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To Join the Lost by Seth Steinzor
In To Join the Lost, a latter-day rendition of Dante’s Inferno, Seth Steinzor has created a magnum opus presenting contemporary sinners and sins analogous to those in Dante but terrifyingly modern. The book, first in a series of three that will update The Divine Comedy for the 21st Century reader, will be of great interest not only to Dante scholars and students but also to the general public, since its depictions of the Nine Circles of Hell are graphic and offered with all the gusto, indignation, immediacy, and not infrequent humor of Dante’s original. The follies and excesses of the modern world have never been more clearly defined and excoriated.
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First published May 15, 2010
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May 1, 2020
The Short and Sweet of It
Seth Steinzor’s To Join the Lost revisits the route that Dante traveled through his Inferno, depicting the sights, sounds and scents of evil as they appear to a modern American. As with any great and ancient city, a lot has changed in Hell over the past seven hundred years. The travelers encounter horrors and escape new perils while dodging age-old invitations to self-destruction. Their adventures invite us to contemplate evil’s eternal and ever-changing nature.
A Bit of a Ramble
I love Dante's Inferno with an all-encompassing passion. I am not sure if that means I was predisposed to like this re-imagining or just the opposite. My first reaction to the idea of a modernization of Dante's Inferno was curiosity, followed shortly by derision, which slowly morphed back into curiosity. Whatever preconceived notions I had mean very little as I ended up truly enjoying the work and was happy to add it to my Inferno collection.
Just like the original Inferno, To Join the Lost is a wonderful combination of tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, apropos punishments, and intriguing philosophy. While a small part of me worried that I would be distracted or frustrated or annoyed by the inevitable changes, I actually found most of them quite humorous and fitting. For example, I couldn't help but giggle when the entry to hell was paved with cubicles and paperwork instead of the sinner-tossing Minos.
I am most impressed that Steiznor made this work his own without neglecting or demeaning the original. While I, obviously, compared this to Dante's Inferno, I definitely could have read, understood, and enjoyed To Join the Lost without having read Inferno; at the same time, having read the original did not detract from my enjoyment. I feel like I may be harping on this fact a wee-bit, but seriously folks, a re-imagining of a story I love is held to a pretty high standard whether it's a parody, film, modernization, homage, re-workings, etc.
If you enjoy Inferno, or even if you haven't, I recommend picking this one up!
Seth Steinzor’s To Join the Lost revisits the route that Dante traveled through his Inferno, depicting the sights, sounds and scents of evil as they appear to a modern American. As with any great and ancient city, a lot has changed in Hell over the past seven hundred years. The travelers encounter horrors and escape new perils while dodging age-old invitations to self-destruction. Their adventures invite us to contemplate evil’s eternal and ever-changing nature.
A Bit of a Ramble
I love Dante's Inferno with an all-encompassing passion. I am not sure if that means I was predisposed to like this re-imagining or just the opposite. My first reaction to the idea of a modernization of Dante's Inferno was curiosity, followed shortly by derision, which slowly morphed back into curiosity. Whatever preconceived notions I had mean very little as I ended up truly enjoying the work and was happy to add it to my Inferno collection.
Just like the original Inferno, To Join the Lost is a wonderful combination of tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, apropos punishments, and intriguing philosophy. While a small part of me worried that I would be distracted or frustrated or annoyed by the inevitable changes, I actually found most of them quite humorous and fitting. For example, I couldn't help but giggle when the entry to hell was paved with cubicles and paperwork instead of the sinner-tossing Minos.
I am most impressed that Steiznor made this work his own without neglecting or demeaning the original. While I, obviously, compared this to Dante's Inferno, I definitely could have read, understood, and enjoyed To Join the Lost without having read Inferno; at the same time, having read the original did not detract from my enjoyment. I feel like I may be harping on this fact a wee-bit, but seriously folks, a re-imagining of a story I love is held to a pretty high standard whether it's a parody, film, modernization, homage, re-workings, etc.
