momee Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 :blink:We're about to read this for TOG weeks 6 and 7. It's a little um...violent so far. Do I really want to do this with a 15 year old? Everyone I've talked to says it's a college level read. We do have warnings in the TOG materials and there's some good info on literature devices but geeeeeeee...I don't wanna read it myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 My son loved reading it at fifteen. We listened to some of The Teaching Company lectures on the work for further insight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole M Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 (edited) I felt the same way about the Iliad. I got to the part where Achilles is crying to his mommy he stole my concubine! and pretty much thought, well, if this is the foundation of western civilization, we are screwed. And it just got grosser and grosser. Very violent. I hated it. My boys, however, loved it. Loved. I learned that it's okay for me to really hate a "great" book. And I changed my thinking about what makes a book great. You don't have to even like Inferno. And you are allowed to skip it. But you might find some surprises (and you might not). And, guess what? Dante didn't have to travel through hell without a guide, and you don't have to either. The Teaching Company lectures have been our Beatrice again and again. I highly recommend the lectures on Dante. Edited October 9, 2009 by Nicole M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 What? You saw "Divine Comedy" and you were thinking...:D Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yslek Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 I read the Inferno in my 11th grade English class. I'm currently reading "The Divine Comedy for Young People" to B & T, so they're familiar with the story when we get to High School. I think that at 15, dc should be ready to discuss some tough/violent subject matter. (Who knows, though...I may not think so when my dc are 15! :lol:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 How sensitive is your 15 yo? My oldest dd started reading the book on her own, not as a school assignment. She had nightmares from it, and she's really no more sensitive than the avg teen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Jenny Flint Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 We were hanging out at the bookstore and he noticed a nice, leather-bound copy on the shelf. He asked if I would buy it for him, and he read it at the start of last summer, on his own. He LOVED that book. We have done all the classics WTM-style, reading the children's and young people's versions first, and now that we are in the rhetoric stage, tackling the real thing. It has helped so much. My son is not afraid of classic literature like I was in school. He understands what he is reading and we are getting into symbolism and theme and real meaning in his reading, and it is wonderful. Also, FWIW, I think that sometimes when we see things in literature that we consider distasteful or violent, I think we have to put ourselves back there to the context and culture in which they were written. I think it colors the meaning differently and creates a richness of texture that we don't get if we stay in our own frame of reference, looking in from the outside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yinne Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 My 15 yr old dd just finished it for TOG and she didn't find it particularly violent. It wasn't her favorite by any means, but then classical literature as a whole isn't her favorite. When I asked her about it she said, "It is classical literature, what else do you expect?" She did say that Dante definitely got his points across to her!! Of course all the discussion in Tapestry probably helped this mom discuss it with her. My college lit class that covered this was a long time ago!! Yvonne in NE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 It's a very common read in high school. I'd say most college prep courses teach it. I remember it being one of the more popular texts in school, actually. We were assigned to write our own version of Hell; who wouldn't love that? English teachers who give pop quizzes - - lowest level of Hell! :D I'd certainly try it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 I felt the same way about the Iliad. I got to the part where Achilles is crying to his mommy he stole my concubine! and pretty much thought, well, if this is the foundation of western civilization, we are screwed. And it just got grosser and grosser. Very violent. I hated it. My boys, however, loved it. Loved. I learned that it's okay for me to really hate a "great" book. And I changed my thinking about what makes a book great. You don't have to even like Inferno. And you are allowed to skip it. But you might find some surprises (and you might not). And, guess what? Dante didn't have to travel through hell without a guide, and you don't have to either. The Teaching Company lectures have been our Beatrice again and again. I highly recommend the lectures on Dante. The bolded comment struck me as quite funny. :lol::lol: I recently read Dante's Divine Comedy for Young People and would recommend that even if you only read the adult Inferno portion that you finish the trilogy with this edition. I plan on reading this to my ds this year (age 12). I think the second two portions of the trilogy are just as important. Don't leave Dante in hell. We plan on reading Dante in high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedarmom Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I guess it depends on your kid. It was one of my son's favorites. Our movies and books we read normally are pretty non-violent-so in general he is rather sheltered. But as a little kid, he loved to read all the war stories in the Old Testament. So maybe he figures the only time he gets to read anything violent is in great books.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 My daughters are 12 and 11 years old at present. My mother - their nonna - has been not only reading, but RECITING to them, and teaching them to recite, parts of Commedia since they were little. :D Now, I didn't mind some benign parts, especially some verses in Paradiso (the beginning of last canto there, a prayer, is strikingly beautiful for example :)), but when my older once recited to me the writing on the entrance of Hell... or the end of Quinto (Inferno too)... when I saw printed reproductions of Gustave Dore's illustrations fo Hell... Now, I don't complain that Dante is "il sommo poeta", I myself studied him in-depth at school and university, and that Dore is an amazing artist, but I thought it a little age-inappropriate, and talked it through with my mother. In the end, it was ME who bought Benigni, "Tutto Dante", for the whole family to watch together. :D My daughters cope with Dante extremely well. Granted, they're yet to read the text in its entirety - and I don't intend to burden them with that for a few more years - but thematically, and regarding the parts they have read or seen illustrated, they cope very well. The best thing you can do is to talk a lot about the background information, especially history-wise, since a lot of characters are drawn from the actual society Dante lived in, and to contextualize the work. That's what I did. By the way, by us, in Italian schools, Dante is often studied three years in a row - each year one part of Commedia. In depth. So I definitely wouldn't say it's too scary or too-anything for a high schooler, since I know a bunch of perfectly normal Italian adults who studied it really thoroughly at school. