So Dante’s Inferno was the book I returned to reading as an adult with, and it is my favourite read of all time. Kuang is also a recent favourite of mine, so hearing she was set to release a book that was a love letter to Dante’s Inferno made it my most anticipated read of the year. I had been taking notes throughout my reading on how it compared and contrasted to The Divine Comedy, and thought I'd share my notes/thoughts, for anyone else who might want to enhance their reading experience in the same way.

Broad context of either work

The Divine Comedy is a piece of Italian Epic Poetry written around 1308-1321 by Dante Alighieri. It was a poem of 100 stanzas, or "cantos". He wrote it in exile from Florence, as a way to ingratiate himself back into Florentine society, by creating a work so grand that Florence would want to claim it (and Dante as its author) as a symbol of Florence’s cultivated culture. Dante however had a tumultuous relationship with Florence, formerly being a pretty high member in Florentine society, yet overseeing in-fighting and civil wars before his exile. It's clear he still loved Florence and still wanted to be part of its cultural legacy, despite how much he hated the fractious nature of Florentine society, and this turbulent relationship he transferred into his writings.

On the other hand, Katabasis is the most recent novel by American writer Rebecca F Kuang. Born in China, raised in Texas, before undertaking higher education through Cambridge and Oxford (and currently undertaking a PhD program through Yale) Kuang is known for writing many works of fantasy, recently including some works in the Dark Academia sub-genre. While it's clear that Kuang loves education, the pursuit of knowledge, her experiences at each institution, and what she's learned, it's also clear that she has many criticisms with the structure of such educational institutions, for the many systemic and prejudiced failings of institutes such as them, for the dark history that exists behind either institute as an institute of power, to the small scale abuses of power that can be committed by some within through even the small amounts of power they wield. She too thus transferred thus turbulent relationship into her writing, hence turning to the dark Academia genre.

This may be surface level, but I already think this is an interesting link. Two authors writing works that they are both immensely knowledgeable and passionate about, yet still harbor some conflicting feelings within themselves about their passions. And I know some people say Kuang is very didactic in her themes or politics, which is a part of her writing which never really bothered me because, well Dante was also very didactic. And I personally think if the matter's important to either, of course they're going to make it clear in their writing.

Overview of either work

Both works deal with a passage through the underworld. Inferno (is really only one part of The Divine Comedy) tells the journey of Dante (or a fictional representation of himself), lost in the wild (presumably following his real-life exile), finding a savior in the form of one of his literary inspirations, Virgil, who guides him through Hell, so that he can reach the other side, and tell the world of what he saw there, as evidence of God's divine abilities. It's only part of The Comedy though, where he then also climbs up Mount Purgatory, taking a similar look at sinners and their penitence there, before reaching the peak, being cleansed of his sins, reuniting with his love Beatrice before taking a journey through Paradise. It is important to note that while Dante wrote himself as the main character of his work, he populated the underworld with many real (if often historical) figures. He knew howeer that the work he was writing was fictional, or allegorical, so this was not him preaching some prophetic vision. We know this, because some of his other works were likewise allegorical, e.g. Convivio, or The Feast, where he described literary or ethical debate as being like a banquet or feast, where everyone brings something to the table, everyone is nourished by the act and goes away richer than they arrived.

Katabasis tells the story of the fictional character Alice Law, an American grad student studying in Cambridge, undertaking a PhD in analytical magic, with her fellow grad student Peter Murdock, only to have her PhD supervisor killed in a magical accident. The two decide to use their magic to journey to the underworld and bring their advisor back, so that they can graduate. Unlike Dante, her characters are all fictional, both in terms of the leads, and the characters that inhabit the Hell she depicts. Now, many have pointed the clear biographical links between Kuang and her main character, Alice (not like Dante didn't write himself into his own works, too), and of their romantic counterparts, but we can see while both works deal with themes of the underworld, the character motivations are different: Dante was merely lost, it was Virgil (acting at the behest of higher powers) that took Dante through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, whereas Alice had explicit purpose and intention to travel the underworld.

