WEBVTT

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Prof: So we are going to
talk today about two of the most

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significant episodes of Part II
of the Quixote,

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episodes that mark a transition
to--

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that begin the sort of the down
slope of the novel as it moves

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towards its conclusion.

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It is a protracted culmination
and finale consistent

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with the slower more deliberate
pace of Part II.

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We will be meeting one
character from Part I,

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under the guise of master
puppeteer Master Peter,

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and there will not only be
repetitions of episodes from

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Part I,
but even repetitions of

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episodes from Part II within
Part II.

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After the episodes that I will
discuss today,

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three major new developments
occur.

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First, that Don Quixote will
sometimes leave the center of

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the action to be replaced by
Sancho.

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Second, that both Don Quixote
and Sancho become the objects of

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amusement for frivolous upper
class characters who have read

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Part I.

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And three, that the protagonist
will be surrounded by many more

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characters than before.

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The overarching theme of the
novel continues to be

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internal authors.

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It is an action that is highly
theatrical and the props or

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backstage of the skits are
revealed to the reader,

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either during the performance
or right after.

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The first of the two important
episodes is the one about Don

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Quixote's descent into
Montesinos cave,

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a truly remarkable tour de
force and one of the most

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brilliant scenes in the Western
literary tradition.

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So Montesinos cave,
this is one of the principle

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episodes of Part II and arguably
of the entire work because it

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seems to engage the main
literary topics and sources of

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the novel and also provides a
rare glimpse into the inner

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workings of Don Quixote's
subconscious.

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It is as if we were looking
behind the scenes of the

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Quixote or allowed to see
its reverse side,

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as we see the reverse side of
that painting within Las

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It is also as if were allowed
to dissect the protagonist while

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he's still alive.

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Let us first notice that this
is an adventure that Don Quixote

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seeks,
that he looks for it,

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not one that is imposed on him
by chance,

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like the encounters on the road
or by other characters who are

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scripting his life.

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very beginning is trying to
script Don Quixote's life,

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and there will be several
author internal authors doing

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that,
but this is not the case at all.

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This is an episode,
an adventure that Don Quixote

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wants to undertake,
and he tells the scholar or the

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cousin that he wants to do so
and asks how to get to

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Montesinos' cave.

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It is also an episode that is
strictly Spanish,

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and that seems to take Don
Quixote into the depths of the

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Spanish soil:
it is as if saying that these

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kinds of fabulous events also
happen in Spain and in the

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present,
although, as you will see,

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and I will speak about the
sources of the episode descents

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into caves and so forth,
but this is one that is based

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on a Spanish tradition;
that is, people knew about

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Montesinos cave and talked about
it--they exist--and Don Quixote

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wanted to go into them;
he decided that he had to have

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this adventure.

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One way to see the episode as
flowing from Camacho's

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wedding--which is the big
episode preceding it--is through

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its connection with Ovid.

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The cousin or scholar,
who is their guide,

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is writing a Spanish Ovid,
and the explanation given about

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the rivers of Spain and their
names is in the spirit of the

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Metamorphoses.

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This scholar is another satire
of students and intellectuals,

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Carrasco;
this is even more extreme,

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this is a really ridiculous
scholar who is trying to find

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out who had the first cold in
history, if you remember.

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And so, I also said that in
Part II of the Quixote

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Cervantes seems to be signaling
as his sources Homer,

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Virgil, Ovid and,
as we shall see,

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Dante,
as if claiming that his work is

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their worthy successor:
that he's in their league,

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as it were, in common parlance.

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I will speak about Virgil when
we get to meet Altisidora,

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the character that you will
meet and find very amusing,

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who is a version of Dido.

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Now, this descent into the cave
has antecedents in the

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Odyssey,
the Aeneid,

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and the Divine Comedy,
of course.

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Although there are also sources
in chivalric romances,

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this is an adventure on a
higher literary level,

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this is not just going back to
episodes in the chivalric

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romances but Homer,
Virgil, Dante.

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There are, of course,
also traditional stories about

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going into caves in all cultures
and in all literatures.

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If you have read your American
literature you see that in Tom

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Sawyer,
and Huckleberry Finn,

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and so forth,
there are episodes where the

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characters go into caves,
but here, I think,

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the sources are those that I
mentioned.

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Going down into the cave has,
of course,

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deep psychological resonances,
having to do with Don Quixote's

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sexuality,
and concomitantly his fear of

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death.

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As he enters the cave he has to
walk away at the brambles

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covering the entrance in actions
that are symbolic or reminiscent

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of a deflowering,
and the blackbirds that fly

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away in fright are clear
intimations of death;

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they are bad omens;
they have kind of a

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Hitchcock-like air to me,
I mean, to modern readers.

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They, I'm sure,
remind you of that very

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frightening Hitchcock film
The Birds.

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What Don Quixote experiences in
the cave is a dream and,

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of course, this aligns it with
dream literature.

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This is clear by his being
asleep when he is pulled back

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up,
and from the story he tells

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about falling asleep when he
sits down on the coiled up rope

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within the cave.

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Don Quixote says that he wakes
up from that sleep,

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but it is obvious that he
awakens within the dream,

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that this is a dream within a
dream,

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another mirror effect.

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What the dream allows is for
the untrammeled emergence of Don

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Quixote's deepest fears in the
form of stories related to his

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fantasies or drawn from his
fantasies.

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It is as if he had been
administered a drug,

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a truth serum,
or as if he had relaxed on the

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psychoanalyst couch,
and allowed himself to free

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associate.

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The story of Durandarte and
Belerma is drawn from the

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Carolingian cycle.

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Remember that I mentioned the
various cycles of the chivalric

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romances and the epics and the
Carolingian is from Charlemagne,

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and so forth.

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They're drawn from the
Carolingian cycle and seems to

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have embedded not only the fear
of death, but the fear of

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castration.

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All of the characters,
except for Merlin,

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are from the ballads of the
Carolingian and Arthurian cycle:

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King Arthur,
Charlemagne.

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The characters are supposed to
be dead and everyone is in

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mourning, and the procession is
kind of a mournful procession

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as--like a burial.

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Durandarte's body in the story
has his heart removed and sent

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to Belerma as a symbol of his
undying love;

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this is the original story.

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He asked when he died to have
this heart removed and sent to

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his beloved.

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Here his castrated cadaver,
as it were, appears as the

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statue grazing his own tomb
unable to speak.

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But the veracity of the story
is compromised,

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or grotesquely guaranteed,
by Montesinos' explanation that

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he has had to salt the heart so
that it will not rot and begin

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to smell.

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This destroys the fantasy.

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I mean, if this great hero has
his heart sent to his beloved,

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one never thinks that this
heart will be subject to the

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laws of nature,
this is fantasy world;

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but here, that fantasy is
destroyed and the story--

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the veracity of the story,
in other words,

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can be guaranteed by the fact
that they have to salt it so

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that it won't rot.

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Natural laws threaten the
story's verisimilitude.

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A jerk-beef heart is not the
same as the heart that

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symbolizes love,
courage and masculinity.

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The heart, of course,
has all of these connotations.

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So if you think of it as being
made of jerk-beef all of those

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connotations are destroyed or
become grotesque.

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Although time is flexible
within the episode its effects

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on flesh are present;
that is, impinging other

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aspects.

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I say that the time is flexible
as was in the episode because,

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how long was Don Quixote down?

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The scholar and Sancho say an
hour, at most;

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he says three days!

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And then there is the issue of
how long ago these stories

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occurred, hundreds of years ago,
yet these characters are there.

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So time within the story is
flexible, as time tends to be,

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as we know, in dreams.