If you enjoy Inferno, or even if you haven't, I recommend picking this one up!
November 29, 2011
For the greater part of his life, Seth Steinzor has been enraptured by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. He loved, among other things, the “vivid sensory images, powerful spirituality (and) wicked humor”. To communicate the powerful effect Dante had on him, Steinzor “undertook to rewrite the Comedy as if it had happened to [him]; not as a translation or as an adaptation, but as [his] own experience.” Thus was born To Join the Lost , a modern telling of The Inferno, the first part of Dante’s classic work.
Where Dante was led through hell by the Roman poet Virgil, Steinzor has as his guide none other than Dante himself. This is a clever device that allows comment on the original story and changes Steinzor has made. As Dante observes to him: “But here, where all is lost, the more it changes, the more it’s the same.”
Although human nature remains the same, there are, of course, societal differences between Dante’s world of 1300 and Steinzor’s twenty-first century reality. To the procurers and seducers of Dante’s eighth circle are joined “your porno movie makers; ad execs who swore by the creed, sex sells; (…) wife beaters;“and so on.
Although many will agree that many of the groups Steinzor now incorporates into hell (Wall Street raiders, real estate developers) should indeed be there, some will no doubt take exception to individuals that he includes: Thomas Jefferson and Bobby Kennedy among others. I’m sure that there were those who objected in Dante’s day, to his version. Not all of the individuals are immediately recognizable and many references sent me to Wikipedia, but Dante himself must be approached, as Steinzor says: “though dense encrustations of footnotes”, so I have no complaint with that.
In some cases, I thought the people included in certain areas didn’t reflect Dante’s reasoning at all, but a perspective that is clearly the author’s. Because Steinzor did not just update Dante’s vision: he experienced his own version of the inferno. Some of that change is wrought by differences in both religious outlook & nationality of the two narrators: Dante being a devout Florentine Catholic and Steinzor, a self-admitted ‘agnostic-Jewish-Buddhist-American’.
For example, Steinzor finds Limbo uninhabited.
“Where are all the souls you wrote
you saw here – the virtuous pagans?” I asked (…)”
Flown,” he said, “released by your
‘uncertain disbelief,’ I’ll call it,
from the suspense in which my certainties hung them.”
Satan himself is portrayed as a Disney World version of the Wizard of Oz, located in a silo shaped container at the center of hell:"modeled
upon the humble agricultural/
and military storage facilities/ that
dot America’s heartland/ reminding
awestruck visitors/ that the seeds of the past are
missiles aimed at the future (…)"
Indeed, Satan now has office hours (9-5 weekdays), a reception area that presents a promotional film, and a souvenir stand. Notably, Satan is absent during Steinzor’s visit. Truly, one wonders how hell itself exists in Steinzor’s reality, given his religious ambiguity.
The author has also retained the ‘wicked humor’ of his mentor. We can clearly see Dante rolling his eyes in this passage: "A face,
distorted with rage, rose near us, howling hate.
My guide glancing down, then up to the clouds, said,
Filippo Argenti, you won’t have me this time,
either (…)"
Where the book is most touching though, is when Steinzor relates his own life experiences: the friend who committed suicide, or his grandparents’ sad lost dreams. The 19 line ‘story’ of the sexual pervert who approached him in a public shower in his teens left me with my mouth open in horror, sympathy and revulsion.
At the heart of To Join the Lost is the poetry. I believe this work is presented in 10 line stanzas of free verse. This is not necessarily an easy form to work. As T. S. Eliot observed, “No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.” I believe Steinzor has done just that.
Steinzor’s words flow and many of his metaphors are breathtaking and sometimes powerfully precise.
"Soon I was treading on a trail of my tears,
dark grey dots on lighter grey."
