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https://theconversation.com/from-hapless-parody-to-knight-crusader-how-far-right-nationalism-hijacked-the-real-don-quixote-196032>
"It’s said that Don Quixote and his faithful squire Sancho Panza were riding
their horses in the dark night when they heard the sound of dogs barking.
Trying to console the frightened Sancho, Don Quixote uttered what may be the
most quoted line attributed to him: “Let the dogs bark, Sancho, it’s a sign
that we are on track.”
Today, the phrase is used to express the notion that if someone criticises
(barks at) you, it’s a sign you are on the rise. Dogs bark at the moon, don’t
they?
Unfortunately, the quote doesn’t appear anywhere in Miguel de Cervantes’ famous
17th century novel
Don Quixote. But that hasn’t stopped it appearing all over
the Internet. Not long ago, for instance, I came across the “barking dogs”
phrase in some Facebook motivational meme depicting Don Quixote as a knight
crusader galloping on an alabaster-white horse.
Anyone who reads the novel will know Cervantes’ hero is first and foremost a
parody of a knight. The novel tells the adventures of Alonso Quijano, a skinny
old man maddened by his inordinate taste for reading chivalric romances.
Determined to become a knight errant himself, he changes his name to Don
Quixote de la Mancha.
In a rusty suit of armour with a helmet patched with cardboard, riding an old
nag (in his imagination a noble steed he names Rocinante), he sallies forth to
right the wrongs of the world. His quest will inevitably prove as futile as
tilting at windmills under the illusion they’re giants. Far from resembling an
epic crusader, Don Quixote is a bizarre, laughable character.
The dreadful and never-imagined (at least, certainly not by Cervantes) portrait
of Don Quixote as a crusader is the kind of mistake that sets scholars’ teeth
on edge. Being a scholar myself, I wondered whether I should bark at this
apocryphal Quixote riding through cyberspace, or just let him pass.
But that image, sloppily posted on the web, actually comes from somewhere other
than mere literary ignorance. From the early 20th century onward, Don Quixote
has suffered a paradoxical fate, wrapped in a crusader’s cloak by nationalist
propaganda. And this misrepresentation seems to be growing in the 21st century,
threatening to obscure Cervantes’ real message."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
