The contrast between Don Quixote and the Duke and Duchess is one of the important themes of the book: What is sanity? After all, DQ is supposedly insane, but what about the Duke and Duchess? Do they aspire to do anything noble? No. Do they embrace any ideals? No. Can they feel empathy towards others...

No, I haven't had to chance to follow "Friday Night Lights" but I will try to check it out on Neflix, after the hockey playoffs.

Randy

Let's not forget that one of the reasons DQ is such a classic is that its main theme is so universal: making peace with a world we can't understand or accept.

Who hasn't struggled to do so? I know I have. And so did Hamlet.

Randy

Don Quixote's madness is a great topic for debate. I believe the Don's mental state has to be put in context. Is he mad? After all, he believes in an ideal. He believes in doing good, in creating a better world for his fellow man. Is that mad? Besides, Einstein saw the world differently from everyon...

Certainly for modern readers the book is too long and has too many digressiions. Also, the first half, for me, gets somewhat tedious, in spite of the humour. It is the second half - the philosphoical half - that makes the book great. Here we experience two characters that are affected by the outside...

I'm so sad that the first season of this TV series is over. I loved it. It's so refreshing to experience characters I can root for, characters who struggle to change for the better. I love the writing of the show. IMHO, it's a shame that so many people prefer Mad Men, a show filled with characters I...

I'm going to get it. Every few years I reread the second - the more deeper - half. Don Quixote is my favorite novel. To think that Cervantes was a failure most of his life. Amazing the way things work out sometimes. Without his failures - which eventually forced him to ride around southern Spain as ...

Shakespeare wrote the plays, I have no doubt, and so do all legitimate scholars.

I am looking forward to reading this:

http://www.amazon.com/Contested-Will-Wh ... _rhf_p_t_1

Randy

The real evidence is overwheliming: Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. Don't let anyone fool you.

Randy

The thing I don't get about Hemmingway - yes, he's a great craftsman - is that I don't feel he ever worked through his pain, and therefore never showed us a way to come to terms with the pain of human existence. IMHO, he didn't have a unique way of seeing the world and all the craziness in it. What ...