Well, hell, if you're a Spaniard frittering away your vital juices or whatever the nasty stuff was as a bureaucrat, there's no point in escaping the dire reality by writing happy fiction.

At least the events leading to the inevitable tragic end are hilarious. And deeply committed, of course.

Personally, I hope that manuscript comes to a very tragic end, like burned in a trash can.

And then we take the trashcan and beat the author and the translator over the head with it.

And deeply committed, of course.

Well, he is acting willfully, after all.

Of course he's acting wilfully. He has to, since he has summer wheat in his large, green eyes which sparkle with his own light from within.

As opposed to sparkling with someone else's light, I suppose?

Or light from without.

Reminded of one of the stupidest phrases on earth: "I saw it with my own eyes!"

Um, yes. Well now. I did rather assume that the speaker hadn't seen it with their cousin Hamish's eyes.

That's like my brother's favorite detective/cop faux-pas "shot to death." You don't shoot anyone to life, do you?

Shot to Gehenna, maybe?

Stupid phrase. Not sure it's quite at the level of obviousness as "my own eyes", but it's definitely up there.

Reminded of one of the stupidest phrases on earth: "I saw it with my own eyes!"

I think that's a case of redundancy for effect.

That's like my brother's favorite detective/cop faux-pas "shot to death." You don't shoot anyone to life, do you?

I don't think that one is so bad. Because he could have shot him without killing him. It's like bludgeoning someone to death. Or boring someone to death.