Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
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message 1:
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[deleted user]
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Oct 28, 2008 05:58AM
I'm assuming this book is one of the l00l books. I love it!
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I intend to re-read it. This is one of the books that actually captivated me some years (many) ago when I read it first. For me, is on the same "shelf" as "The Name of the Rose" is, too.
message 2
I'm just finishing up volume l. I'm glad to hear you use the word "captivated" because that's exactly how I feel. It's an amazing book and every day I see things that remind me of it.
I'm just finishing up volume l. I'm glad to hear you use the word "captivated" because that's exactly how I feel. It's an amazing book and every day I see things that remind me of it.
I will try to read the English version this time. And I will think to your words, because it sounds challenging to feel it so.
message 4
How lucky you are to be able to read the Spanish! It's frustrating, especially with poetry, to have to read in translation.
I just got back from my Don Quixote class. I felt very out of the loop as I love him and everyone in the class hates him. I have such sympathy for his good intentions and his inability to see them actualized. I think this is a book that can be interpreted in many ways, even by the same person. Let me know what you see in it.
Are you Spanish or Latin American?
How lucky you are to be able to read the Spanish! It's frustrating, especially with poetry, to have to read in translation.
I just got back from my Don Quixote class. I felt very out of the loop as I love him and everyone in the class hates him. I have such sympathy for his good intentions and his inability to see them actualized. I think this is a book that can be interpreted in many ways, even by the same person. Let me know what you see in it.
Are you Spanish or Latin American?
Yes, I believe that most of us are experiencing a sort of reasonance with him, because we all have, even by different proportions, a certain idealism. I think that is important to not entirely lose it during our lives. And to come to an end with our inner self by understanding, accepting and living with it.
I read it also translated, in Romanian, that is a latin rooted language, but I wander how much that translation was accurate.
I read it also translated, in Romanian, that is a latin rooted language, but I wander how much that translation was accurate.
message 6
I agree with everything you have said. It's a very strange feeling to be in a group of people who do not see it, but in a way, that fits, too, as a lot of the book is about not seeing what is right in front of you!
There's a line in the prologue that I think of again and again. How when a parent has an ugly baby love draws a veil in front of her eyes and the parent sees the baby as beautiful. I read that as meaning that the world is an ugly baby and his love for it made him see it differently. I'm not sure that's accurate, but when he sees prostitutes as beautiful aristocrats and inns as castles, I think of how all of us see, not just through our eyes but through our hearts.
I agree with everything you have said. It's a very strange feeling to be in a group of people who do not see it, but in a way, that fits, too, as a lot of the book is about not seeing what is right in front of you!
There's a line in the prologue that I think of again and again. How when a parent has an ugly baby love draws a veil in front of her eyes and the parent sees the baby as beautiful. I read that as meaning that the world is an ugly baby and his love for it made him see it differently. I'm not sure that's accurate, but when he sees prostitutes as beautiful aristocrats and inns as castles, I think of how all of us see, not just through our eyes but through our hearts.
message 7
BTW, do you think he's a Christ figure? Whenever, in a book, prostitutes are seen as lovely ladies, I think of Christ.
BTW, do you think he's a Christ figure? Whenever, in a book, prostitutes are seen as lovely ladies, I think of Christ.
Well, I'm not sure on that. It could be also the fact that in anything, as well as anyone, there are entwined the beautiful and the ugly. As the good and the bad are, too. And the challenge is to see them both.
message 9
I love that! That's a great understanding that I hadn't thought of.
I was thinking a little bit along those lines, that perhaps we're not supposed to be able to pin him or the book down. Maybe the whole book is to get us thinking and questioning about what is good and what is bad. Maybe that's the point, that it's a philosophical book that makes us think and question, which I've been doing non-stop!!!
I love that! That's a great understanding that I hadn't thought of.
I was thinking a little bit along those lines, that perhaps we're not supposed to be able to pin him or the book down. Maybe the whole book is to get us thinking and questioning about what is good and what is bad. Maybe that's the point, that it's a philosophical book that makes us think and question, which I've been doing non-stop!!!
Quixote as Christ figure? How about as an old, post-reunion with Penelope Odysseus?
*SPOILERS!*
I think you could entertain a reading of Quixote as a Christ figure, though that isn't necessarily the reading I would go for. And if you were to do that you would probably have to assume a fairly cynical (or at least human) reading of Christ himself on Cervantez's part--as though Christ were fighting a pointless battle based on personal delusions which on his deathbed he renounced...that's probably not the Christ figure most people read into books.
But while I'm here, let me just put this out there: Don Quixote is one of the best books I've ever read. I read this back to back with Death on the Installment Plan, and The Magic Mountain--that was a VERY good period of reading.
I think you could entertain a reading of Quixote as a Christ figure, though that isn't necessarily the reading I would go for. And if you were to do that you would probably have to assume a fairly cynical (or at least human) reading of Christ himself on Cervantez's part--as though Christ were fighting a pointless battle based on personal delusions which on his deathbed he renounced...that's probably not the Christ figure most people read into books.
But while I'm here, let me just put this out there: Don Quixote is one of the best books I've ever read. I read this back to back with Death on the Installment Plan, and The Magic Mountain--that was a VERY good period of reading.
