Quixotic

A shoebox filled with curious film reels and snow globes asks:
How many people who use the word quixotic have read Don Quixote De La Mancha and, furthermore, is that dishonest?

People who use the word "quixotic" and do not then giggle at themselves are not so much dishonest as just weighed down by degrees in English. They may not actually recall if they have read Cervantes' book(s). However, they have definitely written a paper on Phallic Imagery and the Crone Archetype in Cervantes in which they wrote about Quixote with casual familiarity.

Should someone have started as a declared major in English and then graduated with another, more parentally-approved degree they will instead suggest that someone is "tilting at windmills."

Of greater concern with any appellation of quixotic is the possibility nee probability that it is used with a negative connotation. When "quixotic" is slapped on the conversational table, the first image to anyone's mind -- after wondering where the English degree came from -- is the windmills. An old, awkward man poised to shatter himself on uncaring structures. Quixotic is used as a warning that the next time we will refer to the subject as a laughingstock.

The original book(s) are a whole lot of paper. The windmill episode is a short segment toward the end of the first book, after Don Quixote has been battered by many an imaginary opponent and subjected Sancho to many a lecture on knighthood. Should someone who has not read the book ask someone who is pretending that they have read the book, they will say that "It is a book about a guy who pretends to be a knight and looks like a goofball because he is always pretending that windmills are giants and ugly peasant girls are princesses. He falls down a lot and gets his teeth knocked out. It is not as funny as 'Tyler Perry's House of Payne,' though. Did you see that episode where his kid is getting ready for a date and he is trying to make a Jello mold of his old dog? That is some funny stuff."

Note the desperate misdirection.

On the other hand, should someone actually have read Cervantes, even should they have only read the original, first book and not deigned to read the commercially corrupt second novel written years later to protect the integrity of the first in an era where no copyright law existed and lesser writers had taken to creating sequels to the original novel, they will look down at their cappuccino for a second as if they were remembering something an old friend once said to them. A friend who has since passed away. Then they will look up with an apologetic expression because there is simply not enough time to explain to you all the lovely intricacies of the masterwork.

"Put simply, Quixote is the story of a man made irrelevant by the modern world who fashions a rich narrative for himself. He is constantly bruised and mocked by the harsh contemporary society and culture that he must interact with, however he regains his dignity by maintaining his own ethos. While his body and social standing are repeatedly wounded, Don Quixote's narrative consciousness thrives. It is a story of a man who sacrifices his relationship to modern society in the name of a cohesive life"

And so while quixotic is often used to simply describe bold and foolish, it is an unfair use of a term which would be better applied to acts of transcendental dignity.