It is incumbent upon him [Don Quixote] to fulfill the promise of the books. It is his task to recreate the epic, though by a reverse process: the epic recounted (or claimed to recount) real exploits, offering them to our memory; Don Quixote on the other hand, must endow with reality the signs-without-content of the narrative. His adventures will be a deciphering of the world: a diligent search over the entire surface of the earth for the forms that will prove that what the books say is true. Each exploit must be a proof: it consists, not in a real triumph which is why victory is not really important but in an attempt to transform reality into a sign. Don Quixote reads the world in order to prove his books. And the only proofs he gives himself are the glittering reflection of resemblances. <p> Michel Foucault, (on Don Quixote) The Order of Things

It is incumbent upon him [Don Quixote] to fulfill the promise of the books. It is his task to recreate the epic, though by a reverse process: the epic recounted (or claimed to recount) real exploits, offering them to our memory; Don Quixote on the other hand, must endow with reality the signs-without-content of the narrative. His adventures will be a deciphering of the world: a diligent search over the entire surface of the earth for the forms that will prove that what the books say is true. Each exploit must be a proof: it consists, not in a real triumph which is why victory is not really important but in an attempt to transform reality into a sign. Don Quixote reads the world in order to prove his books. And the only proofs he gives himself are the glittering reflection of resemblances. <p> Michel Foucault, (on Don Quixote) The Order of Things