Some last housekeeping and announcements

(Five days!) We have a Discord now, and what to expect from posts

Hello all,

I hope April is treating you well so far. We’re getting ready to start soon, and with the first schedulings of my upcoming posts, I wanted to send out a couple of things. I’ll also throw in a subscription button, just in case you want to talk anyone in at the last minute.

Those returning to the Comedy may be familiar with the structure you’ll find in reading, but for those who are new (welcome!), each Canto comes with its own set of footnotes and annotations. Each edition has its own set of notes, and the accompanying notes to Longfellow’s translations (very gratefully from Wikisource) will be included at the end of each email I send out. The numbers on them correspond to line numbers, and every fifth line will be numbered in the posts I send out*. It’s also relatively easy to look up things you aren’t sure about. Some of the notes are helpful, others are… well, more intense and precise ramblings. Use them as you will.

*The formatting on my Substack posts is the best intersection I could get to “readable and includes all the structure I feel necessary” and “doesn’t take excessive time for me to get a post ready”. If people have feedback or have found better versions of the Longfellow translation online after we get started, I may be willing to modify some details. But I think we’ll be okay.

Some people have asked me about discussion and collaboration, and I also think it’d be good for us to learn from each other, much as I feel Dante and Virgil embark on mutual discovery. I’ve enabled the Substack chat feature, which people are free to use to post questions, make connections, and however else may be fit. I’ve also made a Discord for us to use, modeling off some of the other book groups’ Discords that I’m in. It’s the first Discord I’ve made, and I’m still navigating it, but I’d love to get a group in there and have a good time. Here’s an invite link (which will also be in the footer of future emails): https://discord.gg/bMjx6B2bgk

Well, that’s all from me for now. I’m looking forward to the beginning of our journey!

Flynn