Welcome to Week 4 on ye olde deathmarche, which recounts the fierce and uncomon battle for mugnet glory waged by nineteen travelers, and other events.
Some good debate this last week on the pleasures of DQ. I’m still having a swell time with the book, though I’ll confess that DQ’s grand chivalric imagining (around page 159 in Grossman) did make my eyes begin to bulge. While I’m confessing, I should add that I’ve got Zero Mostel stuck in my head as Sancho. And not just any Zero Mostel, but a characture of Zero Mostel from some Mad Magazine parody from my youth (a Fiddler send up called “Antenna on the Roof”). I can’t decide if this adds or subtracts from my reading pleasure. OK, that’s a lie. It adds. Next Wednesday: More glory! And it all leads us to the end of Chapter XXVII, as “concluded by that wise and judicious historian,” ladies and gentlemen, won’t you please give a warm Don Quixote Deathmarch welcome to your friend and mine, the one, the only: Senor Cide Hamete Benengeli.
26 comments for “The Don Quixote Deathmarch, Week 4”
Dr. Vitz
April 13, 2006 at 8:11 am
I love the conversation on page 145 in which DQ accuses Sancho of telling the story in an awkward way (repeating everything so it won’t finish). Sancho replies “The way I’m telling it is how tales are told in my village.” I know Cervantes is commenting on his novel vs. its predecessors. I’m not sure who he is giving priority to.
I really enjoyed this week’s reading. Vomit, enemas, poop, sexual innuendo, more vomit–I mean what’s not to like?
Zero Mostel is a good choice for Sancho. I’m afraid Ricardo Montalban has become irrevocably fixed in my head as Don Quixote. Stanley Kubrick should have made that movie back in 1969–although he would have cast Peter Sellers as the Don, and that’s not a bad idea either.
Like the good Dr. V, I’m also wondering about those moments where DQ explains how to tell a story. Or stops the action to perform a speech from one of his books. Or interrupts another’s story to praise something he’s read. What’s up with that? He’s so passionate about arranging reality (his and others’) to fit the plots of his beloved romances. Why not just stay home and be a writer?
Re: the “South Park� moments this week, it feels to me like Cervantes is out for more than just nyuks. The body is a great equalizer: DQ and Sancho both have stomachs; to borrow the title from the children’s book, “Everyone Poops.� I wonder if Cervantes uses these moments to undercut the pretensions of literature—heroes and villains, highborn & lowborn, pure Dulcineas and earthy Alonzas, etc. I feel like there’s something anarchic about Cervantes, that he’s skewering all distinctions, social, moral, sexual, & otherwise, exposing them as every bit as imaginary and ridiculous as the Don’s silly books. Or DQ himself as Literature. Everywhere he intrudes, anarchy ensues—the workaday world (not such a sweet place) gets bumped off its tracks for an instant.
Anyway, the poop: DQ is no better than Sancho, his ______ smells no sweeter, despite what he’s read in his highfalutin’ fiction. The body trumps the book. Cervantes the soldier, the failed dramatist, the prisoner, the slave, might have been in a special position to appreciate that. Are Sancho and the Don the Jekyll/Hyde projections of himself?
Reading Rodney’s comment reminds me of how much Jonathan Swift used the body to point out human foibles too. Satarist must just love the frailty of this mortal coil we live within.
Had another thought recently that may be a reach. Chivalry in and of itself is a great thing. Treat people with courtesy, aid the less fortunate, serve humbly, never think of yourself before others, and always act with honor in mind. And yet, it is often the subject of ridicule. George Washington Cable tried to introduce Twain to Scott’s romances with the hope that chivalry would make him mannerly. Twain responded with Connecticutt Yankee
OK – Arthur is very much a Christ figure (I have no idea how clear that is in Orlando Furioso), and chivalry is based directly in Christian teachings. Is the fact that everyone (including the priest!) thinks DQ is crazy for his chivalry something akin to Homer Simpson’s classic answer to Bart’s question about the family religion – “You know, the one with all the well meaning ideas that don’t work in reality… Christianity.”
Before he was a Christ figure Arthur was a Finn MacCool figure.
And if we’re going to turn to Homer to understand Jebus, then I insist on yanking out *my* favorite quotation:
“Let’s just say that on this day, a million years ago, a dude was born who most of us think was magic. But others don’t, and that’s cool. But we’re probably right. Amen.”
If you’re going to be an ancient warrior upon whom centuries of myth and folklore will be laid, you might as well have a name as fresh as “Finn MacCool.” At least that’s what I always say.
Here’s my modern casting of Don Quixote, for Today’s Audiences. Will Ferrel as DQ, Jack Black as Pancho.
Sarah Jessica Parker as Rocinante.
