 0:00 Okay, good morning. So we finished Dante today and this will be our last session before the semester breaks. We'll come back in a month and we'll start the second semester. Second semester will be very exciting. We're g... The Trinity stops being a closed equation that keeps God outside humanity and becomes a story humans are empowered to write. Source trail 0:001:14 Okay, good morning. So we finished Dante today and this will be our last session before the semester breaks. We'll come back in a month and we'll start the second semester. Second semester will be very exciting. We're g...we are empowered to write okay and it creates the idea of infinity um the idea behind this and this goes back to Homer is for Dante love is the unifying force of the universe remember that God is the force within us tha... Love unifies the universe; imagination animates it Source trail 1:14 we are empowered to write okay and it creates the idea of infinity um the idea behind this and this goes back to Homer is for Dante love is the unifying force of the universe remember that God is the force within us tha... ; Dante's love for Beatrice becomes the engine that creates an entire poetic world.

The historical question is why such a difficult poem matters. Jiang's answer is form. For thousands of years, education meant memorizing poets Source trail 2:263:42 of the I never forgot about her, and it was this love for Beatrice that would inspire him to create the Divine Comedy, which is the greatest literary achievement in human history. And as we discussed, the second point i...So remember the Greeks, how did they educate themselves? They memorized Homer. The Romans memorized Virgil. And the Italians, aliens memorize Dante, and poetry is uniquely designed in order to be memorized. And so that'... : Homer for Greeks, Virgil for Romans, Dante for Italians. Poetry is dense food for the subconscious. Source trail 3:42 So remember the Greeks, how did they educate themselves? They memorized Homer. The Romans memorized Virgil. And the Italians, aliens memorize Dante, and poetry is uniquely designed in order to be memorized. And so that'... The brain hates paradox and keeps resolving it below awareness. That is why the Comedy's contradictions can become the Renaissance brain, the Reformation brain, the scientific brain. Source trail 4:59 like mysteries it doesn't like it doesn't like contradictions okay so it's always trying to resolve these contradictions in order to formulate a coherent understanding of the world that's why paradox is so powerful with...

That is why Virgil becomes the target. Source trail 6:06 has to create a new modern brain if he has to create a new scientific romantic mind then his true enemy is actually not augustine okay it is actually virgil because at this time every educated individual um was educated... Every educated European carries Virgil as habit and custom, so a frontal attack would fail. Dante has to perform a nuanced operation inside the reader. Source trail 7:23 understand the world you cannot get go into an open conflict with virgil because people will just reject you right people will choose their customs their habits first and so if you threaten their habits and customs then... He makes Virgil father, guide, narrator, and hero. Lens point guide-becomes-trap A guide-trap sometimes has to be released surgically. The poem first makes the guide lovable and necessary, then exposes the contradictions until the reader can let go of the guide who would rather keep hell than admit error. Source trail 7:238:39 understand the world you cannot get go into an open conflict with virgil because people will just reject you right people will choose their customs their habits first and so if you threaten their habits and customs then...the lady beatrice in heaven to guide you through inferno and for purgatory where you will learn the secrets of the universe where you will learn the truth about the world and i am your guide i will tell you the truth ok... Then the poem lets contradictions accumulate until the old guide can no longer hold the world together.

Virgil's first doctrine is clean: virtuous pagans without baptism remain in limbo. Source trail 11:0712:18 not great it's still part of hell but it's a place specifically for virtuous pagans who were born before the time of jesus you can only be saved by jesus if you are baptized into the faith and so if unfortunately you we...to be baptized into the faith the portal of the faith that you embrace and if they live before christianity they do not worship god in fitting ways and of such spirits i myself am one okay this is why i'm here in limbo... The only exception was Christ's descent after death Source trail 13:29 heaven and that was the death of Jesus Christ remember that he was crucified and he was crucified and he was crucified and he was crucified and he was crucified and he died before he was resurrected and then when he die... , when biblical figures were lifted into heaven. Jiang needs this rule because the poem will keep producing exceptions to it. The guide's map is already a trap Source trail 9:5813:29 narrator all right so we're going to study some passages from the divine comedy to see how dante does this and it's very clever it's almost impossible to spot unless you recognize what dante is trying to do okay once i...heaven and that was the death of Jesus Christ remember that he was crucified and he was crucified and he was crucified and he was crucified and he was crucified and he died before he was resurrected and then when he die... waiting to be sprung.

