the impossible dream

[rengadeirishman]

I was watching Man of La Mancha on TCM today, and it was, as is always the case with those things that are based on that seminal work of Miguel de Cervantes, thought provoking.

I believe most of us are familiar with Senor Cervantes story of the old man who thinks he is a knight and takes up a quest for glory, honour, and the fair dulcinea.

People made fun of him for his ways, because he tried to live for something more noble and greater then himself. He tried to live with honour and chivalry and for all things good and right. If someone tries to do these things, he's made a mockery of by all, even today.

A shame it is, truly, Whatever happened those thoughts?

This world needs more Don Quixotes.

 

[amicus]

And another Frank Sinatra to sing it.

Trying to step carefully to avoid your tender toes, I find agreement with part of your premise: "...He tried to live with honour and chivalry and for all things good and right..."

But yes, for a man to live his life, his way, to fight for principles, is to be human and yes again, few step forward to lead the way either in words or deeds.

Mankind always needs those few, they are the best among us.

ami...

 

[rengadeirishman]

I am not sure if i like having any part of my body referred to as tender, but yes, i do think you understand my meaning.

 

[amicus]

It was, I thought, an apt metaphor for walking on eggshells in venturing to discuss a subject with you as we have displayed some polarity before.

Nothing more.

Amicus...

 

[rengadeirishman]

It was, I thought, an apt metaphor for walking on eggshells in venturing to discuss a subject with you as we have displayed some polarity before.

Nothing more.

Amicus...

i was merely joking, i knew your meaning.

 

[amicus]

So, like, ahm, we can fool around now?

ami...

 

[rengadeirishman]

you make me chuckle amicus

 

[amicus]

Good...sprained a finger the other day...it pains me as I type, have three grandchildren arriving tomorrow, bought them each a three inch jawbreaker just to spite their mother, my daughter, and watching a film on EWAM channel, whatever that is, Boy Meets Girl, 1998, Italian theme, kinda cute and sappy and the forum is quiet, but I got a chuckle out of you and that makes me smile.

Putting together a coffee table book to publish, entitled The Summer Of My Lesbian Pumpkin, or the Winter of My Discontent, not sure of title yet.

So there...

 

[3113]

Actually, I've been giving Man of La Manchaa re-think. Let's keep in mind that the book is actually a bit harsher in its view of the world and our Knight than the movie is. The movie, like many musicals, does simplify and romanticize.

That said, I'd like you to consider this:

On the most basic level, Cervantes certainly has a point if he is--and likely he is--arguing the differences between small minded people and those with imagination. The small minded people need or want everyone to see the world the way they see it and as they see it is pretty dull. They don't care about the world beyond their own tiny towns, and don't see any point in having dreams or visions beyond a mundane life.

Let us keep in mind, as well, that before he goes mad, Don Quixote is a reader--he reads and reads. He's an educated man going out among the uneducated masses. Certainly, people who don't enrich their minds and don't wish to--and, worse, fear people who do and want to keep the minds of their children and neighbors equally dull...well, that's something to criticize and question.

But there is a kind of irony to our romanticizing Don Quixote, the mad man of La Mancha in that we often in movies glorify the exact opposite. "It's a Wonderful Life" for example where the man has grand plans, but finds that true happiness has always been right there, with the girl next door, tells us to get our heads out of the clouds and stop ignoring the blessings of the real world. There are a lot of movies like that, where the man/woman working for some ideal ignores the people in his life and the true happiness he could have if he wasn't chasing after windmills.

In fact, ironically enough, some would argue that as we are now, we're all Quixotes and our problem isn't that we can't imagine great things. It's that we spend our lives dreaming of great things and chasing after windmill rather than trying to be happy with reality. Don't believe it? Where are you? We might well argue that we're a whole culture of Don Quixotes, all with avatars insisting that we're someone else, all living in virtual worlds (can you say "Second Life"?) where we can slay giants (who are really just machines, right?), always living in a vanished past where things were simpler and better and values and morals were clear (Wanna go to Disneyland?), always dissatisfied with what we are, what we have ("It's new! It's Better! It's the latest!") and the complex, gray reality of the real world (We're good and they're the "axis of evil!").

