Larry Hammer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
larryhammer) wrote2008-03-09 08:16 am
larryhammer) wrote2008-03-09 08:16 am
"She's beginning to think that the world is beautiful"
The danger of replacing Beatrice with a ninja is that then she wouldn't need to send Virgil to do her dirty work: she could sneak out of Heaven and guide Dante herself. Presumably, though, this plothole could be handwaved over. Especially since having her make like a ninja over the rooftops of the New Jerusalem is really appealing. (Is anyone else disappointed that Dante doesn't get to fly between the planets, but is translated from sphere to sphere without noticing till after it's happened?) Though that means switching from the astronomical metaphor she uses on Dante for most of Heaven. Hmm. All of which means I'm still considering that provisional NRS.
I keep gnawing on something Beatrice says in Heaven canto 4: that the circles of Heaven are not real, but a symbolic framework to help things make sense to Dante's limited human perception -- that in truth all souls are equally in the highest heaven with God. And, indeed, in the end the scheme dissolves into a vision of the Mystic Rose which closer approximates this truth. So Heaven -- but what about Hell and Purgatory? It's not a stretch to suggest this applies there, but we never, that I'm aware, get any confirmation they are symbolic rather than literal geography. A bone to chew indeed.
Of course, one could ask the same questions of the End of the World in Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Speaking of which, the Revolutionary Girl Utena manga also bounces interestingly off Dante, though in very different ways than Fruits Basket. Makes me want to see chibi!Dante and ninja!Beatrice duel for the Mystic Rose Bride and "the power to revolutionize the world and the eternal stars!"
---L.
I keep gnawing on something Beatrice says in Heaven canto 4: that the circles of Heaven are not real, but a symbolic framework to help things make sense to Dante's limited human perception -- that in truth all souls are equally in the highest heaven with God. And, indeed, in the end the scheme dissolves into a vision of the Mystic Rose which closer approximates this truth. So Heaven -- but what about Hell and Purgatory? It's not a stretch to suggest this applies there, but we never, that I'm aware, get any confirmation they are symbolic rather than literal geography. A bone to chew indeed.
Of course, one could ask the same questions of the End of the World in Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Speaking of which, the Revolutionary Girl Utena manga also bounces interestingly off Dante, though in very different ways than Fruits Basket. Makes me want to see chibi!Dante and ninja!Beatrice duel for the Mystic Rose Bride and "the power to revolutionize the world and the eternal stars!"
---L.