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A review by couuboy
Candide by Voltaire
4.0
How does one successfully resolve satire? William F. Bottiglia, who, as far as I can tell, is still regarded as one of the better scholars on Voltaire’s Candide, suggested the conclusion progresses from the pessimism that marked the first 19/20th’s of this book towards melioristic affirmation. That our protagonist had grown beyond being the object of satirical critique into the mouthpiece of Voltaire and his positive philosophy of the redemptive potential within production. On the other hand, Roy S. Wolper, holding one of the more provocative interpretations, stated that we may still yet interpret Candide as being satirised until the very end, rejecting the edifying message that many critics propagated.
That’s hermeneutics for you.
I first became aware of this book when I was 17 and had a pretty textbook teen-aged interest in black comedy films like ‘Withnail and I’ and ‘Trainspotting’. But the film that left the biggest impression was Mike Leigh’s ‘Naked’ in which David Thewlis (who played Johnny, the main character) said he read Candide as inspiration. I haven’t rewatched ‘Naked’ since I was 17 but as far as I can remember it didn’t come to the same conclusions that I believe Voltaire did. Which is to say, regardless of what colours – be it Bottiglian or Wolperian – you choose to nail to the mast, I think Candide is, as Ludwig Kahn said, “a diatribe against those mistaken philosophers who consider the actual world as incapable of further improvement”. This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.
That’s hermeneutics for you.
I first became aware of this book when I was 17 and had a pretty textbook teen-aged interest in black comedy films like ‘Withnail and I’ and ‘Trainspotting’. But the film that left the biggest impression was Mike Leigh’s ‘Naked’ in which David Thewlis (who played Johnny, the main character) said he read Candide as inspiration. I haven’t rewatched ‘Naked’ since I was 17 but as far as I can remember it didn’t come to the same conclusions that I believe Voltaire did. Which is to say, regardless of what colours – be it Bottiglian or Wolperian – you choose to nail to the mast, I think Candide is, as Ludwig Kahn said, “a diatribe against those mistaken philosophers who consider the actual world as incapable of further improvement”. This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.