Talk Write

In today’s reading, Dante surreptitiously advances to the seventh realm of the blessed. Here dwell the spirits of the great spiritual contemplatives. Dante’s 11th century guide, Peter Damiano, instructs him through spiritual physics, all while spinning like a happy dredl. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s reading, Dante is astonished to learn the identities of the saved. Of course, Kings David and Solomon are numbered among the just, but what are we to make of Ripheus, who appears in Virgil’s “Aeneid,” calling himself a Christian? Dante’s amazement at those whom God chooses to save is truly well-voiced. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In Canto 19, the Roman Eagle of Justice speaks. While Dante wishes to know what becomes of those just rulers who do not profess Christ, the Eagle chides him that this is the wrong question. Man cannot work out God’s justice through moral reasoning. Better is it to look to himself and his own deeds, rather than worry about others. Indeed, at the end of times, we will be surprised by how many just p...

In today's reading, having been treated to a parade of the great warriors of God, from Joshua to the heroes of the Crusades, Dante ascends to the next rung of Paradise: the sphere of Jupiter. The poet is treated to a fabulous light show of illuminating souls, which then transforms into the body of a great eagle: a symbol of the just and temperate rulers. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncoo...

In today’s reading, Caccuiaguida tells Dante what he can expect in the future. Violence. Betrayal. Banishment. Nevertheless, Dante is told to keep the hope—although his future will be a bitter pill to swallow, his future will long outlast those of his enemies. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s reading, Dante’s grandfather Cacciaguida walks him through the greatness that once was Florence, compared to its present degeneracy. After taking his grandson through a whirlwind tour of the great and not so great families of his own time, Cacciaguida references bitterly the murder that sparked the present civil war, and ultimately led to Dante’s banishment. Get full access to Talk Writ...

In today’s reading, having ascended to the fifth level of Paradise (Mars), Dante encounters his grandfather, Cacciaguida. Paternal and wistful, Cacciaguida recounts how things used to be in Florence, before the hideous faction rivalries that would ultimately lead to Dante’s banishment. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s canto, Beatrice asks a pertinent question: what will glory be like in the resurrection? None other than Solomon the Wise answers her, using the beautiful image of a glowing coal. Then, hardly realizing what is happening, Dante ascends to the fifth sphere of Heaven, where he sees an image of the cross of Christ: a promise of the resurrection to come. Trans. John Ciardi Get full access to...

In today’s canto, Thomas Aquinas performs yet more intellectual winnowing on Dante, explaining how it came to be that none arose wiser than Solomon. To do this, he resorts to much succinctly reasoned Scholastic syllogizing, in which he employs the theory of Platonic forms and decries the largely useless metaphysical hair-splitting of so many thinkers and philosophers. Trans. John Ciardi Get full a...

In today’s canto, we look at the second of Dante’s two great poverty-marrying patrons. We hear Bonaventure wax poetic on the life of Dominic, whose intellectually-minded approach to the question of poverty remains a lodestone for believers today. Just one question: what happened? Trans. John Ciardi Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s canto, still in the fourth sphere of the Sun, Aquinas waxes poetic on the state of the Franciscan order and its patron, Saint Francis. The Church is at her best when she remembers her duties: prayers, alms, and poverty. Saint Francis married poverty despite the ire of his father, but doing so he reignited a church gone lethargic. Trans. John Ciardi Get full access to Talk Write at brand...

In today’s canto, Dante ascends to the fourth sphere, that of the sun, where he encounters another of his intellectual heroes: Thomas Aquinas. Here repose the souls of the wise and the great intellectual defenders of the Church throughout history. Trans. John Ciardi Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s canto, Dante is still in the sphere of Venus, where he encounters two souls: Cunizza Da Romano and the onetime Bishop of Marseilles, Folquet. How are the amorous saved, and what does it mean to give up a life of worldly love for divine love? Trans. John Ciardi Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s canto, Dante and Beatrice ascend to Venus, the third sphere of Paradise, where they encounter Charles Martel, the Medieval king of Hungary. Dante asks the king how it is, if men are made through the divine harmony of the heavenly spheres, that so much disharmony can arise. Charles Martel rehashes the timeless nature v. nurture debate. Wise words for us to hear, even 700 years later! Tra...