Going back to what Dr. V was talking about – I tend to think that Cervantes is commenting on codes of courtesy, religion, etc., and is saying: humans are too flawed to achieve these ideals, but bless them look how – with all their flaws and hang ups – they try and try anyway. And this message for me is not only universally meaningful, it’s relentlessly funny. One of my favorite Sancho hang ups is that he keeps bringing up how he was tossed around on that blanket by the Segovian wool carders. He can’t let it go – to him the humiliation is much worse than the physical pain of all the relentless beatings.
If only Kubrick made DQ – what a gem that would’ve been.
I always enjoy seeing how little is really new in our world. It turns out that gross-out humor didn’t begin with Animal House. Here in 30 pages or so of DQ we have drinking & vomiting, having teeth knocked out, crapping & farting. Is anyone doing a screenplay of this? Hollywood loves this stuff!
As to casting, I’m thinking of political figures rather than actors. John Kerry as DQ, and George Bush as Sancho.
Read chapters 24 and 25 today and it was one of those stretches where I felt lucky to be reading this book — from DQ’s fanboy enthusiasm in 24, to the pitch perfect back and forth tween Sancho and DQ in 25 re illustrations of madness. Great fun. If you’re in the teens, let me formally exhort you to trek on — excellent stuff just ahead….
-Cecil
I also enjoyed this week’s reading.
DQ acknowledging that, and explaining why, he see things differently than everyone else. (“what seems to you a barber’s basin seems to me the helmet of Mambrino.”) and I wonder who is right. Ce n’est pas une barber’s basin?
Sancho offering his opposing view of Dulcinea and DQ remaining undaunted, yet offering the idea that the great and beautiful ladies may in fact be more a vehicle for poets to create a certain image of themselves.
Sancho continuing to be up front about his dueling but complementary hopes for DQ, praying to God “to put him in the place thats best for him and where he can do the most favors for me.”
And a good and compelling story from Cardenio to boot.
Judd Hirsch as DQ; Judd Nelson as Sancho; Ashley Judd as Dulcinea; If Jude Law is the handsome guy who played Alfie, then Jude Law as Cardenio; If Jude Law is Xenia the Warrior, then Jude Law as the loose lady at the inn. “Hey Jude” to play during the closing credits. Jugghead as the fictional animated character DQ befriends in later chapters.
oh my, mr. magoo–judd nelson in real time or a former judd? also, also, there must be a part for judge judy….
i’m still lagging, so rather than join in the discussion, i’ll just stake this week’s claim to a prize with my favorite sentence so far:
I am a distant fire and a far-off sword.
Agreed that this was the best section so far. Just finished up Chapter 25 and was LOL’ing at the conversation between DQ and Sancho the entire time.
“For the love of God, Senor, don’t let me see your grace naked…”
And I sure hope we get to hear the end of Cardenio’s story sometime….
Thanks to Jeff for the wonderful vision of Jack Black as Sancho and Will Ferrell as DQ. But Sarah Jessica as Rocinante? I’m just not sure.
On a separate thought train, and harkening back to Cecil’s suggestion for T-Shirt Slogans that will make big bucks, this week’s readings are rife with T-Shirt Slogans. Much better than most proverbs!
P. 174: Sancho: …even though I’m rough and lowborn, I still know something about what people call proper behavior, and so don’t repent of taking my advice but mount Rocinante if you can, and if not, I’ll help you, and follow me, because, (and here’s the slogan): MY BRAINS TELL ME WE NEED OUR FEET NOW MORE THAN OUR HANDS!
p. 169: Gines de Pasamonte (one of my favorite rascals thus far): MISFORTUNES ALWAYS PURSUE THE TALENTED.
My Favorite from p. 165: The Galley Slave, aka The Canary: WARBLE ONCE AND YOU WEEP THE REST OF THE DAYS.
Must create screensavers…much better than Jack Handy’isms….
I’m enjoying these casting possibilities, but I think for DQ you need someone with proven abilities as a comic madman. I’m thinking Christopher Lloyd.
And just for fun, how about Rosie O’Donnell as Sancho.
I’m stuck on the political casting. Yes, John Kerry is certainly a man with a sorrowful countenance, but the Don reminds me more of W when he sees opposing armies everywhere and thinks that he will “perform deeds that will be inscribed in the book of Fame for all time to come.” We answer with the bachelor on p. 138, “it was a great misadventure for me to run across a man who is seeking adventures.”
Re: Sarah Jessica as Rocinante– I have to know. Is it because she’s so bony?
I just caught up and have enjoyed these last few chapters so much that this has become my bathtub reading– very much enjoying the Romeo & Juliette-esque story of our poor Cardenio and Luscinda.
