Dialectical Journal #2: Candide (ugh)

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
“’Well, here’s a fine mess’ said Cunegonde. ‘There’s no going back now. That’s us excommunicated. Our last hour has come. How is it that someone as soft-hearted as you can have ended up killing a Jew and a prelate in a matter of minutes?’           ‘My dear girl,’ replied Candide, ‘when a man’s in love, jealous, and flogged by the Inquisition, there’s no knowing what he may do’’’	22	(R) Yesterday, I was actually looking forward to reading this book. That was before I realized something very important and that, my dear English teacher, is that this book is extremely stupid. As Merrick has told me about 5 times, this book is a ”refutation of optimism”. Hence the second name, “Optimism”. I just have no idea how anyone in this book is optimistic. They all seem crazy about this world being the “best of all possible worlds”   (which i can understand why Voltaire found annoying.  Honestly, this world is pretty horrible. In fact, it would be pretty depressing to think this is the best of all possible worlds) and junk, but they don't really seem to hope for the best  Maybe it's because they believe that everything that happens IS for the best. Even though everything that you wouldn't want to happen to you has happened to the couple speaking in the passage. By this part, though, they don't seem to believe in that "everything's for the best" opinion as much by this point ("I wonder why?" this blogger sarcastically thinks). Voltaire must really hate that kind of thinking. otherwise, why waste so much time writing a really dumb (forgive me literary police!) book?