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We know now from modern studies
in dreams that stories that seem

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to take a long time actually
take a few seconds in a dream,

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and that there is this
compression that Freud talks

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about,
how a dream compresses stories

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in a very short time.

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This is intimated here,
in that Don Quixote says that

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he's been there for three days
and they say only an hour.

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But the effect of time on flesh
is evident.

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Now, this detail of the effect
of time on flesh reveals Don

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Quixote's own doubts about the
legitimacy of chivalric legends.

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I mean, remember,
this is a story he himself is

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telling,
so if the story comes up in

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this subconscious it's because
he has doubts about the

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legitimacy of the chivalric
legends.

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The stories,
those of the chivalric legends,

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violate natural law,
hence they are fantastic,

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as other characters have been
telling him all along,

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and all of this seems to have
had an effect on him.

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Now, Don Quixote is recognized
as a great knight,

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revelation of the existence of
Part I,

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and this is something that will
happen over and again in Part

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II,
that he is recognized as a

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great knight,
but in this case by character's

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whose own existence is very,
very doubtful,

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and that he himself will doubt
from now on by asking others

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anxiously,
like Maese Pedro's--;like

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Master Peter's monkey,
if what happened in the cave

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was real,
and by insisting that Sancho

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believe that it was real and
striking deals with him:

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"I'll believe that if you
believe the cave of

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Montesinos,"
it shows that he's not that

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sure about it.

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So their recognition;
that is, the recognition of his

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being a great knight by these
characters is hardly an

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assurance.

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I am underlining these doubts
that the stories reveal about

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his own fantasies,
but the most disturbing part of

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the story is the appearance of
Dulcinea in the guise of the

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ugly wench that Sancho tried to
make him believe was his lady.

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This is--we know from Freud,
Freud's great book,

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The Interpretation of Dreams
that was published in 1900,

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when he talks about the remains
of the day,

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how a dream picks up elements
from the previous day and

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incorporates them into stories,
and this is sort of the remains

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of the day.

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Now, the appearance of this
wench convinces Sancho that Don

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Quixote is insane because he was
the author of that charade,

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but it also shows to what
extent that episode of the three

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peasant women has shaken Don
Quixote's own beliefs and probed

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deep into the sources of his own
desires for Dulcinea and of his

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invention of Dulcinea.

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This peasant Dulcinea who
smells of raw garlic,

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as you remember,
as she smelled of sweat in

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Sancho's earlier story about
her,

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when he said:
'I got next to her and she

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smelled a little bit because she
was pitching hay or whatever it

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was.'

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This peasant Dulcinea is,
I think, is close to Don

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Quixote's own real desire for
Aldonza Lorenzo,

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the original Dulcinea.

16:32.450 --> 16:37.260
It seems to be the repressed
desire for a vulgar physically

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strong sexually aggressive
younger woman who is the very

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opposite,
in fact, is the co-relative

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opposite of his idealization of
her.

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The more vulgar this woman of
his desires is,

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the more idealized she will
become in his fantasy.

16:56.480 --> 17:07.250
Also, when asked for a loan by
her in this hilarious,

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hilarious part of the
story--the last thing you

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imagine is for Dulcinea asking
for a loan from Don Quixote--

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which is going to be backed up,
by the way, the guarantee is an

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intimate--an inner garment of
Dulcinea's;

17:28.368 --> 17:31.498
this is a very elaborate
underskirt of sorts,

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and it's going to be the
guarantee--I mean,

17:34.492 --> 17:37.272
these things are highly
sexualized.

17:37.269 --> 17:41.879
But Don Quixote is short two
reales: she wants six,

17:41.875 --> 17:45.555
but he has only four left to
give her.

17:45.558 --> 17:50.548
This is a clear sign of his
deep and repressed fear of

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sexual inadequacy--it couldn't
be clearer;

17:54.700 --> 17:59.420
you don't have to be
Freud--which may be the source

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of his heroic fantasies.

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He's old, he feels sexually
inadequate, so he wants to

18:05.798 --> 18:10.468
imagine himself a young vigorous
knight who can go and fight and

18:10.471 --> 18:11.881
seduce maidens.

18:11.880 --> 18:16.850
So Sancho's invention in the
episode of the enchanted

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Dulcinea has dug deep into Don
Quixote's dreads and into the

18:22.483 --> 18:25.163
source of his fantasies.

18:25.160 --> 18:32.540
In this topsy-turvy world of
the cave there are eerie images

18:32.541 --> 18:34.671
of death, also.

18:34.670 --> 18:37.470
I already mentioned the
blackbirds at the mouth of the

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cave.

18:37.838 --> 18:43.248
Durandarte's cadaver posing as
a statue on its own sarcophagus

18:43.252 --> 18:47.252
is the eeriest of them all and
the uncanniest,

18:47.247 --> 18:49.197
it's an inversion.

18:49.200 --> 18:53.070
The statue on a sarcophagus
presumably represents the body

18:53.067 --> 18:56.537
of the dead person within it--
I'm sure you have been to

18:56.542 --> 19:00.352
European cathedrals,
where you go and you find all

19:00.349 --> 19:05.949
of these sarcophagi and you see
on top the recumbent statue of

19:05.945 --> 19:09.485
the person within it,
kings and all of that who are

19:09.494 --> 19:11.534
usually like this with their
hands like this,

19:11.528 --> 19:14.678
and they have their swords near
them and all of that--

19:14.680 --> 19:16.650
I find that eerie enough to
begin with,

19:16.650 --> 19:24.080
but in any case--here,
however, the cadaver is the

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statue;
nature has replaced art,

19:28.257 --> 19:30.477
or has become art.

19:30.480 --> 19:31.730
Do you understand?

19:31.732 --> 19:34.662
Instead of having a
representation you have

19:34.657 --> 19:38.207
literally the cadaver on top of
the sarcophagus.

19:38.210 --> 19:43.280
But let us not forget that we
are dealing here with death and

19:43.275 --> 19:46.225
also in the realm of
temporality;

19:46.230 --> 19:49.970
if you remember that
Durandarte's heart was salted so

19:49.970 --> 19:51.840
that it would not smell.

19:51.838 --> 19:56.768
How can the cadaver replace the
statue and not rot like its

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heart?

19:57.450 --> 20:02.300
Art has been taken over by
death, too;

20:02.299 --> 20:03.829
this is what the intimation is.

20:03.828 --> 20:06.988
Nothing, not even art,
is immune from death in this

20:06.987 --> 20:08.247
world of the cave.

20:08.250 --> 20:12.890
There may be a pun,
a ghoulish pun embedded here:

20:12.887 --> 20:17.327
sarcophagus comes from the
Greek sarcos,

20:17.334 --> 20:20.914
flesh and phagein,
to eat.

20:20.910 --> 20:25.270
The sarcophagus literally eats
flesh, the flesh of the dead

20:25.269 --> 20:28.879
body that it contains,
but here the dead body has

20:28.877 --> 20:31.657
escaped to become its own
statue.

20:31.660 --> 20:34.360
This is a very baroque image.

20:34.358 --> 20:38.628
We will meet--we will find
another sarcophagus that we will

20:38.630 --> 20:42.680
be discussing in the course of
the next few chapters.

20:42.680 --> 20:47.950
Now, the stories and images
within Montesinos cave highlight

20:55.432 --> 20:56.962
destruction of all illusions.

20:56.960 --> 21:02.320
When Don Quixote comes to,
after emerging from the cave,

21:02.318 --> 21:05.308
he declares,
in what is a classic expression

21:09.460 --> 21:13.410
"Forgive ye, friends,
[he tells the scholar and

21:13.411 --> 21:16.381
Sancho]
for having brought me away from

21:16.376 --> 21:20.276
the most pleasing and charming
life and sight,

21:20.279 --> 21:23.439
that ever mortal saw or lived.

