11/5 Summary

At the beginning of our discussion, I shared a comment from my colleague in Communication Arts. She encouraged students in her course on feature writing to cover our reading group. None of those students had heard of Don Quixote or were familiar with some of the most famous images from the novel, such as the battle with the windmills. Is this anecdote just another indication of declining cultural literacy? To be fair, some people in our group were unfamiliar with famous scenes from Don Quixote prior to beginning the group. But at least we gather to learn more about this important book! Is declining cultural literacy also a testament to a generation gap between those who are familiar with the musical Man of La Mancha? Even Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood television show for children included a Don Quixote reference in the character of Donkey Hodie.

Donkey Hodie and his windmill
Source: http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/mrn/characters/donkey_hodie/

If this one anecdote is indicative of a larger cultural unfamiliarity with Don Quixote, what is at stake with this loss? One of our participants is currently reading Ilan Stavan's Quixote: The Novel and the World (which we've blogged about before). Three things struck our participants about the significance of the novel. First, it introduced the same-sex literary pair, the hero and the side-kick if you will. This device is so familiar to me that I've never even considered its origins. I think of Sherlock and Dr. Watson, Batman and Robin, Frodo and Sam, Dean and Sam Winchester—though I won't try to distinguish between hero and side-kick in the latter pair! Second, at least according to Lionel Trilling, Don Quixote is a novel about the struggle between economic classes. This point seems relevant in our current social and political moment, as the debate over living wages continues in our political discourse. Third, Don Quixote was influential on Freud. This last point could be a discussion unto itself!

The first point we discussed from the session's readings (chapters 36-43) was coincidences. One participant saw something in Don Quixote that often appears in nineteenth century American literature, especially slave narratives. People are constantly being united in dramatic (and sometimes unrealistic) ways after being torn apart. The inn, the center of so many of these reunions, seems to be charmed in bringing people together. In this week's reading, we have reunited Don Fernando and Dorotea, Cardenio and Luscinda, the Captive and his brother the Judge, and as our section ends, we have Doña Clara and her lover, disguised as a mule-driver, being brought to the same location. Why is the inn so central in part 1 of Don Quixote? Might this be a testament to Cervantes' attempts at writing plays? The inn would provide an easy set for action that would not need to be changed much. As we all know, balconies and doors can be very important in plays!

The second major point we discussed was the relation between the “arms versus letters” speech and the Captive's story. This speech, spanning two chapters, was the Knight of the Sorrowful Face's major speaking part in this section of reading. As a brief aside, our chapter selection for this meeting was striking in how little Don Quixote (or Sancho Panza) speaks. When Don Fernando and Luscinda come to the inn, Don Quixote sleeps through everything! Later, when the Captive is reunited with his brother, Don Quixote sits back, observing. We interpreted the “arms versus letters” speech, which defends the active over the contemplative life, as a prologue to the Captive's story. Some people felt that as a “prologue,” this device seemed a bit heavy-handed on Cervantes' part. Perhaps Cervantes seems to be heavy-handed because the Captive's story speaks to his own experiences of enslavement. However, the defense of arms over letters is slightly undercut, it seems, by the noble and generous behavior of the Judge when he is reunited with his lost brother, the Captive.

Language continues to intrigue us. One of our participants shared with us Google's ngram viewer that tracks dthe frequency of words or phrases used in various bodies of literature across time. This resource might be fun to look at with Don Quixote.--I did a search for “tilting at windmills” inEnglish-language literature between 1800 and 2015. In addition, we shared a good chuckle over one of Cervantes' interesting (mis)uses of words. Although Edith Grossman normally translates the silliness of some names and phrases used by Don Quixote, there was one translation that a participant thought should have been translated (Yes, we have participants reading the Grossman translation alongside the Spanish!): Princess Micomicona, Dorotea's disguise, translates as “big monkey”!