Candide.

Finally got around to tackling the Voltaire classic. (Although it seems that the "experts" maintain that the book is neither long enough or serious enough to warrant classic status--and who are these "experts" anyway?) And surprised (actually amazed) to discover that it reads like a children’s book. It certainly is a fable, and the language couldn’t be simpler --though filled with much bygone vocabulary in the original Smollet English translation that I’m reading-- or more direct and to the point. The story flies along light as cotton candy and you can see why Leonard Bernstein was inspired to turn it into a romp filled comic operetta—though Lillian Hellman (that's her and Lenny on the right) wrote a pretty didactic and humorless book. Richard Wilbur saved the day when he stepped in the wrote the lyrics for the songs—which are great, and given a choice, I'd rather read them than listen to them sung in that operatic style that always makes it virtually impossible to understand a single word. And all that emphasis on perfect tone...doesn't work for me.
Learned that the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 ( 50,000 dead out of a population of 200,000—85% of all buildings destroyed and another 10,000 dead in Morocco) provided the inspiration for Voltaire and that in the aftermath of that tragic disaster he felt compelled to question the prevailing popularity of Liebniz's (Optimism) philosophy that stated :

"All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds."

It begins...

“Once upon a time in Westphalia, in the castle of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, there lived a young boy whom nature had endowed with the gentlest of dispositions.”

Candide is (like Huck Finn, Pip, Pinocchio?) cast out into the world as an innocent, only to learn for himself that all is not for the best, and that the world can be a dangerous, cruel, unfair and pitiless place. And Voltaire is savagely funny in his depiction of everything and everyone responsible for the world's ills and Candide’s disillusionment. It’s a very entertaining read…and I can imagine that in the right translation would make a terrific story to read aloud to kids.

Love when this happens...

Doing last Sunday NY Times Crossword-- interesting design and multi-themed, but not enjoyable and often annoying ( Rafael to friends is...RAFE?--since when? I've watched him play a hundred times and they always call him RAFA) ANYWHO... The gimmick is that the letters "fe" occupy the same space in some answers because it's the symbol for Iron...and the theme is " Grid Iron".

One of the clues requires the completion of Auto_______
The answer is da-fé..

And what is Auto da-fé ? (also can be de fe)

...It's was the ritual ("Act of Faith") of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions--after which the penitent soul would be duly rewarded with being burned at the stake.

And...

Voltaire was horrified by the practice and shrewdly attacks it when he introduces an Auto da-fé held by the people of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake in chapter six of Candide.
Voltaire has the wise leaders of the country decide that the best way to preserve the kingdom would be by entertaining the masses with the sight of several persons being burned alive in a great ceremony-- and proclaim that this will appease God and prevent future earthquakes. And this particular part of the book is why Lillian Hellman got involved in creating the show--as she wanted to make a connection between the Auto da-fé of Voltaire's time with the HUAC witch-hunts of our own.

really do love when that happens...(the inter-related connections, not the Auto da-fé)





Syrian Government Soldiers firing on civilians in refugee camp. Hundreds being killed daily. News coverage offers no explanation other than speculation and quotes from members of opposing camps. Soldiers seen on video charging into camp chanting “God is Great”.


Keep trying to find out more and can only come to conclusion that it’s simply total Mayhem. Mayhem made possible via the madness of religious fanaticism. And Religious fanaticism made possible by spiritual deprivation arising from material desperation. Lawrence Wright in his book The Looming Tower about the history of Al Qaeda culminating in the 9/11 attacks often mentions the simple fact that Radical Islam just pays better. Bin Laden was more like a benign and generous CEO than anything else to his followers--providing decent pay, vacation time, medical care, bonuses, even a primitive kind of 401K plan. God is great cause he offers the better deal…




And as H.L. Mencken asked:

"Where is the graveyard of dead gods?

So...take it away Mr. Mencken...

What has become of Sutekh, once the high god of the whole Nile Valley?


...What has become of:

Resheph, Baal, Anath, Astarte, Ashtoreth, Hadad,,Nebo, Dagon, Melek, Yau, Ahijah, Amon-Re, Isis, Osiris, Ptah, Molech?

All were gods of the highest eminence. Many of them are mentioned with fear and trembling in the Old Testament. They ranked, five or six thousand years ago, with Yahweh Himself; the worst of them stood far higher than Thor. Yet they have all gone down the chute, and with them the following:

Arianrod
Nuada Argetlam
Morrigu
Tagd
Govannon
Goibniu
Gunfled
Odin
Dagda
Ogma
Ogryvan
Marzin
Dea Dia
Mara
Iuno Lucina
Diana of Ephesus
Saturn
Robigus
Furrina
Pluto
Cronos
Vesta
Engurra
Zer-panitu
Belus
Merodach
Ubilulu
Elum
U-dimmer-an-kia
Marduk
U-sab-sib
Nin
U-Mersi
Persephone
Tammuz
Istar
Venus
Lagas
Beltis
Nirig
Nusku
En-Mersi
Aa
Assur
Sin
Beltu
Apsu
Kuski-banda
Elali
Nin-azu
Mami
Qarradu
Zaraqu
Ueras
Zagaga"

Which begs the question...

If there is a God what the hell is He for?
--WILLIAM FAULKNER, As I Lay Dying

and prompts the answer...

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."

--VOLTAIRE