21:23.440 --> 21:27.870
In short, I am now thoroughly
satisfied that all of the

21:27.866 --> 21:32.946
enjoyments of this life pass
away like a shadow or a dream,

21:32.950 --> 21:36.490
and fade away like the flower
of the field.

21:36.490 --> 21:38.410
O unhappy Montesino!

21:38.410 --> 21:40.560
O desperately wounded
Durandarte!

21:40.559 --> 21:43.049
O unfortunate Belerma!

21:43.049 --> 21:44.889
O weeping Guadiana!

21:44.890 --> 21:49.210
And ye unlucky daughters of
Ruydera, whose waters show what

21:49.210 --> 21:53.010
floods of tears stream from your
fair eyes!"

21:53.009 --> 21:59.239
He says a bit later,
quote: "I awaked,

21:59.240 --> 22:02.100
and found myself,
I knew not by what means,

22:02.098 --> 22:04.188
in the midst of the finest,
pleasantest,

22:04.190 --> 22:07.290
and most delightful meadow,
that nature could create,

22:07.288 --> 22:10.398
or the most pregnant fancy
imagined."

22:10.401 --> 22:11.161
Unquote.

22:11.160 --> 22:13.360
This is the locus
amoenus of Renaissance,

22:13.358 --> 22:17.388
pastoral literature that I have
mentioned before--

22:17.390 --> 22:20.630
you remember the locus
amoenus into which Rocinante

22:20.633 --> 22:23.993
wanders and falls in love with
the mares and all of that.

22:23.990 --> 22:29.870
It is a topic of Renaissance
literature as the most pleasant

22:29.867 --> 22:35.847
of place, and this is where he
lands, and presumably where he

22:35.846 --> 22:37.636
has his dream.

22:40.012 --> 22:42.492
means to peel away the
illusion, the delusion.

22:42.490 --> 22:46.510
It is a form of self-analysis,
of recognition comparable to

22:46.505 --> 22:50.585
the one in today's terms
achieved through psychoanalysis.

22:50.588 --> 22:55.758
Don Quixote seems to have dived
into this own subconscious.

22:55.759 --> 23:00.559
Is this a regressus ad
uterum, an atavistic return

23:00.558 --> 23:01.758
to the womb?

23:01.759 --> 23:05.069
That's the Latin way of saying
it, return to the womb,

23:05.068 --> 23:06.878
regressus ad uterum.

23:06.880 --> 23:08.850
It's an atavistic return to the
womb;

23:08.848 --> 23:14.118
I mean, it's trying to get back
into the mother's womb,

23:14.117 --> 23:16.847
seeking solace and refuge.

23:16.848 --> 23:20.228
Don Quixote's descent,
as we have seen,

23:20.233 --> 23:23.623
makes him look harshly upon
himself.

23:23.618 --> 23:28.358
It does not completely shake
his beliefs or dispel his

23:28.355 --> 23:33.445
madness, but it is a serious
blow, and from now on he will

23:33.449 --> 23:34.699
act saner.

23:34.700 --> 23:38.170
How can it have been
pleasurable, however?

23:38.170 --> 23:43.090
Only if one thinks that once in
the cave he was at least in the

23:43.090 --> 23:45.870
living presence of his
fictions--

23:45.868 --> 23:49.798
this was pleasurable--and that
the disillusionment became

23:49.798 --> 23:52.128
repressed,
as he experienced it.

23:52.128 --> 23:55.638
When he met all of these
elements that threatened his

23:55.643 --> 23:58.823
disillusions he repressed them
immediately,

23:58.818 --> 24:04.778
and that--as we tend to repress
unpleasant experiences--

24:04.778 --> 24:06.528
that he was not aware,
as we readers are,

24:06.528 --> 24:10.628
that what he experienced
threatened his beliefs.

24:10.630 --> 24:19.060
So he comes back with doubts,
but are not conscious doubts.

24:19.058 --> 24:22.868
Now, everything seems to
converge in the scene of the

24:22.868 --> 24:26.018
Montesinos cave:
Don Quixote's belief in the

24:26.019 --> 24:30.629
authenticity of the romances of
chivalry and the reality of what

24:30.634 --> 24:36.464
he sees when he sees windmills,
for instance, are questioned.

24:36.460 --> 24:40.360
The topics of the courtly love
tradition,

24:40.358 --> 24:44.138
which had filtered into the
romances of chivalry tumble

24:44.135 --> 24:47.765
through literalization by their
being put through the

24:47.771 --> 24:50.011
requirements of natural law.

24:50.009 --> 24:54.739
I already alluded several times
to Durandarte's salted heart;

24:54.740 --> 24:59.340
Belerma, for her part,
may have looked under the

24:59.336 --> 25:04.026
weather because she had her
menstrual period,

25:04.028 --> 25:07.368
thought not really it is
explained, because the problem

25:07.374 --> 25:09.174
was that she is menopausal.

25:09.170 --> 25:14.690
Real time, and with it,
periodic bodily functions,

25:14.686 --> 25:21.326
age and aging and decay have
crept into the world of fiction

25:21.332 --> 25:24.262
contained in the cave.

25:24.259 --> 25:29.349
No harsher way to dispel the
idealization of a Renaissance

25:29.345 --> 25:34.245
beauty than to imagine her
menstruating or going through

25:34.250 --> 25:37.600
menopause,
meaning that she's already aged;

25:37.598 --> 25:44.018
imagine Botticelli's Venus's
with those problems,

25:44.017 --> 25:46.287
it's grotesque!

25:46.289 --> 25:52.529
It's brilliant;
however, to subject these

25:52.534 --> 25:58.304
idealizations to temporality,
and temporality here means that

25:58.304 --> 26:02.924
the age, that they suffer a
menstrual period.

26:02.920 --> 26:05.760
Why would Dulcinea need a loan?

26:05.759 --> 26:11.759
It is said that need or
necessity is everywhere in

26:11.756 --> 26:15.886
passing;
the world of magic is invaded

26:15.888 --> 26:21.408
by needs and physical laws and
what ensues are grotesque

26:21.405 --> 26:22.405
images.

26:22.410 --> 26:29.410
Now, there are many literary
antecedents to the cave of

26:29.407 --> 26:34.107
Montesinos episode,
and I have already mentioned:

26:34.107 --> 26:37.287
Homer, Virgil and Dante,
but the originality of the

26:37.294 --> 26:40.994
episode is not so much the
descent into the cave as that it

26:40.990 --> 26:43.540
reveals Don Quixote's
subconscious.

26:43.538 --> 26:47.608
This is Cervantes' way of
showing us the knight's mind

26:47.611 --> 26:50.531
from within, unencumbered by
reason.

26:50.529 --> 26:55.499
As such, it seems to be a
better device than the soliloquy

26:58.990 --> 27:05.270
which are parallel devices to
show what a character's thoughts

27:05.266 --> 27:09.276
are: "to be or not to
be",

27:14.183 --> 27:14.683
Dream.

27:14.680 --> 27:19.590
It is also more modern and
acceptable,

27:19.588 --> 27:22.968
this device in Cervantes,
to contemporary readers,

27:22.970 --> 27:24.990
it seems to me,
because no one goes around

27:24.989 --> 27:27.499
delivering soliloquies that are
perfectly structured

27:27.501 --> 27:28.341
rhetorically.

27:28.338 --> 27:32.228
I'm sure you haven't heard any
of your friends going around

27:32.229 --> 27:36.319
delivering soliloquies that are
so poetically well wrought.

27:36.318 --> 27:44.158
But telling a dream is a common
activity, not only to

27:44.163 --> 27:50.653
psychoanalysts,
you tell your dreams to your

27:50.648 --> 27:52.458
friends.

