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Featured Item:
WEALTH VIRTUES
A Guide to acquire more money than you spend and to save more
money than you owe
List Price: $14.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.66 You Save: $3.29 (22%)as of 09/05/2010 15:55 EDT
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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780981967899
ISBN: 0981967892
Label: Blackburnian Press
Manufacturer: Blackburnian Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 220
Publication Date: August 11, 2009
Publisher: Blackburnian Press
Studio: Blackburnian Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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 relative 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.
Average Rating: 
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The introduction reads "Two unlikely facts collided at the event of my birth, with potentially lethal consequences. The first fact concerned the genes that my parents carried in their cells. The second fact concerned the memes they carried in their heads." After reading this first paragraph I knew I was in for an interesting read. I understand genes and how they influence our lives genetically, however, my interest was sparked by what memes his parents had and would attempt to pass on. With ... Read More
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I'm a big fan of Dante's "Inferno" (I especially like the Dorothy Sayers translation) and so I approached this work with a little trepidation. What Alenthony has done is quite extraordinary, and I can heartily recommend this book. It is witty and clever--but not that sort of distracting "too clever by half" sort of witty that throws itself up in your face every so often. The selection of Mark Twain as the traveling companion is inspired, the description of hell as a simulation intended to teach ... Read More
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"The Infernova" by S. A. Alenthony ISBN 978-0-9819678-9-9
Review by Chris Phillips
The subtitle, "An Infidel Reinvents Dante's Hell", is an accurate description of this epic poetic work. Alenthony has taken the premise that modern science has removed the reason and the reasonableness of religion and religious practice and after much effort produced a work comparable to Dante's Inferno. The introduction does much to explain why Alenthony takes this viewpoint. Alenthony artistically illustrates ... Read More
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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 ... Read More
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I have to admit that I was skeptical -- a book in actual verse is a hard thing to pull off. Alenthony made it work, and I read it cover to cover and enjoyed it, In fact, it was good enough to read twice -- I will probably read it again a few months.
Although I don't think they influenced Alenthony, well-read individuals will find echos of Philip Jose Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go (Riverworld series) (where all humans that ever lived were resurrected in a similar way but in an entirely ... Read More
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