A Sure Cure for Don Quixitis by Your Enchanted Gardener
A Sure Cure for Don Quixitis by Your Enchanted Gardener
Date: 12/2/2012 8:50:47 PM ( 12 y ) ... viewed 2104 times
A Sure Cure for Don Quixitis by Your Enchanted Gardener
SUCCESS!
At long last, I have gone into the basement of the Enchanted Garden Intentional Community to find my University Modern Library Edition of z"The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote De la Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes, complete in two parts, A new translation from the Spanish, with a Crirtical Test Based upon the First Editions and 1615, and with Variant Readings, Various Notes, and an introduction by Samulel Putman,1949.
The paragraph in question:
"In Short, our gentleman became so immersed in his reading that he spent whole nights from sundown to sunup and his days from dawn to dark in poring over his books, until, finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind."
The NEXT SENTENCE ALSO APPLIES TO THE CONDITION I WILL NAME
DON QUIXITIS
He had filled his imagination with everything tht he had rad; with enchantments, knightly encounters, battles, challenges, wounds, with tales of love and its torments, and all sorts of impossible things, and as a result had come to believe that all these fictions happenings were true;they were more real to him than anything in the world.
FUTHER WE READ
"At last, with his wits were gone beyond repair, he came to conceive the strangest idea that ever occurred to any madman in this world. It now appeared to him fitting and necessary, in order to win a greater amount of honor for himself and serve his ounctry at the same time, to become a knight-errant and roam the world on horseback, in a suit of armor; he would go in quest of adventures, by way of putting into practice, all that he had read in his books, he would right every manner of wrong, placing himself in situations of the greatest peril such as would redound to the eternal glory of his name."
Monday, 8:55 am
December 3, 2012
NOTE
In seeking the book, I carried with me into the basement an empty vial of QuintEssential 0.9 that calms the sympathetic nervous system. I was distracted by some boxes of BioSmart Packaging as which point the vial fell to the ground and the glass broke, whereupon I went to another shelf and found the book in question. Having retrieved the book I ten when upstairs to the Enchanted Garden Kitchen, where I laid the book on the counter, got the broom and dust pan, went to the basement cleaned the class off the floor, went to the black trash bin, emptied the brooken glass, went back into the kitchen, requested the illegible phone number of a would be housemate, and then returned to type the paragraph.
I will now go into the basement once again to replace the book on the shelf, hopefully without too many other adventures in between. I shall return..
9:23 am.....
if not distracted by other thoughts that intercede.
MODERN INTERPRETATION WILL FOLLOW...
"In Short, our gentleman became so immersed in his computer screen that he spent whole nights from sundown to sunup and his days from dawn to dark in poring over his various UR's , until, finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind."
FUTHER WE READ
"At last, with his wits were gone beyond [computer repair, he came to conceive the strangest idea that ever occurred to any madman computer user in this world. It now appeared to him fitting and necessary, in order to win a greater amount of honor for himself and serve his ounctry at the same time, to become Your Enchanted Gardener and roam the world on horseback [ [in his 68 VW Van called the Enchanted Garden Mobile...] ] in a suit of armor; (His armored body] he would go in quest of adventures, [ The Caravan- September 1-10 to the National Heirloom Expo, as an example...] by way of putting into practice, all that he had read in his books (on his computer screen] he would right every manner of wrong ,[including GMOs] placing himself in situations of the greatest peril [virus invasions...etc. etc...] such as would redound to the eternal glory of his name."
A Quote from the Book Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
From Chapter One, This is not the version that I had studied in college. I want to quote my version. It was better and more clearly identifies the dis-ease I am referring to that I name "Don Quixitis." As I remember it, he read from dawn to dusk, and then from Dusk to Dawn, until he lost his wits.
That reminds me of my own condition, being at the computer night and day.
Being at the computer night and day until your lose your wits, is what I can Don Quixitis. I admit, I have fallen victim to this affliction, and now am attempting the cure.
HERE IS THE VERSION FROM CHAPTER ONE OF DON QUIXOTE AS I FIND IT HERE ONLINE AT THIS URL:
You must know, then, that the above-named gentleman whenever he was at leisure (which was mostly all the year round) gave himself up to reading books of chivalry with such ardour and avidity that he almost entirely neglected the pursuit of his field-sports, and even the management of his property; and to such a pitch did his eagerness and infatuation go that he sold many an acre of tillageland to buy books of chivalry to read, and brought home as many of them as he could get. But of all there were none he liked so well as those of the famous Feliciano de Silva's composition, for their lucidity of style and complicated conceits were as pearls in his sight, particularly when in his reading he came upon courtships and cartels, where he often found passages like "the reason of the unreason with which my reason is afflicted so weakens my reason that with reason I murmur at your beauty;" or again, "the high heavens, that of your divinity divinely fortify you with the stars, render you deserving of the desert your greatness deserves." Over conceits of this sort the poor gentleman lost his wits, and used to lie awake striving to understand them and worm the meaning out of them; what Aristotle himself could not have made out or extracted had he come to life again for that special purpose.
