We’re reading Candide by Voltaire on our Literature course.
The philosophy it deals with – be happy because things are as they should be in the world – has made me think. Voltaire talks about – well, what is a world – my world, your world, the world – are different places considered different worlds.
I also think the play on names is interesting – like Candide – which means white – or blank page and Candide’s philosophy teacher was called Pangloss which is a combination of Greek words – Pan (all) Gloss (tongue) – all tongue – all talk.
As I worked through computer problems today – all laptops had to be reconnected to the new wifi / the software company trying to remote install software on a server kept receiving an error they told me to get sorted before they could proceed. So, was it all meant to be? Was it all as it should be? All through the issues I kept thinking back to Candide and wondering – is it worth getting upset about just because this is how the cards fell today? Yesterday everything worked – today, it didn’t.
There is a bit of ‘que sera sera’ about it all but I like how I thought about the book rather than getting upset about things not going to plan.
We’ll see how long that accepting attitude lasts!
Liz Culver 