"He prayed in his silence: O God, make me human, let me feel temptation." This feels to me like foreshadowing - like the movie cop in his last day on the job looking forward to a peaceful retirement. Be careful what you wish for!!
So where are we headed? Will MQ be considered a madman as his descendant was and locked up when he returns home? Will MQ say, as the boy did in Ch 8, “You haven’t enough power to make me sleep in prison.” Will Sancho spring him?
I'm a few days behind you in the readings (hoping to catch up tonite) but created a google map of their exodus from El Toboso....anyone with the link can view it...and I will make updates as we go along. I've added restaurants when I could find them! https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1ND2ZhIZzuNNDKmxMGnhH6itfPHSrdo8&usp=sharing
Love a good map to document, direct, contextualize a journey! I have fond memories of hours spent "studying" maps of potential journeys, followed by marking maps to document ongoing journeys, and using them to share adventurers with others upon my return home. Thanks for sharing your mapping of this journey.
"The stone struck cold through his purple socks. He regretted that in Salamanca he had not chosen the woolen ones. He was dwarfed by the great height of the nave and the flood of light through a hundred and twenty windows which might have been the gaze of God. He felt as though he were an infinitely small creature on the slide of a microscope."
Wow. I love this passage for so many reasons. The feeling of the cold floor that becomes the glass slide of a microscope, the perspective, the light, the feeling the image gives me of MQ's mental state...doubt, examination, humbleness, insight, discomfort, regret...
I loved this passage too. The inconsequential nature of “being human” in the presence of a “higher power”: “… the flood of light through a hundred and twenty windows … might have been the gaze of God. / [MQ] felt as though he was an infinitely small creature set on the slide of a microscope.” This evocation of microscopic “surveillance” by God’s omnipotence, is humorously complicated by the repeated absurdity of the Guardia’s “random” re-appearances. Omnipotent secular surveillance, as it were.
I loved the description of the proprietor's touch, too! The next sentence is almost as good, somehow both comic and (to use the narrator's word) reverent: "It was obvious that to be in contact with a monsignor's naked toe was a new experience for him."
"Let me feel temptation." And the Bible (James 1:12): "Blessed is the man who endures temptation." But MQ needs to feel it before he can endure and resist it.
always wondered about religious temptation and whether a devout believer can speak convincingly as to belief if s/he do not know sin from first-hand experience. is it better to never have sinned, or to sin and have a triumphal redemption? it seems like quixote needs sancho around to feel the full-bloodedness, humor and meaningfulness, of his doubts. and certainly not the last question in this book: do we need a quixote more in our lives, or a sancho?
but then, sancho seems like he'd be more fun at a party, so maybe there's a strain of certainty / braggadocio that holds together an evening or road trip. sancho's brand of certainty is more entertaining than most certainties!
The moment he describes moving the precious Manchegan wine from the boot to the back seat of the car I started worrying about it! No, not the wine, not the wine! It seems to have survived the ordeal. phew.
Like many I was also enraptured by the intriguingly vivid and poignant image of the proprietor's touch: "He fit the other shoe over [MQ’s] protruding toe which he adjusted with gentleness and even a touch of reverence, pushing it back into the sock.” I couldn’t help but smile at the narrated assessment of the proprietor’s response to MQ’s toe: "It was obvious to be in contact with a monsignor’s naked toe was a new experience for him."
And also, an interesting juxtaposition of responses to “naked” body parts: the proprietor’s “reverence” and MQ’s desire to “laugh aloud” [at] “those grunts and squeals” while watching his first film in which the “monotony of repetition in bed” was evoked through “soft and confusing” photography” that made it “difficult to discern whose legs belonged to whom.” A repetition of “anonymous limbs” reflecting cinematic “love,” and elevating MQ’s anxiety that he was “incapable of feeling human love.” So many evocations of love compellingly illuminate the complexity of authentic human connection, and the tensions between faith-based and secular love.
So many permutations of - and emotional responses to - silence: “alone [in his] silence,” “[afraid to break] the total silence,” “[something] holy in the silence,” “inexplicable silence,” “friendly silence,” “[he] prayed in his silence,” “silence … broken [by the wine],” “complete silence.”
So touched by MQ’s struggle to find “virtue in prayer”: “How can I pray to resist evil when I am not even tempted?” MQ’s “aloneness in his silence” viscerally evokes human vulnerability (for me). His heartfelt plea struck a cord in my heart: “O God, make me human, let me feel temptation. Save me from my indifference.” While I might not seek God’s assistance, the idea of engaging with “temptation” and not accepting (or manipulating) the stasis of “indifference” seems like a worthy (essential?) goal in today’s world.
Disappointed it sounds like there won't be more MQ/Sancho conversation about laughter!
"He prayed in his silence: O God, make me human, let me feel temptation." This feels to me like foreshadowing - like the movie cop in his last day on the job looking forward to a peaceful retirement. Be careful what you wish for!!
Laughter is not an argument” would make an excellent bumper sticker.
Faith needs doubt, holiness needs temptation. Discuss!
“All colours are the same in the dark”. Words to live by.
So where are we headed? Will MQ be considered a madman as his descendant was and locked up when he returns home? Will MQ say, as the boy did in Ch 8, “You haven’t enough power to make me sleep in prison.” Will Sancho spring him?
