Tuesday, October 7, 2014

On the Dante Trail trail: Faking It to the Streets

With Danteworld Rod has given up pretending the Dante Trail has any real substantive connection to the hoped for Dante book-to-be and is instead basically just giving us Uncle Ed's and Aunt Sylvia's Kodak Carousel slide show of their retirement vacation in blog form.

This will not be a long post, because I can’t gather my thoughts now.

Hey, no kidding? Same thing happens to me. But when it does, I don't buttonhole strangers on the street to inform them, "This will not be a long sentence, because I can’t gather my thoughts now." I just don't say anything. But, then I'm not a writer. Come to think of it, isn't it a writer's job to be able to gather their thoughts? To be able to describe the Dante Trail in Sienna?

Of course, if the real payload is you - what you're eating, what your facial expression is at this exact moment, what you're wearing right now, the quality of lodging you demand, your tastes in music - then gathering your thoughts really doesn't matter, does it. As with the Pharaohs of old, whatever comes out the hole becomes valuable by virtue of its source.

Welcome to Rodworld...Unplugged.

Still smarting from Diane's smack down, today on the Dante Trail trail there is not one selfie, only one food pic, but eight picture postcards from Ravenna, bringing our score now to:

Total pics: 13 - 100%

Selfies: 7 - 26% of total

Things Rod Ate: 3 - 19% of total

One of the reasons I continue to refer to Diane's effect on Dreher's subsequent behavior is that his subsequent writing is clearly responsive to what we just previously have discussed here in EQE. Today's Important Message To All: (1) Rod's not gay; no, honest; and (2) no matter what passions Sidney Bechet may incite in two men vacationing together in romantic Tuscany,

We crossed the bridge over the Arno and bought gelato for dessert, and walked back to our place, glowing. We spoke of how much we loved our wives and our children, and how blessed we are to have families. As much as I have loved Florence, I really can’t wait to go back home to Julie and the children — and I am so very, very grateful to be able to rest in them, and in their love. This kind of inner peace is what I’ve been searching for all my life, and God has given it to me in them, and in my faith.

Got that? He wrote in down right there. I should interject at this point that one of the reasons I'm a bit late to this Dante Trail trail update is that I've been handing out crisp $100 bills all morning to what seems to be an endless line of underprivileged but adorable children as they file past my desk. Not only did I pray for each one individually as each smiled at me, eyes streaming with tears of gratitude, I also prudently instructed each one not to spend it all in one place. Oh, and in addition to praying over each child individually, I also stopped and prayed eleven other additional times this morning. I'm telling you all this so you can make a note of it about me and tell your friends as well.

Speaking of prayer, apparently Yahweh has loosened the no-others-before-Him policy since HR first posted it back in the day:

The hotel is close to Dante’s tomb, so that’s where we went. How strange it was to approach it for the first time! Casella knew what the moment meant to me, and let me go in alone. I kissed Dante’s tomb and went to my knees, touching my forehead to the cold marble floor in a gesture of honor. I stood and prayed to him, thanking him for what he has done for me, and asking his blessing on my writing.

Who knew?

So let's gather our thoughts and wrap it up, shall we? Today's Dante Trail Takeaway: writing is the Philosopher's Stone, man; you can use it to create any reality you desire out of whatever you have at hand, even nothing at all.

Bonus takeaway: how do you make something about Dante? Simple: attach his name to it. Turns out others have already beat Rod and me to it.

Billboard, driving to work today: "Big Dante Tire Sale. Buy 3, Get the 4th One Free!"

Radio: "Dante Night at the Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee"

Lunch: "Have it Your Dante Way Today" That's right, dude: with prosciutto.

20 comments:

  1. Hey, at least today we got an interesting description of what the truffles on the pasta tasted like, and lovely things about the Mrs. and the family back home. That's more like it -- I'll score it as better than most of his posts, at least for those points.

    (Yikes on the scene at the tomb, tho. Time to take a step or two back, Rod. )

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  2. Oh, come on--Ray posed Casella behind a statue of frigging ANTINOUS, for pete's sake. How much more coyly telegraphic is he trying to be by putting the apotheosized gay lover of a Roman Emperor front and center?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antinous

    -TMFKS

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    1. Whoa. Didn't catch that one; I thought the bust was of Frodo Baggins. Little did I know that:

      Antinous became associated with homosexuality in Western culture, appearing in the work of Oscar Wilde and Fernando Pessoa.

      (from the Wikipedia article at that link you cited)

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    2. Yeah, some may call me cynical (moi?), but I'm convinced Rod has exquisitely cruel fun playing daresies with his plodding, credulous flock all the time. Name a more choice psychological nexus of narcissism and domination than repeatedly telling his followers who desperately want to get close to him one thing while simultaneously giving them repeated glimpses of just the opposite behind the curtain.

      Of course, as TMFKS points out, an aristocratic enough lover never need sully himself by crudely touching his beloved, he can just sort of beam his affection directly in high frequency, like radio. Or, as they say, glow.

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  3. They walked back to their place, "glowing"?

    Some people should not be allowed to work with words. :o

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  4. Hey, no kidding? Same thing happens to me. But when it does, I don't buttonhole strangers on the street to inform them, "This will not be a long sentence, because I can’t gather my thoughts now." I just don't say anything. But, then I'm not a writer. Come to think of it, isn't it a writer's job to be able to gather their thoughts? To be able to describe the Dante Trail in Sienna?