27:52.460 --> 27:56.000
In the episode there is a
grotesque combination of

27:56.000 --> 27:59.320
fantasy, and not just reality
but the possible,

27:59.324 --> 28:03.014
all having to do with the decay
of human flesh.

28:03.009 --> 28:07.859
But as I have suggested,
isn't this also a tale of

28:07.857 --> 28:09.637
castration fear?

28:09.640 --> 28:14.310
These are the repressed figures
in Don Quixote's mind.

28:14.308 --> 28:19.978
Peter Dunn, who was a very good
hispanist,

28:19.980 --> 28:22.480
a British hispanist who taught
for many years,

28:22.480 --> 28:25.230
at the end of his career at
Wesley University nearby,

28:25.230 --> 28:29.750
wrote the following in a very
good article on this episode.

28:29.750 --> 28:34.960
Actually, Peter Dunn wrote this
article in Spanish and I'm

28:34.963 --> 28:39.463
translating him into English;
these are the baroque

28:39.461 --> 28:43.341
inversions that you can get in
this course, too.

28:43.338 --> 28:47.678
This is what Peter Dunn said in
my own translation into English:

28:47.680 --> 28:50.380
"What is observed,
in the cave of Montesinos

28:50.384 --> 28:52.754
episode, is quixoticism from the
inside.

28:52.750 --> 28:58.310
He looks at himself in the
mirror of his madness where

28:58.307 --> 29:04.707
comedy and spectator merge and
the enchanter and the enchanted

29:04.705 --> 29:06.065
coalesce.

29:06.068 --> 29:10.298
Far from offering us an image
of eternity, Montesinos' cave

29:10.298 --> 29:12.848
constitutes a frozen
temporality.

29:12.848 --> 29:16.268
Don Quixote will have to return
to his own bed,

29:16.269 --> 29:22.599
and dream the dream of death so
Alonso Quixano can awaken,

29:22.598 --> 29:26.908
purged of his dreams and ready
to contemplate himself without

29:26.911 --> 29:29.931
theater in the mirror of
eternity."

29:29.930 --> 29:34.830
This is anticipating the death
of Alonso Quijano at the end of

29:34.826 --> 29:35.706
the book.

29:35.710 --> 29:40.940
Anthony Cascardi,
an American hispanist,

29:40.940 --> 29:44.740
links the episode to the dream
argument in Descartes and makes

29:44.739 --> 29:47.849
quite a few valuable
observations about Don Quixote

29:47.853 --> 29:51.153
as a whole,
particularly about the entire

29:51.145 --> 29:55.815
debate about the relationship
between reality and fantasy.

29:55.819 --> 29:59.459
He says:
"I see his engagement as

29:59.457 --> 30:02.157
with problems of skepticism and
epistemology,

30:02.160 --> 30:06.240
and more specifically,
with the use of fiction as a

30:06.238 --> 30:08.928
mode of knowledge of the world.

30:08.930 --> 30:13.090
His response to skepticism and
to its complement epistemology

30:13.088 --> 30:17.178
is to reject epistemology while
remaining anti-skeptical.

30:17.180 --> 30:20.930
But this is only another way of
saying that its purpose is to

30:20.931 --> 30:24.871
affirm the role of fiction in
our relationship to the world,

30:24.868 --> 30:28.158
which, it might further be
said, is an affirmation of the

30:28.156 --> 30:30.736
role of fiction in the task of
philosophy.

30:30.740 --> 30:33.880
Cervantes shows that we relate
to the world,

30:33.880 --> 30:35.880
including the world of our own
experiences,

30:35.880 --> 30:40.470
in ways other than what the
epistemologists call knowledge,

30:40.470 --> 30:44.320
and that all we know of the
world cannot be characterized in

30:44.318 --> 30:45.688
terms of certainty.

30:45.690 --> 30:48.780
Cervantes will,
to include the imagination and

30:48.784 --> 30:52.434
dreams within the range of valid
human experience,

30:52.430 --> 30:55.950
within what we call the world
in the broadest sense,

30:55.950 --> 30:58.920
free of the caveats of reasons
points this up."

30:58.920 --> 31:03.770
In short--Cascardi tends to be
a little too philosophical--

31:03.769 --> 31:07.419
in short, that stories,
that literature are a form of

31:07.422 --> 31:11.142
knowledge and a method of
approaching knowledge of the

31:11.144 --> 31:15.644
world and of ourselves and a way
to understand both the world and

31:15.641 --> 31:18.171
the workings of our own minds.

31:18.170 --> 31:22.940
Now, psychoanalysis knows this,
and this is the reason why

31:22.938 --> 31:27.788
Freud availed himself of figures
like the Oedipus myth,

31:27.788 --> 31:32.378
to name mental processes,
and, of course,

31:32.380 --> 31:36.720
Freud acknowledged that his
sources in the development and

31:36.719 --> 31:40.729
invention of psychoanalysis,
as he was really the inventor

31:40.732 --> 31:41.952
of it,
were literary,

31:41.952 --> 31:44.842
and that he learned more from
literature than from the

31:44.842 --> 31:47.462
nineteenth century science that
preceded him.

31:47.460 --> 31:52.360
So the point is that these
stories in Montesinos cave show

31:52.356 --> 31:57.166
that stories are valid ways of
approaching knowledge,

31:57.170 --> 32:00.370
knowledge of the world and
knowledge of our own minds.

32:00.368 --> 32:06.328
And this is what this episode,
I think, suggests brilliantly,

32:06.328 --> 32:09.698
independently,
and also, of course,

32:09.704 --> 32:13.484
within the structure of the
novel.

32:13.480 --> 32:18.750
So much, for the time being,
for the episode of Montesinos'

32:18.750 --> 32:24.480
cave, to which we will probably
have to allude a number of times

32:24.476 --> 32:26.926
in succeeding lectures.

32:26.930 --> 32:33.110
And we move now to the second
important episode that I want to

32:33.107 --> 32:37.157
discuss today,
and that is Master Peter's

32:37.159 --> 32:38.779
puppet show.

32:38.779 --> 32:47.809
Now, I have made a crude
drawing on the blackboard that

32:47.807 --> 32:53.657
will help me explain the
episode;

32:53.660 --> 32:58.490
it is sketchy, I understand;
it is more Picasso than

33:01.590 --> 33:05.730
but you can recognize some of
the figures: that,

33:07.210 --> 33:10.380
that is the speaker,
the boy who speaks;

33:10.380 --> 33:12.950
that is Don Quixote;
that is Sancho,

33:12.951 --> 33:15.621
and then the rest of the
audience, and,

33:15.618 --> 33:19.758
of course, the puppet show as
best as I could render it.

33:25.164 --> 33:30.464
establishes a concrete
continuity with Part I.

33:30.460 --> 33:35.060
Other than Sancho,
the women of Don Quixote's

33:35.058 --> 33:37.848
house,
the priest and the barber,

33:41.767 --> 33:43.117
back in Part II.

33:59.240 --> 34:04.220
remember that I said in that
episode of the galley slaves

34:04.220 --> 34:08.580
when he says he has written his
life, he's a Mateo

34:17.860 --> 34:25.470
a miniature playwright,
a Lope de Vega in miniature--

34:25.469 --> 34:30.679
remember, Lope de Vega,
Cervantes' enemy and the great

34:30.679 --> 34:34.119
Spanish playwright of the
period.

34:48.518 --> 34:54.188
whose not an aristocrat or a
cleric and has to earn a living

34:54.186 --> 34:55.816
from his craft.