And I’m tearing my hair out for Sancho who has lost the paper granting him his donkeys! No one’s thinking Ashton Kutcher and Seann Scott here? Am I the only one who will cop to having seen Dude, Where’s My Car?
I love the conversation on page 145 in which DQ accuses Sancho of telling the story in an awkward way (repeating everything so it won’t finish). Sancho replies “The way I’m telling it is how tales are told in my village.” I know Cervantes is commenting on his novel vs. its predecessors. I’m not sure who he is giving priority to.
I really enjoyed this week’s reading. Vomit, enemas, poop, sexual innuendo, more vomit–I mean what’s not to like?
Zero Mostel is a good choice for Sancho. I’m afraid Ricardo Montalban has become irrevocably fixed in my head as Don Quixote. Stanley Kubrick should have made that movie back in 1969–although he would have cast Peter Sellers as the Don, and that’s not a bad idea either.
Like the good Dr. V, I’m also wondering about those moments where DQ explains how to tell a story. Or stops the action to perform a speech from one of his books. Or interrupts another’s story to praise something he’s read. What’s up with that? He’s so passionate about arranging reality (his and others’) to fit the plots of his beloved romances. Why not just stay home and be a writer?
Re: the “South Park� moments this week, it feels to me like Cervantes is out for more than just nyuks. The body is a great equalizer: DQ and Sancho both have stomachs; to borrow the title from the children’s book, “Everyone Poops.� I wonder if Cervantes uses these moments to undercut the pretensions of literature—heroes and villains, highborn & lowborn, pure Dulcineas and earthy Alonzas, etc. I feel like there’s something anarchic about Cervantes, that he’s skewering all distinctions, social, moral, sexual, & otherwise, exposing them as every bit as imaginary and ridiculous as the Don’s silly books. Or DQ himself as Literature. Everywhere he intrudes, anarchy ensues—the workaday world (not such a sweet place) gets bumped off its tracks for an instant.
Anyway, the poop: DQ is no better than Sancho, his ______ smells no sweeter, despite what he’s read in his highfalutin’ fiction. The body trumps the book. Cervantes the soldier, the failed dramatist, the prisoner, the slave, might have been in a special position to appreciate that. Are Sancho and the Don the Jekyll/Hyde projections of himself?
Reading Rodney’s comment reminds me of how much Jonathan Swift used the body to point out human foibles too. Satarist must just love the frailty of this mortal coil we live within.
Had another thought recently that may be a reach. Chivalry in and of itself is a great thing. Treat people with courtesy, aid the less fortunate, serve humbly, never think of yourself before others, and always act with honor in mind. And yet, it is often the subject of ridicule. George Washington Cable tried to introduce Twain to Scott’s romances with the hope that chivalry would make him mannerly. Twain responded with Connecticutt Yankee
OK – Arthur is very much a Christ figure (I have no idea how clear that is in Orlando Furioso), and chivalry is based directly in Christian teachings. Is the fact that everyone (including the priest!) thinks DQ is crazy for his chivalry something akin to Homer Simpson’s classic answer to Bart’s question about the family religion – “You know, the one with all the well meaning ideas that don’t work in reality… Christianity.”
Before he was a Christ figure Arthur was a Finn MacCool figure.
And if we’re going to turn to Homer to understand Jebus, then I insist on yanking out *my* favorite quotation:
“Let’s just say that on this day, a million years ago, a dude was born who most of us think was magic. But others don’t, and that’s cool. But we’re probably right. Amen.”
If you’re going to be an ancient warrior upon whom centuries of myth and folklore will be laid, you might as well have a name as fresh as “Finn MacCool.” At least that’s what I always say.
Here’s my modern casting of Don Quixote, for Today’s Audiences. Will Ferrel as DQ, Jack Black as Pancho.
Sarah Jessica Parker as Rocinante.
Umm, Jack Black as “Sancho.” I don’t know who “Pancho” is, but I want him off my freakin’ movie set immediately.
What about a soundtrack to read DQ by? Berlioz, maybe? Any suggestions for music that’s both dramatic and funny?
Tune-wise, I’m gonna go with early King Crimson…..
-Cecil
(Also, I’m casting Jeff as “Pancho.”)
Going back to what Dr. V was talking about – I tend to think that Cervantes is commenting on codes of courtesy, religion, etc., and is saying: humans are too flawed to achieve these ideals, but bless them look how – with all their flaws and hang ups – they try and try anyway. And this message for me is not only universally meaningful, it’s relentlessly funny. One of my favorite Sancho hang ups is that he keeps bringing up how he was tossed around on that blanket by the Segovian wool carders. He can’t let it go – to him the humiliation is much worse than the physical pain of all the relentless beatings.
If only Kubrick made DQ – what a gem that would’ve been.
