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[Unregistered]

their should be more people here to comment on this great novel. i think that the people that have had the chance to read this book should read it now because they might not have another chance. kids should at least try to read this book because they have the oppurtunity to gain knowledge from a great book.

[filias fog]

As I sit here at my desk in Seville, Spain I truly wonder if Miguel Cervantes is spinning in his grave.

To watch the legacy of his great novel be dumbed down in to little more than a child´s story of an old idiosyncratic fool, tipping at windmills is frankly lamentable.

It´s sad to realise firstly, after talking to Spanish people, that few Spaniards have read the great novel from cover to cover, and this being their greatest writer – undoubtedly.

As Cervantes sat in his jail cell (debtors prison), elderly in age, and no doubt bitter in his sad circumstances he had only two objectives. Firstly, to get out of jail. And ultimately, write for posterity, a true critique of his land and people of his age, when in his own time it was virtually impossible to do – without losing one´s life. His only way was through trying to sell a popular novel that would achieve both ends.

What better way than to descend in to a story of a character of an old hasbeen of a man, outwardly mad and delirious and set his adventures in pseudo-comical circumstances of his age.

In an age where illiteracy was prevalent in the majority of the population, his story would have to pander to the sensibilities of those of the landed, decadent class, made rich from plundering the “new world”, and the troubadours that would pass on the tales of his “hero” through retelling the story in plays and re-enactments in the street for the illiterate masses.

In recounting the story, it would be simple to view the scenes he sets as nothing more than a series of related comical tales. But when you view the cast of humanity he depicts from slaves to the aristocracy and the comical (read as despicable) behaviour from which Don Quixote is beaten from pillar to post, as some delusional fool might, Cervantes asks throughout, “With who do your sympathies lie?”. The rich dukes, who have nothing better to do than torment an old man? Ungrateful slaves that turn on their liberator? The ever faithful, but cowardly Sancho?

Without doubt, he would wish for the keen reader to understand that although set in 16th centuary Spain, the themes of human behaviour and desires are universal and thus, his novel remains as important today as ever. Are we humans noble or are we base? What should we strive to be?

Cervantes brilliantly illustrates that the 16th century Spain was indeed a decadent, debased and amoral society. If he were alive today, he would not be surprised at the disastrous history of the last 400 years in a Spain culminating in a fascist dictator. The seeds of it´s own demise were already planted and evident to Cervantes even then.

And so to theorise that bit further, what would he think of the Spain of the 21st century? To see his novel and anniversary turned in to dumb cartoons? To see his people as ignoble and grasping as ever? His countrymen making films that glorify the Borgias - the aristocracy he ultimately despised? People celebrating his life without knowing what he suffered and why he fought for his country … I can hear him screaming even now.