34:55.820 --> 35:01.050
Lope liked to put the "de
Vega" in his last name to

35:01.050 --> 35:04.190
pretend that he was
aristocratic,

35:04.190 --> 35:07.040
and he made up fables about his
family and all of that,

35:07.039 --> 35:09.699
but he was not.

35:16.900 --> 35:22.500
and the whole episode is like a
laboratory for fiction to carry

35:22.498 --> 35:27.428
out experiments about fiction,
as Cervantes tends to do,

35:27.427 --> 35:28.827
and we have seen.

35:33.177 --> 35:36.947
tradition or rules,
and shows the limitations

35:36.947 --> 35:40.287
imposed by the medium of
literature.

35:40.289 --> 35:44.269
Like the imagined friend of the
1605 prologue--

35:44.268 --> 35:47.618
remember the imagined friend
whom Cervantes says comes to

35:47.623 --> 35:50.443
visit him and helps him write
that prologue--

35:50.440 --> 35:55.710
this modern author does not
have a conventional or a deep

35:55.706 --> 36:01.346
classical education and has to
rely on compendia and books of

36:01.349 --> 36:05.299
familiar quotations for his
erudition.

36:05.300 --> 36:11.210
Lope was known for this,
to get his information here and

36:11.208 --> 36:15.398
there pretend that he had read a
lot.

36:15.400 --> 36:18.920
He read a lot,
but not in the way that

36:18.920 --> 36:24.670
humanists had read a great deal,
and he made it up the way that

36:24.666 --> 36:28.286
the friend tells Cervantes in
the prologue,

36:28.289 --> 36:30.969
to just go and get this book
and that and then just make a

36:30.971 --> 36:32.901
list of sources in alphabetical
order,

36:32.900 --> 36:36.480
and that's the way these modern
authors operate.

36:42.030 --> 36:46.530
This is why I have--well,
actually I have the wrong eye

36:46.527 --> 36:49.777
covered;
it's supposed to be the left

36:49.777 --> 36:53.397
eye that is covered,
so, to be true to him,

36:53.404 --> 36:56.954
we'll uncover this eye and
cover this eye,

36:56.945 --> 36:58.495
the left eye.

36:58.500 --> 37:04.880
He has one covered,
presumably the one that pulled

37:04.876 --> 37:11.776
in and made him cross-eyed,
because he knows that this is a

37:11.782 --> 37:17.212
distinctive trait that is
dangerous for him to display.

37:17.210 --> 37:20.030
He can be spotted,
described and nabbed by the

37:20.032 --> 37:23.172
Holy Brotherhood,
so he has to disguise himself;

37:23.170 --> 37:25.620
this is why he has to
cover--it's sort of his

37:25.623 --> 37:28.913
signature, his body signature
which is that he's cross-eyed,

37:28.914 --> 37:31.484
like having a prominent scar or
something.

37:31.480 --> 37:36.390
Remember the description of Don
Quixote that the trooper reads

37:36.393 --> 37:40.913
when he's about to arrest him,
towards the end of Part I,

37:40.905 --> 37:44.625
he has a description;
so a description of

37:50.010 --> 37:53.780
so he has to cover that eye to
be safe.

37:56.960 --> 38:00.790
Remember, he is one of the
galley slaves that Don Quixote

38:00.789 --> 38:04.269
set free,
so whatever other crimes he

38:04.266 --> 38:08.396
committed to make him be a
galley slave,

38:08.400 --> 38:11.050
he has also escaped.

38:11.050 --> 38:14.470
Hence, I quote:
"I had forgot to tell you

38:14.472 --> 38:18.582
[this is from the book]
that this same Master Peter had

38:18.581 --> 38:23.221
his left eye and almost half his
cheek covered with a patch of

38:23.222 --> 38:26.482
green taffeta,
a sign that something ailed all

38:26.483 --> 38:28.043
that side of his face."

38:28.039 --> 38:30.829
That's from the text of the
Quixote.

38:30.829 --> 38:34.429
But being one-eyed,
as it were, even if it is

38:34.427 --> 38:38.517
faked, suggests fresh
restrictions that impinge his

38:38.516 --> 38:42.846
art because of his limited
perception of reality.

38:42.849 --> 38:47.379
I am sort of glossing over my
article in the Casebook

38:47.375 --> 38:50.515
that you have read,
presumably, by now.

38:50.518 --> 38:56.928
This deformity also makes him
look furtive,

38:56.929 --> 38:59.579
dangerous, sneaky,
and, of course,

38:59.579 --> 39:03.479
aesthetically interesting,
like the characters in Part I

39:05.800 --> 39:09.580
He is no Renaissance idealized
model of a man,

39:09.577 --> 39:14.357
although it is said several
times that he is a gallant and

39:14.362 --> 39:17.892
good looking man,
but he's cross-eyed.

39:25.581 --> 39:30.611
reality--we have gone over this.

39:30.610 --> 39:35.340
Now, he lacks depth perception,
which is very suggestive to the

39:35.344 --> 39:38.174
show that he will stage at the
inn.

39:42.315 --> 39:45.165
the problem of non-converging
sidelines;

39:45.170 --> 39:50.100
it is a radical way of doing so
but now he lacks perspective.

39:50.099 --> 39:55.799
Remember, that bi-ocular sight
you see with two eyes,

39:55.798 --> 40:01.168
therefore you have potentially
a double vision;

40:01.170 --> 40:03.470
and there are,
because of this,

40:03.465 --> 40:05.945
there are,
in some cultures,

40:05.945 --> 40:10.485
deities that overcome this by
having a pineal eye,

40:10.489 --> 40:15.899
which is an eye in the middle
of the forehead that sort of

40:15.896 --> 40:19.496
serves to mediate between these
two.

40:22.159 --> 40:27.629
he is eliminating this eye to
have only one eye,

40:27.630 --> 40:33.070
and therefore only one vision,
where before,

40:33.070 --> 40:37.410
as a cross-eyed,
his access did not meet:

40:37.409 --> 40:44.029
they were supposed to meet here
but they don't quite meet,

40:44.030 --> 40:46.790
and therefore he saw it in a
distorted way,

40:46.789 --> 40:48.579
but now with only one eye,
as we know,

40:48.579 --> 40:51.569
he loses depth.

40:51.570 --> 40:56.730
Now, the whole episode of the
puppet theater is besides yet

40:56.728 --> 40:59.928
another critique of Lope de
Vega,

40:59.929 --> 41:05.539
a protracted experiment on
mimesis like that of Princess

41:05.541 --> 41:09.321
Micomicona,
and not just in literary terms

41:09.324 --> 41:11.604
but also in pictorial terms.

41:11.599 --> 41:14.659
But as a critique of Lope
Cervantes, again,

41:14.661 --> 41:18.891
harps upon the carelessness
with which Lope used history to

41:18.891 --> 41:20.351
write his plays.

41:20.349 --> 41:24.219
Remember the episode with the
Canon of Toledo where there was

41:24.222 --> 41:27.582
a protracted discussion and
critique of Lope for just

41:27.577 --> 41:31.187
grabbing historical elements
pell-mell without being very

41:31.192 --> 41:32.872
faithful to history.

41:32.869 --> 41:38.089
When Don Quixote protests in
the middle of the show that it

41:38.085 --> 41:43.835
is wrong to have Moors ringing
bells instead of kettle drums,

41:43.840 --> 41:49.770
Master Peter answers with what
contemporaries were surely not

41:49.773 --> 41:53.833
to miss as an allusion to Lope
de Vega.

42:04.094 --> 42:09.494
do not criticize upon trifles,
nor expect that perfection,

42:09.487 --> 42:12.907
which is not to be found in
these matters.