I always enjoy seeing how little is really new in our world. It turns out that gross-out humor didn’t begin with Animal House. Here in 30 pages or so of DQ we have drinking & vomiting, having teeth knocked out, crapping & farting. Is anyone doing a screenplay of this? Hollywood loves this stuff!
As to casting, I’m thinking of political figures rather than actors. John Kerry as DQ, and George Bush as Sancho.
Read chapters 24 and 25 today and it was one of those stretches where I felt lucky to be reading this book — from DQ’s fanboy enthusiasm in 24, to the pitch perfect back and forth tween Sancho and DQ in 25 re illustrations of madness. Great fun. If you’re in the teens, let me formally exhort you to trek on — excellent stuff just ahead….
-Cecil
I also enjoyed this week’s reading.
DQ acknowledging that, and explaining why, he see things differently than everyone else. (“what seems to you a barber’s basin seems to me the helmet of Mambrino.”) and I wonder who is right. Ce n’est pas une barber’s basin?
Sancho offering his opposing view of Dulcinea and DQ remaining undaunted, yet offering the idea that the great and beautiful ladies may in fact be more a vehicle for poets to create a certain image of themselves.
Sancho continuing to be up front about his dueling but complementary hopes for DQ, praying to God “to put him in the place thats best for him and where he can do the most favors for me.”
And a good and compelling story from Cardenio to boot.
Judd Hirsch as DQ; Judd Nelson as Sancho; Ashley Judd as Dulcinea; If Jude Law is the handsome guy who played Alfie, then Jude Law as Cardenio; If Jude Law is Xenia the Warrior, then Jude Law as the loose lady at the inn. “Hey Jude” to play during the closing credits. Jugghead as the fictional animated character DQ befriends in later chapters.
oh my, mr. magoo–judd nelson in real time or a former judd? also, also, there must be a part for judge judy….
i’m still lagging, so rather than join in the discussion, i’ll just stake this week’s claim to a prize with my favorite sentence so far:
I am a distant fire and a far-off sword.
Agreed that this was the best section so far. Just finished up Chapter 25 and was LOL’ing at the conversation between DQ and Sancho the entire time.
“For the love of God, Senor, don’t let me see your grace naked…”
And I sure hope we get to hear the end of Cardenio’s story sometime….
Thanks to Jeff for the wonderful vision of Jack Black as Sancho and Will Ferrell as DQ. But Sarah Jessica as Rocinante? I’m just not sure.
On a separate thought train, and harkening back to Cecil’s suggestion for T-Shirt Slogans that will make big bucks, this week’s readings are rife with T-Shirt Slogans. Much better than most proverbs!
P. 174: Sancho: …even though I’m rough and lowborn, I still know something about what people call proper behavior, and so don’t repent of taking my advice but mount Rocinante if you can, and if not, I’ll help you, and follow me, because, (and here’s the slogan): MY BRAINS TELL ME WE NEED OUR FEET NOW MORE THAN OUR HANDS!
p. 169: Gines de Pasamonte (one of my favorite rascals thus far): MISFORTUNES ALWAYS PURSUE THE TALENTED.
My Favorite from p. 165: The Galley Slave, aka The Canary: WARBLE ONCE AND YOU WEEP THE REST OF THE DAYS.
Must create screensavers…much better than Jack Handy’isms….
My obligatory post. Nothin’ more from me for the next week or so.
Cecil, do what you want with the actors, as long as I see Danny Elfman in the credits.
Danny Elfman as “Rocinante”?
I’m enjoying these casting possibilities, but I think for DQ you need someone with proven abilities as a comic madman. I’m thinking Christopher Lloyd.
And just for fun, how about Rosie O’Donnell as Sancho.
I’m stuck on the political casting. Yes, John Kerry is certainly a man with a sorrowful countenance, but the Don reminds me more of W when he sees opposing armies everywhere and thinks that he will “perform deeds that will be inscribed in the book of Fame for all time to come.” We answer with the bachelor on p. 138, “it was a great misadventure for me to run across a man who is seeking adventures.”
…so that would be W as Don, and the rest of us as some sort of collective Sancho. Hard to argue with that one.
-Cecil
W does fulfill my standard of proven abilities as a comic madman.
Steve Buscemi as Sancho–going for the sad clown performance….
Re: Sarah Jessica as Rocinante– I have to know. Is it because she’s so bony?
I just caught up and have enjoyed these last few chapters so much that this has become my bathtub reading– very much enjoying the Romeo & Juliette-esque story of our poor Cardenio and Luscinda.
And I’m tearing my hair out for Sancho who has lost the paper granting him his donkeys! No one’s thinking Ashton Kutcher and Seann Scott here? Am I the only one who will cop to having seen Dude, Where’s My Car?
One word: Mugnet.