What questions do you have about it?
Have you had to read it before? What did you take away from your previous study of it?
What do you look forward to discussing with regard to it?
Deadline: Friday (4/22), start of class.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
For Credit: Candide!
What questions do you have about it?
Have you had to read it before? What did you take away from your previous study of it?
What do you look forward to discussing with regard to it?
Deadline: Friday (4/22), start of class.
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9 comments:
I had to read this novel at the beginning of the semester for HIST 142 (Western Civ survey course. In that class we focused mainly on how it reflected the enlightenment era in its historical contexts. We spent little if any time at all discussing it's more literary qualities.
That being said, I'm looking forward to discussing this novel in relation to its position as a work of literature. One of the things I find most baffling is how incredibly over the top the plot line is. It's a collection of all of the absolute worse calamities a person can suffer quickly followed by the greatest good fortunes before plummeting back into calamity. In terms of its "believability" I found it akin to Gulliver's travels, and think that Voltaire is using a similar framework to make distinctly different social/political/religious comments.
I just finished chapter 12 and I have to say, I have never read a piece that had so much happen in it within a mere 12 chapters! I agree with the person who posted before me in saying that it is kind of baffling how over the top the plot is- but that is what makes it entertaining and interesting. I enjoyed reading the gruesome bits ("They slit the throats of my father and brother, and hacked my mother to pieces" 464) outloud to my friends and seeing their reactions. I look forward to discussing these aspects and seeing what happens in the rest of the piece.
I haven’t read Candide since high school and to be honest I didn’t really remember any of it, except that it has an over-the-top plotline. What I look forward to is discussing the old woman who’s the maid to Cunegonde (hilarious name). Her practicality makes her a foil to the lovers’ incapability to see reasonably, unlike Candide who believes “everything’s for the best” and Cunegonde who constantly bemoans her situation, the old woman looks on her misfortunes as an unfortunate part of life.
While speaking of her time as a slave on the pirate ship with her mother she ends with, “But enough of this. Such things are so commonplace they’re not worth talking about” (469). The old woman doesn’t concentrate on her past misfortunes. And after witnessing that same group of crew and slaves slayed by Moors she dismisses it by again addressing it’s commonality: “Similar scenes were taking place, as you know, over an area more than three hundred leagues across…” (469). Ironically, if Cunegonde did indeed know misfortune was common to all humans then she wouldn’t complain about her misfortune as much, leading me to believe she is either very selfish or very stupid.
But what cements her understanding of humanity’s shared fate of misfortune is the last line of her story: “Just for fun, why not get each passenger to tell you the story of his life, and if there is one single one of them who hasn’t cursed the day he was born and hasn’t often said to himself that he was the most unfortunate man alive, then you can throw me into the sea headfirst” (472). She’s mocking Cunegonde and Candide’s ability to fully wrap themselves up in their own misery without considering how others might feel the same despair. She finalizes her viewpoint that every human being resents his/her lot in life at some point in time, while also mocking the everyone’s ability to shut themselves off from human empathy the same way Cunegonde and Candide do. She is so assured of her vision of humanity that she jokes about throwing herself off the boat if she is wrong. She seems the only “normal” viewpoint in the story – not swayed in her opinion be either extreme feelings of philanthropy, morality or philosophy (unlike Pangloss and his students).
Sorry that was long, I just really like the old woman. :)
Candide certainly is kind of a strange text. Despite it's lengthiness, I was able to read the entire text and while it took a couple of hours it felt like a relatively quick read. I attribute this to the quickness in which the plot moves along. Candide lives in the castle. He gets kicked out. He's in the army. He leaves the army... Voltaire glances over each of the events in Candide's epic. Compared to Fantomina, whole pages were devoted to describing Fantomina's conflict with desire and maintaining her honor. In Voltaire's story, people come and go, with no lamenting or anything. Just a "all is as it should be" by the overly confident philosopher Pangloss. Moreover, characters seem to come back to life after disappearing for extended periods of time. Candide finds Cunegonde, who was supposedly dead and most people would be after being stabbed in the guts. In general, Candide is a crazy tale.
Like RJB, I also read Candide a couple semesters back for History 142. I just think it's amazing how ridiculous the text is, and the level of irrationality and satire is hilarious. Obviously, Voltaire uses Candide to comment on certain philosophies, religious power structures, etc., but he does so in such an entertaining way (the over-the-top, gruesome violence, for example). I'm curious as to whether this text has been adapted for performance, as I can only imagine how some parts of the story would be recreated.
I was surprised I was reeled into this story. I expected it to be filled with hard-to-understand ideas or some complicated storyline, but it was surprisingly very easy to read and understand. If I could describe it in word, it would have to be that it is a very "candid" story. It is very straightforward and does not fail to relay any gruesome details. The story doesn't beat around the bush or try to avoid any uncomfortable or ugly situations. It simply tells the story as how everything happens. I guess in a way, I appreciate its candidness because I can understand the story through its simple language, but it's also pretty...unappetizing to read about dismemberment, disembowelment, raping, etc.
What gets me wit this story is Voltaire's swift and harsh way of offing the good natured characters such as Jacques and Pangloss. They just simply get wiped off the pages without any mercy, and it's kind of sad. I guess this is one of the deals we get with the frankness of the story. Even though Candide does mourn over their deaths, it is not dwelled much on and barely revisited. But I suppose the focus of the story is on Candide and not on the other characters.
I appreciate reading another work of philosophical criticism coming out of the enlightenment. I look forward to dissecting Voltaire's satire and delving into the issues of society and religion at hand.
Over the years, I've had Candide assigned pretty frequently. It's one of those texts that any history or literature class that might conceivably be connected to it will assign the book, if only out of appreciation for how enjoyable a read it manages to be while still exemplifying so much about the period.
What I'm most looking forward to our discussion touching on is how the class reacts to some of the more (intentionally) unbelievable aspects of the story, such as (SPOILER ALERT) the death and resurrection of Pangloss or the woman with one buttock. As RJB noted, this is one over-the-top story.
I found it very interesting that Pangloss always stated that all is well. While he may have been a philosopher it does not mean that he has never seen cruelty in the world. I can imagine why Candide would believe in this teaching, since he has been shielded by all of the unfortunate events that occur beyond the castle. Also why would Pangloss allow the antibaptist to die from drowning without allowing Candide to go help him. If Pangloss was going to say that that was destiny then by all means he should have allowed Candide to attempt to rescue him. Usually when I hear that something happened because it was meant to happen, its done after a tragedy to make one feel better. Though usually the person has no power to prevent the tragedy, in this case Candide may have been able to save the antibaptist. I feel that it was probably for the best when they hanged Pangloss the philosoper, he would not have had the deciveness as the old lady had to lead Cunegonde and Candide out of the castle after Candide murdered the two men. Pangloss accepts everything too easily and would probably had done nothing to help them escape, on the other hand the old woman has been on quite an unfortunate adventure and she is all the smarter and more knowledgeable about the world for that. She is not ignorant to the tragedies of the world, and unlike Pangloss does not accept that all is well in the world. There is no place for philosophers in the world who have nothing to contribute to the real world besides questions of morality or thought.
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