What does it take to achieve the status of a Dante? Perhaps 700 years of posterity. Steinzor, of course, does not have that. But I do hope that readers will look beyond their personal opinions of the inhabitants of his hell and recognize the beauty in this writing that has indeed presented this trip through the Inferno as if it had happened to the present-day author.
Where Dante was led through hell by the Roman poet Virgil, Steinzor has as his guide none other than Dante himself. This is a clever device that allows comment on the original story and changes Steinzor has made. As Dante observes to him: “But here, where all is lost, the more it changes, the more it’s the same.”
Although human nature remains the same, there are, of course, societal differences between Dante’s world of 1300 and Steinzor’s twenty-first century reality. To the procurers and seducers of Dante’s eighth circle are joined “your porno movie makers; ad execs who swore by the creed, sex sells; (…) wife beaters;“and so on.
Although many will agree that many of the groups Steinzor now incorporates into hell (Wall Street raiders, real estate developers) should indeed be there, some will no doubt take exception to individuals that he includes: Thomas Jefferson and Bobby Kennedy among others. I’m sure that there were those who objected in Dante’s day, to his version. Not all of the individuals are immediately recognizable and many references sent me to Wikipedia, but Dante himself must be approached, as Steinzor says: “though dense encrustations of footnotes”, so I have no complaint with that.
In some cases, I thought the people included in certain areas didn’t reflect Dante’s reasoning at all, but a perspective that is clearly the author’s. Because Steinzor did not just update Dante’s vision: he experienced his own version of the inferno. Some of that change is wrought by differences in both religious outlook & nationality of the two narrators: Dante being a devout Florentine Catholic and Steinzor, a self-admitted ‘agnostic-Jewish-Buddhist-American’.
For example, Steinzor finds Limbo uninhabited.
“Where are all the souls you wrote
you saw here – the virtuous pagans?” I asked (…)”
Flown,” he said, “released by your
‘uncertain disbelief,’ I’ll call it,
from the suspense in which my certainties hung them.”
Satan himself is portrayed as a Disney World version of the Wizard of Oz, located in a silo shaped container at the center of hell:"modeled
upon the humble agricultural/
and military storage facilities/ that
dot America’s heartland/ reminding
awestruck visitors/ that the seeds of the past are
missiles aimed at the future (…)"
Indeed, Satan now has office hours (9-5 weekdays), a reception area that presents a promotional film, and a souvenir stand. Notably, Satan is absent during Steinzor’s visit. Truly, one wonders how hell itself exists in Steinzor’s reality, given his religious ambiguity.
The author has also retained the ‘wicked humor’ of his mentor. We can clearly see Dante rolling his eyes in this passage: "A face,
distorted with rage, rose near us, howling hate.
My guide glancing down, then up to the clouds, said,
Filippo Argenti, you won’t have me this time,
either (…)"
Where the book is most touching though, is when Steinzor relates his own life experiences: the friend who committed suicide, or his grandparents’ sad lost dreams. The 19 line ‘story’ of the sexual pervert who approached him in a public shower in his teens left me with my mouth open in horror, sympathy and revulsion.
At the heart of To Join the Lost is the poetry. I believe this work is presented in 10 line stanzas of free verse. This is not necessarily an easy form to work. As T. S. Eliot observed, “No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.” I believe Steinzor has done just that.
Steinzor’s words flow and many of his metaphors are breathtaking and sometimes powerfully precise.
"Soon I was treading on a trail of my tears,
dark grey dots on lighter grey."
What does it take to achieve the status of a Dante? Perhaps 700 years of posterity. Steinzor, of course, does not have that. But I do hope that readers will look beyond their personal opinions of the inhabitants of his hell and recognize the beauty in this writing that has indeed presented this trip through the Inferno as if it had happened to the present-day author.