Yet aside from the intentions of the characters to contend with, there's also the intention of the creators. It can be interpreted that Dante's goal, as well as ingratiating himself back into Florentine society, or demonstrating God's divinity, was hoping to illuminate the forces within men that drive them apart (I'll comment on that further in this analysis). Meanwhile, Kuang, as well as wanting to expose some of the darker corners of the academic world and writing a love letter to works like Dante's Inferno, wanted to express her more complicated feelings of love for academia itself. Katabasis is billed as a love story in Hell, and while Alice and Peter's relationship do follow some tropes in the romance genre, I'd say it's Alice's (or really Kuang's) complicated love of academia that really drives the book.

However, why I really wanted to talk about these books, is because both deal with the nature, or the structure of Hell. Most of this remaining post will just be a closer comparison with or inspection of the underworld that either author have created, as I've always been fascinated with works that deal with the underworld, especially when they want to put a new spin on it. This analysis can be quite deep and long, as it really is a niche interest of mine, hence my structuring this post into deeper and deeper dissections of either work. Feel free only to engage with the depth that captures of attention.

Broad Structure and Purpose of Hell

Dante is known for designing a structure of Hell based around Nine circles, arranged in a hierarchy. The uppermost circles, closest to the surface world, punish lesser sins, with lesser punishments, yet the more egregious the sin is, the lower down it is placed, and the worse the punishment. On the other hand, Kuang devises a Hell based around Eight Courts, with the physical layout being ambiguous. Some characters see it as hierarchical like Dante, some see it the dimensions as instead being parallel to each other. Neither is really "closer" or "further away" though from the surface world though, as it exists in a kind of four-dimensional space, out of and away from the material world.

As well as the structure however, there is also the spiritual purpose of either Hell. Dante's Hell was strictly a Catholic view of Hell. It housed some Deities from other belief systems (e.g. King Minos, Charon, Cerberus, Plutus, Phlegyas) but only really for being part of pagan belief systems not compatible with Christianity's monotheistic view of God (while still allowing Dante to acknowledge inspiration from some of his pre-Christian Greek and Italian forefathers, like Virgil). His view of Hell was for people who had intentionally or unintentionally moved away from God to be punished until Judgement day, whereupon their body would reunite with their soul and multiply their suffering further. He did allow some option for redemption for sinners through Mount Purgatory, for sinners who did believe and wanted to make right with God, so long as they could purge themselves of their sins, they could eventually end up in Paradise. In that way, Dante's works were instructive of how to live a virtuous life (or avoid a sinful existence) for those reading it back in the mortal world. But some of the many "ironic punishments" he devised in his construction of Hell/Purgatory (as well as being borrowed from some pre-Christian Greek and Italian classics) were supposed to be symbols of Gods divinity, as only a being as divine as God could create something so complex yet symmetrical as the Hell he described (which was ironic, given that he knew he was writing a fiction, hence this was his detailed vision, not God's).

Meanwhile in Kuang's underworld, there are a mix of world religions at play here, while obviously taking some notes from Dante's Christian designs, there's also some classic Italian and Greek influences, like Orpheus's journey through Hades realm, Aeneas' journey through Tartarus, some mentions of some Mesopotamian or Egyptian under world beliefs, but on the whole is largely influenced by Chinese mythology, such as Lord Yama being the Lord of the Dead in this book and offering a type of karmic reincarnation. In Katabasis, souls aren't necessarily doomed to eternal punishment; the Courts system offers a series of trials that, if one can pass, they are granted reincarnation through Lord Yama. This does make the idea of a hierarchical hell a bit questionable then, as any soul would necessarily flow through all the courts before seeking reincarnation rather than being fixed in one place like in Dante’s depiction of Hell, but I'm still going to describe the souls in this book as if they are "fixed" in an hierarchical hell, for ease of communication. But, the idea of souls progressing through a series of tests before being cleansed/reborn/reincarnated via the river Lethe is if anything more akin to Dante's depiction of Mount Purgatory than it is of his Hell.

