Don Quixote week 6 do two don’s make a right

Now the best section this weeks read is where Don Quixote is sat talking with Don Lorenzo .when he says he is a poet and starts reciting his poetry which is good but not wonderful but as ever our don Quixote is over the top he calls him the  consumptive poets
I ve started feeling sad this week our journey is nearly  3 weeks left .remember to join us on Wednesday on Twitter when there is a cook along of a traditional Spanish dish from the time me Don Quixote by Rachel of catalan cooking who teaches Spanish cooking in London and lived in Spain for 20 years .I will post recipe and photos for non Twitter users

WHAT YOU LIKE THIS WEEK ?

ARE YOU SAD WE RE GETTING NEAR THE END ?

book food a spanish meal -want join in ? for the Don

As you all know I m doing a Don Quixote readalong ,well when I was starting the read along one of my good friends from twitter Rachel who lived in Spain for nearly 20 years said she want to join in with readalong ,when I ask about the food of the time in spain ,she kindly said she do some research and provide a recipe for us to do well she has and now is doing a cook along via twitter making the traditional spanish dish escabeche (escabetx in Catalan) a chicken dish , which would have been round in Cervantes time so I ll include a link to here to Rachel’s page ,where you can find out about her and maybe want join one of her catalan cooking class .so even if your not doing the readalong you may enjoy cooking and following how everyone gets along via twitter full details of Rachel’s twitter account and a # hashtag for the night .hope some of you choose to join in or follow us for the night .

DON QUIXOTE WEEK 6 IS THIS LORD OF THE RINGS ?

well we start again after a weeks break ,a graduate samson starts to question sancho over his master,we find out about the donkey and his return strangely,then the squire persuade his wife to let him and the Don hit the road again they travel to a new town Toboso ,in search of a lady the don wants to impress ,they are then in some woods then there are dark tales and magicians mentioned .

the end of this section again as a few times before had me recalling Tolkien ,he must have read Don Quixote dark wood and tales being told are some of the main parts of The lord of the rings . 

the song from Don Quixote musical .

WHAT DID YOU ENJOY ON WEEK 6 ?

Is there a connection between don and the lord of the rings ?

DON QUIXOTE a break !!

I ve decide to leave week 5 for a week to let every one that has fallen behind catch up so next monday will be week 5 ,hope everyone understands some people have fell behind my self inculde a busy family weekend left reading time very short .look forward to next monday and catching up with everyone

Don Quixote week five I m in a cage !

Not the best of times for the Don this section also we finished the first part of the book and marked the half way part of our read along ,we hear many new tales the tale of a rich farmer and his daughter ,a Shepard ,the don is brought home and there is much sorrow at his demise by those near him .

Two new things connect to Don Quixote have come to my attention this week ,the first is the polyglot project ,where you can try to read the Don in the original spanish and use their translation tool to get passages translated as you do so ,also I have got the due out soon OUP a very short introduction to spanish literature which I m reading at moment to give a bit of background to the Don also place it in the history of spanish book and where to go after the book .

How has your week been ?

great new project

I received a e-mail from James Alsono the other day from the polyglot project a new venture initially with classic books where you can try to read in the original language and then use their tools to translate words you aren’t very sure of .This includes don Quixote ,which is how james found me now I know Richard is read along in spanish with us so this may help if you want to see how the orignal was written and help improve your spanish there is also works in german english and french to work on .

Don quixote week 4 a florentine interlude and a escape from moorish hands

Well I never ,the novel the tale of inappropriate curiosity  within a novel that start last week continued the Florentine tale that the Priest is reading as our hero slept in the bed in the inn ,is a tale of women love and honor in florence and is a wonderful piece of metafiction ,as it even seems written by a different hand than that of Cervantes ,I was well and truly enchanted with the story of Anselmo ,Camila ,Lothario and leenalo ,and was annoy when the don interrupted it ,he awakes slash a red wine skin and thinks it is the blood and head of huge giant he had been dreaming of engaging in battle ,but then we return and find that Camila has been found out and promise fidelity well for a time ,the priest strangely like this story of infidelity ,next there are som e arrivals at the inn where don sancho and the priest are held up and we enter in to another tale told by on of these new guest don Fernando and a lady and the captive Ruy who’s tale of escape from the moorish world we are being told his capture and attempts to escape the moors ,a tale of daring and the sea .

the two tales we end and start in this section show with out a doubt Cervantes talent and also his continuing influence on the modern written word ,the novel with in a novel is still being used as a tool in modern fiction in books such as kaviler and clay by Michael Chabon .

WHAT HAVE YOU ENJOYED ?

WHAT INFLUENCES ON MODERN FICTION DO YOU SEE ?

Don quixote week 3 -a preist and a barber

well the adventures continue afoot ,this time the guys are caught up by a priest and a barber that want to rid the knight errant off his devil that has made him made ,Don continues to promise to help the fair maidens ,a really funny scene this week is where don threatens to his head ,and sancho tells him not too pure slapstick .

WhAT HAVE YOU ENJOYED THIS WEEK ?

The book has con found many film makers .One of it’s most famous disciples being the errant american director Orson Welles ,he spent a lot of time and money trying to make a version of don Quixote ,i found this spanish clip of him in the sixties

love the scenery in this video feels like it may have done in Cervantes time .

Don Quixote week 2 – does a shaving bowl make a good helmet ?

This stage of the book we find out more about the Don’s faithful squire Sancho Panza ,that he isn’t maybe the brightest spark in the back as he recounts the happenings of the previous days to people ,There is also a wonderful scene where the Don thinks he has found a mythical helmet to wear but it turns out to be an old shaving bowl this reminded me of the scene in lost in la Macha the film about terry Gilliam’s failed attempt at a don Quixote film .there is an unpaid inn bill that crops up as the adventures continue .

There is a great note in the foot notes about a joke using word play that can’t easily be translated about costs and ribs as the spanish words costas and costillas sound very similar ,This highlights one of the hardest areas of translation wordplay and jokes ,these are some of the hardest things to translated and Grossman did the best thing by not changing the passage and subsisting it for a similar concept ,which I have seen in other translations .

Here is a great video I found about a toy robot Don Quixote made by some one .

WHAT HAVE YOU ENJOYED THIS WEEK ?

Don Quioxte -week 1 sonnets ,books ,riding ,a inn and a large farm

So we ‘re under way and the journey begins  the first 92 pages cover a lot of ground a brief intro ,some wonderful sonnets about the hero and knights in general ,then we finally meet Don his book laden house book about knights .Then he sets forth and rides and ends up at an inn .Wants to be made a knight by the innkeeper ,who refuses but relents in the end ,back home people worried but to no avail he enlists his neighbour sancho Panza a farmer to be his squire .the meet some people already on the road to the adventures .

Well so far ,so good we got a feel of Don Quixote a sort of 16th century billy liar ,the book reads as thou it was written yesterday ,the footnotes enlighten the text so much ,and things like explaining the meaning of blanco is dual so both used in translation .The mean of Panza is belly or paunch thus leading to the image in my mind .

Also Rachel of catalan cooking is hopefully going to give us some great recipes from spain at the time of Don Quixote

 WHAT DID EVERY ONE THINK ?

WHAT  YOU THINK OF THE TRANSLATION ?