It's completely sensical
Don Quixote is just a guy so obessed with knighthood that he sees everything through the filter of his medieval books
He sees windmills as giants-OP related, bar owners as kings and bars as castles etc. While the true picture of the world around him is given to us through his sidekick.
It's just a satire book breh

I think Don Quixote is the most relatable and timeless piece of literature ever written. I'd even say that it is more relevant in our days than it was in Cervantes' time, in a different way of course. Just think of all the bronies and weaboos you see on 4chan. Not even mentioning the effects of all the formulaic movies and celebrity worshipping.

Don Quijote is the ultimate dreamer, he refuses to adapt to the world but instead tries to adapt the world to himself. While it was probably intended purely as a satire as >>7648343 says, it is also a depiction of a man who wants to change the world all by himself and never surrenders doing so in spite of the fact that he has no chance of success. It's in a way also a very romantic story in this sense.

In general I think it's a great novel that isn't as dated as people think it is

>>7648339
Anybody know why Don Quixote was "translated" from arabic? What's the significance?

>>7648343
Huh, I thought the windmills were dragons. Is that just a shitty translation or what

>>7648652
Nope its giants

If I have the option of reading it in either German, Russian, or English, which should I read it in?

>tfw not fluent in Spanish

I recently started it after reading Harold Bloom's essay on it in The Western Canon. Really enjoy it so far.

D.Q. was never translated. It was written in Spanish. Cervantes, I guess following some kind of tradition, derives his work from a previous chronicle, written by Cide Hamete Benengelí. This man does not exists, is fictional, like any other character of the novel, or maybe is better to say, more than any other character of the novel.

>>7648339
>epictetus discourses f
why go out of your way to buy self-help. read some real philosophy or go home fgt.

>>7648704
But that "fact" itself is part of the novel doe

>>7648524
During Cervantes' time, the Spanish and Portuguese were doing all that they could to distance themselves from the moors and be more European. With this came the rejection of a lot of local culture

Cervantes believed that they were lying to themselves and that their rejection was nonsensical, as the north african Arab influences of the Moors were important lynch pins in their culture at that point.

Thus, the book was "translated" from Arabic because it created an immutable link and proved to the Spanish that they could not erase their own past at convenience.

For reference, the moors in the Iberian peninsula weren't like desert warlords fucking things up or anything. They built loads of universities and the like and were only viewed negatively because of the more northern European view of the time.

>>7648724
Because I like reading stoics and already read Marcus and Seneca. Also I dont understand how stoicism is not real philosophy in your mind.

>>7648343
>>7648376
>>7648379
Thanks I decided to buy it as it sounds interesting by the way you describe it.

>>7648343
this is so stupid

did you even read the book? only part 1? only the wikipedia article maybe?

stop shitposting about books you haven't read

>>7648339
I'm an 18 year old who just sits around and smokes pot all day band I can understand it perfectly fine. I'm reading the translation by Edith Grossman and while I thought it would be too difficult for me to read I was surprised I could grasp the book pretty easily.

>>7648339
Don Quixote is magnificent of one the highest achievements in world literature. I think you should read it.

>>7648963

What's the matter?

>>7649008
it addresses only the first pat, and only the parts that have entered into popular awareness. it doesn't go into the metatextual and far more interesting aspects of part 2, which is not at all a "satire"