I'm a few days behind you in the readings (hoping to catch up tonite) but created a google map of their exodus from El Toboso....anyone with the link can view it...and I will make updates as we go along. I've added restaurants when I could find them! https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1ND2ZhIZzuNNDKmxMGnhH6itfPHSrdo8&usp=sharing
Love a good map to document, direct, contextualize a journey! I have fond memories of hours spent "studying" maps of potential journeys, followed by marking maps to document ongoing journeys, and using them to share adventurers with others upon my return home. Thanks for sharing your mapping of this journey.
"The stone struck cold through his purple socks. He regretted that in Salamanca he had not chosen the woolen ones. He was dwarfed by the great height of the nave and the flood of light through a hundred and twenty windows which might have been the gaze of God. He felt as though he were an infinitely small creature on the slide of a microscope."
Wow. I love this passage for so many reasons. The feeling of the cold floor that becomes the glass slide of a microscope, the perspective, the light, the feeling the image gives me of MQ's mental state...doubt, examination, humbleness, insight, discomfort, regret...
I loved this passage too. The inconsequential nature of “being human” in the presence of a “higher power”: “… the flood of light through a hundred and twenty windows … might have been the gaze of God. / [MQ] felt as though he was an infinitely small creature set on the slide of a microscope.” This evocation of microscopic “surveillance” by God’s omnipotence, is humorously complicated by the repeated absurdity of the Guardia’s “random” re-appearances. Omnipotent secular surveillance, as it were.
I loved the description of the proprietor's touch, too! The next sentence is almost as good, somehow both comic and (to use the narrator's word) reverent: "It was obvious that to be in contact with a monsignor's naked toe was a new experience for him."
"Let me feel temptation." And the Bible (James 1:12): "Blessed is the man who endures temptation." But MQ needs to feel it before he can endure and resist it.
Interesting to think that at my age little temptation occurs. Good because of no opportunity is still I’m sure good😊
always wondered about religious temptation and whether a devout believer can speak convincingly as to belief if s/he do not know sin from first-hand experience. is it better to never have sinned, or to sin and have a triumphal redemption? it seems like quixote needs sancho around to feel the full-bloodedness, humor and meaningfulness, of his doubts. and certainly not the last question in this book: do we need a quixote more in our lives, or a sancho?
Is that a choice between questioning or certainty? I think more questioning! So Quixote. People who be.ieve they are right are much more trouble.
but then, sancho seems like he'd be more fun at a party, so maybe there's a strain of certainty / braggadocio that holds together an evening or road trip. sancho's brand of certainty is more entertaining than most certainties!
"You must know the world if you are to convert the world." says Mayor Sancho in the cinema...
I was really surprised to find the Mons had put the burglar in his boot. I love a book with surprises!!
The moment he describes moving the precious Manchegan wine from the boot to the back seat of the car I started worrying about it! No, not the wine, not the wine! It seems to have survived the ordeal. phew.
Like many I was also enraptured by the intriguingly vivid and poignant image of the proprietor's touch: "He fit the other shoe over [MQ’s] protruding toe which he adjusted with gentleness and even a touch of reverence, pushing it back into the sock.” I couldn’t help but smile at the narrated assessment of the proprietor’s response to MQ’s toe: "It was obvious to be in contact with a monsignor’s naked toe was a new experience for him."
And also, an interesting juxtaposition of responses to “naked” body parts: the proprietor’s “reverence” and MQ’s desire to “laugh aloud” [at] “those grunts and squeals” while watching his first film in which the “monotony of repetition in bed” was evoked through “soft and confusing” photography” that made it “difficult to discern whose legs belonged to whom.” A repetition of “anonymous limbs” reflecting cinematic “love,” and elevating MQ’s anxiety that he was “incapable of feeling human love.” So many evocations of love compellingly illuminate the complexity of authentic human connection, and the tensions between faith-based and secular love.
So many permutations of - and emotional responses to - silence: “alone [in his] silence,” “[afraid to break] the total silence,” “[something] holy in the silence,” “inexplicable silence,” “friendly silence,” “[he] prayed in his silence,” “silence … broken [by the wine],” “complete silence.”
I did a bit of googling to get the latin mumbo jumbo that Fr. Quixote starts spewing to throw off the Guardia:
From Psalm 30: "Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii." Be for me God-Protector and house of refuge.
from first letter of Paul to Timothy: "Scio Cui Credidi". I know him in whom I have believed.
From psalm 123, verse. 7:
"laqueus contritus est, et nos liberati sumus." the snare is broken and we are delivered.
Hilarious that the Guardia doesn't recognize Latin! "The bishop seems to be a foreigner..."
So touched by MQ’s struggle to find “virtue in prayer”: “How can I pray to resist evil when I am not even tempted?” MQ’s “aloneness in his silence” viscerally evokes human vulnerability (for me). His heartfelt plea struck a cord in my heart: “O God, make me human, let me feel temptation. Save me from my indifference.” While I might not seek God’s assistance, the idea of engaging with “temptation” and not accepting (or manipulating) the stasis of “indifference” seems like a worthy (essential?) goal in today’s world.