Resourceful Thursday

Forgive the uncreative title.

It's been a busy week at work and I haven't had the motivation to read Cantos 6 and 7, let alone illustrate them. I could try to fob it off on some whimsically artistic excuse like "alas, I am feeling uninspired as of late" or "oh, my muse has left me" but no, I'm just effing lazy sometimes.

Which is precisely why I started this project in the first place!

I may not find the time or the energy or the "muse" to churn out two new illustrations every single week, but dammit, I'm going to produce something! And yes, I do have to actually read the Cantos - I only ever read Purgatorio in its entirety and that was like 7 years ago. Fortunately, I've got enough of the fortitude to get through the heavy language so you don't have to!

But if you're keen on playing along, I have some resources for you:

First, we have www.everypoet.com, which I've been linking to here and again for the text of the Divine Comedy. They use the H.W. Longfellow version, which is probably more widespread but is tough to follow if you're used to modern English. I've only been using Everypoet since the beginning of this project, and it doesn't seem to have been maintained much in the last few years, but that doesn't necessarily make it a poor resource. Plus, it has a nifty haiku generator.

Another more comprehensive web resource is maintained by the Electronic Literature Foundation. They've built a searchable database for several major works including our favorite Dante original. You can search by Canto in not only the Longfellow translation, but that of H.F. Cary and Allen Mandelbaum. Plus, you can choose to accompany your text with artworks by the likes of Dali, Dore, and Botticelli. The only real downside, alas, is that the searchable database's code doesn't give you a linkable URL - not easily anyhow - which makes it a tough sell if I want to present a specific Canto's translation without taking up tons of space with copypaste.

Beyond those two sites and the occasional Wikipedia article, that's all I've got. I'm also doing most of my physical reading from this book.

If anyone out there has a tidbit of insight, I'm all ears.

Oh. Canto VI is about fat people.