Twice Told Tales

Since we are discussing stories told more than once in different contexts, I thought it would be interesting to explore some of the familiar themes or concepts I saw in Cantos XXIII-XXXIV of Inferno.

The first one that came to my attention was in Canto XXIV in lines 46-51: "'Now you must cast aside your laziness,' my master said, 'for he who rests on down or under covers cannot come to fame; and he who spends his life without renown leaves such a vestige of himself on earth as smoke bequeaths to air or foam to water.'"  In this, Virgil seems to emphasize the importance of fame to one's success in life, and it seems that modern tales have often devoted themselves, at least in part, to disproving that idea.  My two examples stem from Children's and Young Adult fiction, but I don't think that detracts from their significance.  In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, for instance, in Harry's first Potions class, Professor Snape publicly shames Harry for, he believes, not paying attention in class, and he says, "Clearly, fame isn't everything, is it, Mr. Potter?"  (To which the audience tacitly responds: nobody said it was!)  Additionally, one can see the theme present in John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, and it is stated a number of times and in a number of ways, but one of them is this: "It occurred to me that the voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again."  Some people devote their lives to the cause of being remembered when they've died, but that isn't the real point of living.

The idea of "fame" or being remembered with an unsullied reputation occurs again and again in Inferno.  It seems that there has been a cultural shift in the value of reputation in the intervening centuries.  Today, while everyone does seem to share in a hope that in death, they will be fondly remembered, it is also accepted that what matters more is leading a fulfilling life and a life of meaning supported by some kind of morality that will be rewarded, if not in life, then in death--not behaving morally for the purposes of seeking reward, but rather because it's right.