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 We just read some of the Inferno and didnt find it especially violent...bleak and depressing, sure, but not violent, especially. Well, not compared to a normal evenings TV, anyway. However, none of us enjoyed it at all, I must admit. Perhaps if we had made the effort to listen to lectures about it or we had additional notes, we would have engaged with it more, but we didnt, and we didnt get far into it. It was the 2nd time we had touched on it- the previous time being 4 years ago. At least the kids have a vague idea of what it is now, and we discussed the characters and tried to keep it all straight. But its not one they will remember fondly (unlike the Iliad!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in MO Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I learned that it's okay for me to really hate a "great" book. And I changed my thinking about what makes a book great. You don't have to even like Inferno. And you are allowed to skip it. But you might find some surprises (and you might not). And, guess what? Dante didn't have to travel through hell without a guide, and you don't have to either. The Teaching Company lectures have been our Beatrice again and again. I highly recommend the lectures on Dante. Nicole, that must be one of the all-time best lines on these forums---ever! We read Dante's Inferno (Dorothy Sayers' translation) and we learned a lot through it. I've never read other translations, so I can't compare, but I thoroughly appreciated the hand-holding that Sayers' notes gave us through the book. Overall, I'd say that my girls felt that Dante spent way too much time casting all of his political enemies into hell; however, Sayers' notes were instructional in that regard, because he didn't always do so. Yes, the imagery is disconcerting, and you'd have to gauge how your dc is responding to the material. Nicole, thanks for the tip on The Teaching Company CD's; we had not considered those before we tackled this book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole M Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 (edited) Nicole, that must be one of the all-time best lines on these forums---ever! We read Dante's Inferno (Dorothy Sayers' translation) and we learned a lot through it. I've never read other translations, so I can't compare, but I thoroughly appreciated the hand-holding that Sayers' notes gave us through the book. Overall, I'd say that my girls felt that Dante spent way too much time casting all of his political enemies into hell; however, Sayers' notes were instructional in that regard, because he didn't always do so. Yes, the imagery is disconcerting, and you'd have to gauge how your dc is responding to the material. Nicole, thanks for the tip on The Teaching Company CD's; we had not considered those before we tackled this book. Well, for me, homeschooling is all about finding the right guide through... okay, not hell, exactly, but sometimes it feels like it. I am not familiar with the Sayers edition, but the notes sound appealing. We have Pinsky's new verse translation, which I bought only because I met Robert Pinsky a few years ago (lucky me!) and he was such a gentle, authentic man! I fell immediately in love with him. What's the consensus about translations here? Did SWB mention the Pinsky translation in the latest edition of the WTM? Edited October 11, 2009 by Nicole M spelling error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in MO Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I am not familiar with the Sayers edition, but the notes sound appealing. We have Pinsky's new verse translation, which I bought only because I met Robert Pinsky a few years ago (lucky me!) and he was such a gentle, authentic man! I fell immediately in love with him. What's the consensus about translations here? Did SWB mention the Pinsky translation in the latest edition of the WTM? I didn't buy the latest edition of TWTM, because we didn't homeschool last year. I may need to purchase it soon, though, because there's a possibility we'll be homeschooling our middle daughter next year. I'm not sure which translation of Inferno is the best, but I'd love to look into the Pinsky version. The Sayers' version is the only one I've read, and I'm not sure how it stacks up against the others. I did enjoy the notes, though, because she gave a lot of insight into many of the political figures in Italy at the time. Medieval Italian politics is way beyond my ken, but she did explain some of the nuances of the politics at the time. I thought that was very helpful. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SusanAR Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Peter Leithart's Ascent to Love:A guide to Dante's Divine Comedy is guiding me through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole M Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Dante didn't have to travel through hell without a guide, and you don't have to either. The Teaching Company lectures have been our Beatrice again and again. I highly recommend the lectures on Dante. :willy_nilly: Gadzooks, people! Why didn't tell me? It's like realizing you've had your fly down all day. Beatrice isn't down there in Hell! It's Virgil of course. How embarrassing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in MO Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 :willy_nilly: Gadzooks, people! Why didn't tell me? It's like realizing you've had your fly down all day. Beatrice isn't down there in Hell! It's Virgil of course. How embarrassing! That's OK, Nicole; I laughed so much at your analogy that I didn't notice the slight slip. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anissarobert Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 We are doing Dante soon, in the great books class I teach. I am planning to order the TC tapes, and I just noticed that they are on sale this month! FYI - In case you need them as much as I do.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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