New Ideas?

On Friday we discussed and read more of Walt Whitman’s works. And Mr. Tangen told us to analyze those poems and to identify who Whitman was targeting in his poem, particularly one of America. At first, we got the impression that Whitman was appraising Americans, and he was. But then Mr. Tangen recognized the fact that he was classifying “Americans” in his poems to everyone, because essentially we are a land of immigrants, therefore, we are everyone…according to Whitman. This demeans all Americans because if he is appraising Americans, he is appraising everyone, so his tone and original connotation of his subject is not longer valid.
I found an interesting notion in poem 18 that can easily be related to what we question on Friday about him glorifying Americans. What we didn’t notice was, does he have an opinion on war? And while I read I noticed that poem 18 like I said above is about how Whitman, being an American and idolizing these people, what he thinks of war? Does he talk about it in any of his poems? Yes.

“ Vivas to those who have fail’d!
And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!
And to those themselves who sank in the sea!
And to all generals that lost engagements! and all overcome heroes!
And the numberless unknown heroes, equal to the greatest heroes known. ”

Here we see a clear statement of war. The odd thing about this is, like we’ve analyzed already he exalted the American people. With this in mind, we would think that he would talk only of the Americans and their past history: all the wars, the battles, skirmishes, their victories, and finally their vital independence. But he doesn’t, he does the complete opposite, “ And the numberless unkown heroes, equal to the greatest heroes known.” Here he is equalizing both the unknown soldiers, which can give the implication of the opposing soldiers, and the “greatest soldiers known” which implies the glorious ones. Taking all these things into account, I was puzzled when I read the first line of the stanza Whitman writes, “Vivas to those who have fail’d!” I didn’t know what to think anymore, because not so long ago we had established that he was elevating everyone from the rest, but still if he had this mentality than why would he celebrate the failure of those who failed? Might he have been degrading the Americans self-centered egos once again? After evaluating a couple of pieces of Whitman and seeing an Anti-American trend, could he really be against them?

Chapters 6, 7, and 8

WHAT? I couldn't believe that Pangloss actually died! That was my reaction when I read that our dear educator was hung for his beliefs and opinions. Again we see Voltaire targeting the optimist people, we see here that Pangloss was a very altruist person, very humble man. Here is perfect example of the satire that Voltaire obviously possesses, Voltaire writes, "Candide was flogged in time with the anthem; the Basque and the two men who refused to eat bacon were burnt; and Pangloss was hanged, though that was not the usual practice on those occasions. The same day another earthquake ocurred and caused tremendous havoc." (37) Here we see that after Candide's flogging, after the Basque and those two men incendiary death, and Pangloss hung we see no sign of compassion, no sign of mourn for these people, the sentence follows with a informative fact of what usually doesn't happen and that another earthquake occurred. We see again that Voltaire's satirical side can be almost offending and unforgiveable. We see another example of Voltaire's satire in the Candide's flogging, Candide is flogged for merely agreeing with what Pangloss taught. It is satire because of the level of exaggeration in which Voltaire describes it to us. I'm very anxious to see what happens next in this satirical journey that Candide has embarked on and can't wait to read more of Voltaire ridiculous ideas!

Just Brilliant

Pretty funny thought: most of us probably came home today and were bummed out that Mr. Tangen had left us homework; read Walt Whitman. We probably thought it was going to be some absurd writer who probably didn’t do much in his life, a man that stayed in his basement and just wrote poems. Ridiculous I might suggest, and I choose the word ridiculous not only for its definition but simply because it just sounds right, ridiculous. As I read Walt Whitman on my 2-by-2 desk, sitting in front of my computer, eyes instinctively attached to the screen, immediately after reading the first few words, “I CELEBRATE myself;” (LoG; W.W.) Genius. Who would have ever thought that a poem writer would have the courage to begin his montage of poems in this manner, just brilliant. Or could it be a mock-like gesture? The audacity to appraise himself in that manner. I think that he not only represents “style” on so many different levels, he is the embodiment of what each writer should strive for, originality. He then proceeds in this manner, “And what I assume you shall assume; (LoG;W.W.) I gazed for a while, and began to think that the repetition was radiantly calling for attention and that’s what I focused on when reading, “what I assume you shall assume.” Speechless. It’s almost as if Whitman planned to do this, almost as if he juxtaposed these words so that they left the reader in admiration. Or could it be coincidence? Naaa, it couldn’t be. Or? Maybe, it was Withman’s wittiness that actually got something right. Whichever it may happen to be is unclear to me, I will never figure this out. So I did the obvious, turned my Ipod off, logged out of Facebook, closed my laptop shut, slowly sealed my eyes with my eye lids, and went to sleep.