November 9, 2011
To Join the Lost by Seth Steinzor is a modern retelling of Dante Alighieri's The Inferno. In it we join a middle-aged Jewish lawyer from Vermont as he takes a tour of hell...this time with Dante himself as our guide. As with all things in this world, much has changed in the nether-regions since Dante took his trip with Virgil showing the way. Steinzor has updated some of the punishments and brought us more modern inmates for our lawyer to interact with. We are shown that the more things change, the more they stay the same--and while the face of evil may be different in our times, the underlying causes and motivations remain constant.
I have to be honest in my review. This was not a knock-my-socks-off retelling of Dante's classic. It's okay...which is the rating I have given it (although since Goodreads does not allow half stars, I have rounded up from my 2 1/2 star rating). There are moments of great metaphorical beauty. There are some very lovely turns of phrases and sometimes whole stanzas of mighty fine poetry. But, unlike the translation of Dante's classic which I just read in the fall, it is not sustained. Dante's work captivated me--even when I didn't understand everything, even when I had to keep flipping to the notes to figure out who these people were or what exactly Dante was talking about, he still held me in the palm of his hand. And, despite this being a modern retelling, notes would have been useful in this version. There are some of hell's inmates that maybe I ought to know--but, sorry, I don't. And there are a few that apparently Mr. Steinzor thinks are so obvious that he doesn't even need to name--this distracts from the story and causes the examples to lose their effect.
This is an interesting book and definitely an ingenious premise. When I was contacted about participating in the blog tour I was very excited. It seemed to me that this would be a wonderful follow up to my reading of Dante's work last fall. It is unfortunate--for me--that it did not quite live up to my expectations. Following in Dante's footsteps is a mighty tall order. Mr. Steinzor makes a very good effort that just doesn't quite hit the mark for me. I do think, however, that it is a book that you should try after reading the original. It is definitely worthwhile to see what a modern day poet makes of a journey through the inferno. And perhaps it may be more on target for you.
Some excerpts that I found especially compelling:
Eternity, therefore, is like an ocean with currents
that swarm and braid and branch and carry
many riders. Like you, each is bound for where he's
going and thinks there's nowhere else.
Or see it this way: when you were a child,
and maybe many times since then,
it delighted you to stand beside an
an unruffled pond and pick out pebbles, the
flatter the better. One by one you'd fling them
skillfully, sidearm, snapping your wrist and
proudly counting the hops. That flat little pebble's the
world of your daily awareness. The pond is
everything else. You fly, you skim, you leap,
you skim that chilly otherness, (p. 43)
AND
The only
choice that love allows is whether to be
open to it; when we let it,
love sees with our eyes.... (p. 95)
[Disclaimer: This book was sent to me as a review copy for a blog tour. My review policy is posted on my blog, but just to reiterate...This review copy was offered to me for impartial review and I have received no payment of any kind. All comments are entirely my own honest opinion.]
I have to be honest in my review. This was not a knock-my-socks-off retelling of Dante's classic. It's okay...which is the rating I have given it (although since Goodreads does not allow half stars, I have rounded up from my 2 1/2 star rating). There are moments of great metaphorical beauty. There are some very lovely turns of phrases and sometimes whole stanzas of mighty fine poetry. But, unlike the translation of Dante's classic which I just read in the fall, it is not sustained. Dante's work captivated me--even when I didn't understand everything, even when I had to keep flipping to the notes to figure out who these people were or what exactly Dante was talking about, he still held me in the palm of his hand. And, despite this being a modern retelling, notes would have been useful in this version. There are some of hell's inmates that maybe I ought to know--but, sorry, I don't. And there are a few that apparently Mr. Steinzor thinks are so obvious that he doesn't even need to name--this distracts from the story and causes the examples to lose their effect.
This is an interesting book and definitely an ingenious premise. When I was contacted about participating in the blog tour I was very excited. It seemed to me that this would be a wonderful follow up to my reading of Dante's work last fall. It is unfortunate--for me--that it did not quite live up to my expectations. Following in Dante's footsteps is a mighty tall order. Mr. Steinzor makes a very good effort that just doesn't quite hit the mark for me. I do think, however, that it is a book that you should try after reading the original. It is definitely worthwhile to see what a modern day poet makes of a journey through the inferno. And perhaps it may be more on target for you.
