Reading Notes: Inferno: Satan, Part B

Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002).

the demons of hell are coming toward Dante and his guide. The guide asks him to look forward and try to recognize Satan.

He looks and notices a tall structure with massive winds, he tries to hide behind the guide because there is no shelter here. Absolutely doused in fear, he looks around at what lays in Hell. Many bodies are frozen in stone, some laying, some standing, some on their head and some bent so that their head touches their feet. Finally, they reached Lucifer.

Though he thought he could fear no more, a new wave of terror struck like a tsunami. He became so enveloped in horror that he did not die, but he was no longer alive. He was suffering in limbo while looking upon the once beautiful angel, now a hideous devil.

The devil stood waist high in ice, but know he was by no means small. The average man was closer to a giants height than a giant was to just one of lucifers arms. His body was as massive as he was ugly.

Three faces were on one head, each with a body being chewed in the mouth inflicting unique pain and suffering. The eyes - one fiery red, two joined to it on either side- sat above the center if each shoulder, which were linked at the neck with one white and one black eye on the center of the throat. On the faces where the eyes should have been were large wings like a bird but leathery as a bats. This was the source of the wind creating the frozen wasteland that surrounds them - hell is not on fire, but burns hot from the frost, so cold it splits lips and cracks the skin. Regardless of the cold, Satan wept from all his eyeless sockets, weeping blood that fell down three chins.

The three sinners he chewed were Judas, Brutus, and Cassius, They were stripped of skin. Judas flailed wildly while Brutus quietly squirmed. Cassius was very long limbed and endured the torture still.

Night was coming, and now they had to climb up Satan's body to leave hell.

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Storybook Research

To start the research I reread some passages of the play. I like the idea of having at least one original quote per story in my storybook, and I need one for my second story. I decided upon one and a half for this story:

“Oh, horror, horror, horror! This is beyond words and beyond belief!”

"The graceful and renowned king is dead. The wine of life has been poured out,”

I'm using the first for Banquo, originally said by Macduff and the second said by Macbeth but altered to the situation that is slightly different, specifically to point out the way the king was killed and who is the suspect.

I went back and found a link Laura gave me for my research on scrying as the intro scene will use some of that.

Now for pictures, this one was easier to find images for than my last story but difficult because my internet was being slow. Here are the images you'll find throughout my story - but out of order.

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Reading Notes: The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting, Part B

Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).

The rabbit is being a jerk again, this time boasting on himself and the abilities he has. He lies and deceives all about things he sees others doing. This time, he lies and says that he can eat fish just like the otters. The otters say, well I can eat ducks too and to this the rabbit says he can also eat ducks. The otter challenges the rabbit to prove it, and accepting the challenge they go to a river where some ducks are. The otter effortlessly gets a duck, and while he is hunting the rabbit makes a noose to catch a duck (basically cheating). The rabbit goes to catch a duck, and the duck flies away carrying the rabbit until he cant hold on any longer and falls. He falls into a hole with no way out. Several days go, and he hears children playing outside. He sings a song to attract them to him, and they bring their father to cut a hole in the tree. Eventually the hole is big enough that the rabbit can run through and escape the people - free again to terrorize the animal community. 

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Speaking of bunnies, there was a children's book I read in school about a family that got a bunny and the cat didn't trust it - finding that it was sucking the juice from all the vegetables. He conspired with the dog, and I don't remember all that happens, but at the end they find the bunny is harmless and just a new friend with a weird diet. 

Afterthoughts. 

It seems for the Cherokee that the rabbit is their trickster animal, a spot normally reserved for a fox or coyote. I like the idea of changing he challenge and animals, where a platypus challenges a a crocodile to an arm wrestling contest and wins by hiding a needle in his hand - which becomes his poisonous spike that males have and he gets thrown across the river or something. I could also join the two stories I read this week, where the possum walks by the rabbit trapped and doesn't help him so the rabbit has to rely on tricking the humans to help. 

Reading Notes: Why The Possum's Tail Is Bare, Part A

Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).

A possum had a beautiful tail that, either to his bragging or because it was so beautiful (or both), the rabbit conspired to have it altered. It didn't help the rabbit no longer had his tail. as a bear took it. He invited the possum to a dance, where he would showcase his pretty tail. The possum agreed and was told the barber would come beforehand to spruce up his tail. What the possum didn't know, was that the barber was going to cut all the hair off of it and wrap it in a ribbon. The possum went to the dance, unwrapped his tail without looking, and started dancing. Eventually, he looked to see why all the others were laughing and saw with horror his beautiful tail was ugly as a lizards tail. So freaked, he fell on his back with a grin, helpless, as possums do when surprised. 

I think I've posted this before, but here is a photo I took of a possum that got stuck behind the grill in our back yard (he did not move when I moved the grill, so I poked him with a broomstick and after a hiss he left - totally fine). 

Afterthoughts.

Well, I am caught between thinking the rabbit is a jerk and that this is a story to warn children of being hubristic. How could I alter this story for my own? Maybe the bear could come back to eat the rabbit for being mean. Or I could change this to birds and how the peacock got his beautiful colors, that he stole them from the ostrich and made the ostrich ugly. This story seems like the reverse of the ugly duckling who grew up to become a beautiful swan.