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Don Quixote’s Countenance Before and After Losing His Teeth

Monday, April 4th, 2011
del Valle A , Romero M J DENT RES 2009;88:101-104

I’ve always enjoyed literary criticism which applies specialized knowledge in a scientific or technical domain to further elucidate a literary work. My favorite in this vein is Herbert F. Smith’s 1965 classic, “Melville’s Master in Chancery and His Recalcitrant Clerk.”

I recently found a new one: “Don Quixote’s Countenance Before and After Losing His Teeth,” from the February 2009 issue of the Journal of Dental Research.

Here’s the argument in a nutshell:

We must ask ourselves why Don Quixote had a permanently sad expression on his face. Was it hunger, a constant companion of the gentleman throughout his adventures? Was it pain?

As we will attempt to show, it was the lack of molars and incisors.

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That’s not for you to say

Friday, April 1st, 2011

AliceNeel

From Alice Neel: The Art of Not Sitting Pretty, by Phoebe Hoban, p. 19:

Even then, she had her own aristocratic way of doing things. When an old-fashioned art teacher criticized her naturalistic method of painting hair, suggesting she simply color it in, she told him, “Well, that isn’t the way the hair goes. I don’t want to put in a tone.” When he told her, “Before you conquer art, you’ll have to conquer yourself,” Alice retorted, “That’s not for you to say because you are only my beginning teacher.”

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