A lot of us are teachers or students. Post cool things you learn in here, and we will all gain random (probably useless), but still interesting knowledge. Last night at my Dante book club, I learned that pelicans were often displayed on 14th and 15th century crosses as a symbol of Christ in nature. As the story goes, mother pelicans kick their young ones out of the nest if they misbehave. Then, in order to give them nourishment, the mother pecks her breast until it bleeds, and the young ones feed on her blood. Similarly, God kicks us out of the nest when we misbehave, but we are saved by the blood of Christ.
I can say that I know a few guys who went the Hampden-Sydney and none of them ever talk about poetry or their Dante Book Club. Must be a Wabash thing.
If you take Wayne Gretzky's highest assist total for a season (163) it ranks tied for the 11th most points in a season in NHL history (He also scored 52 goals that year, for the NHL record of 215 points in the season). The only seasons better than that are 8 seasons by Wayne Gretzky and 2 by Mario Lemieux.
Yes. We have a professor here that is really into Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and has lots of connections over in Florence and Siena. He's one of those old dudes (graduated from here in '66) that is like an encyclopedia on certain subjects, and Dante is one of those. So we read the Divine Comedy this semester, and met once a week for him to explain important points to us. It was awesome.
Do you hide your poetry books inside of Playgirls while reading to lessen the homosexual aura you give off?
I'm fairly certain when gbc reads this thread, he's doing to rethink his own sexuality. No way is he this gay.
No. No. Way too much to discuss. One of my favorite parts: the intro to canto XV of Inferno. I don't have my book on me, but it talks about walls that were built there, and how they were similar to walls built in France (I believe) to prevent certain lands from flooding. The point in France was to free up more fertile farm land to feed the growing population. Dante put the comparison in Hell to show that Sodomites take a fertile process (sex) and make it barren. It was a really good comparison. Wtf moment: Ripheus, a very minor character from the Aeneid, in a prominent role in Paradiso. There are a lot of wtf moments, though, and it's one of the key themes. You go through inferno, and you think all the pagans are in limbo, and all the suicides are in hell, and so forth. Then you get to purgatory and heaven and realize there are pagans and suicides there as well. The point: there are some things about God we can never truly understand.