Was it autism?

...

No, it was delusion.

Sorrow and

GENUINE KEK OP

Quixote was a chad

No, he lost his wits due to his brain drying up from little sleep and much reading

Exactly this. The book tells you in the first pages, OP.

>implying it isn't autism

> tfw no Sancho to go on adventures with

Part one was delusion, part two was escapism

But user, you are sancho

No he was psychotic its stated over and over again he lost his mind. Isolated reading chivalrous narratives for weeks on end without sleeping. He was totally deranged. Still a beautiful soul

There are pretty good arguments to be made that autism might be caused (or at least aggravated) by social isolation, which is itself aggravated by ease of access to escapist media.

>no Quixote to go on adventures with

Don Quijote was just pranking everybody. Also, Cervantes foreshadows the ending when they're burning his books

Friend of mine keeps insisting, it's about dementia.

He was the first SJW. And a great one at that. Long live the Don!

>not realizing Don Quijote is an idealist in the dawn of modernity, and that the reason that you, the modern reader, interprets his actions as derangement, is because you are a godless nihilistic heathen without any notion of chivalric ideals and honor

Wew lit.

he dreamed of the past and it destroyed him. it's a warning for everyone living in the present to keep your eyes forward.

Quijote is the ultimate Chad

I feel like I could extrapolate some sort of message from this tale...

It was a different time.