On the Dante Trail trail: Week 0
No, friends and readers, the title of the post doesn't contain a redundant typo, it describes the upcoming gratuitously self-indulgent journey we are about to embark on following in the footsteps of Rod Dreher as he follows in the footsteps of the famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri, whose footsteps have repeatedly been followed in since sometime after his death in 1321. That's a lot of footsteps following if you ask me.
So since there cannot possibly be anything new and interesting to learn about Dante himself which hasn't already been documented far more richly elsewhere, it's fairly obvious that what we'll be discovering along our journey will be Rod's and, derivatively, my own aesthetic sensibilities as they are variously stimulated along the way.
If you can imagine a Rick Steves food and architecture tour focusing our breathless anticipation on someone like Oprah Winfrey's overstated moment-by-moment account of their overall sensible experience as they bite into a creamy gelato while their bottom explores the contours of an antique Italian chair, I think you'll have a good idea of the excitement to come.
Not only will we be following a follower, we'll also be following the follower's followers as they follow him themselves, giving us the richest aesthetic Moralistic Therapeutic Conservative sensibility experience possible .
I can't wait.
Since I no longer follow anything written at TAC, I have been out of the loop for quite some time. However, I was curious about one thing. Are the wife and kids going with RD on his "Dante Pilgrimage"?
ReplyDeleteI do think your description of TAC as "moral therapeutic conservatism" was very apt — rem acu tetigisti.
No, Rod will be meeting a male companion on his Italian getaway.
DeleteWhoa, Keith. "Male companion" sounds very freaky to me.
DeleteI don't know, but if I were the lady, I would be down at the lawyer's office filling out divorce papers, on the grounds of "spousal abandonment."
Starting next week, and for the first two weeks in October, I will be blogging from Italy, on the Dante trail. And guess what? The famous James C., il maestro of View From Your Table, will be coming down from the UK to Florence for a couple of days so that we can meet and eat together. The VFYT gods have already chosen this restaurant for one of our dinners. (Below, a previous James C. masterpiece from Italy.)
DeleteThey share a passion that cannot be denied.
This guy has been crowned King of Hipsters. He is a barista by day, naturally. At night he “crafts” bespoke quince preserves, locally sourced from micro-gardens surrounding Paris (collected on a carbon neutral vintage tricycle, with handwoven basket made from twigs foraged in the Tuilleries. On weekends he teaches Torah classes to disadvantaged refugees from the Upper East Side who have fled to France, escaping New York’s unaffordable rent. And he maintains a blog about curling methodology of whiskers.
ReplyDeleteI like how the hat is tall enough to accommodate Rod's spiked 'do without mussing it. heh.
ReplyDeleteI like one of the comments to the photo:
ReplyDeleteWho let him out of the house wearing those glasses.? However the rest of his outfit looks très normal