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Don Quixote · 02-03-2008, 05:31 PM

Hi again, Kerstin.
Again, congratulations for making it all the way through the work. Just a couple of quick comments:
1) The "Shouting across the ocean" reference in the song is just metaphorical. It never happened in the novel. La Mancha, where most of the novel takes place, is in the middle of Spain, far from the ocean, very dry but beautiful land. The only time Don Quixote and Sancho make it close to the seashore would be towards the end of the second part, when they arrive in Barcelona, on the Mediterranean Sea, but there was no "shouting across the ocean" scene then.
2) It's interesting that you liked the first part better than the second. The second part is generally judged to be superior to the first, and in some ways it is, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the first part. It starts off somewhat tentatively, and was actually meant to be just a short story at first (notice that Sancho doesn't even go out the first time with DQ), but it's almost as if the story took hold of Cervantes and the characters became more developed as the first part was written. In the second part, there's more awareness of the characters (and their author) as being "important" people; it's as if those who react to DQ, being aware of the "fame" he achieved in the first part, are egging him on to continue playing the role of DQ the literary character, instead of DQ himself as a human being (of course, part of that is to make it seem that DQ actually IS a human being, instead of a literary character--this is part of the genius of Cervantes). It's all a bit complicated, as Spanish baroque literature tends to be. I find that there is more of a "grand statement", both literarily and philosophically in the second part, but in the first the main characters are more likeable and less "self-conscious", if that can be said about literary figures. You also have to remember that the second part almost didn't happen. Not only did Cervantes die the year after its publication (1615; as I noted in another post a long time ago, Cervantes both died and didn't die on the same day as Shakespeare, April 23, 1616--Spain and England used different calendars at that time), but Cervantes wasn't motivated to finish the second part until after a spurious sequel was published in 1614--you can see references to this work in the second part of DQ. So, I think part of the second part was written at least to some extent to reclaim Cervantes' authorship and authority over the novels and his characters, and some of this takes away a bit from the second part.
I think you have fine literary instincts--keep reading!
Best,
DQ

02-03-2008, 05:31 PM	#24
Don Quixote Senior Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Springfield, MA 01109 Posts: 309	Re: Very strange GL reference Hi again, Kerstin. Again, congratulations for making it all the way through the work. Just a couple of quick comments: 1) The "Shouting across the ocean" reference in the song is just metaphorical. It never happened in the novel. La Mancha, where most of the novel takes place, is in the middle of Spain, far from the ocean, very dry but beautiful land. The only time Don Quixote and Sancho make it close to the seashore would be towards the end of the second part, when they arrive in Barcelona, on the Mediterranean Sea, but there was no "shouting across the ocean" scene then. 2) It's interesting that you liked the first part better than the second. The second part is generally judged to be superior to the first, and in some ways it is, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the first part. It starts off somewhat tentatively, and was actually meant to be just a short story at first (notice that Sancho doesn't even go out the first time with DQ), but it's almost as if the story took hold of Cervantes and the characters became more developed as the first part was written. In the second part, there's more awareness of the characters (and their author) as being "important" people; it's as if those who react to DQ, being aware of the "fame" he achieved in the first part, are egging him on to continue playing the role of DQ the literary character, instead of DQ himself as a human being (of course, part of that is to make it seem that DQ actually IS a human being, instead of a literary character--this is part of the genius of Cervantes). It's all a bit complicated, as Spanish baroque literature tends to be. I find that there is more of a "grand statement", both literarily and philosophically in the second part, but in the first the main characters are more likeable and less "self-conscious", if that can be said about literary figures. You also have to remember that the second part almost didn't happen. Not only did Cervantes die the year after its publication (1615; as I noted in another post a long time ago, Cervantes both died and didn't die on the same day as Shakespeare, April 23, 1616--Spain and England used different calendars at that time), but Cervantes wasn't motivated to finish the second part until after a spurious sequel was published in 1614--you can see references to this work in the second part of DQ. So, I think part of the second part was written at least to some extent to reclaim Cervantes' authorship and authority over the novels and his characters, and some of this takes away a bit from the second part. I think you have fine literary instincts--keep reading! Best, DQ