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In view of some Cervantistas¿ recent reminder of Don Quixote¿s original comic intent, we consider the laughter its reading should cause from the point of view of a psychosomatic involuntary reaction, whose characteristics force us to rethink the nature of literary experience. Laughter considered as such exhausts the meaning of our reading as it actualizes the author¿s intention: a kind of short circuit between mind and body, it causes or manifests an unreasonable, if not irrational, understanding ¿an eclipse, or, etymologically, an abandonment of reason¿ contrary to, or at least different from, the usual literary understanding. A laughing reading of Don Quixote, such as the one proposed by P. E. Russell et al., would turn out to be, we conclude, not only impoverishing but dangerous ¿as is shown, by way of example, with the reading of a passage as hilarious as the night fight in Juan Palomeque¿s inn (I, 16).
