“Don Quixote” as a manual for living • Hacker News Board

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#11

Post by SavantIdiot » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:28 AM UTC

DantesKite wrote: post #3

The only people who praise this book are literature majors. It was a disappointment from beginning to end. I couldn't understand why people thought it was so great. It didn't feel like an epic. Maybe for its time it was fun to read, but you really have to be deprived of all stimuli to enjoy it (unless you're a literature professor who has to read it). Like maybe stay in a prison cell for a few months. Then yea, it's…

EE + Math major here. Loved it. Literally laugh-out-loud funny in parts. The sarcasm and wit is astonishingly modern.

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#12

Post by colechristensen » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:32 AM UTC

If the length is imposing to you (which it generally is), it’s good to know that what you get is almost always two separate works published ten years apart together as part one and part two.

Part 1 is relatively short and hilarious and can be very much read and enjoyed on its own. It is perhaps easier to get tired of the style in part two.

It also matters which translation you read.

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#13

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:33 AM UTC

DantesKite wrote: post #3

The only people who praise this book are literature majors. It was a disappointment from beginning to end. I couldn't understand why people thought it was so great. It didn't feel like an epic. Maybe for its time it was fun to read, but you really have to be deprived of all stimuli to enjoy it (unless you're a literature professor who has to read it). Like maybe stay in a prison cell for a few months. Then yea, it's…

[deleted]

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#14

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:36 AM UTC

SavantIdiot wrote: post #11

DantesKite wrote: post #3

The only people who praise this book are literature majors. It was a disappointment from beginning to end. I couldn't understand why people thought it was so great. It didn't feel like an epic. Maybe for its time it was fun to read, but you really have to be deprived of all stimuli to enjoy it (unless you're a literature professor who has to read it). Like maybe stay in a prison cell for a few months. Then yea, it's…

EE + Math major here. Loved it. Literally laugh-out-loud funny in parts. The sarcasm and wit is astonishingly modern.

[deleted]

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#15

Post by SomaticPirate » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:37 AM UTC

Its funny that the author puts down the play, The Man of La Mancha, while describing the importance of the text. The play is elegant and created great works of its own like “The impossible dream” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Impossible_Dream_(The_Ques...) which I would argue distills of the most poignant points about living a good life. Honestly, I barely remember Don Quixote but the lyrics to the Impossible Dream I can easily recall.

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#16

Post by Spinnaker_ » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:38 AM UTC

DantesKite wrote: post #3

The only people who praise this book are literature majors. It was a disappointment from beginning to end. I couldn't understand why people thought it was so great. It didn't feel like an epic. Maybe for its time it was fun to read, but you really have to be deprived of all stimuli to enjoy it (unless you're a literature professor who has to read it). Like maybe stay in a prison cell for a few months. Then yea, it's…

> It felt like one literal crazy dude going on disappointing adventures and then (spoilers) it just ends with him dying, having regretting everything he did, which in my mind, sums up the book pretty well.

Ah yes, and Moby Dick is just about a man who really hates a whale and wants to kill it.

I never know how to respond to reviews like these. If you actually think that sums up the book pretty well then the problem isn't with Don Quixote...

And I'm definitely not a literature major.

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#17

Post by fennecfoxen » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:39 AM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #12

If the length is imposing to you (which it generally is), it’s good to know that what you get is almost always two separate works published ten years apart together as part one and part two. Part 1 is relatively short and hilarious and can be very much read and enjoyed on its own. It is perhaps easier to get tired of the style in part two. It also matters which translation you read.

The funny part of Part 1 was when a local started a book-burning, because DQ had gone crazy after reading too many books, and thus these volumes were tragically lost forever. The shocking part was when some side character recounted an incident which befell him in America, and realizing that the Americas were contemporary.

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#18

Post by analog31 » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:40 AM UTC

DantesKite wrote: post #3

The only people who praise this book are literature majors. It was a disappointment from beginning to end. I couldn't understand why people thought it was so great. It didn't feel like an epic. Maybe for its time it was fun to read, but you really have to be deprived of all stimuli to enjoy it (unless you're a literature professor who has to read it). Like maybe stay in a prison cell for a few months. Then yea, it's…

Math + Physics major. Don Quixote was a blast.

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#19

Post by squidsoup » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:43 AM UTC

DantesKite wrote: post #3

The only people who praise this book are literature majors. It was a disappointment from beginning to end. I couldn't understand why people thought it was so great. It didn't feel like an epic. Maybe for its time it was fun to read, but you really have to be deprived of all stimuli to enjoy it (unless you're a literature professor who has to read it). Like maybe stay in a prison cell for a few months. Then yea, it's…

> Part of me thinks it's so celebrated because it's such a big book.

It's celebrated as an important milestone in the emergence of the modern novel, but more importantly perhaps, both for its humour, and profound empathy for the human condition.

Re: “Don Quixote” as a manual for living

#20

Post by briga » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 2:59 AM UTC

DantesKite wrote: post #3

The only people who praise this book are literature majors. It was a disappointment from beginning to end. I couldn't understand why people thought it was so great. It didn't feel like an epic. Maybe for its time it was fun to read, but you really have to be deprived of all stimuli to enjoy it (unless you're a literature professor who has to read it). Like maybe stay in a prison cell for a few months. Then yea, it's…

So is it the 400 years of readers and literary critics who are wrong, or is it you who are wrong? Whether or not you were entertained by it is a matter of personal taste, but declaring that it’s uninteresting suggests that you only gave it a cursory reading. I would also suggest that no one uses Don Quixote as a way to exaggerate their intelligence, it was deliberately written in a way so as to be accessible to the common man, which is part of the reason it has lasted for so long.