Which describes the condition of the famous marchers as they skip and/or stumble toward the far side of this escapade. And yes, perhaps, like me, you’ve fallen a little behind again. But with so little food left on your plate, surely you’ve got appetite enough to pop this wee remaining morself?
Some will finish in the next few days. Others will likely finish next week in the wrap up post. As you cross the line, be sure to shout out and stake your claim to glory. Mug or magnet? Which will it be? Next Wednesday: on to victory! (aka page 940 Grossman) where we will “undoubtedly fall to the ground.”
I’ll take the magnet.
I’m still a little trepidatious about discussing the end. I suppose people won’t read the DQDM if they want to avoid the spoilers, but we aren’t scheduled to finish til next week, right?
Hi Dr. V,
Good point — let’s figure this thread is for discussing everything up to around page 890 (and for announcing victorious conclusions and mug/magnet preferences!), and we’ll hold off discussing the last 50 pages till the wrap up thread next week…..
-Cecil
Well here’s another idea Cervantes had first: Monty Python’s cheese shoppe sketch is just a reworking of the scene in chap. 59 where the innkeeper tells Sancho he can order anything he fancies for supper. Then one by one the innkeeper explains why he can’t produce that particular item.
Which brings me to the choice of mug vs. magnet. How do I know it’s not like the cheese or the innkeeper’s menu, and all I’ll end up with is an excuse?
Just powered through, helped by the momentum the story picks up once DQ breaks free of the duke and duchess. Couldn’t have done it without you all. Thanks for marching along so steadfastly.
One question before I break open the wineskin: why does Cervantes make so much out of Sancho needing to self-administer those 3,000 lashes in order to disenchant Dulcinea? At first I thought this was punishment for Sancho’s single outright lie in the whole adventure–his fabrication about the peasant girl being Dulcinea–but it comes up so often that I started to think there’s something more at stake. Is Cervantes taking aim at the whole spiritual economy of medieval Catholic Spain, the idea that self-inflicted suffering can atone for another’s sin? There’s a sad (post p. 890!) moment where DQ offers to pay Sancho by the lash, which reminded me of the scene where Sancho decides he wants a salary instead of the gift of an insula. Out with one regime, in with the next.
Also, Cervantes’s subtle but clear, pre-890 sympathy for the recently expelled Moriscos made me wonder about a theory I heard bandied about early on by one of our fellow marchers: that DQ himself may not be the Old Christian he appears to be. Any light to shed there? The book’s whole obsession with dissimulation–boys dressed as girls, Christians as Moriscos, nobles as shepherds, shepherds as nobles, peasants as governors, authors as Cide Hametes–reminds me of Shakespeare, but must also say something about Cervantes’s Spain, where the Inquisition’s going around trying to ascertain who’s really whom.
Good luck hitting the finish line–see you next week. WE DID IT!
30 pages to go…not quite there yet. One last gasp of air before I hit the summit.
But I will say that the Old Man beat me to the punch on the Monty Python Cheese Shop analogy. I was seriously waiting for the innkeeper to finally say “I’m sorry, no, we don’t have any food here. I was deliberately pulling your leg.” But it comes damn close. Great scene.
And anyone on the march who hasn’t yet seen the “Lost in La Mancha” documentary detailing Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt to bring DQ to film should add it to their queue right now. Interesting to me that both Gilliam and Orson Welles tried and failed in their attempts. Have there ever been two other film directors more deserving of the label “Quixotic?”
Finished!
Brilliant book. Will wait before discussing any spoiler-ish material.
I will say only this: MUG me, please.
–The Reader of the Sorrowful Face
Finito from Computilo. By the way, I was very gratified to discover one more “tossing” before the end, just to bring certain themes full circle. (That Cide Hamete–what a guy!)
No, it wasn’t a blanket toss, but a toss nonetheless. Poor Sancho gets tossed around by the sailors on the “galleys”.
Anxiously awaiting my first ever bookclub mug……thanks to all of you for a most enjoyable march!
