I got caught today laughing with or towards Candide, I’m still not sure which, but my mom thinks I’m crazy to be laughing upon a book written by Voltaire a philosopher-politician from the French Revolution.
Sitting down and having to explain to her how it is all written with satire, she still does not believe me. I understand then it is hard to explain, how can I tell her the author is mocking everything in the book, even the complete essence of it by starting it with a double inner cover with different authors. That nothing in the book is said literally, everything has a hidden meaning behind it, yet there is a story line meant to make sense.
I told her she should read some fragments of it, so she proceeded to do so. She found the following two the funniest from the chapter she read:
“Candide instantly drew his own and plunged it up to the hilt in the Baron’s stomach, but as he withdrew the dripping blade he began to weep and cried: ‘O God! What have I done! I have killed my old master, my friend, and my brother in law! I am the best-tempered man there ever was, yet I have killed three men, and two of them were priests” (PG.67)
She laughed, how ironical is it the he calls himself the best-tempered man and then proceeds to exaggerate that he has only killed three men, plus two of them were part of the ‘horrific’ sects: religion.
“They found two naked girls who were tripping along the edge of the meadow, while two monkeys followed them nibbling their buttocks. Candide’s heart was touched by the sight.” (PG.69)
Is Voltaire even taking this book seriously? It is pure absurdity, she said.
She finally got my point! The whole book is absurd the story itself has no meaning, the real meaning lies within the satire. What Voltaire mocks about society and everything he disagrees about is expressed in an entertaining way through the book.
My job here is done.
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