
Candide is one of those books I always thought I ought to read, although I admit I thought it was just a Bernstein musical for a long time. It's like if one likes literature they should read, Moby Dick, Wuthering Heights, Ovid's Metamorphosis, Plato's Republic, etc. Somehow these books get lodged in our awareness regardless of their individual merits. This is how it ended up on my list.
Candide is probably the only time I ever have had to directly use information I learned in my college philosophy course. Candide is a young man who believes in philosophical optimism, i.e. this is the best of all possible world so the bad things that happen are ultimately for the best. The entire book is horrible things happening to Candide and all of his friends in the most unlikely of ways. After a series of triumphs and sudden reversals where Candide clings to his philosophical optimism, it finally resolves at the end with a revision of his beliefs which essentially boiled down to 'keep your head down and don't think too much.'
Clearly, Candide is a satire that attacks philosophy and religion. I found it amusing mainly because it was attacking many of the same things I've butted my head against over the years.
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