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The First Fan Fic - Hailey Morgan

I said this same thing when reading John Milton's Paradise Lost, but Dante is going to be receiving a bit more credit since he, apparently, did it first. And to what am I referring, you ask? Well, isn't it obvious? This so-called Divine Comedy is no mere epic, no! It it something far more important . . . This trilogy is the world's first original fan-fic!

While this may seem like a very non-scholarly topic to write about, I feel as though it is extremely vital to the betterment of this class to point out each of the scarily accurate similarities.

To begin, Dante's Divine Comedy can be correctly classified as a self-insert fan-fiction. Unlike Milton's now-famous fan-fic, Paradise Lost, which was written as a mere re-telling of a classic tale, the Italian poet had to be a bit more creative. Dante decided to write about his take on the afterlife and, instead of publishing a lengthy philosophical work, he decided to produce a much more thrilling, first-person adventure story! I can only imagine what the Wattpad tags might have been . . . 

Within the first section of the work, Inferno, we see Dante unfortunately traipsing through the streets of Hell. However, he is blessed enough to not have to traverse this perilous land alone, no! Dante is lucky because his idol, Virgil, just so happens to be there to guide him! The fact that the Italian poet not only adds his favorite writer to this tale, but also faints in his arms a couple of times only adds more fuel to the fan-fiction fire. 

Now, Virgil is not the only famous person Dante gets to run into! Along the way, the duo also meet Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, Helen, and even Cleopatra! In fact, the only oc (original character) that Dante includes in this tale is Francesca. Ironically enough, Dante connects this character, at least in some ways, to the scandalously legendary myth of Sir Lancelot and Lady Guinevere. I mean, if connecting your oc's to the preexisting cannon isn't a fan-fic worthy tactic, then I don't know what is!

Finally, Dante does not neglect to include his crush, Beatrice, in the story. After all, no fan-fiction would be complete without a self-insert character who finally gets to freely love their crush! Though the two are still very much separated, hearing that his dream girl cared enough about him to send his idol as his personal guide through Hell is more than enough to earn Dante the "hopeless romantic" award.

On that note, I am finished. Please forgive me for the wretched travesty that you were all just forced to read. I hate myself, too.

Edit - Replied to Brooke Hutcheson and Jamie Peters.


Comments

  1. Brooke HutchesonMarch 12, 2021 at 12:34 PM

    Hailey, you never cease to amaze me with your big imagination. I never thought of Inferno as a fan-fic, but I see it now. I guess anyone can write a fan-fic about anything (like the depths of Hell XD). Dante really brought many different genres into The Inferno like fantasy, fiction, epic, fan-fiction, etc. Do you believe Beatrice and Dante are canon?

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  2. Rachael GregsonMarch 15, 2021 at 4:51 PM

    This is hilarious. Now that you pointed it out, Dante spends most of his time in hell swooning over the greatness of Virgil, not to mention listing a bunch of other historical figures down there (sheesh, are there any historical figures left to be in heaven?). It's a little out of place, to be honest. It's like that crossover Disney channel special that's so absurd it takes away from the plot altogether.

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  3. abbieheddenMarch 15, 2021 at 9:51 PM

    I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T SEE THIS BEFORE! Once again, Hailey, you have shown me an entirely new side to a work. All I saw was a slightly cringey metaphorical "walk through hell". Now that I have this side of the story, I think I will enjoy Dante more!

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