Picasso's Don Quixote
This NYT article (1/28/05), by Holland Carter, reports on an exhibition of graphic depictions of Miguel de Cervantes's "Don Quixote," the patron saint of anyone who believes in anything to the point of too much, such as lawyers who believe the law should behave rationally from time to time, against all odds.
Carter asks,
Aren't we, in our own ways,just as driven by delusion as Quixote, and will we be struck sane, whatever that may mean? You won't find answers in this exhibition. Art can't, after all, illustrate sanity, because that's what art is.
Now there's a thought.
Art is a representation of sanity.
It illustrates sanity.
Art is sane.
Art is sanity defined.
Did you know that?
You coulda fooled me half the time.
Which reminds me. Did you know that half the population has an I.Q. of under 100?
Don't you think we should do something about this sad state of affairs?
When Quixote was first published, it was treated as though it were a very funny joke book.
It took awhile before some of the more reflective types realized what was going on.
What was going on?
Why should I tell you? That would be like giving the movie away before you went to see it.
Cervantes, a wounded war veteran, who lost the use of a hand in the sea battle of Lepanto (hence he was El Manco de Lepanto, the cripple of Lepanto) against the Turks, was imprisoned at various times in his life, first as a hostage of the Moors in North Africa, and later in debtors prison in Spain. He got to know prisoners well, including their mock trials (kangaroo courts) and their predilections. Prisoners had no respect for their fellows who ratted, then or now. It's as easy to say no as it is to say yes, was one of their bywords.
Keep your eye peeled for the prisoner who claims sanity, and the argument made by of the beautiful shepherdess, Marcela, Ch. XIII, concerning the unwanted suitor who has on his own decided to fall in love with her.
The Broadway version is "Man of La Mancha."
"The Impossible Dream," is the rousing song.
Do not forget to keep the Knight of the Woeful Countenance firmly fixed in mind as you sally forth into the world, armed with your trusty lance, your law license, to set the world right for reason, honor, justice, and, as Pres. Bush seems determined to do, to make the world safe for liberty and democracy, even if we have to destroy it first, and us.
It was those Windmills, in the form of WMD, that did it to us.
What I'd like to see, now, is a well-drawn cartoon of a helmeted Pres. Bush astride a nag, lance leveled, facing down an Iraqi windmill with vanes of WMD, and Condi Rice at his side atop a mule, whispering in his ear, "Vaya con Dios, Mr. President. Go get'm before he turns into a Mushroom Cloud. And then we can have elections."
[Click on images to enlarge.]
For more Quixote links, try this, from Johns Hopkins University.
