Without Lifting A Finger

In 1614 a sequel to Cervantes ' Don Quixote was published under the pseudonym Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda . The identity of Fernández de Avellaneda has been the subject of many theories, but there is no consensus on who he was. One theory holds that Avellaneda's work was a collaboration by friends of Lope de Vega. [ 1 ] Critical opinion has generally held Avellaneda's work in low regard, [ 1 ] and Cervantes himself is highly critical of it in his own Part 2. However, it is possible that Cervantes would never have completed his own continuation were it not for the stimulus Avellaneda provided. Throughout Part 2 of Cervantes' book Don Quixote meets characters who know of him from their reading of his Part 1, but in Chapter 59 Don Quixote first learns of Avellaneda's Part 2, and is outraged since it portrays him as being no longer in love with Dulcinea del Toboso. As a result of this Don Quixote decides not to go to Saragossa to take part in the jousts, as he ...

St. Peter's Square obelisk , a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr. I believe this is what Cervantes is calling St. Peter's Needle (also sometimes called Caesar's Needle).

Temporarily e-shelved Quixote (I'm more than half way through) to quickly read Roadside Picnic  (I want to read it and then re-watch Tarkovsky's Stalker ). Though the book and the film have similarities, I can certainly understand Tarkovsky's quip that they're nothing alike. Also, I probably half-agree with a friend who said she'd put Quixote down because it was too slapstick. I think it's more like: too much of a good thing is a bad thing. But that may also partly be a modern sensibility speaking. Anyway, I won't give up on the brave knight errant (seriously, though it takes some patience: I'm enjoying it), but I want him to rest before getting all banged up again. I'm also enjoying Berger's selected essays: finished those from Toward Reality ( Permanent Red in the UK) and have moved on to those from The Moment of Cubism. The only nits I have thus far are his "seeing things" in paintings and painters (he makes his evaluations soun...

Simple answer: the fictitious Arab author created by Cervantes. Cervantes claims the Arab writer's manuscript is the source of the "history" of Don Quixote. More complicated answer: see "Cide Hamete Benengeli vs. Miguel de Cervantes: The Metafictional Dialectic of Don Quijote " by Howard Mancing: http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/csa/articf81/mancing.htm

According to the consort "notes": Notorious hack (1492? - 1558?), who wrote various romances of chivalry. Wikipedia is kinder but pretty much agrees: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feliciano_de_Silva * Anyway, Cervantes makes him Quixote's fave and mocks his style: The reason for the unreason to which my reason is subjected, so weakens my reason that I have reason to complain of your beauty

Tilting at windmills is an English idiom which means attacking imaginary enemies. The word “tilt”, in this context, comes from jousting . The phrase is sometimes used to describe confrontations where adversaries are incorrectly perceived, or courses of action that are based on misinterpreted or misapplied heroic, romantic, or idealistic justifications. Etymology The phrase derives from an episode in the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes . In the novel, Don Quixote fights windmills that he imagines to be giants . Quixote sees the windmill blades as the giant's arms, for instance. A relevant portion of the novel states: Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire, "Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them...

Madrid - Don Quixote , a photo by okbends on Flickr. I was in Madrid--years ago. Didn't see this (didn't think to look). We had come from Tangier and were on a train all night (I was traveling alone but I "hooked up" with two others--Japanese and Greek--also getting off in Madrid). We had agreed to go to a bullfight, but after the Prado things got tangled. Anyway, I skipped the bullfight and got on a train to Paris. Oh, well.