READ DON QUIXOTE HERE FREE ON ONLINE OR BUY A COPY TO READ AFTER
THE CRASH
Dr. Fidel Fajardo-Acosta's
World Literature Websit
Main Issues
Comic aspect of the story has underlying serious intentions.
Critique of life in a world dominated by greed, pride, and violence.
Critique of the hypocritical use and manipulation of the Christian religion.
Author's stance in defense of ideals of goodness, justice, truth, and beauty.
Don Quixote's insanity is, in part, a form of higher wisdom; in his madness, he sees humble people as noble and elevated and challenges the rich and the powerful, often calling them monsters and villains; ecclesiastics are also targets of the wrath of Don Quixote.
In his ideals and desire for a better world, Don Quixote mirrors Christ and criticizes a world that lacks a genuine spiritual center.
Don Quixote's violence and aggressive methods, on the other hand, identify him with the people of his time and with the madness of the historical past (the Crusades, the adventures against the Turks, etc.)
Don Quixote is blind to the contradictions in his own approach to the correction of the evils of the world; he fights fire with fire and finds himself repeatedly defeated, making things worse for himself and others.
Through Don Quixote, Cervantes confronts and ridicules an aspect of his own former life as a soldier fighting for Christian Europe.
Where Don Quixote, the warrior, fails, however, Cervantes, the writer, triumphs. Novel about the idea that "the pen is mightier than the sword."
Synopsis
An impoverished gentleman by the name of Alonso Quijano goes insane from reading too many chivalric romances and decides to become a knight errant. Arming himself with rusty old weapons retrieved from his barn and riding a decrepit farm horse, he renames himself Don Quijote de la Mancha and sets out in search of adventures.
The Duke: But do you see Cervantes, there is a difference between reality and delusion
and the difference between these prisoners and your men of lunacy?
Cervantes: I would say, rather, men whose illusions were very real.
The Duke: Well that’s the same thing isn’t it, really?
Why are you poets so fascinated with madmen?
Cervantes: We have much in common.
The Duke: You both turn your backs on life.
Cervantes: We both sellect from life.
The Duke: A man has to come to terms with life as it is.
Cervantes: Life as it is. I have lived for over 40 years and I have
seen ‘life as it is’. Pain. Misery. Cruelty beyond belief.
I have heard all the voices of God’s noblest
creature moan from bundles of filth in the street.
I’ve been a soldier, and a slave. I’ve seen my comrades fall in battle
or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I’ve held them at the
last moment. These were men who saw ‘life as it is’.
But they died despairing. No Glory. No brave last words.
Only in their eyes, filled with confusion, questionin “why?”.
I do not think they were asking why they were dying,
but why they had ever lived.
When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?
Perhaps to be too practical is madness, to surrender dreams –
this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash –
to much sanity may be madness!
And maddest of all, to see ‘life as it is’ and not as it should be.
Yet there is a dangerous side to Quixote’s madness. Together with the help of Sancho and Aldonza (who finally sides with the knight-errant), they defeat a band of muleteers. But Quixote announces that his foes must now be tended to, for that is what chivalry calls for. Aldonza agrees to dress the wounds herself. After Quixote takes his leave, Aldonza is beaten and raped by the gang of muleteers. A terrible price for conversion. A terrible price, for another’s madness.
One must decide for themselves if the ending is tragedy or success. If it is madness or sanity. Quixote is ambushed by his niece’s fiancée pretending to be the Enchanter. He and his small band have huge mirrored shields. Quixote is forced to see himself ‘as he really is’ through his reflection in several mirrors. The sun, the light, is blinding. You might say he is blinded by the reality of what he truly is.
When we see him again, he is in bed, now an old man and dying. Don Quioxote is dead. His adventures nothing more than an odd dream. Everyone is pleased that the old man has come back to his ‘senses’, with the exception of Sancho who greatly misses their misadventures. It is only when Aldonza forces herself into his bedchamber and helps the old man remember the words to the Impossible Dream. Slowly, Quixote is resurrected and sings full-throated the Impossible Dream.
But his time has come, and the old man dies in mid-song as Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha. Is this tragedy? Is it a loss that he recovered from reality back into madness only to die? Perhaps it is Aldonza who answers this question best. Sancho calls her by name, but Aldonza corrects him: “Call me Dulcinea”.
It is easy to see the many similarities this story has with the story of Jesus. Death and Resurrection; salvation for his followers (Aldonza and Sancho); The Impossible Dream can be seen as Quixote’s Sermon on the Mount.
Whatever you believe madness to be, I think the world could use more of Don Quixote’s brand of madness.