11 Aug 2024 11:05:54
I have just finished a re reading of " Don Quixote" and in the Prologue to this brilliant book Miguel de Cervantes sets out his aims which I will attempt to follow in my posts as the new season begins next week.
"Attempt, using expressive, decorous and well ordered words in a straightforward way, to write sentences that are both harmonious and witty, depicting what is in your mind to the very best of your ability, setting out your ideas without complicating or obscuring them.
You should also try to ensure that the melancholy man is moved to laughter. the jovial man laughs even more, the simpleton is not discouraged, the judicial marvel at its inventiveness, the serious minded do not scorn it nor the wise fail to praise it. "
Let's see how I get on. ??????.
{Ed001's Note - I take it you haven't started yet then.....}
11 Aug 2024 11:17:26
Stokey you remind me of my old history teacher. who I locked in his cupboard I did get suspended for 3 days but it was so worth it ?.
11 Aug 2024 12:02:53
Good job we don’t discourage the simpleton, be nearly empty on here Stokie.
??
CARLO.
11 Aug 2024 12:21:37
Ed 1 and Carlo ????I book is all about self delusion so my post fits right in. I am indeed “ the Knight of the Sorry Face” ??
Skegs my university philosophy professor ( a brilliant but eccentric man) once locked himself in the broom cupboard of our lecture room. We didn’t know he was there so after about 20 minutes we students collected our kit and began to leave the place when he suddenly leapt out with the words “Aha I’m just demonstrating the concept that just because you can’t see me doesn’t mean I don’t exist, which is the subject of my lecture today “….
As mad as a box of frogs …. ??.
11 Aug 2024 12:26:55
You jammy bugger stokie
I wish I had a copy. Sounds awesome.
Reading your post mate it makes less sense than Bowies vodka fueled ramblings on a Friday night ???.
11 Aug 2024 14:20:31
Balloons, mate, you're in luck as its come out in a Penguin classic with a brilliant translation in 2000 by Professor John Rutherford of Queens College Oxford.
He has kept all the jokes in…….
11 Aug 2024 15:05:21
Anyway, I’ve just started “The Commanders” by Lloyd Clark about Patton, Montgomery and Rommel. I’ll let you all know how I get on….
Out in the garden, suns shining, discussing next holidays with my better half, daughters pregnancy going well, soon be gin o clock then we might watch “ All the Presidents Men” ( again) Redford and Hoffman just superb……??????????
What’s everybody up to out there?
11 Aug 2024 15:22:50
Working Stokey booooooooo.
11 Aug 2024 15:32:50
Sorry Skegs. Tomorrow’s going to be hot. Ru off for that? ( I can sense I’m in a hole and digging deeper ) ?.
11 Aug 2024 15:36:10
I can remember when I was working in hot weather and it was only on the command of Chief Supt or above when we all had to take off our ties and undo the top shirt button only, known as “ shirt sleeves order”….
11 Aug 2024 15:43:12
Pub for lunch, beer!
CARLO.
11 Aug 2024 16:26:45
Yes working tmoz as well stokey you enjoy your rich pension in the sun bloody pensioners ??.
11 Aug 2024 16:44:25
Out back BBQ'ing. (Well the wife is actually)
???.
11 Aug 2024 17:22:39
I am in deep s**t here, and I don't have the shoes for it. Do you mind slowing down a bit. Going through the dictionary to find what you are getting at.
Got it, Forest 2-1 winners Saturday.
No? Oh dear.
11 Aug 2024 17:38:39
My auntie Brenda says are you any relation to Stanley Unwin, the man of a million words. Non of which make sense. Gobbledygook.
11 Aug 2024 17:43:17
I know there's a windmill in Snenton, am I getting closer?.
11 Aug 2024 20:21:14
Redsocks you are definitely on the right track mate.
Skegs as Oscar Wilde said “work is the curse of the drinking class”.
11 Aug 2024 20:53:16
Redsocks, I’ve always been interested in funny epitaphs on gravestones.
Like Spike Milligans “ I told you I wasnt very well”
John Clancy in the Wild West “ He cheated at cards”
Stanley Unwin on his gravestone ( where he’s buried with his wife who pre deceased him)
“ Re unity in the Heavenlybode. Deep Joy” ??.
11 Aug 2024 21:45:34
He also said life is to short to be taken seriously.
11 Aug 2024 21:56:53
Bang on with that one skeggs.
12 Aug 2024 09:02:20
I know he challenged windmills with his squire, thinging they were dragons. His crusade covered spain and had many stories and challenges. Not read the book, seems like a must read.
Last month went to a discussion of roman emperors in there extravagant feasts, that was amusing as it was taken by Mary Beard, quite a character. Well worth going. Recommend anything she covers then go. That was at St Marys church, High Pavement in Nottingham.
12 Aug 2024 10:54:37
Redsocks maybe you should meet up with Stokey and talk about your books together I would love to join you in that conversation but think I would be to busy changing toilet seats shame ?.
12 Aug 2024 10:58:44
I like Mary Beard too Redsocks. I recently read her book “SPQR, the history of Ancient Rome, full of amazing new knowledge. She gets her hands dirty at Archaeological digs as well mate.
Don Quixote is a must read. I read it about 40 years ago but the translation I’ve just finished is from 2000 by Professer John Rutherford Queens College Oxford Spanish Literature. Much funnier read than the previous translations which were a bit dry and tended to kill the jokes off.
It’s a study of mental illness and self delusion. Don Quixote is obsessed with tales of knights and chivalry to the point of obsession, so he sees the windmills as giants with huge arms which he must fight. Of course the windmills “arms” come round and knock him off his horse. It’s become famous as a metaphor for performing pointless tasks.
His “squire” Sancho Panza knows his master is mad but goes along for the adventure and possibility of reward as he’s really just a poor farmer on a donkey. Two of the great comic characters in any language, full of slapstick and pratfalls but a bit poignant at the same time.
12 Aug 2024 13:53:48
This is torture ???.