(Originally posted by e-ripley)
Unamuno Picar(d)esque
Este chaval.
Despite his evident distractions, I cannot get past why Ríos is reading it in English(?). There are lots of possible explanations (& I have my preferred one), but the whole thing gives me an arm-length list of questions about in-universe book history and multilingualism.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see where the season takes its references to Del sentimiento trágico - beyond the existential pain of living with the consciousness of death, obviously. There’s plenty more in its philosophy to pick over: the balance between reason and faith; the creative power of doubt and uncertainty; the Quijote of it all (talk about idealism and chivalry in the face of lost causes….).
More broadly, I think a fair amount could be drawn out of the figure of Miguel de Unamuno himself. Over the last century he has typically been associated with the ’98 generation of (male) Spanish intellectuals who grappled with the collapse of the Spanish empire following war with the United States and the ensuing domestic political ‘crisis’. A university professor, he was exiled during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, returned to become a politician during the Second Republic, then took up the cause of the nationalist rebels during the Civil War and eventually died under house arrest having come to regret his support of Franco. Arguably though it was Unamuno’s duty to his vision of Spain which directed this seemingly meandering political journey, particularly in his later years, rather than any ideological evolution.
So we have a formerly extensive political body in a period of disputed upheaval and people attempting to recalibrate its sense of identity and purpose; all the while occupying different shifting positions in- and outside of its systems in order to pursue their goals. Sound familiar to anyone else?