Some excerpts that I found especially compelling:
Eternity, therefore, is like an ocean with currents
that swarm and braid and branch and carry
many riders. Like you, each is bound for where he's
going and thinks there's nowhere else.
Or see it this way: when you were a child,
and maybe many times since then,
it delighted you to stand beside an
an unruffled pond and pick out pebbles, the
flatter the better. One by one you'd fling them
skillfully, sidearm, snapping your wrist and
proudly counting the hops. That flat little pebble's the
world of your daily awareness. The pond is
everything else. You fly, you skim, you leap,
you skim that chilly otherness, (p. 43)
AND
The only
choice that love allows is whether to be
open to it; when we let it,
love sees with our eyes.... (p. 95)
[Disclaimer: This book was sent to me as a review copy for a blog tour. My review policy is posted on my blog, but just to reiterate...This review copy was offered to me for impartial review and I have received no payment of any kind. All comments are entirely my own honest opinion.]
March 6, 2017
Before anything else, I want to thank Poetic Book Tours for providing me a copy of this book.
This book is a modern day retelling of Dante’s Inferno. You all, peeps, knew what that story is right?
Me too. I know the story of Dante’s Inferno though I haven’t read the original book yet. I know cause we kind of discuss this literature when I was in high school but I was so curious about the story of the book that I decided to buy the book of it if I ever find one. I didn’t really put it on in my TBR list just inside my mental TBR list. So imagine the excitement I felt when I found out that the story of To Join the Lost is a modern retelling of Dante’s Inferno. I was so excited!
What I didn’t expect though is the very deep and very confusing way of its narration. Now don’t get me wrong, I totally understand that this book is a POETIC book. Like it should be narrated that way. The problem is it’s not the kind of narration that I understand so well. When I open the file on my reader I was confused about its physical format. It looked like a poem. It didn’t look like the paragraphs after paragraphs of letters I used to reading. So I had a very hard time reading and understanding the story.
Not to mention there were words that are too old English like thee and stuff. Of all the kinds of book I really do not like books that has those old words. I do not understand them and it keeps me from appreciating the story of the book. I don’t know why but that’s just how it is for me. Still I tried reading it and found myself really struggling. I understand the chapters, like the individual chapters, but not the whole story. Trust me, I tried so hard to understand it. There are times that I could understand it because I already have a background of it but most of the time I feel like I’m just reading letters and not actually understanding them.
I made it at around 53% of the book when I decided that I really can’t understand it no matter how much I tried. And I feel so bad. I was so excited to read this book but because I wasn’t expecting the kind of narration it has I just didn’t get to finish reading it and gave up.
Just so you know, I am not the kind of reader who’s into really really deep poetic books. That is why I hardly read classic books because they are deep and they have those old words I mentioned earlier.
Please don’t hate me with my rating. I only rate this according to my standard. I know for some people the book is amazing but for me sure it may be amazing but I didn’t get to appreciate it because I can’t understand the way it was narrated. The narration isn’t my cup of tea.
I always put honest reviews peeps. There might be times that I review a bias review but those only applies on books of Rick Riordan (I’m a hardcore fan of his books so you can’t blame me :D).
So this is me honestly saying that I didn’t like the book.
Still. Don’t let my review deter your eagerness to read this book. If you are the kind of reader who appreciates deep poetic books then this one is perfect for you. We all have different opinions on the same things.
P.S
I think this is my lowest rate book in my reviews ever.
This book is a modern day retelling of Dante’s Inferno. You all, peeps, knew what that story is right?
