If Dante had filmed the Inferno on his iPhone, it would look like this | Francine Prose

If the Evia fire ferry video seems extraordinary, it's not only because of what it shows but because of how it shows itTo have lived through the last few decades is to have, in our minds, an all too accessible video library of historical nightmares. The assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK. The collapse of the Twin Towers. Derek Chauvin's knee on George Floyd's neck. The 6 January insurrectionists swarming the Capitol building. We can call up these scenes whenever we choose. They haunt us, uninvited.The latest grim addition to that ineradicable collection is a video that surfaced, days ago, of a tourist ferry sailing across the water from the raging fire incinerating the Greek island of Evia. Continue reading...