Then Dido appears by omission. Source trail 15:31 love and she betrayed the ashes of psychias the water and cleopatra follows next all right so this is interesting what's going to happen is there'll be about there'll be about a thousand spirits who are parading before... Virgil names the parade of lustful souls, but Jiang notices the person he will not name: the woman from the Aeneid. Source trail 15:31 love and she betrayed the ashes of psychias the water and cleopatra follows next all right so this is interesting what's going to happen is there'll be about there'll be about a thousand spirits who are parading before... Dido is Virgil's creation, and in Jiang's reading she is the only fully realistic person in that epic. Source trail 15:3116:43 love and she betrayed the ashes of psychias the water and cleopatra follows next all right so this is interesting what's going to happen is there'll be about there'll be about a thousand spirits who are parading before...Dido the way that she behaves her love for Aeneas it's actually it actually makes her a sympathetic character but it's her love for Aeneas that causes her to to die okay and so who is Dido who is Dido really well if she... She loves Aeneas, loses him, dies by fire, and Virgil leaves her burning in hell without even the dignity of a name.

Dante names her. Source trail 18:07 to what Dante did right Don T lovely actress but he could not he could not possess Beatrice so what he does is he creates the divine comedy so that Beatrice can be in Paradise for the rest of her for all eternity okay t... That is the quiet blow. Virgil refuses his creation Source trail 18:07 to what Dante did right Don T lovely actress but he could not he could not possess Beatrice so what he does is he creates the divine comedy so that Beatrice can be in Paradise for the rest of her for all eternity okay t... ; Dante gives her mercy, charity, and attention. The contrast with Beatrice is the whole lecture in miniature. Virgil's love punishes what it cannot possess. Dante's love makes paradise for the beloved he never possessed. Source trail 1:1418:07 we are empowered to write okay and it creates the idea of infinity um the idea behind this and this goes back to Homer is for Dante love is the unifying force of the universe remember that God is the force within us tha...to what Dante did right Don T lovely actress but he could not he could not possess Beatrice so what he does is he creates the divine comedy so that Beatrice can be in Paradise for the rest of her for all eternity okay t...

Cato is the next contradiction. Source trail 19:3220:51 end up in purgatory purgatory is this isolated mountain that is the halfway point between inferno and paradise people have to ascend the purgatory in order to get into paradise okay and this look these are the first lin...who controls access into purgatory so Virgil is wrong remember Virgil said it's impossible to leave limbo regardless of your merit and this right away tells us no Virgil is not a reliable narrator Cato has left okay now... He is a Roman patriarch, a contemporary of Virgil, and a suicide. By Virgil's own rule he should be in limbo Source trail 19:3220:51 end up in purgatory purgatory is this isolated mountain that is the halfway point between inferno and paradise people have to ascend the purgatory in order to get into paradise okay and this look these are the first lin...who controls access into purgatory so Virgil is wrong remember Virgil said it's impossible to leave limbo regardless of your merit and this right away tells us no Virgil is not a reliable narrator Cato has left okay now... , but Dante finds him guarding Purgatory. Source trail 19:32 end up in purgatory purgatory is this isolated mountain that is the halfway point between inferno and paradise people have to ascend the purgatory in order to get into paradise okay and this look these are the first lin... He has left hell. He controls access to the mountain. The guide's theology has already failed in front of the gatekeeper.

Virgil still behaves like authority travels with him. Source trail 22:55 bright on the great day so I know who you are your Cato you're the person who killed himself in Utica rather submit to the tyranny of Julius Caesar eternal edicts are not broken for us this man's alive and I'm not bound... He explains Dante's mission, invokes Beatrice, then tries to use Marcia, Cato's wife, as leverage: let us pass and I will be kind to her when I return below. Jiang reads it plainly as a bribe. Source trail 22:5523:51 bright on the great day so I know who you are your Cato you're the person who killed himself in Utica rather submit to the tyranny of Julius Caesar eternal edicts are not broken for us this man's alive and I'm not bound...wife Marcia right so give me some face here man you know and this is what Cato says while I was there within the other world Marcia so pleased my eyes he then replied each kindness required I satisfied now that she dwel... Cato refuses. Once freed, he is no longer moved Source trail 23:51 wife Marcia right so give me some face here man you know and this is what Cato says while I was there within the other world Marcia so pleased my eyes he then replied each kindness required I satisfied now that she dwel... by the old attachment in the old way.