The environments of Hell

Looking at a more detailed look: Between Dante's Circles and Kuang's Courts, some share themes, and yet others diverge. In the broadest overview, to Dante, the circles/landmarks were organised as such:

• the Gates of Hell

• the Antechamber (for souls awaiting Judgement; as they line up and trudge through mud, they are bitten by bugs and stinging insects, reminding them viscerally of God's presence, that they believed they could ignore in life)

• the river Archeron (crossed with Charon)

• Circle 1: Limbo (for the Virtuous Unbaptized, a dimly lit plain only illuminated by occasional plumes of fire, reminding the inhabitants of the dimness they experience in a life without God)

• Circle 2: Lust (where souls are blown about by cyclones, just as their lives were swept up in the tempestuous nature of Lust)

• Circle 3: Gluttony (souls are weighed down by their heavy bodies and fixed in place, hammered by pounding rain, and fed on by the Cerberus)

• Circle 4: Greed (souls are tasked with pushing immense boulders back and forth, representing the wealth of possessions they hoarded in life)

• Circle 5: Wrath and Sloth (wrathful souls thrash around endlessly in the muddy/boggy banks of the Styx, or slothfully drown to its waters)

• the river Styx (crossed with Phlegyas)

• The City Dis (where Hell stops representing a natural environment, and starts resembling a city, housing Medusa and her Gorgon sisters)

• Circle 6: Heresy (souls are trapped within high-walled sepulchers as they burn eternally)

• Circle 7: Violence (sub-circles: violence against others, where souls are chased by Centaurs and Minotaurs through the molten waters of the river Phlegathon, violence against self, where souls are turned into trees in the suicide forest, and fed on by Harpies, or violence against God, where souls March eternally through a barren desert with raining fires and embers)

• Circle 8: Deception (sub-pockets: seducers, flatterers, simonacs, soothsayers, corrupt businessmen, hypocrites, thieves, usurpers, schismists and falsifiers). Almost too many to describe: seducers are whipped by horny demons, flatterers wade through deep pits of shit, simonacs are buried head down with their feet lit on fire, soothsayers are forced to walk backwards with their heads turned unnaturally around, corrupt businessmen are thrown into boiling pitch (by more horny demons), hypocrites are forced to march wearing heavy, lead vests, thieves are chased by snakes and reptiles, yet hideously fuse bodies when caught, usurpers are turned into disembodied flames, schismists are ripped in half from chin to anus, and falsifiers are cursed to endure Leprosy

• and Circle 9: Treason, which houses the Devil (all souls are trapped frozen in ice to their neck)

You'll note that the earlier sins (lust, gluttony, greed, wrath and sloth) are based on a lack of proper control over one's appetites and desires, which Dante termed the “sins of incontinence”. They are punished in or by rather natural looking environments (muddy rivers, bug bites, cyclonic winds, rain, boulders, etc). The latter sins however are ones of intention (Heresy, Violence, Deception, Treason) and are housed in more structured environments (the walled city of Dis, the concentric rings of Violence, the many pockets of Deception, another walled City in Treason). This is in part Dante's comment on the nature of the former sins being driven by natural desires not being properly curtailed, while the latter sins come from an intention of act, purpose or design (just like the natural vs structured environment). Yet another interpretation is that the wild environments of the upper Hell are a reflection of Dante being lost in the wild at the start of his journey (being exiled), yet as he journeys deeper, he enters environments more reminiscent of the walled city of Florence, indicating the moral failures of that city were perhaps born of these deeper sins, and with such he is brought closer and closer to his own Hell throughout his journey, being the failed state of Florence. In fact, part of Dante's motive was to depict the forces in men which turn them against each other or themselves (as I alluded to above), why, as well as the classic Christian demons, his Hell houses many half-man, half-beast creatures (Medusa and the Gorgons, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Harpies, etc.), symbolically representative of the forces that prey upon man turning against themselves. I should also note that each of these observations are ones I gained from the annotations and essays provided by the Robin Kirkpatrick translation of The Divine Comedy.

