Guest Column
Don Quixote and the facts of life
- By C.J. Moore
- The Herald Tribune
- BILBAO, Spain – September 24, 2005 - When did the facts of life first enter literature? I mean the basic facts of life - like if you don't pay your bills you get into serious trouble.
- At first literature dealt with gods, and they had no money problems. Then there were godlike heroes who simply took what they wanted and filled their ships with slaves and booty. There follow several centuries filled mostly with the lives of saints and hermits, to whom worldly goods were of no interest.
- With the medieval literature of chivalry a new kind of hero arrived, the high-minded knight whose attention was fastened on the glory of dying in battle for an ideal. No room for humdrum daily concerns here.
- Then about halfway through the sixteenth century, at the height of the humanist Renaissance, appeared a ragged hungry boy called Lazarillo de Tormes guiding his blind master along the roads and through the towns of Castille. Two features of this anonymous tale were new and remarkable. First, the narrative was told in the first person. Second, not only did the hero, or rather anti-hero, have no money, but not having it was a real problem for him.
- The untidy, seething, chaotically colorful world of the picaresque was born. It's a world no one had seen before in quite this form. The feudal social order was in decay, towns and taverns were filled with the dregs of wars and conflict trying to survive from day to day through wit and trickery.
- The high-minded world of the knights had lost its spiritual power and evaporated into a fantasy. But for most in that fast-changing society, there was no room for ideals. Daily reality had become highly insecure, cruel and unforgiving.
- Into this world, in 1547, was born Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. He was to learn the facts of life at the age of four, when his father, a surgeon, was imprisoned for debt in Valladolid and had all his goods confiscated. Cervantes' own life was to proceed from one misfortune to another.
- His early career as poet and author came to an abrupt end, possibly as a result of a duel forcing him into exile in Rome. He became a soldier of fortune, and was badly wounded in the battle of Lepanto in 1571. Then among other adventures he found himself imprisoned in Algiers for five years, captive of the Berber king for a ransom that his family could not possibly afford. Money is yet again intimately linked with freedom, a recurring theme for him over the years.
- Back in Spain, he led a life that can best be described as one of inventive survival, dogged by legal claims, debts and again, in 1597, imprisonment in Seville. He seems to have made good use of these months in prison to progress with his novel, Don Quixote de la Mancha, and with innovative plans for its publication.
- Early in 1605, his fortunes appeared finally to change with the instant success of Don Quixote, though by the end of the same year, he was back in prison for spurious reasons, having acquired a reputation as troublemaker.
- Nonetheless Cervantes' gamble in publishing his book as a commercial venture, going straight to the marketplace, would soon pay off, and before long both he and his hero, the ingenious hidalgo, would leave their mark on literature with a creation born of pure imagination, acted out in a world as solid as the windmills that bring Don Quixote crashing to the ground.
- "That Cervantes is a great friend of mine," quips the priest in Don Quixote's village, finding one of Cervantes' own books on Quixote's bookshelf, "he knows more about reverses than he does about verses."
- Here is the other face of the modern world as we know it. Following the new humanism of Lazarillo de Tormes, Cervantes brings up the complex issues arising from self-consciousness, the dimension of irony, even self-deprecation. In the person of Don Quixote himself, this self-consciousness shows as melancholy, the mood in which the ingenioso hidalgo approaches his end.
- Yet Cervantes rescues us from a potential and terrible pit of cynicism through finding his characters' redemption as individuals. Neither Don Quixote nor Sancho Panza is truly mad, but they are human, noble, absurd, caring, confused, often mistaken, like ourselves, in a real world governed by the facts of life. This year we celebrate the 400th anniversary of that literary redemption of humanity.
- BILBAO, Spain When did the facts of life first enter literature? I mean the basic facts of life - like if you don't pay your bills you get into serious trouble.
- At first literature dealt with gods, and they had no money problems. Then there were godlike heroes who simply took what they wanted and filled their ships with slaves and booty. There follow several centuries filled mostly with the lives of saints and hermits, to whom worldly goods were of no interest.
- With the medieval literature of chivalry a new kind of hero arrived, the high-minded knight whose attention was fastened on the glory of dying in battle for an ideal. No room for humdrum daily concerns here.
- Then about halfway through the sixteenth century, at the height of the humanist Renaissance, appeared a ragged hungry boy called Lazarillo de Tormes guiding his blind master along the roads and through the towns of Castille. Two features of this anonymous tale were new and remarkable. First, the narrative was told in the first person. Second, not only did the hero, or rather anti-hero, have no money, but not having it was a real problem for him.
- The untidy, seething, chaotically colorful world of the picaresque was born. It's a world no one had seen before in quite this form. The feudal social order was in decay, towns and taverns were filled with the dregs of wars and conflict trying to survive from day to day through wit and trickery.
- The high-minded world of the knights had lost its spiritual power and evaporated into a fantasy. But for most in that fast-changing society, there was no room for ideals. Daily reality had become highly insecure, cruel and unforgiving.
- Into this world, in 1547, was born Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. He was to learn the facts of life at the age of four, when his father, a surgeon, was imprisoned for debt in Valladolid and had all his goods confiscated. Cervantes' own life was to proceed from one misfortune to another.
