Ethard Wendel Van Stee

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Dante

Years ago I wrote a small book subtitled The Descent of the Western Literary Tradition to accompany some courses I was teaching. The simple schematic driver was one thing leads to another. Though a banality, I thought it worthwhile to place it in the context of our literary tradition, which is to say how did we get here. Nothing in culture comes from nothing. It follows that we examine what came before, evaluate how it fits into the present, (“What’s past is prologue” as Antonio says in The Tempest) and then move forward with some kind of synthesis about where we're going. I reported recently on Harold Bloom's “The Anatomy of Influence.” Bloom is a curmudgeonly old scholar blessed with an eidetic memory, which is to say, he never forgets anything he ever reads. His head is stuffed with volumes of reading, which he is able to recall on demand, and assemble in whatever way he sees fit. In “The Anatomy of Influence,” he takes a look at that old idea of one thing leads to another as a driver of literary invention.

Amazon lists 16,814 titles containing the word “Dante.” Is anything left unsaid about the man? I discovered recently that the answer is “yes” when I read A. N. Wilson’s new book, “Dante in Love.” Wilson is a fine writer and in spite of knocking off an old movie title, offers as full an explanation as possible of Dante’s relationship to his beloved Beatrice and his own wife Gemma. Little is known of Gemma, but Wilson does a decent job of reading between the lines to present a coherent and readable narrative.

He also talks about Virgil, Dante’s guide through the underworld in the “Inferno,” which leads us back to paragraph one in this essay. Dante is such a pivotal figure in the Western Canon that one might ask, who were his influences? Which bone in The Anatomy of Influence linked him to his literary past? Why, Virgil, of course.

There have been many notable sojourns through Hell, the underworld, by earthlings. The Apostle’s Creed of Christian origin runs Christ through Hell before he ascends into heaven. The poet and musician Orpheus pursued his wife to Hell in a vain effort to get her back. Aeneas challenges the Cumaean Sybil at the entrance before taking his own tour. Who better then, than Virgil to show Dante around a place with which he and others were so familiar?

The Sybil advises Aeneas that "The descent to the underworld is easy. Night and day the gates of shadowy death stand open wide, but to retrace your steps, to climb back to the upper air – there the struggle, there the labor lies (Pinsky)." Dante concluded that Virgil had been blessed by Jove and very likely would be able to lead him back out of the underworld at the conclusion of their tour. While there, Dante spun out a series of encounters that scholars believe represents thinly disguised autobiography.

Toward the end of his earthly life, banished from his beloved Florence, he left forever, dying of malaria in Ravenna, possibly contracted while on a mission to Verona.

Whatever happened to style in writing? Has it grown so transparent as to disappear altogether? Good writing is good writing, wherever it is found. My goal is to help you become a sculptor of words as you pursue the art of fiction. Some of what I have gleaned over the years, as heir to an older tradition, I offer to you in this extended essay

	Keep that young adult reader in your family with her nose in a book. The Monks of Arden is a another gem from the pen of Ethard Wendel Van Stee. Set in medieval England, it will keep her enchanted for hours. Princesses disappointed in love, wicked knights who seek to take advantage of them, they’re all here. Don’t miss it. Click Enter Here to read much more

		Madimi should definitely be a best seller, better than Dan Brown. It is a marvelous mix of mystery, blood and gore, sex, and supernatural forces. You have painted many vivid representations of various ages 13th – 20th century. I love your splendid, rich vocabulary and language, details of history, geography and daily lives of people, their clothing, their utensils jobs, baths etc. It’s a gripping page-turner, as they say. One reason I like your work so much better than, for instance, Tolkein, is that, while you have overlaid the piece with supernatural forces, your references to historical people and places are accurate, and even add to our understanding and appreciation of some of the roots of our Western civilization. Bravo. Well done. Daniel Hoyt Daniels, Translator of Moliere   Read Dan Daniels' Full Review

Coming in 2012 Watch for it. The Boy Who Would Be King is a feast for the ears. Seven plays that will stir your love of story and language.

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©2010 Ethard Wendel Van Stee