Me too. I know the story of Dante’s Inferno though I haven’t read the original book yet. I know cause we kind of discuss this literature when I was in high school but I was so curious about the story of the book that I decided to buy the book of it if I ever find one. I didn’t really put it on in my TBR list just inside my mental TBR list. So imagine the excitement I felt when I found out that the story of To Join the Lost is a modern retelling of Dante’s Inferno. I was so excited!
What I didn’t expect though is the very deep and very confusing way of its narration. Now don’t get me wrong, I totally understand that this book is a POETIC book. Like it should be narrated that way. The problem is it’s not the kind of narration that I understand so well. When I open the file on my reader I was confused about its physical format. It looked like a poem. It didn’t look like the paragraphs after paragraphs of letters I used to reading. So I had a very hard time reading and understanding the story.
Not to mention there were words that are too old English like thee and stuff. Of all the kinds of book I really do not like books that has those old words. I do not understand them and it keeps me from appreciating the story of the book. I don’t know why but that’s just how it is for me. Still I tried reading it and found myself really struggling. I understand the chapters, like the individual chapters, but not the whole story. Trust me, I tried so hard to understand it. There are times that I could understand it because I already have a background of it but most of the time I feel like I’m just reading letters and not actually understanding them.
I made it at around 53% of the book when I decided that I really can’t understand it no matter how much I tried. And I feel so bad. I was so excited to read this book but because I wasn’t expecting the kind of narration it has I just didn’t get to finish reading it and gave up.
Just so you know, I am not the kind of reader who’s into really really deep poetic books. That is why I hardly read classic books because they are deep and they have those old words I mentioned earlier.
Please don’t hate me with my rating. I only rate this according to my standard. I know for some people the book is amazing but for me sure it may be amazing but I didn’t get to appreciate it because I can’t understand the way it was narrated. The narration isn’t my cup of tea.
I always put honest reviews peeps. There might be times that I review a bias review but those only applies on books of Rick Riordan (I’m a hardcore fan of his books so you can’t blame me :D).
So this is me honestly saying that I didn’t like the book.
Still. Don’t let my review deter your eagerness to read this book. If you are the kind of reader who appreciates deep poetic books then this one is perfect for you. We all have different opinions on the same things.
P.S
I think this is my lowest rate book in my reviews ever.
November 3, 2011
To Join the Lost by Seth Steinzor is a modernization of Dante’s Inferno, and the irony that Dante takes a lawyer with him on his next visit should not be lost on readers. Seth infuses his epic poem with modern tools and vices from bulldozers to politics. Traveling the same path as Dante into the depths of Hell’s nine circles, Seth sees those trapped in between and those who have sinned in a multitude of ways.
With each canto there is a flavor of “famous” sinners, but also references to the poet’s own sins and regrets. Where the epic poem is strongest is where Steinzor references his own troubles, his own lack of faith, his own indecision, and his own failures. “loading racks and shoving them along a/track of stainless steel into a/box of stainless steel — lower the lever,/close the gate — punch the big red/button, wait — shuddering, hissing — raise/the gate, releasing white clouds –/reach in, extract a rack of formerly filthy,/now gleaming and steaming glasses, or shiny,/clunky porcelain, or scratched-up aluminum/knives, forks, and spoons so hot//” (page 18 of Canto II)
Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2011/11/t...
With each canto there is a flavor of “famous” sinners, but also references to the poet’s own sins and regrets. Where the epic poem is strongest is where Steinzor references his own troubles, his own lack of faith, his own indecision, and his own failures. “loading racks and shoving them along a/track of stainless steel into a/box of stainless steel — lower the lever,/close the gate — punch the big red/button, wait — shuddering, hissing — raise/the gate, releasing white clouds –/reach in, extract a rack of formerly filthy,/now gleaming and steaming glasses, or shiny,/clunky porcelain, or scratched-up aluminum/knives, forks, and spoons so hot//” (page 18 of Canto II)
Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2011/11/t...
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March 18, 2016I admire the madness of any writer who dares to put miles and miles and miles of thought into verse.
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