Veritas

English 101 Section 13

13 March 2013
The Adventures of Sancho Panza
Hanging Out With Don Quixote
I have always hated Mondays, and this Monday was particularly horrible. I was
standing outside of Heide Hall, a constant, fine rain permeating the air and chilling me
to the bone. Gusting winds incessantly whipped at my jacket as I struggled against the
zipper with frozen hands, a belated and hard-fought victory. Who would brave such
conditions for what could possibly be a wild goose chase? I felt that it was fitting that
as I glanced up with watery eyes my gaze fell upon the figure of Don Quixote. I
mumbled the name defiantly as I took shelter from the wind behind it, realizing that as I
did so the two onlookers smoking beside it gave me a wide- eyed stare of disbelief.
After a few whispers and a short conversation in hushed tones they quickly fled the
scene. Sorry for being creepy.
I often passed by this work, which graces the front entrance of Heide Hall, and
immediately recognized the details I had noticed in the past, a humanoid form with a
prominent torso and undeveloped lower part. The torso is armored giving a chivalric or
romantic feel to the piece overall. What I presume to be a lance pointing in challenge
also enhances this feature. There is what appears to be either a part of a face or a
Formatted: Justified
Comment [LMW1]: Coordinate conjunctions
like "and," "or," and "but" should be preceded
by a comma (or period) when they connect two
sentences.
Comment [LMW2]: A nice example of an
absolute cluster. It works better than the
verb cluster in the next sentence, which is too
far from its antecedent.
Comment [LMW3]: Really? It looks to me
like DQs head is there, but its small in
comparison to the shield, and looking askance.
Comment [LMW4]: Commas introduce
clusters.
masquerade mask located at the ten oclock position while at the four oclock position
what I had previously thought to be a piece of armor, but what was in reality a set of
breasts, at the four oclock position. It wasnt until I moved behind the work that I
realized my first misconception. The finished work was made primarily by casting
rather than sculpting like I had previously thought. I ran my fingers along the posterior
that felt akin to a rough-grit aluminum oxide type sandpaper and prodded the
indentations in confirmation. It felt warm, at least warmer than the surroundings on that
dreary day. Perhaps it the main casting was made of something that conducted heat
decently: bronze or perhaps aluminum. If it were aluminum this would make the
bulkiness of the piece a complete deception.
I glanced around furtively before extending my arms around the piece and
lifted: slowly, carefully. Oh, my god! The darned thing nearly fell on me! Heart
pounding, rather, keeling over and glancing around in paranoia as my extremities felt
like they might likely explode, I realized that nearly all the parts were moveable to some
degree, especially a number of triangle shaped devices attached to what appeared to be
the arm. A jittery feeling of nervousness, barely distinguishable from the shivering,
began to creep up my spine. Was it really supposed to have that much movement or was
I close to breaking it, becoming a vandal? As my nerves were beginning to get the better
Comment [LMW5]: This reorganzition helps
build the power of the description, as the key
image in this sentence (breasts) now occurs
in the climactic sentence final position.
Comment [LMW6]: This seems to dangle.
of me, I hunkered down, deciding to give up on being miserable for another five
minutes before calling it a day.
At this point, I put my hands into my sleeves and started to rock back and forth
to keep warm. A cute brunette girl walked by while giving me a worried look and
quickly picked up her pace. Seriously, Im just cold, not an escapee from a mental
institution! Battered by the elements and thoroughly depressed, I imagined I was
Sancho Panza, Dont Quixotes companion, sitting through miserable conditions while
Don Quixote was raising his lance in challenge to the oncoming dragons--, or rather,
cars driving down N. Prairie St., a stoic symbol of loyalty. Wait, why was it that I was
feeling like Sancho Panza? I am nowhere near as short although my roundness might
slowly be approaching his. Its tall and big, deceptively so. I stretched the entirety of my
64 frame out at different angles and there was plenty of room to spare. As I crept my
fingers along the surface I realized that, besides the original casting, all the moveable
objects on the periphery were actually common items. Although I couldnt identify most
of the items, I know I have seen those moveable triangles before, there were a few that
stuck out,: most noticeably a fencing post. What I had previously perceived to be a
lance because I had already been familiar with the story of Don Quixote by Cervantes
was in actuality an item easily and cheaply picked up at any Fleet Farm or abandoned
Comment [LMW7]: Pronouns need to have a
clear referent or antecedent. There is no word
in the text or context that matches up with
your pronoun.
road construction site.
So, why did I feel like Sancho Panza next to what I already identified as a cast
with a mish-mash of accessible, inventive items combined with it? I realized at this time
that the work was intimidating. It wasnt just tall and space consuming, it actually was
designed to look down on people. Looking up at it as I crouched, struggling to maintain
what little warmth my body still held, I felt intimidated. Did the creator actually want
the viewer to feel like Sancho Panza while regarding this piece? Maybe it was a sense of
awe or stalwartness rather than intimidation. Don Quixote seems to almost jump out at
you aggressively, much befitting his literary counterpart. It made me feel that he was
emerging from water or possibly the earth. I looked at the back again and noticed that
the foundation of the work was flat, almost as if it had originally been intended to be
placed on a wall. All of the edges have the appearance of being pulled out of something,
a combination of what seems on appearance to be concrete and sinew, an amalgam, a
figure hewn or unearthed from the concrete of modern days. I couldnt help but have the
feeling that the work was either originally placed in an entirely different venue or that
the person that designed it was quite masterful in the way they incorporated the
medieval and the modern. It really seemed as if Don Quixote was emerging
aggressively from the background to challenge perceiving wrongdoings.
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Formatted: Font: Not Italic
There are surely an abundance of details I overlooked with my scant ten-minute
visitation of Don Quixote, both real and perceived. Perhaps, when the weather is a bit
more forgiving I will visit again at leisure, both to identify details I might have missed
and to understand if what I imagined about the work was simply due to the timing or
something more. The work doesnt feel so alien to me now that I know that it is made of
modest, sturdy materials, not so much a freaky, headless apparition haunting the main
entrance now. From now on any reference to the literary work of the same name will
bring up the image of this surreal figure that stoically guarded the main entrance of
Heide Hall during my college days, Don Quixote.