Hola, HJ, how did you find this article right on time?

Amazing!!!! It is the first time to read a Boston Review article and really impressed.

Will share it with my wife who will enjoy more than me.

Indeed I am not an expert in such literature but had a chance to read it's quasi excerpts during my premed school days so that I have such limited knowledge on its value as classic literature though I enjoyed some of the narrations with such erotic stories - in those days when I read it, it was so shocking with such pornographic description we seldom encounter like 금병매 I am sure many would agree with my cheap perception-. But I was always wondering why Decameron has been quoted together with Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy so much.

Now it seems to be resurrected with a different meaning!!!  You never know!

BB Lee

Glad you liked it.

A little imagination left in my old brain and the google

sometimes help me find what I want to know and read.

What a miraculous technological world we are living in!

Yet human nature hasn't changed, I'm afraid, since

Boccaccio's such a cogent clear description of it

in spite of the Pandemic then and now.

God have mercy on us, humans!

"In many ways, Boccaccio wrote The Decameron as a secular counterpoint to Dante. Where Dante wrote a divine comedy, Boccaccio was writing an earthy, human comedy. He uses a similar religious conceit in the structure of the story. Dante's Divine Comedy has 100 cantos (1 prologue canto, 33 within the Inferno, 33 in Purgatorio, and 33 in Paradiso). The Decameron consists of 100 tales told over ten days by ten tellers.
The Decameron as a whole has a subversive feel to it. It shows authority figures to be corrupt and those with the quickest wit, not the best morals, prosper. Boccaccio also subtitled his work, "of Prince Galehaut." This is a reference to the Arthurian legend of Lancelot and Guinevere's illicit love. Galehaut arranged the tryst between the two lovers. In this way, Boccaccio is signaling his audience that his tales will be of this bawdy nature.
Lancelot and Guinevere are referenced in The Inferno. In circle II, The Circle of the Lustful, Dante encounters a couple called Francesca and Paolo. Francesca tells him how she was deceived into marrying Paolo's brother. She and Paolo would meet to read together. They read the story of Lancelot and Guinevere which moved them to, in a moment of passion, share a kiss. Francesca's husband catches them and kills them both.
Basically, by subtitling his work with a reference to that tale, Boccaccio is saying that he is writing immoral stories. He's writing the kind of stories that can land you in Dante's hell."

from the Internet.

To answer your question, Professor.

Couldn't agree more, HJ!

We really enjoy the technological advantage we never dreamed of in our younger days.

I am not going to dare to read the whole 100 sagas but will get some narrations later!

Indeed, the way started to talk about Decameron was with Dr. Massimo Vaghi, one of my closest colleagues like our family in Italy - we do have a good dozen among Italian colleagues to keep close relationships like family, thanks to my wife who speaks Italian reasonably well - who lives in the Milan suburbs but later moved to Bergamo, the epicenter of the first wave of Coronavirus, and his hospital was converted to Coronavirus Center. So we worried so much and thank goodness he made with no infection.

When Massimo found out we do spend much more time at my daughter's countryside house - located in Southern Maryland along the waterfront of Patuxent River next to Chesapeake Bay ( I offer you a raincheck to invite on your visit to this area ) for weekend retreat since the Coronavirus crisis started, he suggested us to invite close friends to spare the nights together to chat over the drinks making American Decameron.

BB Lee

Thank you for the invitation, Professor.

I love the idea, "American Decameron", and we may consider calling our gathering

at this website that, if our  WM wants, of course.

In practice that's what we've been doing lately as those 10 storytellers

were doing while in quarantine.

Your Italian friend got it right, I believe.

When I was in middle school, I was going to rent "Decameron" from a small bookstore

in the small alley in Dong-Dae-Moon market, my brother said, "Hey, you are too young for that."

So, I didn't rent it. I have not read it even today. I still remember the disappointment.

Am I old enough to handle the "Decadron" you guys are talking about?? ㅎ, ㅎ, ㅎ.

It certainly is for the adults and not for the youngsters. It was even prohibited by Catholic Church to make it more famous - as a matter of fact, that was my hidden motivation to read that time and a few love stories described alive love action in quite explicit way if I remember correctly-. But current standard, very plain you will be disappointed, Steve. Time has been changed a lot!

