/lit/ - Literature

have i stepped into a parallel universe? OP has done some reading and posted a meme-free reflection on it along with specific questions. I like this. unfortunately i can't help you with the question on the sonnets as it's been over fifteen years since i read DQ. but i recall having precisely the same reactions as you. I suppose I should read it again.

Don Quixote is quite autistic but definitely not an idiot.

>>15445819
yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, all that, all that.

It's as good, if not better, throughout, so you're in luck there mate. I definitely need to re-read it at some point tho, it was like the third book I read after finally getting back into reading since I was like 10, so I probably missed a load of stuff because I wasn't as good a reader back when I started again. Still, thought it was great tho. And the ending is really fuckin sad.

>>15446147
>back to reading

im doing the same. where can i start? really good recs in this board but i fear ill miss stuff

>>15445819
Absolute masterpiece. What language are you reading it in? One of the greatest books ever

>>15445819
>>15446126
based

>>15446170
The Greeks man, you're in for a ride.

>>15445819
I just began the 2nd part, you have to keep going anon, it's great. Although some days I cant pick it up, but when I do Its not a struggle

>>15446192
i feel like it s a meme in this board. you serious?

>>15445819
Don Quixote is Cervantes's attempt of presenting a perfectly rational character who is universally respected wherever he seems to go. For instances when reading a particularly long monologue you forget of his madness, Cervantes takes strides to remind you that most people hold Don Quixote in some esteem until matters of chivalry are discussed and he reverts to his mad self. Enjoy this book OP, I have been fortunate to learn enough Spanish to facilitate my reading it in its original writing and I'm sure I'll read it several more times in my life, I would also suggest that even if you find the prose to be easy, spend time reading the language and contemplating it as you go.

>>15446170
well mate I think the best thing you can do is just read whatever interests you now, and since you're already reading the Quixote, you're basically already on the right track anyway. If you are interested tho I think I had a break after finishing pt1 and read Dune and then after finishing pt2 I read The Old Man and the Sea. And the other two I read before were the Hobbit and Animal Farm. And if you want some more stuff from a similar period there's Life is a Dream by De la Barca and The Solitudes by Gongora. But again like I said only read stuff because you yourself are interested in and want to read it, not because some mong on the Internet told you to.

>>15446211
It's only a meme if you're a literal iliterate, if you wanna understand anything who has to be with the human being and it's process of thoughts you go to the greeks first

>>15446211
Start with the Greeks is probably the best advice this board can give. That’s the beginning of the western tradition of literature. You should probably read the Bible too.

>>15445819
Cervantes strikes that perfect sweet spot where he's extremely accessible, even to a reader centuries later, while still writing some of the finest literature ever made.

Did I get memed on by getting the Smollet version? Also, I really liked the book, but when I started following the goat herders i got bored and stopped.

>>15446292
You are probably reading the grossman translation if you think its very accesible.

>>15446231
>>15446240
>>15446287
Thanks

>>15446345
Isn't it generally regarded the best one out there? Retaining most of the humor of the original and all that.

>>15446170
It's a meme by psuedos to larp at being sophisticated

>>15446383
It is close to the original but previous translators of the Quixote have made use of Middle English for the multiple passages in which Don Quixote is speaking as a classic knight. Some curious readers are more on that side of the spectrum.

This book is shit. I can appreciate that it was a step forward back then but today the humour and characters are as unbelievable and retarded, daresay, simple, as a literal cartoon. I dropped the book when he started attacking windmills. Braindead shit.

>>15446407
I bet you think anime is deep, filtered pleb.

>>15446407
dumbnigger

>>15446407
I bet you read genre fiction.

>>15446413
Quijote was the original chuuni, there's no reason to think he'd like anime if he didn't like this.

>>15445819
>I've been dreading this read due to the sheer length
How much of a pussy are you? Its only 1000 pages

>>15445819
Are you trying to read Don Quixote like a Pynchon novel?

