• absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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          2 months ago

          I would say Rocinante helps early in the story, with understanding the depth of Quixote’s delusion.

          Whilst in reality Rocinante is an old workhorse; in the delusion of Don Quixote, Rocinante is a grand charger fit for a knight of the highest order.

          Helping to illustrate the core of the story; Don Quixote is applying a veneer of importance and significance over the top of reality. Rocinante is a reflection of the Don himself.

          • I agree with the role Rocinante plays for sure.

            I just don’t think that makes the name of the horse a good question. It’s like asking the name of John Wick’s dog. The whole movie hinges on the dog, but what name it has is irrelevant.

            The point of reading something like Don Quixote isn’t the names. Even Pancho’s name is barely important. Hell, I’d even argue that the fact we’re talking about Don Quixote rather than Alonso Quixano even illustrates that names aren’t exactly the prime bit of information that matters.

            Now, it is hard to discuss the story without factoring in name changes. Aldonza/Dulcinea in specific is maybe the biggest symbol of what the Don is experiencing, and the underlying theme of the story. But the specific names? It’s just a bad question for a high school English teacher to ask a student.

            My reasoning is that, no matter what else is retained, names only serve as a point of reference in damn near all literature. When an early exposure to old school, classical literature is happening, the student is going to already be learning three or four things at once, and memorizing the name of a non dialogue character doesn’t serve do achieve that learning, or even test how much that student retained.

            You’ve got them trying to learn how to read critically, how to read archaic styles, how to retain important factors, and how to express what they’ve picked up. The name of an animal that’s essentially stage dressing akin to the sword or armor? That’s entirely the wrong question.

            What would be a good one is, “what does Quixote’s horse symbolize?” Or even, “what do you think about his horse?”. Both would get the student thinking rather than trying to just pull up a word that’s arbitrary.

            • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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              2 months ago

              What would be a good one is, “what does Quixote’s horse symbolize?” Or even, “what do you think about his horse?”. Both would get the student thinking rather than trying to just pull up a word that’s arbitrary.

              That is a great point.

              Significantly better questions; than a name.

            • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              you entirely pissed the point of the post.

              anon is an idiot. he reads this book in two days, and knows nothing about it. he was not reading critically, he was blasting through each page and only ‘reading’ to say he read the novel to impress the teacher, and then he’s so dumb he can’t even remember the name of the horse.

              you call it ‘abitrary’ I call it ‘how can you do algebra if you can’t do arithmetic’.

              What’s so wrong with our school system, is that we no longer teach fundamentals, and we wonder why kids can’t do advanced work. knowing what the horse symbolizes requires know it’s fucking name.

              if anything, you, to me, sound like a result of our f’ed up education system in that you worry about high-minded bullshit and think that somehow it’s more important than BASIC FACTS. then you probably bemoan how nobody knows facts anymore and just argues their feelings… yeah because if you don’t know facts of the novel all you have to argue about is your feelings.

              have you ever taught? what if a student wrote an answer about chinese mythology in reply to a spanish novel? would that be a relevant answer? in today’s school system, sadly, it would, because we can’t ‘punish children’ or something.

                • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  don’t worry. i blocked posts from sh.itjust.works, because your instance is full of insane people. too bad i .world doesn’t allow me to automatically block all the users from there.

                  i lived in Canada for 3 years. never ceased to amaze me how many assholes I met over there were from quebec/ontario. almost as if… a instance hosted there would be full of the very same type of ‘i know better than you’ type of folks.

                  the albertans were insane, but they were at least not full of themselves. they were very chill when they were talking about their craziness.

  • Corngood@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    I read the book about a year ago and I recently I was trying to remember the name of the horse for some reason. I also completely blanked on it, and it took me a few minutes.

    I’m pretty terrible at remembering details like that. My brain just stores things relatively, like ‘the main character’s brother’, even after reading his name a hundred times.

    Anon should have just told his teacher that the horse (rocinante) is nothing compared to Sancho’s she-ass.