BB Lee

P.S. I forgot the name of the village of Decameron, 10 some miles away northeast from Firenze downtown? but once again surprised when we passed by such plain looking village to disappoint the people. My place is also 30 miles away, quite close from the DC but much better with the bluff where you could look down the Bay/river area over the drinks and also the boat on the deck to accommodate almost a dozen people to get on to go out to Bay for fishing or water skiing so that I would like to offer my raincheck to you, Steve, when you should visit us - we still owe you twice to pay back!-.

Since you joined our octogenarian club, your limitless privilege should allow

any pleasure for you that may still be left out there, WM.

So by all means! as far as I'm concerned.

Frame storyEdit

Further information: Summary of Decameron tales

 Miniature by Taddeo Crivelli in a manuscript of c. 1467 from Ferrara (Bodleian Library, Oxford)^[4]

In Italy during the time of the Black Death, a group of seven young women and three young men flee from plague-ridden Florence to a deserted villa in the countryside of Fiesole for two weeks. To pass the evenings, each member of the party tells a story each night, except for one day per week for chores, and the holy days during which they do no work at all, resulting in ten nights of storytelling over the course of two weeks. Thus, by the end of the fortnight they have told 100 stories.

Each of the ten characters is charged as King or Queen of the company for one of the ten days in turn. This charge extends to choosing the theme of the stories for that day, and all but two days have topics assigned: examples of the power of fortune; examples of the power of human will; love tales that end tragically; love tales that end happily; clever replies that save the speaker; tricks that women play on men; tricks that people play on each other in general; examples of virtue. Only Dioneo, who usually tells the tenth tale each day, has the right to tell a tale on any topic he wishes, due to his wit.^[5][6] Many commentators have argued that Dioneo expresses the views of Boccaccio himself.^[7] Each day also includes a short introduction and conclusion to continue the frame of the tales by describing other daily activities besides story-telling. These framing interludes frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs.^[8]The interactions among tales in a day, or across days, as Boccaccio spins variations and reversals of previous material, forms a whole and not just a collection of stories. Recurring plots of the stories include mocking the lust and greed of the clergy; female lust and ambition on a par with male lust and ambition; tensions in Italian society between the new wealthy commercial class and noble families; and the perils and adventures of traveling merchants.(from Internet)

https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.m.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSummary_of_Decameron_tales&data=04%7C01%7C%7C95fdfd2b47594545b59808d873946732%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637386428501670503%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=0nwQTkWCMajodPL9vyGiHoboFmk%2FsyyWxQFL0fFnoUI%3D&reserved=0
 

Why do we say God bless you?

Why do people say, “God bless you,” after someone sneezes? ... One of the symptoms of the plague was coughing and sneezing, and it is believed that Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) suggested saying “God bless you” after a person sneezed in hopes that this prayer would protect them from an otherwise certain death

*Thank you, Dr. Lee! It was an excellent reading material during pandemic. 

Wow, where did you dig out such extensive review, Dr. Lee? Amazing! 

I will download them to keep in my file to read later!

Thanks a bunch!

BB

P.S. Correct, Dr. Ohn, I read same story elsewhere! Bless you, Dr. Ohn. Then, anyone knows the origin of 'hoy shit' or 'holy smoke', ' holy mackerel', or 'holy cow'? 

You are welcome! Doctors!

The pleasure is mine.

Just as discussed in the above Decameron, the following shows

the poor Asian immigrants in China Town in San Francisco are

being wasted by the virus. Fortunately Korean immigrants among many Asian ethnic groups

don't belong there and not included there.

The working poor paid the highest price then and now.

https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fin-depth%2Fnews%2Fnation%2F2020%2F10%2F18%2Fcoronavirus-asian-americans-racism-death-rates-san-francisco%2F5799617002%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cd3036f927fb14bfe0eee08d8742b5412%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637387076718642845%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=jA2siXXn5kRiMRql1dyakVGTMvUUdnKyCw%2BQ6spjr2U%3D&reserved=0

Indeed one out of four- or three?-  human being on the surface of Earth is Chinese so that we would hear all kinds of stories involved to Chinese in these days. Indeed, I still remember one close Malaysian colleague were so bitter to Chinese dominance throughout Southeast Asia, criticizing them 'worse than Jews' because Jews would share/spend what they earned with the local people while Chinese take them all to China, sparing NOT a penny to local people. So Chinese are not only survivors but also thrivers where ever they go throughout the world, even in Africa! It's scary!

BB Lee