Meanwhile, Kuang's Hell is organised as follows:

• Asphodel (souls awaiting judgement, a barren plain where souls line up to enter the Gates of Hell, a large wall made of bone)

• Court One: Pride (an infinitely spanning university Library, where souls are charged with writing an essay to "Define the Good")

• Court Two: Desire (an infinitely spanning student centre, where souls imbibe from a fountain, which disinhibits them enough to act out their carnal desires in one of the many dorms throughout the centre)

• Court Three: Greed (with the bridge of sighs, where souls become stones or tiles as part of the bridge's construction, for a sentence of certain years; which later leads into the desert of Greed, where souls fight back and forth with primitive weapons over the same stretches of sand). It also houses one of the scattered deities in this underworld, being The Weaver Girl, who offers a Prisoner's Dilemma type bargain to sojourners in this region.

• Court Four: Wrath (a bog with the writhing souls of the undead contained below its surface)

• Court Five: Violence (a mountainous region, with scattered geometric boulders and "Escher traps" which are used by the Kripke's, antagonists throughout the book, to capture their victims with)

• Court Six: Cruelty (a barren desert with scattered, abstract geometric objects, and souls undergoing self-imprisonment in cages of bone)

• Court Seven: Tyranny (A campus-like Clock tower, where souls are again encased within the brickwork) which also houses the Erinyes, deities which can see directly into your soul, study your worst sins, and grant or refuse entry into the last court

• Finally, there is the Eighth Court (Oathbreakers, for people who have gone against their promised words to others, who once again are tasked with writing a life's essay or dissertation, pleading for their own reincarnation)

• Within this Court is the City of Dis (an elaborate walled city, more reminiscent of a highly architectured church or the Sistine Chapel, which the souls have made in defiance of their imprisonment in Hell). It also houses many further deities such as Nessus and Laplace's Demon

• All are bordered by the river Lethe, whose waters cleanses you of all memory, with finally Lord Yama's throne sitting outside this entire structure. Passage to Yama’s throne is only granted once shades have rectified themselves of all past sins.

At first you'll notice that Kuang's Hell is structured as a university or college Campus. Just as Dante constructed a Hell that was familiar of his life (the architecture/city of Florence), so too does Kuang create an environment similar to her own (the world of academia). This is something that many other writers have displayed before e.g. William Blake in his poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell made a design of Hell that was similar to a printing press or publishing house, which was notable as he self-published and printed his own pamphlets and poetry, so such an environment was intimately familiar to him. Furthermore, Steven L Peck, himself a doctorate level academic, also designed a Hell that took the form of an Infinite Spanning Library (modelled after Borges' The Library of Babel) in his novella A Short Stay in Hell. Kuang at least offers an in-universe reason for this, and why so many depictions of the underworld look like the life of the author describing their hell: that death can be a disorientating experience, so the afterworld has something of a plastic nature to it which constructs itself around the inhabitants’ own perceptions (more on that in the comments).

But further than that, just as Dante's Hell went from wild to civilised or architectured environments, you can see Kuang's Hell goes from structured (the Library, the student centre, the Bridge), to wild and natural environments (the deserts of Greed, the bog, the mountains, the barren lands of cruelty) before returning to highly architectured environments (the clock tower and the City of Dis). As the character Elspeth puts it, this represents the "degeneration of the psyche". This journey from familiar to wild and back follows the Alice’s character arc, from feeling sure of what she knew of herself, her relationships, her life, and what her mission was in Hell from the start of the story, before being exposed to several revelations that slowly tear away at her pre-conceived views of what she thought she knew of the world and those around her, before a large character revelation in Court Five, Violence, where the character starts building their identity and perceptions back up again into a new direction, just as they return to more architectured environments again.

Another point of comparison, the river Lethe is found at the peak of Mount Purgatory in Dante's text, not in Hell, as Kuang describes it. Though in both it cleanses you of your past life/sins/memory and acts as a kind of Baptismal imagery. Therefore, Kuang's Hell takes on elements equally from Inferno and Mount Purgatory.