42:12.909 --> 42:15.809
Are there not a thousand
comedies acted almost

42:15.807 --> 42:19.047
everywhere,
full of as many improprieties

42:19.048 --> 42:21.818
and blunders,
and yet they run their career

42:21.820 --> 42:24.300
with great success,
and are listened to,

42:24.302 --> 42:27.282
not only with applause but with
admiration?

42:27.280 --> 42:32.730
Go on, boy, and let folks talk;
[he's now addressing the boy],

42:32.731 --> 42:37.601
go on, boy, and let folks talk;
for, so I fill my bag.

42:37.599 --> 42:40.879
I care not if I represent more
improprieties than there are

42:40.876 --> 42:42.286
motes in the sun."

42:42.289 --> 42:46.029
Now, this is as clear an
allusion to Lope de Vega as

42:46.025 --> 42:49.095
could be made,
and remember that Avellaneda,

42:49.103 --> 42:52.183
as I mentioned before,
may have been a follower and a

42:52.182 --> 42:56.152
defender of Lope de Vega,
and this is why he wrote in his

42:56.146 --> 43:00.266
prologue such insulting comments
about Cervantes.

43:00.268 --> 43:04.288
Now, as a laboratory of mimesis
the show that Maese Pedro and

43:04.289 --> 43:08.239
his assistant put on is of a
conceptual complexity worthy of

43:11.728 --> 43:14.738
Spinners,
which you have seen here.

43:14.739 --> 43:17.949
To begin with,
we have that the performance of

43:17.954 --> 43:20.744
the puppets is not enough in
itself,

43:20.739 --> 43:25.649
and that Master Peter's figures
and props require a supplemental

43:25.646 --> 43:29.846
oral commentary or narrative
executed by his assistant:

43:29.853 --> 43:31.883
this is the assistant.

43:31.880 --> 43:34.220
I put a little balloon here,
as in comic books,

43:34.224 --> 43:36.014
because this is what he's
saying.

43:36.010 --> 43:39.320
Of course, if I may be allowed
to use his convention from

43:39.318 --> 43:39.848
comics.

43:39.849 --> 43:43.929
So he needs the supplemental
narrative by the

43:48.840 --> 43:53.950
But the visual and verbal
representations do not harmonize

43:53.945 --> 43:56.575
properly,
and both Don Quijote and

43:59.179 --> 44:03.989
who is the author's
supplementary voiceover.

44:03.989 --> 44:07.729
It's like a voiceover in a
film, but it is as if the

44:07.731 --> 44:11.401
voiceover and the film images
didn't quite mesh.

44:11.400 --> 44:16.240
It is a dual performance of the
author's invention.

44:16.239 --> 44:19.349
That is, the author's
invention, which is

44:22.382 --> 44:26.742
ways--which is manifested
visually and orally at the same

44:26.735 --> 44:28.865
time,
hoping that they will

44:28.867 --> 44:30.177
complement each other.

44:30.179 --> 44:32.909
But they do not mesh
satisfactorily,

44:32.905 --> 44:36.955
as if there were an inherent
flaw in the recital that

44:36.956 --> 44:41.236
reflects the awkwardness of the
theatrical routine.

44:41.239 --> 44:46.239
It's very awkward to represent
the stories with these material

44:46.235 --> 44:49.425
objects that represent human
beings,

44:49.429 --> 44:54.699
so what we have here is a very
flawed combination of the oral

44:54.704 --> 44:57.874
and the visual trying to
combine,

44:57.869 --> 45:01.569
to produce a performance,
a satisfactory performance.

45:01.570 --> 45:04.530
To produce mimesis,
representation,

45:04.532 --> 45:09.152
and it is a critique of mimesis
and representation;

45:09.150 --> 45:10.570
this is what I'm trying to say.

45:10.570 --> 45:16.090
Don Quixote's correction to the
boy is significantly made in the

45:16.088 --> 45:20.118
language of geometry as applied
to painting.

45:20.119 --> 45:23.549
Don Quixote says:
"Here Don Quixote said in

45:23.552 --> 45:25.162
a loud voice:
'Boy,

45:25.159 --> 45:29.049
boy, on with your story in a
straight line,

45:29.050 --> 45:30.470
and leave your curves and
transversals:

45:30.467 --> 45:32.947
for,
to come at the truth of a fact,

45:32.945 --> 45:36.225
there is often need of proof
upon proof'."

45:36.233 --> 45:37.023
Unquote.

45:37.018 --> 45:42.318
What could seem like a mere
rhetorical display on the part

45:42.320 --> 45:44.860
of the knight is,
on the contrary,

45:44.860 --> 45:47.240
of surprising propriety in the
context of the episode,

45:47.239 --> 45:51.239
because the whole effect of the
puppet show depends on a visual

45:51.240 --> 45:54.810
trompe-l'oeil--
it's a French expression for a

45:54.811 --> 45:56.431
trick,
trompe-l'oeil,

45:56.427 --> 45:58.597
you use it in English;
trampantojo,

45:58.599 --> 46:00.659
is an old work in Spanish,
it's the same,

46:00.657 --> 46:02.917
"trampa"
and "ojos,"

46:02.916 --> 46:03.596
trampantojos.

46:03.599 --> 46:05.439
We don't use it any more in
Spanish,

46:05.440 --> 46:07.330
we use trompe-l'oeil,
the French word,

46:07.329 --> 46:09.649
most of the time,
but it's based on a visual

46:09.646 --> 46:13.036
trompe-l'oeil or a visual
trick based on perspective,

46:13.039 --> 46:17.759
exactly the way that a painting
is organized according to

46:17.760 --> 46:23.070
geometrical rules that produce
the effect of mass and depth--

46:23.070 --> 46:28.670
I hope you follow this:
Geometrical rules of the

46:28.670 --> 46:32.880
painting,
we've talked about the book by

46:32.882 --> 46:37.482
Alberti,
produce the effect of mass and

46:37.476 --> 46:39.796
depth by distance.

46:39.800 --> 46:43.660
Master Peter himself,
by the way, agrees with Don

46:43.664 --> 46:46.624
Quixote,
and his admonition to the boy

46:46.615 --> 46:50.385
also appeals to the language of
geometry and painting:

46:50.391 --> 46:53.301
"Boy,
none of your flourishes,

46:53.297 --> 46:56.157
but do what the gentlemen bids
you;

46:56.159 --> 46:57.419
for that is the surest
way."

46:57.420 --> 46:59.720
"Flourishes"
is "dibujos,"

46:59.724 --> 47:01.104
or drawings,
in the original.

47:05.701 --> 47:10.381
common occurrence in Cervantes,
as we have seen many times.

47:10.380 --> 47:15.530
The puppet show's effect,
its verisimilitude,

47:15.530 --> 47:18.890
is based on a question of
proportions and perspective,

47:18.889 --> 47:22.789
and has a great deal to do with
a straight a line that Don

47:22.793 --> 47:26.633
Quixote demands that the boy
narrator follow without much

47:26.628 --> 47:27.448
success.

47:27.449 --> 47:31.719
It is a metaphor,
of course, to apply straight

47:31.715 --> 47:36.545
line to how a story unfolds,
a narrative unfolds.

47:36.550 --> 47:42.360
The narrative straight line and
the straight line that can be

47:42.356 --> 47:47.386
drawn from the spectators to the
show are related.

47:47.389 --> 47:54.099
That is, this is the straight
line from the spectators to the

47:54.099 --> 47:58.999
show as they look at it,
and I'm relating that to the

47:59.001 --> 48:03.031
straight line in the story that
Don Quixote refers to when he

48:03.032 --> 48:04.512
admonishes the boy.

48:04.510 --> 48:09.110
If the spectators look directly
at the theater to engage in its

48:09.112 --> 48:12.362
fantasy,
they have to disregard that at

48:12.360 --> 48:15.440
such a short distance human
figures,

48:15.440 --> 48:18.140
horses and buildings,
should appear so small,

48:18.139 --> 48:21.249
as if they were much further
away.