Which movie--the one romanticizing reality and urging people to do real things for that real world (i.e. notice and care about their wife and kids), or the one romanticizing dreaming and offering imagination to people as a way of changing others ("I have a dream...")--has a better message for you and I here on this forum...we who are don't even know what kind of person is really behind those avatars we're talking to? Is that woman you're wooing on the internet really Dulciana?

 

[R. Richard]

Ummm. when did you people first discover your hostilility toward windmills?

 

[The_Fool]

Good reason to change my AV

 

[Guest]

Ummm. when did you people first discover your hostilility toward windmills?

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

Nothing earth-shattering to add. I simply wanted to say that Don Quixote is a great book, one that I have always found pleasurable to read, and something that I would recommend to children of any age as a seminal text for their enlightenment.

 

[amicus]

That was a fun read, 31, thanks.

One of the subtle joys of writing, is to include the double and triple entendre, knowing that few if any will discover.

Then too, to follow your thought, perhaps the fates and furies that be, well intended both, the wanderer and the stay at home.

And Dulcinea, poetic love for a woman, oh, what a fickle thing love, true love can be. And yet, the pursual of that love can lift the suitor to heights ne'er before imagined.

 

[Recidiva]

The beauty of Man of La Mancha to me has always been that what can drive us forward and give us the most energy can be ironically our mistaken ideals.

I am much more of a Sancho Panza sort of person. I do enjoy the company of those who are driven, and I like being near them, and children, for all the ways the world can be seen through different eyes. For the adventure.

Sancho is my hero. Just the way Sam is my hero in Lord of the Rings. To try to be sane but humble, embrace life's insanity and inequity, and do your best to love and protect people from themselves as well as the world. To not kill their soul.

 

[Carnevil9]

I've never been able to figure out if Cervantes thought Quixote was a fool or a hero. He seems to portray him in both lights, at various times. And in 1000+ pages, there is plenty of opportunity to shift viewpoints!

Also, his multi-layered narrators make it difficult to figure out which voice is that of the author, and which is that of an intermediate, like the Arab storyteller or the translator. But I suspect all this ambiguity was deliberate. And, in fact, is probably part of the reason for the success of the work......Carney

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Sancho is my hero. Just the way Sam is my hero in Lord of the Rings. To try to be sane but humble, embrace life's insanity and inequity, and do your best to love and protect people from themselves as well as the world. To not kill their soul.

Moi aussi. To me, Sancho is the truly noble figure. He shares the ideals, but at the same time manages to live the real world without compromising them. Frodo's Sam is the same, but there the situation is a bit different - Frodo is also well grounded in reality; he just has that little evil ring problem he needs to resist.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Actually, I've been giving Man of La Manchaa re-think . . .

Thank you for this thoughtful and thought-provoking post.

 

[Recidiva]

Moi aussi. To me, Sancho is the truly noble figure. He shares the ideals, but at the same time manages to live the real world without compromising them. Frodo's Sam is the same, but there the situation is a bit different - Frodo is also well grounded in reality; he just has that little evil ring problem he needs to resist.

Well, that's the thing. You often don't know whether or not the ideals will bear fruit. Many geniuses have been dismissed for being crazy. And some of them were, entirely.

But some were entirely sane.

"You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bon-fire under her deck... I have no time for such nonsense." Napoleon Bonaparte to Robert Fuller.

That's the nature of genius. Unpredictable.

Indulging it where possible can bear fruit.

 

[Guest]

I saw the musical and fell in love with the music long before I ever read the book - junior high, I think it was.

So for me, it retains that mystical quality, the sweet and valiant yet somewhat confused hero with his faithful sidekick, the pretend battles, the love for Aldonza/Dulcinea, the impossible dream as he bravely goes to his death - the next grand adventure -

Remarkable stuff, it is.