A closer comparison between the texts

The first environment of Dante's Hell is the Antechamber, a vestibule (not a circle in itself) where souls await Judgement by King Minos to be placed into their respective circle of Hell. Dante and Virgil here are escorted by Charon across the river Acheron (not Styx, which has its place later). The first proper circle of Hell is Limbo, a dim plain illuminated only by occasional plumes of fire, housing the souls of the "virtuous unbaptized", people who lead virtuous lives but for reasons often out of their control were never baptized or introduced to Christian society, beliefs and practices, (i.e. Dante knows his inspiration, Virgil, would be branded as a Pagan by his Christian beliefs, but in creating Limbo as the least punishing circle of Hell, he basically creates an environment of Hell exempt from the usual suffering of Hell for figures such as Virgil that he respects).

Kuang's first environment is similarly a dim plain, but composed of sandy dunes of ash, illuminated only by a low lying, red son. Souls likewise mill around here as they await to be processed. This is termed the Viewing Pavilion, where souls can just barely interact with an inverted version of the material plane. Kuang explicitly relates this environment to that of the Antechamber/Limbo of Dante's Hell, intentionally engaging with that text. Kuang also points out that this pavilion, like the Antechamber, is not a proper Court/Circle of Hell, only a temporary holding space. (Note: Kuang doesn't have a court similar to Dante's first circle, as her underworld is intentionally polytheistic, and so she does not condemn “pagans”).

The first Court of Kuang's Hell however is Superbia, the Court of Pride. Dante did not have a circle dedicated to Pride in his version of Hell, but in Mount Purgatory, it was the lowest terrace, the least egregious sin and the easiest to purge. Dante believed that Pride wasn't wrong to feel, so long as you felt it as the pride in your works, and that your works were directed towards deepening your understanding of or honouring God, e.g. his own craft of the Divine Comedy, a poem of 100 Cantos, could be regarded with pride without sin (according to Dante), as it was in service to God. In Purgatory, souls dwelling in this terrace carry boulders across marble floors (thus labouring towards a certain craft, like stone masonry), in a room designed with detailed stone-masonry carvings of religious significance, such that the inhabitants here may also learn to create great works of art honouring God. To Dante, the environment (of Mount Purgatory at least) directs the individual inside that environment into achieving an elevated morality.

In Kuang's Superbia, this court is described as a library, with marble floors, wooden bookshelves, stained glass windows with religious imagery, evoking an environment like the first Terrace of Mount Purgatory. This library is said to be so elaborate as the better the library is, the better work you can do inside of it. Once again, the environment is directing the inhabitants towards moral development, through industrious work they take pride in. The inhabitants here are tasked with/commanded to "Define the Good" in essays that they write, again their environment here quite literally directs them in a task that may elevate their morals or purge them from the sin of Pride.

Yet, a unique challenge appears in Kuang's First Court, in the form of the character George Edward Moore. One important difference between Katabasis and The Divine Comedy are the two leads, and their relationships to each other. In Inferno, Dante inserts himself as the lead character and inserts Virgil (a poet some century/millennia his senior, whose works likewise elevated Italian history and culture) as a guide. Virgil has a paternal attitude towards Dante in The Divine Comedy, always protecting him, leading him, and he is depicted as morally resolute by Dante. Alice and Peter are the two leads of Katabasis, but they are peers, of virtually equal footing, neither can truly guide the other as Virgil does Dante (not to mention the questionable morals of either). So when the two leads from Katabasis arrive in the first Court, they meet Moore, who offers to lead them, yet more accurately, he misleads them. (Other guides will be discussed below).

Moore ignores the direction to “Define the Good”. He pridefully scorns and gossips over the other inhabitants and chooses to appoint himself as the "Dean of the Library". Moore quite clearly is not a suitable moral guide on the purging of prideful behaviours. Alice and Peter cannot be guided out of Pride by someone who knows no way out and has no intention of leaving or bettering himself. Furthermore, Moore constantly tries to flatter Peter, and play to his sense of Pride, trying to appeal to him as both of their being "Cambridge men", playing to their elitism and male chauvinism. It's only Alice learning to intentionally break away from her (socially learned) prideful behaviours (where she recalls a similar incident where she bought into institutional pride and snobbery, which was quashed at Professor Grimes' command) that they can exit the library and move past this court.

