It seems to have been written by a creature of a nature wholly different from our own, indifferent to our lot, rejoicing in our sufferings, and laughing like a demon or an ape at the miseries of this human race with which he has nothing in common.Of course, Voltaire had plenty of feeling for "our sufferings" and was trying to remind us of them, while still being able to make them funny --there is such a thing as "dark humor." But something enabled Voltaire to write with an ironic distance that, fifty years later, another great French intellectual found impossible to understand: this change is a fine example of the change in sensibility that characterized the Romantic era.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
A Romantic Looks at Candide
Madame de Staël wrote in 1814 that
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I enjoyed this blog entry because it articulates the differences between the Enlightenment and the Romantic Era. Perhpas I find this detachment between eras hard to believe since I grew up reading work from both periods, but it seems strange to me that people from the Romantic Era could not even understand and appreciate satire. I believe Voltaire's writing touches human emotions in a similar way that romantic writing does; it just is articulated differently. This blog shows how fiction is an outlet for different people to say something their way and from their perspective.
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