Dante the pilgrim and his guide Virgil appear to have escaped the nasty demons in the fifth pouch of fraud, down in the eighth circle of Inferno.

But they'd better get a move on! The demons are coming fast! How do they know? Because Dante's read a lot.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as the sequences about barratry all come down to meta-literary fantasia on texts, reading, writing, and knowing the world around you. You knew fraud was about the writing of COMEDY. Here's proof!

Here are the segments of the episode of this podcast of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:45] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto XXIII, lines 4 - 57. If you'd like to see this translation, check it out on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[05:22] Aesop starts the passage--and turn this whole episode into a meta-literary fantasia based on the players in the fable.

[14:21] Experiential truth is found in what you've read. And you read predicts what will happen to you!

[16:42] The pilgrim's interiority has been crafted by what he's read--which exhibits itself right in front of him in the physical world.

[21:14] Virgil's reply indicates that your literary ancestors mold your thoughts into action.

[25:25] Virgil as a (naked!) mother.

[30:09] Apparently, literary texts don't create everything!

[32:20] Virgil and Dante the pilgrim escape without any need for deus ex machina.

[35:07] The fifth evil pouch of barratry ends up being a meta-literary structure about the writing of COMEDY.