The second Court in Katabasis is Desire, a complex amalgam of both lustful and gluttonous appetites. This thus shares themes in common with both the second and third circles in Dante's Inferno, Lust which features cyclones blowing lovers together and apart, and Gluttony, which punishes shades with immobilising rains, and predation by Cerebus. The journey to the Court of Desire in Katabasis is marked by certain obstacles: first, bone creators, that Peter mistakes for the Cerberus (note: the bone creatures are not limited to this court however, making an increasing appearance throughout the book. As well, Cerberus would make his appearance proper later in Katabasis, in the CIty of Dis), and next, an eternally raging storm (though this rain does not immobilise anyone, unlike in Dante's Inferno, yet there are strong winds that blow you towards the Court itself, to hamper your exit, thus again similar to both of Dante’s circles of Lust and Gluttony).

Once inside the student center of Desire, Alice is immediately repulsed, both by the dilapidation of the building, and the single-minded acting out of carnal desires by the inhabitants. Alice and Peter relate that the meagre living of a Cambridge grad student affords them an appreciation for an ascetic lifestyle, making them impervious to the wants and temptations of Desire. Alice internally recalls another moment of her late Professor Grimes asking her of her desires, only for her unable to offer up a suitable suggestion (at least in this moment of time), which again buffers her of the sin of desire. But, from this point on, the main characters are not really purged of their sins in life, as they are not dead, and unlike Dante they aren't tasked with bringing the word of God's enlightenment to Earth.

The next court is that of Greed (circle four to Dante). To Dante, Greed was one of the "sins of incontinence", i.e. a sin due to the lack of restraint in human drives. To Dante, these were sins that only really affect the sinning individual, not other people. Kuang intentionally contrasts this viewpoint in her depiction of Greed. To Kuang, greed can absolutely be an intentional sin, rather than one of incontinence, and as well can harm other people, not just the sinner itself. This is represented in three examples: the story of Bill Cadeaux, whose greed led them to intentionally sabotage their colleague Hollis Galloway. It is also represented with the Cooke scholarship, which only Peter or Alice could win, not both, where one's triumph means another defeat. This is furthermore demonstrated again in the Prisoner's Dilemma contest that the Weaver Girl has both Peter and Alice play, where one person's greed can absolutely lead to the other's detriment. In terms of the tests that Kuang's Hell requires, this is one test that her main characters failed. The environment of the Third Court is as well an architectured environment (the Bridge of Sighs, in contrast with the natural environments of Dante), which could also therefore imply greed as an intentional act, which shows Kuang not just inheriting but consciously engaging in the view of the underworld, as well as the discussion of moral ethics underpinning such representations, as suggested by Dante.

Before reaching the next Court, Peter and Alice meet Espeth, a Cambridge colleague preceding their scholarship, and a suicide death (as well as a partial guide to the pair. Just as Virgil was a predecessor and teacher to Dante, so too is Elspeth here, both in terms of their academics in life, and in the knowledge of the underworld they possess in death). The autonomy and freedom Espeth is afforded in Hell presents an interesting contrast to Dante's Hell. In The Inferno, Dante depicts suicide deaths as belonging to circle 7, where these shades are transformed into trees and fixed in place as part of the "Suicide Forest". Thus Elspeth journeying through all eight Courts of Hell and beyond marks another intentional deviation from the viewpoint of Dante. While Violence exists as a Court of Hell in Kuang's story, Elspeth doesn't have any particular ties there.

