[While] there exist significant parallels between elements in [Paradiso] and certain symbols of Eastern philosophy, the preponderant correlative is the Divina Commedia, after which Lezama has patterned not only the structure of the novel but also the climactic last scene….

[Cemí's] attainment of paradise entails a concomitant affirmation of his homosexuality; within the novel's symbolic corpus, this affirmation constitutes a descent to the Underworld. Unlike Dante the Pilgrim, Cemí simultaneously ascends and descends, entering Paradiso as he enters Inferno. His enigmatic polar movement can be understood as the ritual component of a process of androgynization….

[Like] Dante in the Divina Commedia, [Cemí] is continuously a wayfarer, un caminante…. As in the Divina Commedia, the act of walking (Dante opens his poem with the line "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita") becomes a metaphor for the spiritual journey of the soul. In the course of the journey...