48:21.250 --> 48:27.280
Perspective has to be assumed
as if different geometric

48:27.282 --> 48:34.102
relations between the public and
the tiny actors obtained,

48:34.099 --> 48:39.049
as if the geometric physical
relations between the spectators

48:39.047 --> 48:43.907
and the show were different than
they are because they're so

48:43.914 --> 48:44.744
close.

48:44.739 --> 48:48.039
The narrator goes through
"curves and

48:48.038 --> 48:51.978
transversals,"
as Don Quixote calls them,

48:51.980 --> 48:55.530
to achieve the illusion of
simultaneous action taking

48:55.525 --> 48:58.125
place,
and to hold the spectators

48:58.130 --> 49:02.800
attention and approval in the
same way that the theater has to

49:02.798 --> 49:06.778
abuse the rules of geometry to
stage the action--

49:06.780 --> 49:12.010
abuses the rules of geometry to
stage the action in what is

49:12.005 --> 49:16.925
presumably a greater territory,
but it is compressed on the

49:16.931 --> 49:20.861
stage, and the proportion
between the various elements,

49:20.860 --> 49:24.290
the various--the actors and the
horses and all of that,

49:24.289 --> 49:25.589
are not followed.

49:29.871 --> 49:32.921
closer or further away from the
public,

49:32.920 --> 49:36.760
the dimensions are a given that
cannot be changed.

49:36.760 --> 49:39.430
This whole ensemble of virtual
lines,

49:41.518 --> 49:45.338
hold up the fiction and its
props at the same time in front

49:45.335 --> 49:46.515
of the audience.

49:46.518 --> 49:49.828
The audience here is aware both
of the fiction and of the props

49:49.829 --> 49:52.019
that are there to make up the
fiction,

49:53.704 --> 49:54.114
paintings.

49:54.110 --> 49:58.950
To sustain the illusion the
narrator not only avails himself

49:58.947 --> 50:02.307
figuratively of the geometric
figures,

50:02.309 --> 50:07.779
but also of the rhetoric of
visions repeating the anaphora

50:07.782 --> 50:11.812
like--
anaphora is a rhetorical figure

50:11.806 --> 50:18.006
when you repeat a word or a turn
of phrase: "let us not

50:18.007 --> 50:20.867
forget...,
let us not forget...,

50:20.871 --> 50:24.251
" the orator will repeat
something like that;

50:24.250 --> 50:26.910
that is an anaphora,
and here the language of

50:26.913 --> 50:30.423
visions in medieval literature
used this figure and the boy

50:30.423 --> 50:32.423
says: "Pray
observe...,"

50:32.420 --> 50:35.270
"See him now...,"
"Turn your eyes

50:35.266 --> 50:37.806
toward...,"
"Now behold...,"

50:37.809 --> 50:41.199
"Do you not see...,"
"Behold now...,"

50:41.199 --> 50:43.559
"Observe that..."

50:43.559 --> 50:48.229
What he's really telling them,
with all of these repetitions

50:48.233 --> 50:52.593
is: but don't actually see what
is really happening,

50:52.590 --> 50:56.840
overlook it to be able to
accept the fiction.

50:56.840 --> 51:00.890
Within the very illusion of a
show we have a kind of mirror

51:00.889 --> 51:05.359
duplication of the problem of
perspective and vanishing point.

51:05.360 --> 51:07.930
Remember that I talked about
vanishing point in Las

51:07.927 --> 51:10.687
Meninas about the gentleman
who's at the very end,

51:10.690 --> 51:13.580
who is literally leaving and
vanishing,

51:13.579 --> 51:15.179
so there would seem to be a pun
there.

51:15.179 --> 51:22.549
This becomes literal when
Melisandra and Don Gaiferos,

51:22.550 --> 51:25.940
who are on the same horse,
gallop desperately running away

51:28.860 --> 51:31.420
Francia,"
towards the line dividing

51:31.420 --> 51:34.250
France from Spain,
the border.

51:34.250 --> 51:37.660
So if they are on the horse,
here, they're moving towards

51:37.657 --> 51:40.757
the back of the stage towards a
vanishing point,

51:40.760 --> 51:44.670
so this is literalized here the
vanishing point in the fiction,

51:44.670 --> 51:47.480
that is being depicted in the
story.

51:47.480 --> 51:53.110
Now, all of these tricks manage
to confuse Don Quixote,

51:53.110 --> 51:58.090
of course, who predictably
lunges towards the action to

51:58.085 --> 52:02.015
participate in it,
caught in a net of rhetorical

52:02.021 --> 52:06.171
and geometrical figures that
have blinded him not letting him

52:06.166 --> 52:10.026
see the difference in size
between his own body and those

52:10.034 --> 52:12.734
of his enemies:
he has lost the sense of

52:12.726 --> 52:17.576
proportion,
and this is what encourages him

52:17.577 --> 52:22.007
other than his madness,
of course, to participate in

52:22.012 --> 52:22.692
the action.

52:22.690 --> 52:26.090
This is, by the way,
this scene of Don Quixote

52:26.090 --> 52:31.090
lunging on to the stage,
is the one that Orson Welles

52:31.094 --> 52:36.394
used in his attempted film on
the Quixote.

52:36.389 --> 52:39.239
Orson Welles never finished his
Quixote,

52:39.239 --> 52:42.119
but there are parts that he
filmed,

52:42.119 --> 52:46.549
and I spoke about them in a
symposium on Orson Welles here,

52:46.550 --> 52:48.640
a couple of years ago,
and got to see some of them,

52:48.639 --> 52:50.719
and this is one of them,
and what he has,

52:50.719 --> 52:54.739
the scene takes place in a
movie, a movie that is being

52:54.739 --> 52:57.829
shown outdoors,
actually, and Don Quixote

52:57.829 --> 53:01.959
climbs on the stage and slashes
at the screen in this modern

53:01.960 --> 53:04.410
adaptation of this famous scene.

53:09.170 --> 53:12.060
Peter as author of modern
fictions.

53:12.059 --> 53:16.479
As he had already done in the
galley slaves episode in Part I,

53:16.480 --> 53:22.860
to not overlook that Cervantes
was also maimed,

53:29.590 --> 53:33.210
as you remember,
had a lesion on his left arm

53:33.208 --> 53:35.098
that he couldn't use.

53:38.715 --> 53:41.345
authorship,
as it were, by adjusting his

53:41.351 --> 53:44.931
ability to perceive reality,
hence to represent it.

53:44.929 --> 53:48.439
Making himself one-eyed,
Master Peter manages to prevent

53:48.443 --> 53:51.323
the problems created by his
cross-eyedness.

53:51.320 --> 53:55.160
Remember that with two eyes,
let alone their being crossed,

53:55.159 --> 53:57.999
there are two visions,
which may or may not coincide,

53:58.000 --> 54:00.990
but certainly will not if he is
cross-eyed;

54:00.989 --> 54:02.259
we have gone over this.

54:02.260 --> 54:05.560
This is the cause of his not
being able to foresee and ending

54:05.559 --> 54:07.649
to his
autobiography–remember?

54:07.650 --> 54:10.330
He says, 'how can my
autobiography be finished if my

54:10.331 --> 54:11.121
life is not?'

54:11.119 --> 54:14.259
You could project that as a
problem of vision,

54:14.260 --> 54:19.140
too, if autobiography goes this
way and life that way,

54:19.139 --> 54:23.949
and you have a vision that
doesn't allow for a coincidence

54:23.947 --> 54:28.987
of the two,
that infinitely receding end of

54:28.994 --> 54:32.894
the fiction,
or infinitely to the end of his

54:32.893 --> 54:36.783
life,
could be seen as part of his

54:36.782 --> 54:39.702
problems with his eyes.