Moving on though, following Greed to Dante is a circle that encompasses both sins of Wrath and Sloth. The wrathful souls thrash endlessly in the bogs of the River Styx, meanwhile the slothful souls mournfully rest at the bottom of the river. Dante and Virgil meet Phlegyas here, who ferries them to the City of Dis and Circle 6, Heresy (note: Kuang states Dante posits Dis as within the final circle of Hell. While there is a city wall in his final circle, Treason, and it could be argued that Dis encompasses all environments from circles 6 through to 9, it still could be remarked that Dis first appears at the circle for Heresy, and that worse sins remain to be punished below). Kuang nonetheless alludes to some of these concepts from Dante's fifth circle as Peter and Alice sail upon Elspeth's Neurath. First, the two looking into the Lethe's watery depths see images of faces, lives and people in the water, which turn out to be memories from mortals up above. This reminds Alice of the slothful souls in the Styx. Not only that, but the far reaches of Greed are a dessert of endless fighting, just like Dante's wrathful souls. Phlegyas as well exists as a deity within this court, just as he was a ferryman at this point in the Inferno (though his description is quite different to his depiction within the Inferno). But in Kuang's actual Court of Wrath, the bog itself serves as another allusion to Dante’s text, depicted here as a bog with shades residing below its depths (just like the slothful shades of the Styx), that writhe, claw at and attack passersby (just like the wrathful shades of Styx), which thus makes it probably the closest in its depiction to one of Dante's environments of Hell.

Saving a discussion of Dis for later, Dante's seventh circle is Violence, subdivided into three concentric circles: those who committed violence against others, those who committed violence against themselves, and those who committed violence against God. For Kuang, the three Courts of Violence, Cruelty and Tyranny could be considered similar to Dante's 7th Circle in being three courts/circles sharing the common theme of violence, differing by shades of intensity or intention. It is observed by Alice in the text that cruelty really could be considered an extension of violence by intensity or intentionality, as is tyranny to cruelty. This is seen metaphorically as well, as there is very little geographically dividing the courts of Violence, Cruelty and Tyranny, being one long, continuous, barren wasteland. As a small note, this is the only Court where no shades are encountered (implied to be victims of the Kripke's hunting, itself an obvious act of violence).

Tyranny returns Alice to campus-like environments, featuring a clock tower whose stonework is composed of encased shades (just like the shades making up the earlier Bridge of Sighs). The tower is guarded by three Erinyes, who admit only the most wicked souls to the Eight Court, and the City of Dis. (As an aside: this piece of world building, just like the sentencing terms required of shades composing the Bridge of Sighs complicates a comparison of Kuang’s underworld with Dante’s depictions of either Hell or Purgatory. In the Inferno, souls are fixed in their location in Hell. They are not there to learn a lesson, as their punishment is eternal. The lesson is really there to be learned by the reader, hence Dante bringing back word of the divinity of God back to the living world. In Mount Purgatory, shades do progress through all terraces, gradually purging themselves of sins, before acceptance into Paradiso. Kuang’s underworld is a blend of either of Dante’s underworlds, yet here is where we can see a conflict emerge between the two models. If shades in Kuang’s underworld are to progress through each Court to complete their transcript before reincarnation, then why would the Erinyes only admit the worst sinners? Wouldn’t they be required to admit all sinners? Furthermore, if sinners are to show a learning process, or purging of sin, then why are souls in the Bridge of Sighs given a sentencing length rather than a moral task? e.g. one soul says he was required to be present for 3 years before progressing. So, are souls really learning/purging themselves of sin, or just passing arbitrary terms of confinement? It really is only a minor complaint and doesn’t really hurt the overall product of the book, but I thought I’d mention it as part of my comparison here).

Beyond the Circle of Violence for Dante however is the Circle of Deception (for abusing the trust in strangers/people who had no reason to trust in you) then the final Circle, representing Treason (betraying the trust of those who had reason to trust in you, e.g. community, country, family, and God). Being a hierarchical Hell, this houses the worst sinners in the afterlife, including Lucifer himself. Kuang's Eighth Court likewise hosts the worst shades, those who break oaths to others, analogous to Dante's Circles of Deception and Treason. This desert is littered with torn pages of handwriting, as souls are tasked with writing dissertations on their life and making a moral case for reincarnation (just like the essays in Court One). Yet, the shades in this court, as is their deceitful nature, deny or rationalise their sins, and demand their immediate reincarnation or release from Hell in spite of any moral development on their own part. Not only does the task of essay writing echo the task given in Court One, but so too does the errant guide in the form of John Gradus, someone who likewise has no intentions of righting themselves of their sin or following along with the task of essay writing. (Jumping ahead however, again Kuang’s worldbuilding can be critiqued here, as Gradus is offered reincarnation simply from helping Alice to defeat the Kripke's (thus keeping an Oath he made her), rather than writing the essay he was actually charged with. He still shows moral development, purging himself of prior sins, but the nature, structure and purpose of Kuang's hell is confusing given this relevation, as this example is at odds with the assigned task of that court).

