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[doctor_aquinas]

The end of the semester is by now a familiar ritual. Textbooks undergo their version of the apocalypse, being drawn before my terrible and absolute judgment: the saints, having lived useful, chaste lives, ascend gloriously to the bookcase. The irremediable scoundrels I consign to abandonment, especially if they were used to begin with-which raises

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[maeuschen]

That's not Purgatory, which implies eventual purification into a state of grace (read: you'll see the bookcase eventually). That's Limbo, a place where a book exists in perpetuity without hope of seeing hallowed shelves, but out of reach of the pulp mill.

[doctor_aquinas]

This is a paragraph I cut out of an essay this morning. I didn't want to delete it entirely, however, so I posted it here--and immediately realized I didn't set it to "private." "Eh," I thought, "who's going to comment on it anyway?" A part I was going to add later detailed how when I paged through the books, I pondered reconciliation with them--whether they'd been sufficiently purified...

[maeuschen]

If it makes you feel any better, your post has inspired me to read Dante's Divine Comedy for the first time. Princeton has an excellent site devoted to it, with footnotes and a complete translation of the text. I'm currently in the 10th ring of the 8th circle of Hell.