    • frog@feddit.uk
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      2 months ago

      I never remember the author’s name. I have consistently gotten it wrong in nearly every quiz. Lol

      • hawgietonight@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Everyone knows him as Cervantes, even though his full name is Miguel de Cervantes. I live in Castilla-La Mancha and everywhere is Quijote… I even know a lady called Dulcinea… not a common name btw.

        Edit. Just read this and sorry might have come across overly pedantic. I just got up and my brain is still toast.

        • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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          2 months ago

          Well there’s probably not a lot of other well-know people with the last name “(de) Cervantes”. Same in Germany, no one ever uses “Johann Wolfgang von Goethe”, it’s always just “Goethe”.

  • Boozilla@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Feel this in my bones. I enjoy reading books, but they go down the memory hole fast for me, especially names.

  • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I watched an entire movie once where they didn’t give protagonist a name. Realized about a week later in shower and had to look up to confirm.

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    2 months ago

    Tbh I don’t remember more than 2 character names per story. If a chapter contains more than two actors then I am totally confused who those persons were and their relationships and such…

    • affenlehrer@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      Have fun with “War and Peace”. Sooo many characters and everyone is some kind of Count or Lord with partly similar family names. Many of them also have a Russian and a French name and switch between them depending on context. I listened to the whole thing as audiobook and it basically took me the whole first book (of 4) to get a vague understanding of the characters. Listening helped a little bit because the reader had a slightly different intonation depending on which character was speaking.

    • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      This is why I greatly appreciated how in This Is How You Lose the Time War, there are only two characters that matter and their names are Red and Blue

      • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        I read that book. I don’t remember a single thing about it.

        I still recommend it, albeit begrudgingly, to people who might like it. I think it was better than I received it. Maybe I shouldn’t have just listened to the audiobook, but rather, read it at my own pace and re-read certain paragraphs, rather than having them read to me one after the other. Because there was something more in that text. Some books are better in audio, and some are better in text. I can’t imagine an audiobook exists of House of Leaves, but it wouldn’t surprise me. So, maybe one day I’ll go back and actually read This is How You Lose the Time War, because it probably deserved more attention paid to it, and it probably deserves a second look.

      • Err(()).unwrap()@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        If that principle applied throughout history, anglophones would have evolved either an armored ass or no ass at all. I believe they are pathologically incapable of grasping the phonology of foreign languages. Just ask any native English speaker the name of the Soviet Union’s general secretary that succeeded Stalin and preceded Brezhnev… realistically, nine out of ten will have no idea, and the remaining one will say he was some “cruise chef”.

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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          2 months ago

          As a linguaphile, I’ve always tried to pronounce words from other languages as correctly as possible. People tend to think that makes me weird.

          Xenophobes think I’m being a snob, and “inclusive” people think I’m mocking the language or making some offensive joke or something. Literally the only people who don’t get upset about it are the ones who speak whatever language it is.

          • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
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            2 months ago

            Literally the only people who don’t get upset about it are the ones who speak whatever language it is.

            It depends on the exact word and context, like if you go to Japan and say Hay mmmburrrgurrrr をいただきたいです, it sounds so bad.

            • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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              2 months ago

              I’m trying to figure out what that’s even supposed to say. “Mmmburrrgurrrr” doesn’t sound like any japanese words I know.

              “Hay” I’m guessing is supposed to be “Hai,” although if you pronounce it like “hay” then you’re going to stand out as an ignorant foreigner.

              As for 「おいただきたいです」、well that’s just phrased awkwardly. It sounds too formal and almost mocking. The issue isn’t pronouncing it correctly. It’s like saying 「申しわけありません」 when 「ごめんなさい」 would do.

              My point wasn’t about phrasing things weird or being too formal, it was about pronunciation. Like saying 「ありがとうございます」 instead of “uhragado guhzaimasoo”

              • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
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                2 months ago

                It’s over-emphasizing the non-japanese sounds in “hamburger”; the point is that there are rules for loan words in any language and it sounds awkward if you break them.

                • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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                  2 months ago

                  Oh, I thought we were talking about anglophones pronouncing non-english words, not the other way around.

                  Japanese gets a pass on its loanwords because the language doesn’t have the letters to pronounce a lot of words from other languages. It does the best it can. I don’t know many English speakers who pronounce Llewellyn the Welsh way…

                  But if you’re ordering a hamburger in Japan, there’s probably already something wrong with you anyway. Unless it’s at Gasto. In that case, enjoy your ハンバーグ.

        • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          Step 1: Seek to prove that anglophones can’t pronounce foreign words.

          Step 2: Ask a history question that has less to do with pronunciation than it does with an awareness of political events that happened on the other side of the globe, likely before the respondent was born.

          Step 3: Ignore that even the people who were alive in that time were likely only getting their pronunciation from whoever was anchoring the news and may be blameless for only hearing an incorrect pronunciation.

          Step 4: Feel smug, I guess.

        • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          i’m an anglophone that has studied 6 languages.

          we’re arrogant idiots who think foreign languages don’t exist, and shouldn’t exist if they are hard to pronounce. we’d rather make fun of them for being ‘weird’ than actually… learn and appreciate them.

          but i at the same time most every country phonetized foreign names to make them pronounceable in the native language. Russians change the pronunciation/spelling of many foreign words to russify them.

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        when i moved to austin and everyone was pronouncing guadalupe “guadaloop” and looking at me funny for pronouncing it guadalupe, i got murder eyes for like a month.

        • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          I’m going to need reports on how you say Koenig and Mueller too. As you are quite aware, moving to Austin requires multi-factor identification. /s

            • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 months ago

              I’m sorry sir, but you’re going to have to move. /s

              Kay-nig
              Muh-ler
              Guada-loop

              They’re old codes, but they still check out.

              • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                i did move, i’ve been back in california for over a decade

                i lived in a since-gentrified apartment complex on may-ner down from the amy’s

                like fuck texas, that one was English

                and i refuse to pronounce it Kaynig. Kenig is the furthest i’ll go

                you have a favorite out in Lockhart?

                • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  2 months ago

                  Thank you for visiting Austin, the live music capital of the world. We apologize if the rest of Texas disturbed you during your stay, and we thank you for your patience with this matter as we are still researching dimensional translocation possibilities. As you are a valued Californian, we would like to ask you to please take 5 minutes out of your day to go online and recall all the robotaxi’s y’all sent us. Keep it weird, and come back soon.

                  ~Come back soon is an invitation for a vacation not to exceed two weeks. Buying real estate to move your podcast offices to is strictly prohibited. Fans of Joe Rogan’s comedy are discouraged to apply.~

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    For me, the problem with “Rocinante” is I don’t know how to pronounce it. So, while reading, I’d skip past it, recognizing that it’s the horse, but not parsing it as a word.

    If asked that question, I’d need to explain that, but I’d stumble over the word.

    If a book has too many oddly (to me) spelled names, I’ll skip it for this reason. Apostrophes in the middle and no vowels, and I’m not going to read your book.

    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      For me, the problem with “Rocinante” is I don’t know how to pronounce it.

      If you’re using a European language, you’re pronouncing it correctly, or close enough.

      If your only contact with English is the written word, I guess it depends on what languages you’re familiar with. If you’re using AI / translation software, just ask it to read it to you. Maybe it’ll get it right. Or not. Who can tell with those things.

        • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          So you are saying it’s raa - thin - an - teh??

          That’s wild… I’m convinced you are not pronouncing ‘ant’ or ‘tent’ “correctly” for those to be your suggestions…

          • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 months ago

            Hm… Ro as in Ross…? The rest is the correct pronunciation, yes.

            Maybe, I don’t know… an as in anvil and te as in tenant…? English, being several unrelated languages in a trenchcoat, can be a bit weird, and pronunciation varies excessively with dialects…

            The vowels in Castilian (aka Spanish outside of Spain and other Castilian speaking countries) are very simple, five vowels, five sounds, pronounced more or less as they would have been in Latin.

