bmershon / purgatorio

A third and final assignment for a course on Dante's Divine Comedy.

Purgatorio

This assignment followed the second assignment for Martin Eisner's course on Dante's Divine Comedy at Duke Universtiy during the Fall 2014 semester.

This third and final assignment for a course on Dante's Divine Comedy was not a joy to write. In fact, I am pretty sure that I wrote or at least brainstormed a good part of it while sipping a pint of Elliot Ness while seated at a booth overlooking the Loop Bar in the Bryan Center at Duke University.

Why would I be drinking while writing a paper? Consider that it was about Dante Alighieri's Purgatorio, which is not nearly as entertaining nor as engaging as Inferno (though it is less tortuous than reading Paradiso). I thoroughly enjoyed writing the previous two papers, but this paper was uninspired and I didn't quite know what to do with myself. The beer was to allow my hands to type without reaching for the backspace button.

Whichever grad student it was that read my paper chose to give it an A, probably for my cheeky closing sentence and willingness to disagree with Hollander.