For those of you who have not read Dante’s Inferno, please do so. I’ll wait. If you want a more approachable version (though John Ciardi’s translation is quite fine), you can read Niven and Pournelle’s novel by the same name.
Done?
Okay — then let me ask you this.
Does Dante have an appropriate bolgia (circle) for parents who let their children come into danger? Not, mind you, by accident. But by neglect. By selfishness. By a focus on only what is useful or pleasant or convenient to them, the parents (singular or plural).
How about parents who manipulate their children, not even for any possibly laudible reason like, “Well, this will be for his/her own good,” but to score points? To satisfy an internal ego-trip? To “win” against someone else? For trivial, selfish reasons?
How about just because they’re stupid, narrow-minded and petty?
The Ninth Circle, in Caina, where Traitors to Kindred are embedded in ice up to their necks for all eternity?
Seems kind of harsh. On the other hand, seems kind of lenient.
Whatever the answer is, it seriously chaps my hide. Want to see my blood pressure seriously rise? Want to watch me rant and rave? Tell me about stuff like this.
Rrg. Where’s Rorshack when you need him?