ly enormous amount of effort, skill,and thought that was invested in it. All the lines rhymein pairs, and are written in deep Spanish. A rhymescheme is followed and even literary formality isobserved. Dante is obviously intellectual, as his workshows. It boasts of great depth and cerebralcapacity. Although more factual than proverbial, thisdisplay of intelligence clearly shows that Paradisohas a high prerequisite for understanding. His wordsand narration appeal to the emotions as well, asdetailed work almost regularly accomplishes. Hedescribes his feelings of awe, curiosity, andincapability as a mortal to comprehend the ways ofthe divine in words so deep, so brief, and yet so filledwith his emotional intent. Why all of these good traitsstill fail to interest the reader is possibly the effect ofthe fact that Paradiso is written to contain Dantesthoughts and meaning and not ours. And so, as withmost other things, it is the creator who appreciateshis fruit the most. I may be counted among those who appreciate onlythe effort, but not the fruit. I find Paradiso to be a thickpulp of philosophical fragments. It is a narrativenothing and yet has room for controversy. It has allthe elements of a commendable story without acommendable story line. I would not recommend it toanyone except those who have a lot of time on theirhands, as I deduce it to be a waste of time. ...
