Which relates to the adventure of the enchanted blog, as well as other foolishness that must be recounted. Apologies for the late post this week — real life intruded. I’m still about 65 pages from the finish line my own self — just got through the enchanted head section.
“…this is enough for me to realize, O head, that you know everything.”
In terms of satisying sentences sent forth to us over 4 centuries, really, what more could we ask for than that?
Thanks to all for taking the ‘march, ye many who began, and yes, ye mighty who are wrapping it up. Definitely a book I’m glad I read. And definitely one I wouldn’t have finished without the push. There was a great flurry of comments these last few weeks — much enjoyed and appreciated. And special thanks to So-Called Bill for suggesting DQ in the first place.
Please use this week’s thread to talk freely about the end of the book — those of us still flipping through the last centimeter or so will just tread with caution. And speaking of us stragglers — please do shout out when you wrap, and let me know if mug or magnet be your preference (with apologies to SC Bill for lack of true mugnet ™ technology).
I hope y’all had a good time. We’ll definitely be tackling the new Pynchon in December or January. And if we can find the collective stamina, we may well try a mini Woolf-march in the Fall, with either Mrs. Dalloway or To the Lighthouse.
May your horse be lean and your sidekick full of aphorisms,
-Cecil
"…something like the supervisor of an entire team of political agents…"
DQ’s willingness to go after the pastoral life (and bring those around him into it) seems significant. It can certainly be that he is required by chivalric honor to take on this “punishment” with gusto, but at many times throughout book 2, DQ seems ready to give up his knightly pursuits. He seems to become a man in need of defining himself through any means available – whether it be a life of errantry or agriculture.
Of course, the self-awareness he shows in the last chapter has to raise the question of how long he has truly been aware. To what extent was he hiding in his fantasy just to avoid the foolishness that comes with admitting that he knows better?
Finally, I find myself looking at DQ and Sancho and thinking of Shakespeare’s fools. The true fools are always the people of name and position (and often royalty) who behave comically. The professional fools often speak the wisest ideas in the plays. Compare Feste to Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Malvolio in “Twelfth Night” for a fairly clear juxtaposition. Sancho’s run as governor certainly shows him as wise beyond his station even if he does not understand that, whereas the foolishness of DQ is the heart of the story.
Finally, I doubt I’ll join the mini-march to the lighthouse (or through Mrs. Dalloway) in any official way, though I will undoubtedly check in at times. The Pynchon looms heavily on the horizon though. I suspect the tome will top my Xmas wish list.
Well, I finally finished, and now I’m feeling lost and purposeless. Does the Vortex Media Empire offer any kind of post-Deathmarch therapy?
Since I expressed skepticism about the reality of either award last week, I do want to state that I’d like the mug (if it exists). However I am exceedingly curious how tangible objects are transmitted over the internet. Is it sort of like the transporters in Star Trek? Do you need a Mac, or will any old PC work?
One last comment on the book. Cervantes takes one last swipe at the other guy’s “counterfeit” DQII in chapter 72 by introducing a character from the “fake” Part II into his own Part II & then having DQ & Sancho have a conversation with him about how he didn’t meet the real DQ & Sancho in his travels (as he claimed).
I guess that other guy’s rip-off was Cervantes’ own “windmill” that he just couldn’t stop tilting at! (Translation for English majors: “…at which he couldn’t stop tilting.”)
In fact, I propose a toast with our new mugs: “Here’s to tilting at windmills!” It’s less painful than tilting at actual giants, and just as emotionally satisfying.
crossed the finish line today (a cross-country plane ride will do that for ya.) melancholy, but satisfying.
* reading the section with Don Antonio, Dona Ana Felix and company (around 892) I was thinking about the recent comments by al qaeda re recreating an Islamic empire that starts in Spain. Now that there was a conflict whose echoes refuse to fade.
* also struck by the latest in a series of comments from Cervantes showing his faith that DQ will live on for hundreds of years; talking about the faux DQ he says (916): “if it is good, faithful, and true, it will have centuries of life, but if it is bad, the road will not be long between its birth and its grave.” That is some high level of confidence. Just amazing to me that he knew at the time that was creating a classic. Or mebbe I’m taking this too literally and it’s been more the equivalent of boasting against sucker MCs?
* speaking of dismissing sucker MCs, I especially enjoyed Sancho’s getting up in Don Alvaro’s grill (925) with “I’m the real Sancho Panza, and I have more amusing things to say than there are rainstorms…” Go Sancho, go Sancho….
A few responses to earlier comments:
So-Called Bill wrote:
“Well, I finally finished, and now I’m feeling lost and purposeless. Does the Vortex Media Empire offer any kind of post-Deathmarch therapy?”
I’m thinking we should become sheperds and spend our lives in song. You will be named So-Called Williamanio and I shall be named Cecil Vorticio. Deal?
***
Vitz wrote:
“To what extent was (DQ) hiding in his fantasy just to avoid the foolishness that comes with admitting that he knows better?”
Fwiw, esp. in the Duke/Duchess sequence I found myself thinking that if he was hiding in his fantas, it was not to avoid foolishness, but because, to it was working so well for him, what with the rest of the world going to such extraordinary efforts to make his fantasties seem real.
***
TOMiKS wrote:
“…I am exceedingly curious how tangible objects are transmitted over the internet. Is it sort of like the transporters in Star Trek? Do you need a Mac, or will any old PC work?”
We actually use old-fashioned means — a truck. Now, you may well be wondering if that will take too long, that is, if our truck is too slow. Have no fear. She’s fast enough for you, Old Man (in KS).
Anyone who’s not in the bay area, as in your case, just email me (vortex@mediajunkie.com) your shipping address. It will probably take about 4-6 weeks to get ’em made and delivered.
Thanks again all. Great read. Great comments.
-Cecil Vorticio
I’ve also put DQ down feeling a little melancholy—partly the usual post-march malaise, partly the Don’s sad death. For all his commitment to fantasy, he never saw his Dulcinea—that was one act of magic no Duke or gentleman thief or even apparently Cervantes could perform for him. He’s a lonely soul, just a niece and a housekeeper, no wife, no kids, really just Sancho. I almost wonder if he kept the quest going, despite broken bones and practical jokes, simply to keep people around him (just like Cervantes sometimes seems to stretch the story along just to keep readers.)
I’ve had fun while reading this thinking about how the folks who wrote Man of La Mancha shoehorned this shaggy, intricate story into a hit musical. Sometimes I admire their chutzpah and deft compressions, but it’s with Dulcinea I think they most betrayed the spirit of the book. For all the subplots about mismatched lovers and young women betrayed by fickle playas, Don Quixote himself is completely out of the game: Dulcinea—the dream of love, union, maybe for an old man just company—never materializes. This is the saddest part of the book for me, leavened a little by Quixote’s enthusiasm for his new pastoral fantasy, and by Cervantes’s good-humored dissing of the competing Volume II.
There was more in this book than I’d ever imagined, and I wouldn’t have discovered it all without my intrepid fellow-marchers and Cecil’s promise of mugs. Salud! See you at Pynchon …
Thanks again to everyone for the companionship on this journey. Like Rodney K., I was expecting a flesh-and-blood Dulcinea (even with garlic-acorn breath) to at least be at the Don’s bedside at the end. I’ve seen the movie, and I’ve even seen an avant-garde performance of the Man of La Mancha, and a person can become totally misled if that’s the only story you’ve known. I’m glad to have experienced the richness of the real tale with my boon companions. Bring on the mug–and bring on the next March!
cecil–i don’t deserve to join this thread, but i can’t help but add one word:
“…this is enough for me to realize, O chocolate head, that you know everything.”