Comments on: Candide http://kxc0616.edublogs.org/2007/02/04/candide/ My MODL 5304 Blog Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:22:59 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: J.D. http://kxc0616.edublogs.org/2007/02/04/candide/comment-page-1/#comment-5 J.D. Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:07:14 +0000 http://kxc0616.edublogs.org/2007/02/04/candide/#comment-5 I agree that it was difficult to pin down a definition of enlightenment for the response paper without copying something from a book. I also found the same problem when I tried to write how Candide was written and the characteristics of the Enlightenment...they didn't go together all the time. Do you think that was on purpose so Voltaire could make a point since his work Candide was not (according to him) his masterpiece....?? I agree that it was difficult to pin down a definition of enlightenment for the response paper without copying something from a book. I also found the same problem when I tried to write how Candide was written and the characteristics of the Enlightenment…they didn’t go together all the time. Do you think that was on purpose so Voltaire could make a point since his work Candide was not (according to him) his masterpiece….??

]]> By: Catherine http://kxc0616.edublogs.org/2007/02/04/candide/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Catherine Mon, 12 Feb 2007 04:19:30 +0000 http://kxc0616.edublogs.org/2007/02/04/candide/#comment-4 It's easy to get caught up in the hyperbole of Candide and the pessimism vs. optimism, but I think there's a lot of the Enlightenment in there, too. Think of our Declaration of Independence, written at the height of that period, which proclaims our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That said, I would agree that Voltaire had a lot of his own axes to grind, and in spite of him making fun of the rich and snobby, I think there was something of the elitist in him, too. (Meaning I don't think he had much truck with the riff-raff in his personal life.) It’s easy to get caught up in the hyperbole of Candide and the pessimism vs. optimism, but I think there’s a lot of the Enlightenment in there, too. Think of our Declaration of Independence, written at the height of that period, which proclaims our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That said, I would agree that Voltaire had a lot of his own axes to grind, and in spite of him making fun of the rich and snobby, I think there was something of the elitist in him, too. (Meaning I don’t think he had much truck with the riff-raff in his personal life.)

]]>