    I can't explain how funny this is to me. I guess I'm not a writer either.

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    1. I read this as "butt hole strangers," and went "What!!" Then I read it again and realized that it's time for my eye appointment.

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  5. The scene at the tomb reads like typical Catholic pilgrim behavior at the tomb of a saint who has worked a miracle in the pilgrim's life. (Of course, a typical Catholic pilgrim would keep it to himself.)

    This all manifestly squares with Rod's ultra-Orthodoxy, for reasons that are none of my business.

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    1. I'll add this:

      Grace perfects nature, and as easy a target as Rod has made of his nature, that passage is pretty much exactly what we'd get from his nature as grace worked on it.

      If the way he's packaged this trip actually were the payload, this is pretty much the payoff we should expect. This, I think, is the one genuine moment -- reflected, yes, through his irregularities, but then, how else would we see it -- in all the blogging Keith has related.

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    2. I am inclined to agree. Moreover, I thought the fact that he conceded that a recent Mass was "beautiful" (even though it wasn't his Orthodox cup of tea) was a good sign. (He knows, of course, that Eastern Catholicism offers the Orthodox liturgy, so his liturgical preferences really are pretty irrelevant to his ecclesial indentity...especially given the fact that Saint Francisville is not exactly crawling with Orthodox parishes, outside of the one Rod has built himself.)

      I dunno. If he's traipsing around Italy with Catholic trads and conceding that Catholic Masses can be "beautiful," then maybe John Beeler is right. Maybe he'll come back home eventually.

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    3. Diane, you're probably going to hate me for saying this, but his attendance at a Tridentine Mass in Italy was, for me, the final tip-off as to the real nature of Ray's Stations of the Belly.

      We who work here on K Street have ears and eyes everywhere, not just in the DC halls of power, but around the world. Hence we feel justified in making some gross generalizations like the one I'm about to make. "Traditional Catholicism" as a movement is not globally monolithic. It comes in three geographic flavors:

      In North America and Poland, it is the province of young, growing families, well-catechized youth, solidly orthodox seminarians and a resolute cadre of priests. It is intellectually vital, self-renewing, and a real source of future salt and light for 21st c. Christendom.

      In Latin America, it is the province of some unlovely political reactionaries, the landowning party at prayer, and thus a stone cold killer of vocations and real evangelism.

      And in the rest of Europe...it is homosexuals playing dress-up. Sorry to have to say that so bluntly. But it's largely true. These are people who are all about the form--satin vestments, aristocratic pretensions, etc.--and don't give a rat's buttock about any substantive matter of Christ's Kingdom. We should keep that in mind every time we see the Vatican being dismissive about some expression or set of 'traddies' in Europe, thinking that what they are suppressing is anything like, say, a motivated, earnest middle-class trad parish in Columbus OH or Nashville, TN.

      -The Man From K Street

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    4. I don't hate you at all. In fact, what you say makes perfect sense. Hmmm.

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    5. Anonymous from K Street, that has been precisely my observation as well.

      I'm not going to lie: the more I read about Dreher's sojourns with "Casella" the more uncomfortable I feel on behalf of Mrs. D. If my husband were the one sending dispatches about dining on typical romantic meals (truffles!) in a stereotypical romantic honeymoon destination and strolling glowing down the street with his companion...doesn't matter if the dining and holiday companion was a woman, a man, or a space alien, I'd suspect adultery and be devastated and furious.

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  6. Keith, you aren't Catholic (or Orthodox) so you might think that paying the honor of dulia is equivalent to the honor of latria which is the worship of sacrifice given to God alone. We honor the saints in the way, uh... sort of..., that Dreher is describing his veneration of Dante.

    Tiresome as it is to point out, Dante is not a Catholic (or Orthodox) saint. However he is a great Catholic writer who supposedly saved Dreher's life. If Dreher is grateful for this it is understandable. But would I venerate a fireman or policeman who saved my life? No. I would be grateful and thank him.

    IMHO, Dreher's veneration of Dante should at the very least be kept as a private matter so as not to cause scandal. Just because someone has written a great work of poetry and theology does not mean you venerate them. This is all "Dulia 101" and, like I said, tiresome to have to point out. But it fitsin well with the make-it-up-as-you-go-along religion that is Dreher's enduring trademark.

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    1. I'm aware that Catholics and Orthodox pray to saints as well as to God, but as you point out, Dante hasn't gotten that promotion to sainthood yet.

      If dulia allows the one who prays to make his own elections, then it seems to me that Dreher praying to Tom Landry would be as devoutly religious as his praying to Dante or St. Benedict.

      But if not, I think what we're talking about here is a psychological fetishism masquerading as religious piety.

      But as you already have, you'll have to parse those differences for me if I've still got it wrong.

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    2. I saw people around the Tom Landry statue at the stadium last Sunday, but didn't see anyone kneeling and kissing it.

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    3. Re: Tom Landry. Ironic since Ray himself likes to poke fun at the latria offered to Nick Saban while engaging in much the same with respect to Mr. Alighieri.
      -TMFKS

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    4. Does he indeed? LOL..he must still be butthurt WRT 2012.

      ROLL TIDE!

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  7. So, I really do not want to read the Dreherrhea for myself, but I am just wondering: I assume he visited San Vitale in Ravenna? Did he say anything about its famous mosaics? Or about Justinian and Theodora? Ravenna is certainly one of the more Byzantine places in Italy, so I assume an Orthodox convert would harp on that. Just curious.

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