Dante Alighieri's magnificent Inferno has ruled for centuries as literature's most imaginative depiction of the fates of the damned. As a masterwork of allegorical fantasy, it stands unequaled. As a survey of the true causes of human misery, it fails utterly, built as it was upon a medieval religious worldview divorced from reality. S.A. Alenthony's The Infernova is the new book that rectifies this error by turning the classic vision of the Christian hell upside-down. Retelling the poem from an atheist's perspective, the story parallels Dante's descent through nine infamous circles where increasingly pernicious sinners endure their symbolic punishments. The upper circles house the minor offenders: those who lacked clarity or promoted fallacious arguments. The middle levels incarcerate those who preyed upon-and profited from-irrationality: paranormalists, conspiracy theorists, astrologers, and their ilk. Lower and yet darker realms are reserved for religion's criminals, such as televangelist-frauds, pedophile-priests, and terrorists, while at the pit's nadir reside the legions of the world's prophets and a virtual menagerie of the countless gods born of their imaginations. Dante was famously accompanied on his journey by his revered hero, the Roman poet Virgil. In The Infernova, it is the satirical and irreligious gadfly Mark Twain who takes the role of guide and companion. As their odyssey continues, the dangers of irrational and mystical thinking grow more clear, and their dialogues and encounters with hell's residents provide a unique tableau on which to set out the arguments against supernaturalism. Mythological traditions have long used narratives and parables as vehicles to get their messages across. While secular writers have produced a steady stream of quality non-fiction recently, works of fiction and poetry are more rare. The Infernova addresses the paucity of atheist imaginative writing, and will be of interest to all manner of freethinkers, humanists, and skeptical persons looking for a different kind of deconstruction of the world's superstitions.
The Infernova
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
S. A. Alenthony has presented to all of us freethinkers, of whatever stripe, a truly masterful work of literary achievement. The Infernova, as you have probably already guessed, is a parody of Dante Aleghieri's (1265 - 1321) time-honored classic, The Inferno. The reader does not need to be familiar with the nearly 700 year-old original in order to greatly enjoy this new and remarkable 'take-off.' Perhaps the only thing that it would be helpful for the reader to know is that Dante was the scion of a well-to-do Florentine family and a real toady to the Catholic Church. Dante's imaginary Hell is richly populated not only with ordinary sinners, but is packed with enemies of the Church both real--often identified by name--and imaginary, such as the mythological gods of paganism. Dante's nine circles, or levels, of Hell are filled with suffering souls who range from those who were simply guilty of doubt, to those who led thousands or even whole nations to--the worst sin of all--disobedience of the Church's teachings. Just as Dante was guided on his journey through Hell by a celebrated writer, so too here--but it is the irreverent Mark Twain taking the role of Virgil. What a perfect choice!
In The Infernova, as in any good parody, the situation is reversed. In Alenthony's Hell, it is the religious who receive their just desserts at various levels of severity. Names are named, from early snake-oil salesmen such as Mary Baker Eddie and L. Ron Hubbard to those who lead larger movements such as Jim Jones, and Charles Taze Russell. In deeper levels of hell, the founders of national and international religions such as Joseph Smith, Abraham, and Moses are 'called out.' Finally, in Canto XXX, our boy J.C.--simply referred to as "Christ"--and the Islamic 'Mohammed' are not spared.
The descriptions of each succeeding level of Hell are, like Dante's original, one of the most fascinating and engaging features of the book. Although Alenthony thankfully does not quite share Dante's fascination for sheer blood and gore, the depictions of each level dramatically involve the reader's senses of vision, hearing and even smell. Each dreadful circle of Hell is eloquently drawn for the reader to clearly imagine. In addition, the exact punishment chosen for the particular offender is often cleverly devised to perfectly fit the offense. For example, one large group of former humans on earth was transformed into plants and animals, and as Mark Twain explains in Canto XXI: "'But their awareness kept intact. They've been/ transformed to live in a primitive state,/ and to first-hand witness the origin/ of new species. That is the timeless fate/ for Creationists.' I laughed when I heard/ all this, as the irony was so great."
Perhaps the most amazing feature of Alenthony's book is his skill and use of the particular narrative poetic form that he employs. The poetic pattern used is the rather difficult form of three line stanzas where the first and third lines rhyme, and the middle line forms the model for the first and third lines of the succeeding stanza. In other words, the rhyming pattern is as follows: ABA, BCB, CDC, et cetera (see above). Each Canto, or chapter, of approximately the same length as was Dante's--thirty-four Cantos in all--contain a long series of triplet stanzas ending with a dramatic rhyming couplet. All of this is done in such a subtle way, with many rhymes often occurring at mid-sentence, so that the reader is often only dimly aware that there is a regular rhyming pattern at all. The story just flows in a very natural story-telling way. Incidentally, Alenthony chose this more rigorous route because it was the exact pattern that Dante followed, even though most translations of The Inferno rhyme only the first and third lines of each stanza. Translation from the original old-Italian is just too difficult for the translator to retain both the meaning and the complex rhyming pattern.