- His early career as poet and author came to an abrupt end, possibly as a result of a duel forcing him into exile in Rome. He became a soldier of fortune, and was badly wounded in the battle of Lepanto in 1571. Then among other adventures he found himself imprisoned in Algiers for five years, captive of the Berber king for a ransom that his family could not possibly afford. Money is yet again intimately linked with freedom, a recurring theme for him over the years.
- Back in Spain, he led a life that can best be described as one of inventive survival, dogged by legal claims, debts and again, in 1597, imprisonment in Seville. He seems to have made good use of these months in prison to progress with his novel, Don Quixote de la Mancha, and with innovative plans for its publication.
- Early in 1605, his fortunes appeared finally to change with the instant success of Don Quixote, though by the end of the same year, he was back in prison for spurious reasons, having acquired a reputation as troublemaker.
- Nonetheless Cervantes' gamble in publishing his book as a commercial venture, going straight to the marketplace, would soon pay off, and before long both he and his hero, the ingenious hidalgo, would leave their mark on literature with a creation born of pure imagination, acted out in a world as solid as the windmills that bring Don Quixote crashing to the ground.
- "That Cervantes is a great friend of mine," quips the priest in Don Quixote's village, finding one of Cervantes' own books on Quixote's bookshelf, "he knows more about reverses than he does about verses."
- Here is the other face of the modern world as we know it. Following the new humanism of Lazarillo de Tormes, Cervantes brings up the complex issues arising from self-consciousness, the dimension of irony, even self-deprecation. In the person of Don Quixote himself, this self-consciousness shows as melancholy, the mood in which the ingenioso hidalgo approaches his end.
- Yet Cervantes rescues us from a potential and terrible pit of cynicism through finding his characters' redemption as individuals. Neither Don Quixote nor Sancho Panza is truly mad, but they are human, noble, absurd, caring, confused, often mistaken, like ourselves, in a real world governed by the facts of life. This year we celebrate the 400th anniversary of that literary redemption of humanity.
- BILBAO, Spain When did the facts of life first enter literature? I mean the basic facts of life - like if you don't pay your bills you get into serious trouble.
- At first literature dealt with gods, and they had no money problems. Then there were godlike heroes who simply took what they wanted and filled their ships with slaves and booty. There follow several centuries filled mostly with the lives of saints and hermits, to whom worldly goods were of no interest.
- With the medieval literature of chivalry a new kind of hero arrived, the high-minded knight whose attention was fastened on the glory of dying in battle for an ideal. No room for humdrum daily concerns here.
- Then about halfway through the sixteenth century, at the height of the humanist Renaissance, appeared a ragged hungry boy called Lazarillo de Tormes guiding his blind master along the roads and through the towns of Castille. Two features of this anonymous tale were new and remarkable. First, the narrative was told in the first person. Second, not only did the hero, or rather anti-hero, have no money, but not having it was a real problem for him.
- The untidy, seething, chaotically colorful world of the picaresque was born. It's a world no one had seen before in quite this form. The feudal social order was in decay, towns and taverns were filled with the dregs of wars and conflict trying to survive from day to day through wit and trickery.
- The high-minded world of the knights had lost its spiritual power and evaporated into a fantasy. But for most in that fast-changing society, there was no room for ideals. Daily reality had become highly insecure, cruel and unforgiving.
- Into this world, in 1547, was born Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. He was to learn the facts of life at the age of four, when his father, a surgeon, was imprisoned for debt in Valladolid and had all his goods confiscated. Cervantes' own life was to proceed from one misfortune to another.
- His early career as poet and author came to an abrupt end, possibly as a result of a duel forcing him into exile in Rome. He became a soldier of fortune, and was badly wounded in the battle of Lepanto in 1571. Then among other adventures he found himself imprisoned in Algiers for five years, captive of the Berber king for a ransom that his family could not possibly afford. Money is yet again intimately linked with freedom, a recurring theme for him over the years.
- Back in Spain, he led a life that can best be described as one of inventive survival, dogged by legal claims, debts and again, in 1597, imprisonment in Seville. He seems to have made good use of these months in prison to progress with his novel, Don Quixote de la Mancha, and with innovative plans for its publication.
- Early in 1605, his fortunes appeared finally to change with the instant success of Don Quixote, though by the end of the same year, he was back in prison for spurious reasons, having acquired a reputation as troublemaker.
- Nonetheless Cervantes' gamble in publishing his book as a commercial venture, going straight to the marketplace, would soon pay off, and before long both he and his hero, the ingenious hidalgo, would leave their mark on literature with a creation born of pure imagination, acted out in a world as solid as the windmills that bring Don Quixote crashing to the ground.
- "That Cervantes is a great friend of mine," quips the priest in Don Quixote's village, finding one of Cervantes' own books on Quixote's bookshelf, "he knows more about reverses than he does about verses."
- Here is the other face of the modern world as we know it. Following the new humanism of Lazarillo de Tormes, Cervantes brings up the complex issues arising from self-consciousness, the dimension of irony, even self-deprecation. In the person of Don Quixote himself, this self-consciousness shows as melancholy, the mood in which the ingenioso hidalgo approaches his end.
- Yet Cervantes rescues us from a potential and terrible pit of cynicism through finding his characters' redemption as individuals. Neither Don Quixote nor Sancho Panza is truly mad, but they are human, noble, absurd, caring, confused, often mistaken, like ourselves, in a real world governed by the facts of life. This year we celebrate the 400th anniversary of that literary redemption of humanity.
- The Herald Tribune article at: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/23/opinion/edmoore.php
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