54:39.699 --> 54:44.169
With only one eye,
however, Master Peter would be

54:44.166 --> 54:49.006
able to look straight through
only one visual access,

54:49.005 --> 54:53.095
but this is not a happy
solution either.

54:53.099 --> 54:57.889
To compensate for his loss of
one-half of the visual field he

54:57.885 --> 55:01.635
must look sideways:
if he has his eye covered he

55:01.635 --> 55:05.065
has to look sideways,
askew in his head.

55:05.070 --> 55:09.690
He cannot achieve a harmonious
vision, and he makes himself

55:09.692 --> 55:14.002
more awkward and interesting,
hence he cannot represent

55:13.996 --> 55:15.666
reality properly.

55:15.670 --> 55:19.980
With only one eye Master Peter
cannot create a perspective that

55:19.981 --> 55:24.991
will correspond to reason,
to follow Alberti's treatises

55:24.987 --> 55:28.077
on painting that I mentioned.

55:28.079 --> 55:32.069
His reading of literary
tradition is also askew,

55:32.070 --> 55:34.450
like the tilt of his head.

55:34.449 --> 55:38.009
We also know that with only one
eye he would also lose his depth

55:38.010 --> 55:41.120
perception, which would
disastrously affect his capacity

55:41.119 --> 55:42.589
to create perspective.

55:42.590 --> 55:46.570
His rewriting of the Melisendra
and Gaiferos story is fraught

55:46.565 --> 55:50.805
with errors, like Lope de Vega's
plays which Don Quixote tries to

55:50.806 --> 55:52.326
correct, as we saw.

55:52.329 --> 55:56.649
Only that ideal reader,
Alonso Quijano,

55:56.650 --> 55:59.640
who, instead of writing
romances of chivalry tried to

55:59.637 --> 56:02.617
act one out,
can see straight in the lucid

56:02.623 --> 56:06.363
nights of his library and
perceive fictions that are

56:06.360 --> 56:10.100
harmonious and very similar
within themselves and to

56:10.097 --> 56:11.047
himself.

56:11.050 --> 56:13.060
Don Quixote,
in the darkness of Juan

56:13.059 --> 56:15.669
Palomeque's inn,
by slashing the wineskins,

56:15.672 --> 56:19.072
makes the various fictional
levels converge and resolve the

56:19.072 --> 56:20.422
conflictive stories.

56:20.420 --> 56:24.440
It is the ability to fuse all
of those non-converging levels

56:24.436 --> 56:28.656
of fiction that makes Cervantes
such a great modern author,

56:28.659 --> 56:32.259
whose fictions will not destroy
themselves from within,

56:34.610 --> 56:37.570
Cervantes' is a happy
cross-eyedness,

56:37.567 --> 56:42.087
because the various lines do
not fuse in his imaginative

56:42.085 --> 56:44.875
world, yet cohere in some way.

56:44.880 --> 56:50.000
To him, the origin of vision is
always already a double vision,

56:50.000 --> 56:54.380
with irony being congenital to
it, with representation

56:54.378 --> 56:56.028
depending on it.

56:56.030 --> 56:59.770
I like to see this whole
episode of Master Peter's puppet

56:59.768 --> 57:03.638
show as an allegory of the whole
of the Quixote,

57:03.639 --> 57:09.339
with Cervantes the author
hidden inside there,

57:09.340 --> 57:13.760
but outside his fiction,
which he controls through

57:13.760 --> 57:17.910
strings with a voice projected
by an agent,

57:17.909 --> 57:21.459
Cide Hamete Benengeli or his
translators,

57:21.460 --> 57:23.740
whom he cannot quite control
either.

57:23.739 --> 57:26.359
The story itself,
like that of Melisandra and

57:26.356 --> 57:28.366
Gaiferos,
is drawn from literary

57:28.371 --> 57:31.391
tradition but distorted and
rearranged as needed,

57:31.389 --> 57:33.409
and the public,
we, the readers,

57:33.405 --> 57:37.675
are drawn into this fiction,
but not completely aware as we

57:37.681 --> 57:41.001
are of the artifice of the whole
construct.

57:41.000 --> 57:46.010
I am moved, romantic that I am,
with Cervantes' identification

57:49.385 --> 57:52.755
roaming through Spain
struggling to make a living with

57:52.760 --> 57:54.990
this fiction making contraption.

57:54.989 --> 57:59.409
Now, Cervantes wraps up this
take on modern literature and

57:59.411 --> 58:03.991
its labors in the brilliant
scene that closes the episode of

58:03.987 --> 58:08.037
Master Peter's puppet show,
the one in which aided by

58:08.041 --> 58:11.251
Sancho and the innkeeper Don
Quixote compensates the

58:11.251 --> 58:14.461
puppeteer for the figurines that
he has smashed.

58:14.460 --> 58:18.970
The value of each broken piece
depends on his or her relative

58:18.969 --> 58:23.409
importance in the fiction,
not on its material value based

58:23.409 --> 58:25.959
on the stuff of which it is
made,

58:25.960 --> 58:27.370
plus the workmanship.

58:27.369 --> 58:30.949
Charlemagne is worth a great
deal because of who he is in the

58:30.947 --> 58:32.257
story, for instance.

58:32.260 --> 58:36.180
The real and the fictional
worlds cut through each other

58:36.179 --> 58:36.679
here.

58:36.679 --> 58:40.179
Real money is being paid in
restitution for damages,

58:40.184 --> 58:43.414
but the amount of the
compensation is figured on

58:43.414 --> 58:46.994
fictional values--Do you
understand what I mean?

58:46.989 --> 58:48.889
I mean, a slave,
or a peasant,

58:48.894 --> 58:52.644
or a servant would not--a
figurine, even if it's beautiful

58:52.639 --> 58:56.319
and big, would not cost as much
as that of the king.

58:56.320 --> 59:00.330
What Cervantes seems to be
underlining here is the value of

59:00.331 --> 59:03.931
fictional characters as
creations by their author.

59:03.929 --> 59:07.569
How much would a Don Quixote or
a Sancho be worth to Cervantes?

59:07.570 --> 59:10.220
How much a Hamlet to
Shakespeare?

59:15.980 --> 59:17.930
or Borges for Pierre Menard?

59:17.929 --> 59:21.819
These are fictional entities,
but now they have a real

59:21.820 --> 59:26.080
monetary value in a world in
which literature is becoming a

59:26.077 --> 59:29.107
commodity,
without ceasing to be,

59:29.106 --> 59:32.146
at the same time,
one of the great expressions of

59:32.148 --> 59:32.948
the human spirit.

59:32.949 --> 59:37.809
This scene is reminiscent of
the one in Part I towards the

59:37.811 --> 59:42.841
end when restitutions are made
to the barber whose basin has

59:42.844 --> 59:46.274
been taken,
to the innkeeper for expenses

59:46.266 --> 59:50.306
and damages and marriage vows
are exchanged to make up for

59:50.311 --> 59:53.791
Fernando's dishonest behavior
towards Dorotea.

59:53.789 --> 59:57.669
It is a miniaturized scene of
restitutions,

59:57.672 --> 1:00:02.392
a small-scale repetition of
that scene in Part I.

1:00:02.389 --> 1:00:08.399
To me, it is as if Cervantes
were boasting of how many ways

1:00:08.403 --> 1:00:14.943
he can rewrite episodes in Part
II, and he is certainly a master

1:00:14.938 --> 1:00:17.218
puppeteer himself.

1:00:17.219 --> 1:00:21.999