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/lit/ - Literature

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6733305 No.6733305 [Reply] [Original]

I can't get into it. I'm currently at the beginning of the second book and I'm literally forcing myself to read. It's just so long winded. Is it worth it /lit/?

>> No.6733309

>>6733305
I tried, and I couldn't get into it either. don't worry, OP. you don't have to read and enjoy every classic just because it's a classic.

>> No.6733312

>>6733305
>It's just so long winded
good one

>> No.6733313

>>6733305
>>6733309
of course, you do have to start with the Greeks, but after that you can skip as you please.

>> No.6733316

>>6733305
well you can't make yourself enjoy it, just be understanding that you're a pleb and go from there

>> No.6733318

>>6733305
It's better in Spanish.

>> No.6733344

>>6733305
The second book is the best. Cervantes introduces far less secondary characters and focuses on Don Quixote and Sancho more than the previous book. I would say that if you still aren't enjoying it by the end of the puppet show at the inn, then you can give up.

>> No.6733355

>>6733344
Hmm well actually I was enjoying it at first when it was just the two of them. I started losing interest when they started meeting more and more characters. I guess I'll give it a shot after all.

>> No.6733493

>>6733344
This.

Imo, DQ is the best book ever, but even I found the first part to be somewhat disappointing.

If you could go this far, finish it. You must read the parts where Sancho finally gets to govern a village and the ending (;_;).

>> No.6733514

Also, don't look at it it as a continuous story - it's a very fragmented and episodic work, like the knight tales from middle ages.

>> No.6733524

>>6733305

I'm around the same place you are. I got through the first book in a relative breeze, but then for some reason put it down, and got caught up reading other books. I'm about to take it up again, though.

> It's just so long winded

Few people will disagree, but I found that after around 30 pages of the edition that you posted, I was able to get into the rhythm. How much are you reading at a time? Are you forcing 5 pages in at a time?

If you don't like it though, don't read it. No big deal except you'll be forever pleb

>> No.6734716

>>6733305
Thou are a booby and blockhead if thou can't finish the greatest book of the greatest knight to have ever lived and will ever live.

>> No.6734739

>>6733305
it's funny. I read it in spanish, the old spanish, so I don't know if that makes the jokes funnier.

>> No.6734751

I can read and understand a Spanish newspaper pretty well as long as I have a handy dictionary with me. Will I be able to read Don Quixote in the original Spanish?

>> No.6734762
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6734762

>long winded is apparently a negative trait

>> No.6734786
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6734786

How are English translations of DQ? XVI-XVII century Spanish is not that different from modern Spanish as XVI century English is to contemporary English.

>> No.6734797

>>6734716

this, OP must surely be a knave

>> No.6734808

Don Quixote is the only human in the book. His squire is his guardian angel. The rest of the characters are demons encouraging his delusion. It's like Plato's allegory of the cave.

>> No.6734813

>>6734786
are you in arizona or is that art exhibit travelling?

>> No.6734821

>>6734751
You'd be in for a hell of a fucking crash course. Verb forms to sentence structure, I guarantee every page would contain something you'd never find in a contemporary newspaper (stylistic breadth-wise, not antiquated-speech wise).

Sounds fun, wish I'd had the balls to do that when I was starting out with Spanish.

>> No.6734828

>>6734813
Yayoi Kusama? saw it on Japan a while back

>> No.6734831

Funny, it's one of the most entertaining books I have ever read.

>> No.6734875

>>6734808
Yet without Don Quixote all those people he meets during the first book would've had a bad end.

>> No.6735148

>>6734875
Yes, that guy who was whipped definitely got a good ending.

>> No.6736186

>>6734751
spanish fag here.
First, there are two types of old spanish(this isnt oficial, ok):
-the ¨español viejo¨:wich is just new vocabulary, change the meaning of the words you usually use, and some ¨hipérbatos¨,or altering the order of the words on the phrase. This is the spanish in Don Quijote, for example.
-the¨Español arcaico¨:basically all of the above but multiplicated, more new vocabulary, and not only change the order of the words but the sintaxis(or gramatical order and functions of the words in a phrase, if you are american). This is sometimes very difficult to read even for native spaniards like me. Think about¨Lazarillo de tormes¨, if you know it, great book, but a pain in the ass to read in arcaic spanish

>> No.6736233

>>6733305
>Reading a translation
>Not speaking Spanish

>> No.6736250

Second book is much more cohesive and in general more enjoyable than the first.

>> No.6736281

>>6734808
I like Kafka's take on Don Quixote better

Without making any boast of it Sancho Panza succeeded in the course of years, by feeding him a great number of romances of chivalry and adventure in the evening and night hours, in so diverting from himself his demon, whom he later called Don Quixote, that this demon thereupon set out, uninhibited, on the maddest exploits, which, however, for the lack of a preordained object, which should have been Sancho Panza himself, harmed nobody. A free man, Sancho Panza philosophically followed Don Quixote on his crusades, perhaps out of a sense of responsibility, and had of them a great and edifying entertainment to the end of his days.

>> No.6737061
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6737061

>watch the Ninth Gate
>actor roughly handles first edition Don Quixote
>flips through the pages between thumb, index, and middle fingers with careless abandon.
>creates triangular dent creases in the edge of pages

>> No.6737117
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6737117

>>6737061
>watch Solaris
>actors read and cite Don Quijote
>their edition even has Doré illustrations

>> No.6737410

If you're interested in philosophical readings on the Quixote I reccommend Unamuno's "Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho". He paints Don Quixote as some kind of unstoppable spiritual force on a quest for eternal life (glory) and in his mind Sancho represents the humanity that shall grant this glory to him. It's also a great read if you like Unamuno's style, which I find really fun because of his tendence to get grumpy.

>> No.6737543

>>6734739

It probably does make it funnier in the original. The translation OP posted is very good, though, and the humor comes through. I read that translation and thought it was hilarious.

Edith Grossman does a great job of explaining things in the footnotes as well, so wordplay that only works in spanish still makes sense.

>> No.6737575

I've read it in Portuguese and I liked the first part better. It was funnier. Also, the second part didn't feel very fresh. The "pranks" pulled on DQ were repetitive.

What do you guys think about the dialog between two characters (a priest and DQ's friend from the village?) about why chivalry books are bad?
The priest says the books are delusions and fool people. I read that like a criticism of religion. Was it really?

>> No.6737592

>>6733305
nothing is worth reading if you ain't enjoying it
>that black kid from my comparative lit class who was reading 'De'nesha Diamond'