The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha

[Danik 2016]

The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers. Sounds interesting, Sancho!

[Sancho]

I’ve been having much fun reading this book so far. It’s a first novel by a young writer who originally self- published it. When I read sci-fi, more than probably any other genre, I just let go of the reality of the daily grind and go wherever the writer’s imagination wants to take me. And in this particular case we’re going on a somewhat Quixotic journey on the starship Voyager with a multi-species crew - Rosemary, Kizzy, Capt Ashby, Dr Chef, Sissix, Jenks, Lovelace, Ohan, and Corbin.

Here’s a sample. They’re discussing weapons proliferation and the development of a new weapon that targets genes:

Jenks shook his head. “Why can’t people just stick with bullets and energy bursts and be happy about it?”

“Because people are a**holes,” said Bear, dutifully keeping his head down. “Ninety percent of all problems are caused by people being a**holes.”

“What causes the other ten percent?” Asked Kizzy.

“Natural disasters,” said Nib.

I’m about halfway through the book and things are starting to look a little dicey for the crew. I’m not sure they know it yet, but I think they’re heading for an angry planet.

[Danik 2016]

There is something familiar about them. Are they inspired by Star Wars?

[Sancho]

Woo - tough question. There is a chapter in the book where the Voyager goes to Port Coriol for supplies and and a little R&R. Once there it sort of had the feel of the bar scene in the first Star Wars movie, but a lot of things remind me of the bar scene in Star Wars — New Orleans for instance. Or maybe a combination of smugglers in Star Wars and sailors at port in Shanghai in the 19th century. Anyway in tone the book feels much more like the cooperative/compassionate theme of Close Encounters than the good vs evil theme of Star Wars. Or perhaps it’s a little more Odyssey than Iliad. At any rate the writer is good at imagining different species, cultures, languages, and interspecies communication with a tilt towards getting along with each other rather than wiping out each other.

I’ll see where it goes. This book has kicked off a series of Voyager books by Ms Chambers. I think I may be hooked.

[bounty]

Sancho, have you ever heard of or watched a movie called the next three days?

[Sancho]

I have not heard of it and I’m not much of a movie guy. Any good? I’ve got streaming services and since Hollywood is still on strike and they’re not making any new stuff, it’d be a good time to catch up.

[bounty]

the male lead in the movie is played by Russell crowe. he's an English teacher at a local community college and he (and therefore the movie) make a really poignant use of don Quixote. it's almost worth watching the movie up until that point just to see it in context.

if you are interested, there is a website called fsharetv that has it, and tons of other free movies.

[Sancho]

I’ll have to check it out. I need a break from the news cycle — another day in America, another mass shooting.

[bounty]

I don't expect it'll be a great revelation to you, but I particularly enjoyed it, and thought you would too. I like when movies are literarily insightful like that.

[hellsapoppin]

Always loved Don Quixote as it is truly a great book. Did some reading of it in Spanish and loved the old Castilian form. For example, Sancho address Don Q as "Vuestra Merçed" ("Your Grace") which is an address not used anymore in modern times. If you do read it, you will need a dictionary to define all the ancient terms used in the book.

[Sancho]

Oh yeah. Don Quixote is a book I’ve been fascinated with for quite some time. I’ve read it, from one perspective or another, probably 6-8 times. The last time, which was what prompted this thread, I was reading Edith Grossman’s translation along side the original in early modern Spanish. My friend, Danik, was helping immensely. The experience, as was the experience on every other reading, was splendiferous.

Okay, truth be told, I started reading the original next to the translation, but my Spanish stinks so bad that I resorted to just reading selected sections of the Spanish version. To give you idea of how lousy my Spanish is — there’s always a little bit of a mystery concerning what’s going to show up at the table when I order at a restaurant in a Spanish-speaking county. Anyway I’d bought a leather bound original Quixote in a nice bookstore on Florida Street in Buenos Aires with the intention of putting it on my bookshelf for show (next a copy of The Good Soldier Švejk in Czech that I’d bought in Prague). The problem with buying an iconic book like that, in Spanish, in a Spanish speaking country, from a woman who was clearly a book lover and an admirer of Don Quixote, is that she’s liable to assume I speak Spanish. And so she started jabbering away about books and Cervantes, and god knows what, with me in a rapid-fire colloquial Spanish. I kept up with her as best I could, but I really wish I knew what she was talking about.

You know one thing I noticed right away in Argentina is that they still use Vos down there. Usted, Tu, and Vos. They also use Vosotros, which as near as I can figure is an Argentine version of “Y’all.” Also the double L is pronounced differently in Deep South America than it is in Spain or Mexico. I tried to order the Pollo (poi-yo), but I got the finger wag from the waiter — “No, señor, en Argentina es po-jo.