In today’s canto, Dante has some choice questions for Beatrice. How exactly does atonement work? How can the sin of humanity be wiped out? How does Christ’s suffering our punishment translate into redemption? Beatrice as ever answers Dante in good, reasonable scholastic method, and even delivers him a few nuggets of wisdom about the final resurrection of the body. Tras. John Ciardi Get full access...

Today, Emperor Justinian discourses about the history and trajectory of the Roman Eagle. From its humble origins among the brood of Romulus to the most powerful empire in Western History, the eagle flies over history, left and right. In addition to that, Justinian discusses the age-old problem of sacred church and secular powers. How much relationship between these two is too much? For Dante, it’s...

In today’s canto, Beatrice finishes her discourse on the will. Take vows seriously! You’re offering up nothing less than your freedom to God; sacrifice that, and you tear the terms of the covenant. That being said, “like an arrow driven with such might it strikes its mark before the string is still” Beatrice and Dante rocket up to the second rung of Paradise, Mercury, where a blessed soul soon mak...

In today’s canto, Dante asks how is it that Picccarda Donati, whose vow was broken through no fault of her own, could still be punished. Beatrice is on hand to explain things: a will broken through outside interference is still a will unperfected. Want to see a will in perfect alignment with God? Look to Father Lawrence, Bishop of Rome, martyred by slow roasting over an open fire. Divine justice i...

Dante and Beatrice ascend to the first level of the blessed. In the Ptolemaic scheme Dante employs, the moon stands at the furthest reach of God’s paradise. It’s home to those who were inconstant in their vows towards God; even those who were forced to break vows through some outside influence are nevertheless fated to rise no higher in the divine scheme. Yet there is no animosty here or talk of i...

Canto 2! In today’s podcast, we take a look at Dante’s famous theological “trigger warning” to the reader. Faced with the impossible task of representing the completely unrepresentable, he resorts to the abstract to help him describe heaven’s glories. Also, those spots on the moon come from what, exactly? Dante says a change in substance; Beatrice (as always) corrects him and says it’s actually Go...

Today marks the beginning of our thirty-three-day examination at Dante’s “Paradiso.” What makes this work such a towering achievement? Despite its being the crowning achievement of the whole Comedy, why does it remain one of the lesser-read books in comparison to the “Inferno?” How does Dante describe the undescribable, and render the unrepresentable? These are just a few of the questions we will...

Today, we’re revisiting an episode from February. What makes Dickens’s “Bleak House” so compelling? A number of factors, not least of which is his as-always remarkable powers of description, mood, and setting-building. Nothing exemplifies this better than the opening pages of this middle masterpiece. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.substack.com/subscribe

Today, I offer my thoughts about Edward Said’s classic 1978 study, “Orientalism.” According to Said, for the past three hundred years, Western powers have built up a series of representations and traditions about Eastern culture which now forms the background to everything said or thought about Eastern culture. Listen to my thoughts about Said’s thesis, and where I think it goes astray. Get full a...

Today, we’re talking about what gives this 1827 novel by Allesandro Manzoni the claim of “Greatest Christian Novel Ever Written.” Is it the celebration of marriage? The dauntless, magnanimous characters? The humanity shown for even the most depraved villain? All of the above? Absolutely! Not to mention the fact that it’s a wonderful action-adventure historical novel of the highest quality, a page-...

Today, we take a look at classicist Gilbert Highet’s delightful travelogue-poetry collection “Poets in a Landscape.” Showcasing the works from the best of the Roman poets—Vergil, Catullus, Horace, and more—Highet walks his readers through the Latin Golden Age of Poetry in a way that is at once accessible, interesting, informed, and passionate. Get full access to Talk Write at brandoncookwriter.sub...