Don Quixote tilted at windmills, which is to say that he leveled his lance at a windmill, spurred on his horse to the greatest speed of which his horse was capable, and drove the point of his lance at the flailing building.
Some quests may be delusional. Some may be futile. Sometimes, the perceived enemy is not really an enemy, and sometimes the perception might be correct, but is ridiculed.
Here is a lecture about tilting at windmills given by Professor Ryan Prendergast of the University of Rochester.
https://www.sas.rochester.edu/mlc/news-events/news/2019-03-24_prendergast_last_lecture.html
Here is a link to an excellent article by Christopher Gravett that tells you almost everything you might ever want to know about jousting.
https://www.livescience.com/jousting
For even more information as to how a jousting tournament relates to "tilting", Sudelely Castle has a great dictionary.
https://sudeleycastle.co.uk/news/jousting-dictionary-everything-need-know
For the estoteric, since the tilt was originally a length of cloth or cloth covering, later wood, used to divide the oncoming knights into two lanes to add a little orderliness to the joust, "tilting" is probably an example of metonymy, where a part replaces a whole: such as "he is fond of the bottle", or "all hands on deck".
By the way, if one looks at pictures of the Quintain, the idea of attacking a windmill suddenly makes more sense.
Metaphorically speaking, we writers and friends of writers can all tilt at windmills, and perhaps if enough of us sign the Authors Guild petition, some good may come of it, notwithstanding the overwhelming unlikeliness of the addressees doing "the right thing".
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/authors-guild-open-letter-to-generative-ai-leaders
Happy Fourth!
All the best,
Rowena Cherry
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