It is difficult for this reviewer to come up with even one slight criticism, which I know is somewhat traditional for reviewers to do. If absolutely pushed to the wall, I would say that I might have enjoyed the naming of a few more names of religious rapscallions, and a few less naming of extremely obscure ancient Aztec gods and/or the names of millennia-old water-spirits featured particularly in Canto XXXI.
I may be playing personal favorites here, but I'd like to be reassured that the likes of Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, Garner Ted Armstrong, Tammy Fay Baker, and Aimee Semple McPherson, to name just a few, are down there somewhere. However, judging from the books otherwise inclusivity of religious sinners, I can rest assured that they have not escaped Alenthony's Hell.
In summary, I highly recommend this truly remarkable modern day masterpiece. --Donald Havis, Steering Committee, San Francisco Atheists
Review
What an impressive book! The verse is wonderful.
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More About the Author
S.A. Alenthony is an atheist that holds a Ph.D. in physics despite being a high school dropout. He is uniquely qualified to satirize religion and irrationality, as he had the misfortune of being born to parents that were Jehovah's Witnesses. He literally almost died as an infant due to the well-known blood transfusion issue. So although he was slated to be a Christian by accident of birth, he became a doubter instead by choice. And yes, S.A. Alenthony is a pseudonym. He and his wife Claire are raising their two freethinking kids in the relatively moderate state of Minnesota.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic satire, brilliant writing,
By David Michael (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Infernova (Paperback)
This is a fantastic bit of satirical epic poetry by a very gifted writer. The book is written in rhyming verse, which may scare some readers, but having personally read very little epic poetry prior to this, I did not find it difficult in the slightest. It is a satire of Dante's Inferno, written within an atheist worldview - instead of homosexuals and adulterers in this symbolic hell, it is populated with scam artists, televangelists, and those who use religion to exploit the intellect of others. Alenthony makes it clear that the story is a symbolic dream from a computerized future - he does not create a true "hell" of eternal suffering for real people, for such a concept is barbaric and outrageous.First, the writing: I thought the literary quality of the writing was brilliant. The verse and rhyme scheme was authentic and clean. With the possible exception of literally only 1 or 2 spots out of thousands, I never felt like the rhyming was forced or contrived - it flowed seemlessly like a Homerian epic. Second, the story: Again, I genuinely thought the story was brilliant parody and satire. Alenthony constructs a clever structure for his 9-level hell, starting first with those guilty of crimes of the intellect, and slowly descending (no pun intended) from there. The punishments devised for each type of crime were clever and sharp, perfectly matching the crimes in symbolism. For instance, the shades of those who propound conspiracy theories are forced to endure becoming pulp in a paper mill, their bodies becoming the tabloids they used to publish and circulate. Third, the ideology: While I do not agree with all of Alenthony's personal worldviews, I found the ideology of the book to be well in line with modern secularism/agnosticism/atheism. For those sorts of readers, this book comes highly recommended. Some of the attacks on theology are oversimplified, and some of the theological characters in the book are, at best, parodies of the original, but the book is epic poetry, not biography. It's purpose is to entertain while educating. The book is not a polemic against religion. Rather, it is an apologetic for rationalism, science, and intellectual honesty. In the end, I really thought it was a fantastic book. Not every reader will agree with all the ideologies, but within the frame of reference of an atheist worldview, I thought it was excellent. The writing was truly and legitimately brilliant from a literary standpoint, the structure and development was clever, and the symbolism and "message" was clear and poignant.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unique Approach to Atheism,
This review is from: The Infernova (Paperback)
The Infernova is really unlike any other book on religion that I have ever read. It goes through the various arguments for rejecting religion and mystical thinking by means of a story told in verse.The story is of course based on Dante's famous Inferno, where Dante and Virgil take a journey down among the various sinners in hell. But in this book, a new vision of hell is described where the damned are the ones that really deserve to be there: the irrational and mystical sorts that have held back human progress for so long. Mark Twain is a great choice as the literary guide that accompanies the author among the televangelists, terrorists, racists, astrologers, and others. The organization of the various levels is really clever and well-thought out. If there is one weakness, it is that this book is not going to persuade many religious readers to change their views. Atheists and agnostics will love it, though, since it is an irreverent and entertaining read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A proud Muslimah who LOVES this book!,
By Shahrazad "Blue" (Denver, Co USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Infernova (Paperback)
A lot of people will be SCANDALIZED at the idea of a Muslimah who reads the book of an atheist. I don't care. I was raised by people who taught me to THINK FOR MYSELF above all things, and I understand the "stance" of atheism and would give my life to protect their ability to be free from religion.That said, this is simply a damn fine book! The poetry is absolutely divine (oops, sorry!) and in combination with the humor, is a treat that I'm reading for the 2nd time and recommending to anyone who'll listen. If one is already familiar with Dante Alighieri, there's even more to like about this book; but it isn't necessary. However, if you've gotten this far in the review, I'd say read Dante, then read Alenthony. Or vice versa. Read S. A. Alenthony! (No. I'm not a paid spokesperson. I promise. :-D ) ABluePearl
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