2025-26 DCW Cycle - Interest? Thoughts? Strong opinions?

We're gonna be done with this round in less than three months, and THAT will come sooner than you'd think

Hello all,

I hope you’ve been enjoying the second round of the Comedy. It’s been powerful to see so many people continue to hold a vested interest in the text in an age where it feels like many other people have… well, lost the straightforward path. But I digress.

I have to really think ahead to make this newsletter happen, so I’ve started looking to what would be our third cycle (Good Friday 2025 onward), and I have a few questions for you (yes, you!), since you’re why I’m doing it:

1. Is there vested interest in a third round? (If at least one of you would read along, or even for part of it, then I take that as a yes.)

2. Should I use a different translation/text? I could keep Longfellow for another round, that’s easy. I could also use Cary’s translation, which is different, but comes with images that I can try and embed into Substack posts. I could also, of course, send it the way Dante originally wrote it. But that would make this a much more niche situation. Or I could do a secret other translation - IF it is in the public domain and easily formatted into a Substack post. (See the link to Cary’s translation for an example of the “easily formatted” part.)

So, what I ask: in the next week or two, if you have a strong opinion any way (“I would love to do it no matter what”, “I would love to read along with any English translation”, “I would prefer (insert translation here)”, …), please let me know. You could reply to this, and I should get notified about it. You can shoot me an email at divinacommedia@substack.com, and while I may not respond, I can assure you it will be read. Or, if you’re in our Discord, you can let me know there - just please ping me if you do that, to make sure it gets my attention.

Thanks for being here, and happy holidays to you and yours,

Flynn