The issue underneath is love. Source trail 24:49 as virtuous as I once thought okay so you can see right away that Virgil is not reliable he has no authority over Cato Cato does not respect him even though they know each other very well okay does that make sense again... Virgil condemned Dido; Dante elevated Beatrice. Virgil's theory begins with beauty striking the animal soul. Source trail 26:09 that we love the more imaginative we will be okay so so you have to direct this love at someone but it doesn't really matter that person loves you back that's not relevant okay what's relevant is that you love so let's... Then imagination turns the real woman into a fantasy woman Source trail 27:09 turn this woman into a fantasy woman that you can now control okay so let's go back to the example from last class where you meet this beautiful woman and you say I want to marry you because you're so beautiful and she... , and the lover chases the fantasy as something to control. This is why the guide cannot guide love.

Virgil's ethics does have a kind of free will. Desire may arrive like fire Source trail 28:11 and then you chase after this fantasy until it's yours and you become a box with your love and you twist her and she will be out of this world if you love her or you see someone beautiful you turn her into a fantasy and... rising to its sphere. You may not choose the first inflaming image. But you can judge it, resist it, curb it. Source trail 31:14 now that all other longings may conform to this first will there is in you inborn the power that counsels people of the threshold of your assent this is the principle of which your merit may be judged for it garners and... For Virgil, moral life is the discipline of saying no to bad love. Source trail 32:14 we can resist we can say no we can deny our love there's no more power is what Beatrice means by free will therefore remember it if she should ever speak of it to you okay so this is the conception of love from Virgil o...

Dante's answer is more radical. If you truly love someone, you want what is best for that person. Source trail 32:14 we can resist we can say no we can deny our love there's no more power is what Beatrice means by free will therefore remember it if she should ever speak of it to you okay so this is the conception of love from Virgil o... You do not buy her, degrade her, or measure her in money. You can leave if leaving is better for her. Love is not possession. Source trail 33:32 I will leave but I certainly will not degrade you like by thinking that you're only worth $10 million to my eyes you're priceless and you you only degrade yourself if you think that you're only worth $10 million it does... It is respect for the beloved as priceless. Source trail 33:32 I will leave but I certainly will not degrade you like by thinking that you're only worth $10 million to my eyes you're priceless and you you only degrade yourself if you think that you're only worth $10 million it does...

Purgatory turns that into a map of salvation. Hell and Purgatory both contain sinners. Source trail 34:5636:04 Virgil and Donna are climbing, and they meet a man named Statius, a poet, who has just expiated himself, okay? Who's just released himself from his sins. And he's so excited because he's going to heaven, all right? And...But they're willing to admit that they've committed a sin, and they're willing to do penance. And the penance could be a thousand years. It could be one year. It doesn't matter, okay? But they're willing to commit thems... The difference is will. Source trail 34:56 Virgil and Donna are climbing, and they meet a man named Statius, a poet, who has just expiated himself, okay? Who's just released himself from his sins. And he's so excited because he's going to heaven, all right? And... Purgatorial souls admit their sin and accept penance; hell is where refusal hardens. Source trail 36:04 But they're willing to admit that they've committed a sin, and they're willing to do penance. And the penance could be a thousand years. It could be one year. It doesn't matter, okay? But they're willing to commit thems... This is the hinge that will make Statius possible and Virgil impossible.

Statius has spent five hundred years in Purgatory and is ecstatic because his penance is finished. The mountain shakes when a soul is ready for heaven. Source trail 37:04 And more, just now have felt my free will for a better threshold. Thus, you have heard the earthquake and the pious spirits throughout the mountain as they praise the Lord, and may he send them speedily upward. So, if y... He is an epic poet, a Roman, and a lover of Virgil. He calls Virgil holy fire, mother, nurse Source trail 38:55 So he's an epic poet, just like Virgil. The sparks that warm me, the seeds of my ardor were from the holy fire, the same that gave more than a thousand poets light and flame. So what inspired me is the holy fire. Who is... , and source of poetic flame. He would stay another year in exile just to meet him. Source trail 38:55 So he's an epic poet, just like Virgil. The sparks that warm me, the seeds of my ardor were from the holy fire, the same that gave more than a thousand poets light and flame. So what inspired me is the holy fire. Who is...

