Just Finished Reading Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

I just finished reading Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes...at least the English translation of this famous Spanish novel that was originally published in two volumes in 1605 and 1615.  Altogether it is a rather lengthy book to plow through and, despite the fact that it contains many smaller stories imbedded within the larger work, I have to admit that I had some difficulty sustaining my interest in reading through to the end.  After all, the basic premise of Don Quixote is laid out at its beginning, with its characters experiencing little change or growth throughout.  The two central characters are Alonso Quixado, an elderly minor Spanish noble, and a simple farmer named Sancho Panza.  Quixado, who has taken up with books about chivalry to the point where he believes that he is himself a knight errant, hires Sancho as his squire as he sets off on his adventures under the name Don Quixote de la Mancha.  He imagines Dulcinea, who is a working class woman in his home town with whom he has had no contact, as a princess who claims his loyalty and affections and for whom he performs all of his gallant deeds of knighthood. Quixote and Panza set off on their adventures in this book...not once or twice, but three different times, and this is probably the best way to divide up the story.  In his adventures, Quixote continually interprets normal, everyday experiences such as seeing windmills or a flock of sheep as being encounters with giants or enemy armies, made by enchanters to look like what Sancho plainly sees for what they really are.  And the "squire" regularly makes his opinions known to his master, often very much to the latter's consternation...it is Sancho's contribution to the tale that rescues it, in my opinion, with his inexhaustible supply of proverbs (some very silly) that he sprinkles liberally throughout all of his conversations.  As for Don Quixote, most of the people who encounter him don't take very long before they conclude that he is suffering from some kind of madness, but yet...

Outside of Don Quixote's own delusions pertaining to chivalry and his own role in it, he comes across as agreeable, knowledgeable, and wise...if a bit loquacious.  Those he encounters, once they become aware of his affliction, tend to show sympathy toward him and Sancho...although some, like the Duke and Duchess of the "second" book, concoct elaborate jokes to play on the two. Still, I was left reading about the ostensibly singular character Don Quixote with the feeling that his insanity/rationality duality is more common than one might suspect...

After reflecting on it a little, I can conjure up a list of people I know, both from my personal life (which I'll discreetly keep to myself) as well as some I only know from the media, who display genius and expertise in one or more fields but act totally clueless in others.  What makes them ultimately Quixotic, though, is that they themselves don't recognize their own foolishness when assessing their own shortcomings in some areas and insist that those around them "play along" with their self-delusions. I won't give out names, but I can think of politicians (including two current presidential candidates...I wonder if you know who I'm talking about), athletes, musicians, actors, and news media folks who fit these criteria.  But what's really disturbing is when people in large numbers appear to actually buy into their madness...