what a harsh critic of Dante might say

“The plot of the work is visibly cracked. An Italian poet, age thirty-five, is lost in a forest. He is sad and confused and pursued by a number of ravenous African animals. And wouldn’t you know it– the poet just happens to run into the ghost of Virgil. They enter a cave that conveniently issues directly into hell, where they meet scores of demons and finally observe a drooling Satan chewing the heads of three villains. They then descend Satan’s body, turn upside-down, and climb a giant mountain in the Pacific Ocean where people are forced to push boulders as punishment for minor sins. Lest I forget, Virgil then disappears and is replaced by the dead girlfriend of the Italian poet’s teenaged years. The Italian and his ex-bimbo magically fly together past all the planets and finally see Jesus and God. And appropriately so, I might add: for if this is the future of poetry, then only Jesus or God can save us.”