Lets just say someone like Dante was writing for the 2-3% of the population that was actually literate, today there are probably only 2-3% of people actually capable of reading the Divine Comedy. I don't think the 'high literacy' rate has changed much, all that's changed is people can write their name now and they might be able to point to their town on a map. Which begs the question why aren't there any Dante's today? Unless the high literacy rate has fallen way below what it was back then
Because the role of the church has diminished in the West, and the contemporary industrial apparatus governing the promotion and dissemination of literature operates under a strategic agenda fundamentally antithetical to the values championed by Dante.
>>25652576i just pissed all over the bathroom floor. I was right over the fucking toilet i dont even knownhow it happend
>>25652589spbp
>>25652576>Which begs the question why aren't there any Dante's today?Did you not read about the Australian children's author being sentenced?
>>25652587>>25652576Yes, indeed, quite.>>25652589Now this is literature.
I would wager there are men who have authored epic poetry in our time akin to Dante, but such would never get recognition. The publishing houses would not carry it and if he went online with it he would get called a madman and everyone would tl;dr him into obscurity.
>>25652634A sad state of affairs in our age. May God help us.
>And since language is nothing other than the vehicle indispensable to our thinking, as a horse is to a knight, and since the best horses are suited to the best knights, as I said, the best language is suited to the best thinking. But the best thinking is not to be found except where knowledge and intelligence are also present; therefore the best language is suited only to those who possess intelligence and knowledge. And so the best language is not suitable for all versifiers, since most of them write their verses without knowledge or intelligence; and, as a consequence, the best type of vernacular is not suitable for them either. On this account, if the illustrious vernacular is not appropriate for all, then not everyone should use it, since no one should do anything that is inappropriate.>Dante, De Vulgari Eloquentia 2.1.8Dante was ultimately writing for himself, not for an audience of literati (litteratorum). After his exile from Florence, and after his attempts to return failed (with the death of Henry VII in 1313), he turned philosophy and literature to meditate on things beyond the transitory (ie cope and seethe). His choice of vernacular Tuscan Italian, which thence became the standard dialect that would become modern Italian, is largely because it was his dialect. If you want to recreate a Dante, you need an autist with oneitis who suffers complete political ostracism and is willing to spend a decade on a passion project merely to cope and seethe before dying in obscurity. (Now that I type that out, there may be quite a few Dantes here). Tolkien is probably the most recent example whose work did not remain obscure.Regarding the 'high literacy' rate, the disappearance of the classical education has certainly stripped most of the familiarity with Western culture. Dante alluded primarily to three separate areas: the Bible, the classical world, and his contemporary politics. Unless you are a Dante scholar or medievalist, you probably do not care about the Ghibellines and the Guelphs or the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. However, if you do not know the bible or antiquity, you will merely be reading La Commedia for the imagery. People know Caesar and Plato, and they know Diogenes from the memes and Achilles and Hector from Hollywood, and they might recognize the name of Cicero. They probably remember Cain an Judas Iscariot. Do they know Brutus? Cassius? Antenor? Not really. So yes, high literacy has collapsed.There is, however, a long tradition in 'high literature' of producing work to please the rabble. Homer, Sophocles, Socrates, Cicero, Christ, Paul, Shakespeare - they all wrote/spoke primarily for the crowd, for spectacle. And it is from work like theirs that the rest of high literature draws.
>>25652576Arrogant and stupid, OP misuses begging the question and thinks most people can find their towns on a map.
