[FRIAM] Interdisciplinary work

[Jon Zingale]

Steve,

you write:
my young (30something) Spanish (Basque) colleague from Wales speaks of the
DQ tale as if Sancho Panza is the true hero/protaganist, which was what I
suspected in my own first reading.

It is great that you mention this. I have pretty much felt the same
way about Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. In some ways, I feel that
*Don Quixote* was the spiritual predecessor of Voltaire's *Candide*.
In both cases, I feel a strong sense of contempt emanating from the
authors and focused upon the titular characters. In the case of Cervantes,
he is quite a bit more clever. Situating Sancho Panza as the protagonist,
Cervantes himself does not seem to have much patience for *idealistas*,
gives us a protagonist in a submissive power role. He watches after the
Don and is charged with an impossibly compassionate task. The whole
affair has a wit, sarcasm, and dare I say humor.

Jon
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