            C is pronounced like a k or a hard z, never as an s (except in some dialects).

            Rocinante. From rocín and antes, for he was a rocín (old horse) before being Quijote’s steed (also during, but the old man wasn’t all there).

  • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    if you read don quixote in two days you’re a definitely a retard.

    like going to France and ordering McDonalds.

    fucking Americans.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The very first thing I’d do after stepping in a foreign country is try the fast food there. It’s fun to see different countries’ takes on American junk food. There will be plenty of time to try the local cuisine, but first, I want to see what it’s like to eat a McSpaghetti, or a Whopper with five patties and a bun made out of mozzarella sticks!

      • nednobbins@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        My wife and I went to India with a mission to try as much different food as possible.

        For the most part, India delivered but one day we decided to try a place that “Lonely Planet” recommended as the hot dining option for young people in the area. It turned out to be a Tex-Mex diner.

        You know how people complain about American’s screwing up foreign (including Indian) food? India can give as good as it gets. We asked to get their most popular items and they were all huge misses. The quesadilla tasted like the chef had once seen a picture of a quesadilla and rolled with it.

          • nednobbins@lemmy.zip
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            2 months ago

            Most of them. I assume they also have some well-traveled food snobs that make fun of it when their friends suggest it.

            "Man that Texmex joint sucks. You can only get authentic tortillas in Tijuana. "

            • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              if I make them at home, but i’m white, does that make them automatically non-authentic? do i have to be a 5’2" mexican grandma living in poverty to make them taste extra good?

      • LemmyUser0909@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Did that in S China. McD’s servers a “Cup of Corn” (nibblets) as a side like french fries. Its wildly popular. Also they had Pineapple snack pies but they called them “Pine Pies”

    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Technically, if you do that you’ll be doing the same as a lot of locals. People love their “Mac Do” (for some reason).

      Immerse yourself in the local culture (and have a beer at the local Mc D, assuming that’s still a thing, I’m not really sure).

      • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Again, american. French people eat there sometimes, doens’t mean they eat there all the time.

        The point is americans go to another country to ‘expereince the culture’ and then systematically avoid doing so at all costs.

        Just like anon tries to ‘read’ a 800 page novel by not actually reading it, and then gets called out by their teacher who knows anon is a tryhard who didn’t even know what the horse is called. sort of like saying you ran a marathon by running mile 1 and mile 25 and you road a car from mile 2 to mile 24. it’s totally the same thing as running 26 miles! right!

        at least the lit teacher didn’t ask anon to blow him.

        • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          americans go to another country to ‘expereince the culture’

          Eeeehhhh… More or less.
          Anyway you can’t experience that much in the few days most US people have available. Remember that they have to go to London, Paris and possibly the Riviera, Rome, some place in Germany, and maybe two or three other places, all in the one or two weeks that they can spend in Europe before their boss requires their presence back behind their keyboard. It’s a vacation of sorts, but it’s also a game of tag.

          Faced with so many changing vistas, they are bound to give up and enter a Mc D at some point. You would do the same, except that when you go abroad, you can just stay somewhere for a month and actually see a country if you like (assuming you can afford to, but then, visiting Belgium is fine too). So anyway, what I mean is that you have to account for the culture shock, which exists for them, although I’m not sure visiting a foreign Mc D will attenuate that. Because they are probably way more foreign than they’ll likely expect.

      • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        No dickwattles. 17 days. Reading should take time.

        Idiots all over here being ‘hrr i cannon rememburrs the bookz i readz’ yeah, because you don’t actaully read, you just skim.

        reading takes effort, and i understand most of you are unwilling to make an effort in anything other than calling shit fake and gay.

        Anon feels like a dumbass because anon is a dumbass, and like every dumbass is butthurt someone pointed out how dumb they were. Rather than being like ‘hey maybe I should ahve paid attention to this book I read instead of being a retard’.