Chapters 3-5 Of Candide

Voltaire must have written Candide for one reason or another, but this reasoning is ambiguous to me. Like we’ve seen many times throughout the beginning of this book, Voltaire uses satire and humor to give out his message to his viewers. An example where we see Voltaire targeting a group of people is in this conversation in between Candide and the minister, Voltaire writes, “ ‘Do you believe that the Pope is Antichrist, my friend?’ said the minister. ‘I have never heard anyone say so, ‘ replied Candide; ‘but whether he is or he isn’t. I want some food.’ ‘You don’t deserve to eat,’ said the other. ‘Be off with you, you villain, you wretch ! Don’t come near me again or you’ll suffer for it.’ (Voltaire pg. 27) Here we evidently see Voltaire targeting the church. He satirizes about stubbornness that the Church has towards people who are against or aren’t for them.

We are introduced to a peculiar character named James, the Anabaptist. James is an altruistic character and I noticed again, that Voltaire attacks the altruistic, optimistic people in this world. He does this because James tries to save a very “excited sailor who struck him a violent blow”(Voltaire 32)and the sailor lost his balance and almost fell overboard, James being the altruistic hero turns and saves the helpless sailor, when all of a sudden he slips and falls into the sea. The very selfish sailor doesn’t bother helping James who a few seconds earlier had saved his poor life. Voltaire again is targeting the Church, specifically Christian morals, the uselessness of being kind to everyone. He also criticizes the altruist, James, who doesn’t offer any good to society; in turn he is a victim of his own altruism.

Flaubertness

In tonight’s reading of A Simple Soul I realized something very peculiar, we had already discussed it in class but when I got home and began this reading I felt the need to reiterate it. Flaubert, like any other unique writer, has his own style and in this case it is known as, free indirect style. What fascinated me about his writing, was that he could intertwine multiple ideas with only a few commas, one could read a paragraph and not realize it was a sentence because of the efficiency and fluidness that he did so in, I was in complete bewilderment when reading because I now could not distinguish whether Flaubert’s style was grammatically incorrect or a distinguishable attribute that categorizes him as one of the greatest writers. Whichever it may be, I’m sure of one thing, Flaubert could be considered as the fore father of one of the most difficult and diverse styles of writing. And I’m hoping that we get to read more pieces of his writing.

By the way Mr. Tangen, did Flaubert only write in free indirect style?

Smooth Like Flaubert

In tonight’s reading of A Simple Sound I really found a feel for how Flaubert writes and his different approaches to his subjects. In chapters I-III, something I caught onto early on was that he used a lot of dialogue which usually indicates that the reading will be smooth and very straight forward. His sentence structure also impressed me because it takes the reader into a flow. I also noticed that he is very concise in his writing and I actually caught myself in a daze and was almost reading with no effort because he was so clear. I’m convinced that this will be one of the more enjoyable reads we will have in this semester!

The New Beginning

Once the baron banishes Candide from his castle for flirting with his daughter, Lady Cunegonde, Candide goes on and wanders to the nearest town.One thing I noticed and that I came up with was that while Candide lived in the castle he only knew what Pangloss taught him, being expulsed from the castle marks his re-education his new beginning because it is his first encounter with the real world. While there, two men find him half dead of hunger and fatigue and invite him to eat and drink with them. When I first read this I automatically thought of Pangloss' theory of this world being the "best of all possible worlds."Because we would think that if two men saw a poor, and unconsious man on the floor that they would leave him there. This theory of the world being good and honest supports the actions of these two men. The two men sign Candide up for the military where he is abused and suffers hardships as he is introduced into the army life. One thing I found interesting is that this army life in which Candide now found himself in, completely contradicts Pangloss' theory of the world being the best of all possible worlds. Because the army is a place with much cruelty, violence, harassment, discrimination. I feel that Voltaire wanted to point out that even if we have a lifestyle and feel that we know the world, there will always be misconceptions.

A Satirical Voltaire

As I began to read Voltaire's Candide I noticed something that caught my attention and I thought of it to be rather odd. Voltaire is actually satirizing most if not all characters and their personal traits. For example the name of the barony, "Thunder-ten-tronckh" although many people might have not taken it this way, I surely found it to be even mocking. Voltaire's word choice is questionable, one can say these words are childish because of the alliteration in between hyphens. He also undermines the families nobility, the very pride that one feels for their family name, their legacy. We see once again the use of mockery towards the characters when Pangloss, the castle's tutor, teaches a rather strange profession “metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology” we are given another example of Voltaire's childish word choice.

Another interesting demonstration of satire in which we see over and over in Candide is the inevitable display of going against the orthodox lifestyle or beliefs. For example we see early in the book that Voltaire ignores the aristocracy belief in natural superiority at birth when the baron's sister refuses to marry Candide's father because he only possessed 71 quarterings while she had 72. Again Voltaire illustrates the complete ignorance of Voltaire towards what was known as orthodox, in other words, he goes against what most people saw normal and just. In those times woman weren't given the decision to marry whom they wanted, they were told who would be their partner in matrimony.