Ok, time to talk about Don Quixote. It's a good book, with my only major complaint being that everybody talks way too much. Having said that, I do realize that that is part of Mr. Quixote's knight persona.
But something really weird just happened.
First, I need to explain the concept of the fourth wall, just in case anybody doesn't understand the title of this entry.
The fourth wall is what separates the world of the story from the real world. In TV, movies, and video games, that wall is the screen. In literature, I think that the wall is the pages and covers of the book.
"Breaking" the fourth wall is when the boundary suddenly becomes much less clear. It arguably occurs the most often in TV and movies, when a character suddenly turns to the camera and directly addresses the audience.
Here's where Don Quixote gets weird. I've just started Part 2, which was published ten years after Part 1. In Part 1, other works by the author, Miguel de Cervantes, made brief, cameo-type appearances, such as one of his books being saved from a mass burning of Don Quixote's chivalry novels. However, very shortly into Part 2, things get really screwy, as it turns out that Part 1 ACTUALLY EXISTS WITHIN THE WORLD OF PART 2, and the characters of Part 2 are currently critiquing it, such as Don Quixote asking someone else if certain events are represented in the book, to which the answer is invariably yes. They even point out the completely random insertion of a short story that bore very little, if any at all, relation to the main plot. Their argument is exactly the same that I made when I got to that part. (Looking back, those were probably three chapters I could have safely skipped.)
It just doesn't seem right.
P.S. The title quote came from me. Keep sending me your quotes.
P.P.S. If there's anybody else who read Gulliver's Travels, could you please give me ideas for my paper? Please?
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17 comments:
Ok one more crack in the fourth wall has been made. They just brought up a pair of pretty major continuity errors in part one.
The character who is involved in those errors just did the equivalent of going "LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU." A page or two later, he starts offering explainations where he can.
Ok, that makes my head hurt. That whole thing about Part 1 being inside of Part 2, but not knowing that when you first read Part 1, wow, I can't really understand it.
I'll try to clarify the situation. Basically, I get the idea that the author has pretty much been stalking Don Quixote the whole time without being noticed. He then proceeded to write Quixote's adventures from his memory and published the resulting story.
That's probably not right, but it kinda makes sense, since the book is told from a third person perspective.
Thanks J-Cat! I'm still confused, but sometimes a person just needs to be confused. :)
the 4th wall concept sounds like a good paper topic to me! :) Sorry it's so confusing. I've actually never read it, but I've seen the Veggie Tales version of it.. does that count?
possible quote: "I've dreamed the impossible dream"
I somewhat agree with Jarmen. However, confusing can be great. An example would be Metal Gear Solid, which always has some weird confusing plot twist during the climaxes of each one.
I was born with confusion (heheheh), so I would probably like this. Confusion allows you to wrap ideas into a way that makes sense to you, thus involving the fourth wall.
By the way, here is untz quotez:
"Whoever pulled this off had to be highly skilled, like me."
It's from one of my favorite JRPGs.
Wow Jake, that was pretty profound. But my name is Carmen, not Jarmen. Please...
I assume you refer to the end of Metal Gear Solid 2? Seriously, I've heard that referred to as "Mind Rape."
No idea where the quote came from, but I like it!
Yes, that infamous MGS2 ending. The Patriots...I could not grasp the whole concept.
The quote is from Zidane, of Final Fantasy IX. Zidane is the only main protagonist I liked from ALL(12) Final Fantasies. He's pretty much an arrogant, cocky, but nonetheless cool character. The other FF main protagonists are little...jerks.
Moving on. Another quote:
"Listen up! Teamwork means staying out of my way."
This is from my favorite character from a certain game.
Yeah, you just gotta love the la-li-lu-le-lo. And again, like the quote, but don't know where it came from.
You are going to laugh. It's from Final Fantasy VIII. It is from Seifer, my favorite character from that game. He's basically a arrogant member of SeeD who defects to become a sorcerer's knight.
Anywho, another quote. These two will be my first featuring two different people talking. Guess where they come from:
"I've been itching to tell you this for a long time. When you blew up the Sector 1 reactor, how many do you think died?"
"That was for the planet. Ya gotta expect a few casualties."
"What may be a few to you was everything to those who died..."
"[S]ay something!"
"...something."
Mass Effect?
Also, I've figured out that Olympic fencing is really boring!
The the love the Olympics, kinda promotes peace as well as competition. Didn't watch the fencing though. Czech Republic already has a gold medal in shooting (funny I expected Germany to get that), huzzah!
Anyways, the two quotes were from, yet again, ANOTHER Final Fantasy, this time being VII.
Okay, that's it for Final Fantasy for now. I'll move onto something different.
Here's another quote:
"Never extinguish by any mean, burning without wood or oil. Sacred Signature!"
It's what a character says in battle when using the skill Sacred Signature in a RPG. Guess which (not Final Fantasy this time).
No idea. Bet you think you're the only one who can use RPG quotes, don't you? THINK AGAIN!
"Sacred powers, cast thy purifying light upon these corrupt souls. Rest in peace, sinners! JUDGEMENT!!"
I have absolutely no clue to your quote. I cannot even fabricate a guess.
My quote was from Eternal Sonata, which is basically an RPG dream of the composer Chopin when he is at his deathbed.
New quote:
"Chemical suits!? They might as well wear raincoats!"
This is NOT from a game, it is from a movie. I'm also running dry on quotes. I have a lot from Final Fantasies and other RPGs, but I don't like repeating titles.
Oh, and here is one EVERYONE should know:
"I want to play a game."
If you cannot get this one , you phail [sic] at life and everything.
Time to end this thread.
My quote was from Tales of Symphonia, one of the very few actually good RPGs for the Gamecube.
I don't know where Jake's first quote comes from, but I'm pretty sure the second is from the Saw movies.
Be careful, Jake. I's is not going to tolerates much of teh leetspeaks in my blog.
so you lost me when you started talking about the fourth wall and sauch, but i'm glad to see that you made it through don quixote!! it looks like a killer and sounds incredibly boring!
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