That love exposes Virgil. Statius is exactly the kind of person Virgil said could not rise Source trail 39:57 That's how Virgil, that's how much I love Virgil. That's how much, how important Virgil is to me. He doesn't know that the person sitting next to him is Virgil, okay? These words made Virgil turn to me and as he turned... : an unbaptized Roman epic poet. Yet Statius can ascend because he wants to. Lens point guide-becomes-trap A guide-trap sometimes has to be released surgically. The poem first makes the guide lovable and necessary, then exposes the contradictions until the reader can let go of the guide who would rather keep hell than admit error. Source trail 41:01 But Virgil is not. Does that make sense? And the reason why Statius is able to go to Heaven is Statius wants to, okay? He's willing to admit there are flaws in his thinking. He's willing to admit that his understanding... He admits that his understanding was flawed and submits to transformation. Virgil does not. The problem was never simply baptism. It was the will to change. Source trail 41:01 But Virgil is not. Does that make sense? And the reason why Statius is able to go to Heaven is Statius wants to, okay? He's willing to admit there are flaws in his thinking. He's willing to admit that his understanding...

Then Beatrice arrives. Dante trembles like a child Source trail 43:20 me, I turn around and to my left, just as a little child, afraid of in distress, will hurry to his mother anxiously, he's turning around. Who does he want to talk to? Virgil, right? There are butterflies in his stomach.... who wants to run to his mother, except the person he turns toward is Virgil. He wants his father-guide Source trail 43:20 me, I turn around and to my left, just as a little child, afraid of in distress, will hurry to his mother anxiously, he's turning around. Who does he want to talk to? Virgil, right? There are butterflies in his stomach.... to share the joy of seeing Beatrice again. But Virgil has deprived them of himself. At the exact moment his task is complete, he runs away. Source trail 43:20 me, I turn around and to my left, just as a little child, afraid of in distress, will hurry to his mother anxiously, he's turning around. Who does he want to talk to? Virgil, right? There are butterflies in his stomach....

Jiang's sentence is brutal because it is the lecture's final verdict on the old guide: Virgil would rather burn in hell forever than admit he is wrong. Lens point guide-becomes-trap A guide-trap sometimes has to be released surgically. The poem first makes the guide lovable and necessary, then exposes the contradictions until the reader can let go of the guide who would rather keep hell than admit error. Source trail 44:36 Okay? He's ran, he's run away. He's disappeared. No one knows where he is. And even our ancient mother lost was not enough to keep my cheeks though washed with dew from darkening again with tears. What Dante wants more... Beatrice's answer is not rescue. Let him go. Source trail 46:01 Because I'm happy there. I'd rather burn in hell for eternity than admit I'm wrong. Dante, though Virgil is leaving you, do not weep yet. You'll need your tears for what another sword must yet inflict. Beatrice says to... You cannot save someone who does not want to be saved. That is when the reader also learns to release Virgil. Lens point guide-becomes-trap A guide-trap sometimes has to be released surgically. The poem first makes the guide lovable and necessary, then exposes the contradictions until the reader can let go of the guide who would rather keep hell than admit error. Source trail 46:01 Because I'm happy there. I'd rather burn in hell for eternity than admit I'm wrong. Dante, though Virgil is leaving you, do not weep yet. You'll need your tears for what another sword must yet inflict. Beatrice says to...

A student pulls Jiang back to Dido. Source trail 47:1147:57 Does that make sense, guys? Is this clear? All right. Any questions about this? Yeah. Go ahead. No, no, no, no. I'm finished. Yeah. Yeah, no worries, no worries. Yeah.Yeah. Right. Okay. So how did Virgil put Dido in hell? Okay. So this goes back to the Inead, which everyone will have read. If you read the Divine Comedy, you will certainly have read the Inead. So what happens in the I... The answer makes the indictment explicit. Aeneas leaves Dido because the gods order him to found Rome; Dido kills herself; when Aeneas meets her in hell, she has lost speech. Source trail 49:0650:04 Okay? And Dido, he's going to Rome. of course, gets very upset. And he warns Aeneas, if you leave, I can only kill myself. I love you that much. And Aeneas is basically like, yeah, go kill yourself. Okay? So he leaves....Which for the Greeks and the Romans was even worse than death. You've lost the power to speak. So, that's what happens in the Aeneid. And, Darnay is continuing this idea in the Divine Comedy. He's assumed that if you're... For Greeks and Romans that is worse than death. Virgil's cosmos does not just punish the woman. It silences her. Source trail 50:04 Which for the Greeks and the Romans was even worse than death. You've lost the power to speak. So, that's what happens in the Aeneid. And, Darnay is continuing this idea in the Divine Comedy. He's assumed that if you're...

