Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Scooby Doo

scooby doo and the spooky island body possession - YouTube

When Dante describes the spirits in hell as "shadows" this is how I imagined them. Even though each circle of hell is different and people have varied forms of their human body, I would say this is a pretty close representation of the shadows. As Dante goes further into hell, the spirits have a more body like figure and can be touched or held like Shaggy is holding Velma. The spirits in the well that shaggy is looking into are like the spirits constantly chasing the banner that can never be reached. Like the runners, these swirling spirits are tortured by the desire to return to their bodies.

1 comment:

Amy Clement said...

In a hilarious and ridiculous way, this actually makes it easier to picture the shades! I was picturing the little worm like things that Ursula from The Little Mermaid would keep in her cave. But the problem with those things was that there really was no way to tell them apart. Even when Poseidon was changed into one, there was no way to tell it was him; he looked just as miserable and shriveled as all the others. It's really hard to think of figures that can do things like pushing weights and that Dante can recognize yet have no mass and bodies. I'm starting to find while reading the Inferno that Dante relies on his readers' ability to "just go with it" and not really question logistics.