Just about there. When the time comes, I would like an actual mugnet–a coffee mug that adheres to my refrigerator to save counter space. Cecil, can you make that happen?
I will plant my flag of glory – I’m done! Without a spoiler, I will state that I enjoyed the ending.
Dr. V — congrats! Mug or magnet? (I have your GRDM mug, so I’ll aim to send them off together.)
-Cecil
I’ll take the magnet.
I’m still a little trepidatious about discussing the end. I suppose people won’t read the DQDM if they want to avoid the spoilers, but we aren’t scheduled to finish til next week, right?
Hi Dr. V,
Good point — let’s figure this thread is for discussing everything up to around page 890 (and for announcing victorious conclusions and mug/magnet preferences!), and we’ll hold off discussing the last 50 pages till the wrap up thread next week…..
-Cecil
Well here’s another idea Cervantes had first: Monty Python’s cheese shoppe sketch is just a reworking of the scene in chap. 59 where the innkeeper tells Sancho he can order anything he fancies for supper. Then one by one the innkeeper explains why he can’t produce that particular item.
Which brings me to the choice of mug vs. magnet. How do I know it’s not like the cheese or the innkeeper’s menu, and all I’ll end up with is an excuse?
Just powered through, helped by the momentum the story picks up once DQ breaks free of the duke and duchess. Couldn’t have done it without you all. Thanks for marching along so steadfastly.
One question before I break open the wineskin: why does Cervantes make so much out of Sancho needing to self-administer those 3,000 lashes in order to disenchant Dulcinea? At first I thought this was punishment for Sancho’s single outright lie in the whole adventure–his fabrication about the peasant girl being Dulcinea–but it comes up so often that I started to think there’s something more at stake. Is Cervantes taking aim at the whole spiritual economy of medieval Catholic Spain, the idea that self-inflicted suffering can atone for another’s sin? There’s a sad (post p. 890!) moment where DQ offers to pay Sancho by the lash, which reminded me of the scene where Sancho decides he wants a salary instead of the gift of an insula. Out with one regime, in with the next.
Also, Cervantes’s subtle but clear, pre-890 sympathy for the recently expelled Moriscos made me wonder about a theory I heard bandied about early on by one of our fellow marchers: that DQ himself may not be the Old Christian he appears to be. Any light to shed there? The book’s whole obsession with dissimulation–boys dressed as girls, Christians as Moriscos, nobles as shepherds, shepherds as nobles, peasants as governors, authors as Cide Hametes–reminds me of Shakespeare, but must also say something about Cervantes’s Spain, where the Inquisition’s going around trying to ascertain who’s really whom.
Good luck hitting the finish line–see you next week. WE DID IT!
P.S.: Mug please. Will shelve it proudly next to the Gravity’s Rainbow trophy. Thank you Cecil!
30 pages to go…not quite there yet. One last gasp of air before I hit the summit.
But I will say that the Old Man beat me to the punch on the Monty Python Cheese Shop analogy. I was seriously waiting for the innkeeper to finally say “I’m sorry, no, we don’t have any food here. I was deliberately pulling your leg.” But it comes damn close. Great scene.
And anyone on the march who hasn’t yet seen the “Lost in La Mancha” documentary detailing Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt to bring DQ to film should add it to their queue right now. Interesting to me that both Gilliam and Orson Welles tried and failed in their attempts. Have there ever been two other film directors more deserving of the label “Quixotic?”
Finished!
Brilliant book. Will wait before discussing any spoiler-ish material.
I will say only this: MUG me, please.
–The Reader of the Sorrowful Face
Finito from Computilo. By the way, I was very gratified to discover one more “tossing” before the end, just to bring certain themes full circle. (That Cide Hamete–what a guy!)
No, it wasn’t a blanket toss, but a toss nonetheless. Poor Sancho gets tossed around by the sailors on the “galleys”.
Anxiously awaiting my first ever bookclub mug……thanks to all of you for a most enjoyable march!
Just about there. When the time comes, I would like an actual mugnet–a coffee mug that adheres to my refrigerator to save counter space. Cecil, can you make that happen?