It has taken me awhile to post about our final meeting from April 21. Perhaps I am too sad to see our group end! But it is not a true ending, as we’ll be back next year to take up a new book.
Thanks to Celeste, we had some “old clothes” to munch on during our meeting. That’s rope vieja, courtesy of Sabor De Cuba in downtown Frederick. We also had a spanish cheese and a number of other delicious goodies.
This was a session of question asking:
Is the pastoral emphasis at the end of the novel indicative of Don Quixote needing some fantasy to propel him--knight errantry has failed him, so he takes up something else?
Is Cervantes dealing with his own death or dying as he writes the end of Don Quixote?
Does the true Don Quixote become like the false one--disenchanted? Which version of our titular character is primary: Alonso the Good or as Don Quixote the Knight?
Which is better: Part 1 or Part 2?
Rather than summarize our discussion, I’ll leave you with these questions. They have stayed with me as I continue to think about Don Quixote.
One final note about translations (our sessions wouldn’t be complete without some juicy tidbit). Cide Hamete Benengeli, the name given to the fictional Arabic author of the history, is an anagram for Cervantes. Though some letters are altered, it roughly corresponds to “In truth, Miguel de Cervantes”!
I also want to share some pictures from Beth of some of Aurelio Teno’s Don Quixote sculptures. One of Teno’s Don Quixotes (not pictured here) can be found at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
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