Left-handedness

[wolfinthewood]

"For know, Sancho, that for a man not to read, or to be left-handed, argues that either he was a son of mean parents, or so unhappy and untowardly that no good would prevail on him."

—Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra (1547–1616)

from Don Quixote de la Mancha, Part II (1615)

trans. Thomas Shelton (1620)

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Comments

plaidder

[plaidder.livejournal.com]

That's hilarious.

I was ambidextrous until I was 5 and the teachers made me pick a hand to write with. I guess picking the left hand makes me untowardly.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

Re: plaidder

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

I am, of course, left handed myself. I was told when young that this showed a perverse nature - which is more or less exactly what Don Quixote means by 'untowardly'.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I am also left handed (as is glaurung_quena).

I'm quessing that enough reading must overcome everything except the untowardliness, which Cervantes failed to realise is actually a good thing. ;-)

Irony?

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

Ah, but this is Don Quixote speaking, not Cervantes. I'm inclined to suspect irony.

An interesting question raises its head: does a life of reading tend to breed untowardliness? Or is it that the untowardly are often drawn towards books?

Re: Irony?

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Point taken re POV.

AS to the connection between untowardliness and reading, I'm inclined to suspect that it runs both ways. Certainly, I know of a great deal of ancedotal "evidence" that those who do not fit in the "real" world seek other, more aceepting or acceptable worlds in books. However, one would hope that a good dose of at least certain kinds of reading would promote untowardliness.