XXXI/3 Once again the emblematic nature of Dante's vision leads naturally to an image borrowed from the cinema which has re-realised our archetypes so well in this century, and which has so effectively dreamed for us our dreams. As the interior text puts it, 'in The New World, strange sort of parallel'. As Dante imagines his monsters in proportion to the tallest buildings of his time (towered cities like San Gemignano still provide a fragmentary glimpse of what Florence must have looked like "” cf. Canto XXVIII/1) so the makers of King Kong used the skyscrapers of New York as a measure of their monster, at least in the publicity (from which this image is taken) where King Kong seems to tower above the Manhattan skyline, buildings which in fact he shins up in the actual film. The figure of Fay Wray is doctored to make an apparent pair of figures alluding to the similarly accomplished carrying up of the two poets in the hand of Antaeus. The background colour refers of course to the silver screen. Looking like a sketch for New York, an improvised Mediaeval City lies in the foreground. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.