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Denver, 5:27 PM
Tue Dec 1
65 posts in the last 24 hours
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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
07/24/09
07/24/09
Were the writer of this article actually familiar with Dante's poem, he would be aware that the Inferno canticle already ends with plenty of erotic anal imagery. In order to exit Hell, the pilgrim climbs down Lucifer's body and descends through a "fóro," which can be translated as a crevice or opening. This journey from Hell to the southern hemisphere through an opening in between Lucifer's legs has been traditionally likened to excretion and birth, which the attached 15th century Florentine drawing from Columbia's Digital Dante project clearly illustrates. In fact, this image of people passing through Lucifer's anus- is so pervasive in medieval literature, that Chaucer even saw fit to parody it in the Summoner's Tale, which literally describes a nest of friars flying out of Satan's ass.
So, Dante getting shoved up Cerebus's rectum in the game script and cartoon isn't really a departure from the original. The scene, as well as the whole project most likely, is just a spectacularly ignorant reading of the poem.
07/24/09
07/23/09
If this was just a God of War clone set in Hell with a Christian palette instead of Greek Mythology, I don't think anyone would care. However, the fact that they're going to such extremes to tell you how they're completely destroying the material it's supposed to be based off of is absolutely ridiculous. They have absolutely no respect for The Divine Comedy, and it's a shame to see such a historical piece of literature get pissed on like this.
07/23/09
07/23/09
There's a reason gamers get pissed about Uwe Boll movies. It's because he completely shits all over source material that they enjoy - and that's just simple videogame franchises.
When you multiply that factor times the status The Divine Comedy holds in literature, as well as what it's contributed to the modern world, then yeah. I'd say people have a right to be angry when it gets massacred to such a degree.
Maybe you don't care, but it's a bit frivolous to disregard the rants of those who are offended by it.
07/23/09
Can you say that when the executive producer is talking about how excited he was putting something in the ass of another being in the game based one of the most epic and well-respected poems in the history of the world?
Because I feel...empty. I have such great respect over Dante's work that this feels...I don't know.
It feels weird.
Kinda like nothing is sacred.
Kinda like we've reached a new low.
Y'know, they could've made a sleezy porno out of this, and I would feel nothing, because a porno is a porno and I don't think there's a person who takes them seriously.
But here we have a videogame, part of the culture that is arguing that it should be allowed to be viewed as an artform, taking Dante's Inferno and making it into something that it is not. In fact, it's as far from it as it could be. It has nothing to do with Dante's work at all, past the setting.
They are just exploiting the name in a way that leaves me feeling dirty and unclean over calling myself a gamer.
Is this the direction which games really should be going in?
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
FIrst and foremost, its a video game, intended to be entertaining to whoever it may please. We could have said the same for God of War because there was some Greek mythology in it. When the "mini sex game" was known, did people complained about how its kinda "low"? Not really, people just found it cool or "lawled" at the feature.
God of War and Dante's Inferno are basically the same game with different settings. Replace the greek mythology with Christian religion and you basically have Dante's Inferno.
But why is Dante being picked at?
Dont get me wrong, I sorta see your point, but you have to remember this is a game aimed to be entertaining and was never meant to be anything near historical or educational (or something of that matter).
07/23/09
This utterly tasteless matter.
@TearsandScreams: I think it's the wrong kind of game. People getting interested in Inferno because of this game is gonna get disappointed. Gravely.
However, my intrested from Dante actually origins from FFIV and the references made in that game (as well as my interest for old literature), so your preposition is not completely out of hand. It's just the wrong kind of game to get people.
07/23/09
God of War never claimed to be any well-loved story. It's not Perseus, it's not Homeros, hell, it's not even Hercules. It doesn't twist and bend and destroy a story so that it becomes something it is not.
By the way, are you even familiar with greek mythology? The gods were vicious, vindictive and downright cruel.
They'd strike you down for thinking too much of yourself,
And a man having sex with his concubines was pretty commonplace. Used to be all the rage.
This, however, is different.
Dante's inferno is a man's journey through hell in search of the woman he loves. He's a simple man, a thinker and most of all, he's frail.
He is not an angry, steroid-filled vicious man who beat up Death, took his scyth and is now out for blood, vengeance and sticking things up the ass of Hell's watchdog.
07/23/09
But as I said when I first learned that EA was going to do this... They are not the right company to be handling it.
Scrape together the remnants of Clover.
Team Ico would be a dream come true.
Or hell let Level-5 have it...
Square-Enix would even give me better feelings...
07/23/09
Either way, it's just a book. Getting all upset because it "isn't being done justice" is stupid.
07/23/09
.....jpg
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
BOYS!!! Suicide is always an option.. don't be so harsh on yourself, it's not your fault...
Hollywood is killing games.... Game Industry is killing literature...
07/24/09
07/23/09
FFFFF
07/24/09
07/23/09
I think I'm on to something here.
07/23/09
The plot thickens...
07/23/09
Surely the church is going to make pressure to ban this game here.
07/23/09
"Nel mezzo del cammin del culo di Cerbero..."
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
If anything, its kinda saying, "hell is bad, kill all demons"
07/24/09
07/23/09
Well, it' worked for this kid...sort of?...
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
What, is a giant she-thing going to use Dante as a dildo while eating a bowl of mysterious brown content?
07/23/09
07/23/09
07/23/09
terrifying.
07/23/09
07/23/09