The caption under the photo read, “One of the more interesting dining options in the Vanity Fair was the Cafe of Night and Morning, which featured live-action scenes from Dante’s Inferno, where diners sat at tables made from real coffins under chandeliers made of skulls and bones.” The sentence stopped me in my tracks. So much information packed into 43 words.
One: Vanity Fair: The picture was in a history of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial. What we call the “Midway,” they called “Vanity Fair.” The dictionary says that a Vanity Fair is “a scene or place characterized by frivolity and ostentation.” It refers to a fictional town, “Vanity” in the works of a baptist pastor, John Bunyan, in one of the most famous books in the English language, Pilgrims Progress. The book outlines the struggle to follow Christ in this world. It’s an allegory. It was written in 1678 while Bunyan was in prison for following Christ with his convictions and holding outdoor preaching services, which were against the law at that time. He was held for 12 years. Several times he was offered an early release if he agreed to one stipulation, “NO PREACHING.” He famously responded, “If you let me out today, I will preach tomorrow.” So he remained in jail. The term “Vanity Fair,” is the most mainstream lift from the book.
Bunyan built his fictional city, Vanity, with reference to the 1497 Bonfire of the Vanities in Florence, Italy when a reformer, Savonarola, called people to reject the world and follow Christ. He lead numerous public burnings of art, books, cosmetics and mirrors. Later, Savonarola, was himself burned by those who were stung by his critiques. The Reformers of the early 1500’s often saw him as an Elijah like figure announcing the reckoning of the church. The words inside the archway announce that “Night and Morning,” was, “the sensation” of the “Vanity Fair.”
Two: Dante’s Inferno. One of the most influential books in Western Civilization. According to Christian Blauvelt it helped give us the modern world. Dante
advanced the idea of the author as a singular creative voice with a vision powerful enough to stand alongside Holy Scripture, a notion that paved the way for the Renaissance, for the Reformation after that and finally for the secular humanism that dominates intellectual discourse today. You may have never read a single line of The Divine Comedy, and yet you’ve been influenced by it.
The Inferno tells of Dante’s journey to the nine levels of Hell. He fills in what the Bible leaves out and in so doing has influenced what most people think of Hell. It is hard for us to even think about Hell without Dante’s voice clouding our pictures. He was right in picturing it as something to be avoided. It is terrible.
Three: Diners watching live action scenes. People sat and watched while people suffered and died in agony. It was entertainment. It was gruesome. Why would people pay to sit at a coffin and watch people going to Hell all the while the Vanity Fair swirls around them? I’m afraid not much has changed in our world. We too often seem unconcerned that people are outside of the love of God. We are too numb to the pain of the people around us and too preoccupied with ourselves. The Vanity Fair swirls around us. The Pilgrims are not Progressing. We are just watching. It’s time to stop watching and do something.