It is one of Castro’s principal themes that the structure of 
Spanish history is axiologically inclined between the literate 
West and the oral Moorish East. “Even Cervantes expresses 
more than once a longing for Moorish justice, in spite of his 
long captivity in Algiers.” And it was the Moorish strain which 
immunized the Spaniards against the visual quantifications of 
literacy. Study of the Spanish case offers especially significant 
light on the diverse effects of literacy as print technology 
encounters unique cultures. The Spanish preference for living at 
the passionate centre may have an analogue in Russia where, 
unlike Japan, the effects of print technology have not extended 
to the discovery of consumer goods. And the oral Russian 
attitude to technology has a passionate character that may 
inure them, too, against the uses of literacy.

     Castro has a fine essay on “Incarnation in Don Quixote ” in