Posts Tagged ‘Dante’

The Inferno of Dante

Sunday, January 1st, 1995

Dan­te’s vision of Hell is filled with ter­ri­fy­ing images of trans­for­ma­tion, yet its ulti­mate hor­ror is its change­less­ness — the unre­pen­tant sin­ners whose pun­ish­ment is to embody, for­ev­er, their sins. Cen­turies after its obscure Flo­ren­tine vil­lains have been for­got­ten, the poem still rings true as a dra­ma of the inner life, because the heart of the poem is the hope that we can still be changed.

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Censorship and the Arts

Saturday, June 9th, 1990

It takes a lot of courage to be an artist. All kinds of things get in the way, but the thing that gets in the way the most is fear. That’s why the threat of cen­sor­ship is so dan­ger­ous to Art. Art helps us to see the beau­ti­ful — and also to face the ugli­ness in life. Artists need to be free to show us the world as they see it — to tell it like it is.

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