>>15446561
Haven't read any Pinecone yet, so not quite sure what you mean. But I did recently order The Crying of Lot 49, should arrive this week.
I'm reading it like I'd read any classic novel, reading it a few chapters at a time and contemplating on the points that make it such a well-regarded classic.

>>15446561
wats dat

>>15446545
DQ is the original DQ

Anyone knew Cervantes actually fought in the Spanish army?

>>15446701
He was wounded at Lepanto, so yeah he was in combat.

>>15446400
Can anyone who speaks Spanish elaborate on this? I'm curious if the gap between the Spanish of Cervantes and what Don Quixote uses when talking like a noble knight is as big as the gap between us and Middle English?

>>15446701
>According to his own account, although suffering from malaria, Cervantes was given command of a 12-man skiff, small boats used for assaulting enemy galleys. The Marquesa lost 40 dead, and 120 wounded, including Cervantes, who received three separate wounds, two in the chest, and another that rendered his left arm useless. His actions at Lepanto were a source of pride to the end of his life, while Don John approved no less than four separate pay increases for him.

>>15446717
>>15446731
Lepanto was a hell of a fight.

>>15446717
I'm the same anon, the knight passages are indeed the key factor which turn the translation into a complicated task, since it varies depending on the translator's style. For instance, compare Shakespeare's plays to the Canterbury Tales.
t. Latin American

>>15446717
am spanish and have no clue, hope it was helpful

>>15446731
What an impossibly based man.

Don Quixote is based.

> well read
> fit for combat
> listens not to naysayers
> crafts his own reality instead of being cucked by peasant life
> easily convinces Sancho to be his willing follower, even going so far as to leave his family behind and risk his life in mortal combat
> does this with literally no budget
> attracts all comely maidens with his high speech

>>15446717
>Can anyone who speaks Spanish elaborate on this? I'm curious if the gap between the Spanish of Cervantes and what Don Quixote uses when talking like a noble knight is as big as the gap between us and Middle English?

There is a noticeable difference, but not as large as modern English vs ye old English. I'll give my opinion in form of perceived percentage of similarity to modern Spanish. I've also lived in both Spain and Latin America and have family in each of these continents.

Cervantes uses a formal, well structured semi modern Spanish. Like 90% similar to how a modern educated Spaniard grandpa would talk in a formal setting. Maybe 85% similar if you are a Latin American.

Quixote speaking is 70% similar to a Spaniard grandpa, 60% for a Latin American. For a Spaniard it's funny and even endearing just by the way he talks, many latinos who read this at school have trouble understanding it unless they read an abridged version.

Middle Age Spanish as found in works like "Cantar del Mio Cid" is less undertandable, like 60% for a Spaniard, 50% for a latino. It sounds like hearing Portuguese or Italian or other romance languages in which you recognize the idea but it still sounds alien. This is where I'd also mark the difference between modern English and Middle English.

>>15445819
Wait for the Cave of Montesinos and for Barataria, pure lulz

>>15445819
>not as hard to read as i thought
mostly because of that specific translation. try reading smollett and ur worst fears will have come true

>>15446170
How to read and why - Harold Bloom
He gives reading suggestions for Short Stores, Poems, Novels, and Plays and gives a short introduction on why they're important. By no means should you treat it as a bible, but it's a great place to start.

Don Quixote. A cruel and crude old book.

>>15447624
Maybe you can clarify my question:
I bought book related pic, which I know to be the official but non-original text.

Do you know how different the official and the original spannish text are?

I'm portuguese, so I'd just want to read el Quijote in the closest original version.

>>15446339
>>15446345
>>15446383
>>15448732
>The page of perfection, the page on which no word could be altered without any damage done, this is the most precarious of all pages. Changes in the language erase additional senses and nuances; the "perfect" page is the one consisting of those subtle elements that wears out with great ease. Inversely, the page that contains the vocation of immortality may traverse the fire of its mistakes, of its approximate versions, of its distracted readings, of its incomprehensions, without losing its soul in this crucible. No line fabricated by Góngora can vary without impunity (as confirmed by those who restore his texts); but Don Quixote has won countless posthumous battles against its translators and survives in the most careless of versions.