25
votes
Does Don Quijote in fact say "Facts are the enemy of truth"?
As the OP noted, this quote does not appear in Don Quijote de la Mancha by Cervantes. It does, however, appear in a different version of Quijote: the musical based on Cervantes' work, with libretto by ...
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23
votes
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Where does this Federico Garcia Lorca quote come from? Is it a fake?
This is a quote from an interview he gave in 1931.
Traigo preparados cuatro libros. De teatro. De poesía. Y de impresiones neoyorkinas, el que puede titularse : la ciudad, interpretación personal, ...
18
votes
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Is the original manuscript of Don Quixote extant?
In 2016, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Cervantes' death, Taberna Libraria published a facsimile edition of all of the author's manuscripts. This edition contains only 12 manuscripts. For ...
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15
votes
Meaning of 'white mask on my otherwise tan face'
Going on to the next sentence makes clear the context: the narrator is so nearsighted that he usually needs to use glasses or contact lenses to see properly. When he's at the beach, however, he doesn'...
- 74.4k
14
votes
What is the meaning of "Not even Jonah’s wife would swallow that story" in Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera"?
Does the use of the verb swallow have anything to do with the fish that swallowed Jonah?
Exactly.
Jonah's wife had to "swallow" (accept) the ridiculous story (as an explanation for his disappearance ...
- 2,018
13
votes
Accepted
Why does Modesta Gómez demand payment from the indigenous girl?
Brenci Patiño makes the point that the two women, Modesta and the indigenous woman, are "pitted against each other" by the social structure around them. They "share similar experiences ...
- 2,112
12
votes
Accepted
In "The Library of Babel" is the "cyclical book" really God?
You are bringing the first quote a little out of context:
The idealists argue that the hexagonal rooms are a necessary from of absolute space or, at least, of our intuition of space. They reason ...
- 3,178
12
votes
Accepted
The incomplete sonnets at the beginning of Don Quixote - what does the pattern mean?
This verse form, versos de cabo roto ("verses with broken ends") was reputedly invented by the poet Alonso Álvarez de Soria at the beginning of the seventeenth century, around the time when ...
- 15.6k
11
votes
Accepted
What does the "crimson hexagon" represent in "The Library of Babel"?
A central concern of The Library of Babel -- and particularly this section of it -- is the search for order and meaning within a chaotic world.
In this passage, Borges introduces the Purifiers; those ...
- 3,178
11
votes
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How do real-world languages exist in "The Library of Babel"?
Remember that the Library is infinite and complete:
the Library is "total" - perfect, complete, and whole - and that its bookshelves contain all possible combinations of the twenty-two orthographic ...
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11
votes
Accepted
How do people eat in "The Library of Babel"?
Like many of Borges's tales, The Library of Babel is meant more as a thought experiment than a realistic story. Don't overthink it.
There's no mention anywhere in the story of any of various ...
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9
votes
Why is "pensión" left untranslated in "The Shadow of the Wind"?
As Cascabel rightly says, there is no direct equivalent to a Pension in Britain - in terms of the particular facilities provided.
As mentioned, this is not the only work in which Pension is not ...
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9
votes
How do real-world languages exist in "The Library of Babel"?
The Library of Babel cannot be taken as plausible, realistic worldbuilding. "How can real-world languages exist" is not going to have more of an answer than "How does an immense number of bound books ...
- 3,178
9
votes
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What does Jorge Luis Borges mean by the library being infinite in "The Library of Babel"?
There are several options -- which makes sense, as this is a story which explores the idea of infinity.
The Library is spherical
Immediately following the line "I say that the Library is unending", ...
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8
votes
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What is the significance/symbolism of the hexagon in "The Library of Babel"?
Hexagons are a natural pattern found in various orderly structures in nature: for example, the cells of a beehive, or the columns of the Giant's Causeway. By making his Library a hexagonal ...
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7
votes
Accepted
Which South or Central American female author wrote a short story about frozen cockroaches?
My comment about Borges got me web searching and this time I was able to find the author, by researching South American female contemporaries of Borges. She is Clarice Lispector (b. 1920, d. 1977).
...
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7
votes
Is there any deeper significance to the Borges story "The End"?
Thank you for asking this question! (Not least because I am itinerant and my Borges is all in boxes, but your question led me to this collected stories of Borges in pdf, which will provide ℵ value on ...
- 4,283
7
votes
Is there any deeper significance to Borges's "The South"?
Note that has outlined by Beastly Gerbil, the protagonist is living through events based on Borges's on life: in his novel, the protagonist hits a recently painted door jamb, while in his ...
- 1,948
7
votes
Is there any deeper significance to Borges's "The South"?
While this does not answer the significance of the entire book, it focuses on a few key points.
The story is actually partially autobiographical.
In his early life, Borges worked in a library. In ...
- 6,338
7
votes
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What does "atom" mean in Don Quixote?
Enrique Suárez Figaredo, in his edition to El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de La Mancha, uses the contents of the entry "átomo" in the Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española by Sebastián ...
- 2,781
7
votes
Meaning of 'white mask on my otherwise tan face'
Since the narrator of this excerpt is near-sighted, he needs either glasses or contact lenses to see things sharply, especially at a distance. Wearing glasses would cover part of his face, so it would ...
- 48.6k
7
votes
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Identifying a quotation from Dulce Maria Loynaz comparing physical pain to a civil war
This describes one of Loynaz's Poemas sin Nombre, a collection of her poems published in 1953. None of the poems are given titles, but are simply assigned a roman numeral. Poem XXXV begins:
Como una ...
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6
votes
Accepted
Is there any deeper significance to the Borges story "The End"?
It turns out Recabarren was a political figure in Chile who was imprisoned for 8 months.
As you will recall, the setting of the story is in Latin America.
The loss of voice could be a reference to ...
- 4,283
6
votes
Accepted
In Don Quixote, why wasn't Sancho Panza allowed to speak in the black mountains?
Note that Sancho's request in Ch 25 is not the first time he has asked for the injunction against his speaking be lifted. In Ch 21 (Mabrino's helmet) Sancho asks
As they went along, then, in this ...
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6
votes
Accepted
Federico García Lorca quote: "I'm a capitalist and a socialist and a communist and an anarchist and a monarchist"
As far as I can see it's not a direct quote; I only found examples of indirect speech.
In LOS POETAS Y SU VOZ - 3 Federico García Lorca, Gabriel Celaya, Gerardo Diego, the "quote" goes as follows:
...
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6
votes
What is the meaning of "Not even Jonah’s wife would swallow that story" in Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera"?
The wording of the Spanish original is:
Dijo: “Ese pretexto no se lo traga ni la mujer de Jonás”.
In Spanish, there is a colloquial figurative use of the verb tragar, that is, "to swallow",...
- 2,781
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