Another student asks where limbo and purgatory come from. Source trail 51:24 Yeah. Okay. Did you have any questions? Oh yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. Where, where do these ideas limbo and purgatory come from? Okay. So, what's happening is that Darnay is dealing with an entire cosmology of... Jiang's answer is that Christian cosmology accumulates special cases. Source trail 51:2452:57 Yeah. Okay. Did you have any questions? Oh yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. Where, where do these ideas limbo and purgatory come from? Okay. So, what's happening is that Darnay is dealing with an entire cosmology of...Okay. Because there are lots of special cases where, okay, this person did some sin and so doesn't can't have access to heaven but the sin doesn't qualify for purgatory. So, the genius of Dante is he's basically accessi... What happens to a baby born before Christ? What happens to sins that do not fit a clean heaven-or-hell split? Dante's genius is to take the conflicts inside that cosmology and create his own. Purgatory becomes common after Dante because the poem gives the problem a memorable architecture. Source trail 52:5757:15 Okay. Because there are lots of special cases where, okay, this person did some sin and so doesn't can't have access to heaven but the sin doesn't qualify for purgatory. So, the genius of Dante is he's basically accessi...But, what's important for us to understand is philosophy is not as effective as poetry. Philosophy is about ideas and you can debate these ideas. But, poetry goes into your subconscious and they become the building bloc...

Dante is not simply orthodox. Jiang hears Gnostic pressure and elite resistance Source trail 52:57 Okay. Because there are lots of special cases where, okay, this person did some sin and so doesn't can't have access to heaven but the sin doesn't qualify for purgatory. So, the genius of Dante is he's basically accessi... to Catholic closure. Jesus' death is not only payment for sin. In Beatrice's theology it shocks humans into looking in the mirror. It educates. It awakens. Source trail 54:06 So, they all believe in Jesus but the interpretation of Jesus is different. Okay. So, one major difference in the Divine Comedy is that it's orthodoxy that Jesus died for our sins. But when Beatrice and Dante talk about... It forces the recognition of sin that Virgil refuses. Source trail 41:0154:06 But Virgil is not. Does that make sense? And the reason why Statius is able to go to Heaven is Statius wants to, okay? He's willing to admit there are flaws in his thinking. He's willing to admit that his understanding...So, they all believe in Jesus but the interpretation of Jesus is different. Okay. So, one major difference in the Divine Comedy is that it's orthodoxy that Jesus died for our sins. But when Beatrice and Dante talk about...

The close returns to poetry's power. Aquinas can offer a more open theology than Augustine, but philosophy stays debatable. Source trail 57:15 But, what's important for us to understand is philosophy is not as effective as poetry. Philosophy is about ideas and you can debate these ideas. But, poetry goes into your subconscious and they become the building bloc... Poetry enters the subconscious and becomes the psyche's building blocks. That is how Dante can feed the Reformation's direct access to God Source trail 57:1559:06 But, what's important for us to understand is philosophy is not as effective as poetry. Philosophy is about ideas and you can debate these ideas. But, poetry goes into your subconscious and they become the building bloc...Corruption is a huge issue but also orthodoxy. And, so the idea of the Protestant Reformation is that you can access God through the Bible itself. Okay? And, why that's and why you're able to do that is because God is w... and the Scientific Revolution's institutionalized doubt. Source trail 59:06 Corruption is a huge issue but also orthodoxy. And, so the idea of the Protestant Reformation is that you can access God through the Bible itself. Okay? And, why that's and why you're able to do that is because God is w... Galileo comes from Florence and grows up in Dante's atmosphere. These things are not accidental. Source trail 1:00:14 Where's Galileo from? Florence. Right? So, Galileo grew up immersed in the divine comedy. All right? These things aren't accidental. Okay? Right? All right. Does that make sense? But, I will go into these topics and the...