Inferno is getting grosser. Coarser. And maybe more human?We're getting ready to cross over the second of the evil pouches of fraud in the eighth circle of hell.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for a short episode of WALKING WITH DANTE as we explore the brief opening description about this second pouch of fraud and ask a couple of speculative questions that lie around and even under this passage.Here are the segments of this podcast on INFERNO, Canto XVIII, lines 100 - 114:[01:08] My English translation of this passage. If you'd like to read along with INFERNO, Canto XVIII, lines 100 - 114, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.[02:44] Dante and Virgil have become ridge runners. They're also in a more precarious place on these spiny ridges. Which may tell us something about the poetics as well. (You know how I love meta points!)[05:37] The language in the poem is coarsening dramatically. Why? I have several possible answers.[11:37] The first of two speculative bits for this podcast episode. Sometimes, it's necessary to say "no" to Dante, even to a poet of his stature.[14:23] Why are there two pouches in one canto (Canto XVIII)? I have several answers and I'll let you make your own decisions among the speculations.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.