Between The Lines

With only a few chapters of Voltaire’s Candide, under my belt, I am becoming more keen and cautious on spotting a silent but deadly factor in Voltaire's writing. Voltaire embeds his messages through a very subtle and elegant fashion, he makes sure never to reveal his true ideas out-front. As I read, I find myself lost in a sea of words that at first glance don’t have a "significant" or contributing factor. But as I read it again, somehow with a closer eye, I reveal ideas and questions that are embedded deep between the lines of Candide. As a famous man once said: "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." Doubt is much involved in Voltaire's passages; he leaves everything up for grabs, leaving the obvious to his criteria of criticism, "the patriots of France." And the embedded to the witty. I mention the words "patriot" to draw a parallel to Chapter. 3 in Candide, How Candide escaped from the Bulgars, and what happened to him afterwards.  

The hard-core war fanatic that Voltaire proved to be with his Enlightment writings takes his time to fully "glorify" the "heroes" of his country. He devotes more than half of his chapter, describing the "heroic butchery" of his countrymen. Describing the: beauty of two well trained armies, excellent tactics, the admiralty of a massacre, and the worthy ruins justified by "international law." It takes time to fully digest and realize what Voltaire is expressing, some people don’t even notice, that is the beauty of the Frenchman’s writing. That urging in your mind to reread the passage once more to fully comprehend, or taking the risk of falling victim to Voltaire's writing.