At the center of the Eighth Court is the City of Dis, beautifully architectured and reminiscent of The Vatican or the Sistine Chapel. The shades here have constructed their own immaculate city in defiance of their own hellish environment, reminiscent of John Milton's Paradise Lost: "The mind is its own place, and in itself/Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n". We see a similar sentiment echoed in Kuang's writing, "Damn us, and we will make Hell shine". Again, we see how the perception of Hell changes the nature of Hell itself, as the shades, dismissive of the reality of their sins and their environment, have constructed something so holy and grand, and so out of place to their current reality.

Inside Dis are many rooms or sub-environments. This is similar to the multi-pocketed architecture of The Malbolge in Dante's Circle 8, except the Malbolge were putrid and hostile, in contrast to the immaculate beauty and order of Dis in Kuang's text. These room are:

First a huddle of academics watching one submit a potential dissertation. The acceptance/rejection process is similar to the process depicted by Steven L Peck in A Short Stay in Hell, where souls are likewise tasked with finding one book describing their life which once submitted will allow transfer to heaven. The very act of the "dissertation" process is just an academic aesthetic layered on top of the Christian practice of confession, that one’s life can be atoned for, and salvation secured, so long as one confesses their sins, up to the moment of death.

The next room is a writer's bazaar, with peddlers offering resources, services or short cuts in preparing your dissertation, where it is said the over-crowded and attention demanding nature of the Bazaar acts as an intentional distraction from your duty to deliver your dissertation/truth. In that way, it is similar to Buddhist principles of Viksepa, anything that would distract you from your journey to discover the true nature of reality, and thus act as a barrier to enlightenment.

The third room is the Workshop, where academics work to review each other's confessions, or debate the metaphysics of Hell, the afterlife, reincarnation or eternal damnation. Professor Gertrude, a soul residing here, even channels Milton's Paradise Lost, Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, or Nietzsche to argue against the desire to confess one’s sins and rebirth. She heads the Rebel Citadel, souls who refuse their own call towards reincarnation. She also acts as another false-guide to Alice, just as Moore and Gradus had been before.

Gertrude takes Alice to a winding garden path, bordered by hedges, yet as it turns out, these hedges are the transformed bodies of the Rebels, so opposed to the idea of moral progression that they have fixed themselves in place. While the imagery can seem similar to the Suicide Forest as described by Dante, I'd say it is more familiar to the imagery of William Blake's poetry. Specifically, it is reminiscent of Orc/Satan, becoming a tree in Hell, in defiance of Urizen, in Blake’s prophetic work Vala: The Four Zoas. Orc was himself a very Miltonian figure, based around the Lucifer from Paradise Lost, so it is well fitting with the motivation of the Rebel Citadel.

Thus, from all of this, we can see the entire environment of Dis is one great fraud to the many fraudsters inside. Alice is so distraught by this information that she flees Dis entirely. In the wild barrens of Court Eight, she finds and fights a tiger, which reinvigorates her, redirects her and sets her on a new course of action for the final stretch of the book. Following her fighting the Kripke’s and being exposed to the Lethe, Alice's tattoo (which had magically and permanently fixed her memories) is washed away in the River Lethe. This is akin to Dante purging himself of sin on Mount Purgatory, cleansing himself of the seven marks left on him by the Angel, and then crossing the River Lethe before reaching Paradise.

I won't go into a description of Lord Yama's throne, as that does seem more intentionally a description of East Asian Buddhist mythology rather than Dante's view of Christian Heaven, but I will point out that the last line of Katabasis is a re-interpretation of the last line of Dante's Inferno, "Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars."