Candide by Voltaire

Candide by Voltaire

…"I am still of my first opinion," answered Pangloss, "for I am a philosopher and I cannot retract"

Candide is widely known to be one of the most influential works of French literature. While I haven't read a lot of French literature, I found this lampoon quite interesting because of its quick wit, fast-pace, tongue-in-cheek humor & intelligent sarcasm.

Candide's plot is a lampoon on Leibniz's philosophy of evil. Leibniz believes that this world is the best of all worlds. Voltaire takes us through the story of Candide who goes through various hardships in his life- he is thrown out of Baron's care, beaten by armies, pirates, closed to being burnt. Even the people he cares about go through similar hardships- women are ravished and men are burnt and enslaved.

Despite all these hardships Candide remembers his teacher's words- this world is the best of all worlds. Leibniz had tried to counter two problems to prove that God indeed has created the best world- first that God is an underachiever who failed to create  the best world, second God is not holy if he accommodates evil and perhaps even causes it. We see Candide often asking similar questions through the story when he suffers. However, he still does not try to change his mind about this philosophy. Even Pangloss, his teacher, towards the end of the story, no longer believes in the maxim. Still, he refuses to retract his opinion. This goes to show how people often have too much faith in philosophers without testing the philosophy themselves. Voltaire seems to say that we trust famous people too much, rather than cross-examining their ideas. Perhaps, Voltaire wants us to detach ideas from people and test their logic.

All in all, Candide is a superb short read and would not disappoint a reader looking to read something comic yet meaningful.

The crying of lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

The crying of lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

…You could waste your life that way and never touch the truth

The crying of lot 49 is known to be one of the greatest contemporary works of postmodern literature. Thus, before reading this work, I did not expect much clarity of story line.And I did not get any clarity. Pynchon’s work is not like Kafka’s although both of these authors refuse to give the reader any chance of closure. However, Pynchon goes a step ahead. Unlike Kafka, he does not even try to lead to the reader to a direction to resolve the conflict in the story. Indeed the reader fails even to comprehend the conflict of the story. Kafka at least gives hope of a climax. Pynchon’s world is straight up paranoid. Instead of moving towards clarity the plot moves towards chaos- increasing complexity in terms of history, number of characters, meaning of symbols.

Pynchon will not even give reader a chance to an interesting plot. A young woman’s ex-boyfriend dies and names her the executer of his estate. As she tries to execute her responsibilities she uncovers a possible alternate channel of postal mail besides the government postal mail system. There is no clear objective why this alternate channel might exist or an evil plot of what it can lead to.  Oedipa Maas, the young woman, finds herself in a shapeless cloud of paranoia, drugs, perversity and psychological horror. She eventually comes with four explanations of what is happening to her and prefers to be called mad than believe the other three explanations. She even imagines her ex-boyfriend has played a practical joke on her. Even after suspecting it is a joke, Oedipa does not stop chasing clues and horns. The story ends on a suspense that is never resolved. Even the significance of the suspense is not clear.  In the end the reader is left bereft of any joy of conclusion. In fact, the story has possibly made up historical facts and  faux-science. It seems that Pynchon wanted to portray paranoia in a form that will not be verified by reality.

It might be useful to analyze the story in light of the societal context in which it was written. In 1960's, public paranoia in America had escalated. The assassination of JFK, Vietnam war, civil rights movement, and music embroiled in psychedelic drugs- all this had led to propagation of conspiracy theories- a lot of them partially founded on facts and partially on imagination. Pynchon's novel seems to be an exaggerated of this context. Indeed, Pynchon's private life reflected this distrust and seclusion. Pynchon’s vision of the world is loose- unsatisfactory- full of paranoia and a grotesque yet banal atmosphere. Pynchon’s work too remains reclusive, uncaring of its audience and doesn’t even bother to give meaning to itself or let someone else give it meaning.

While I can appreciate this novella in terms of its significance at the time, I do not think I’m ready to embrace its chaos just yet. I’d like to have at least Kafka’s way of giving hope and then wresting it in the works I read. Or Orwellian way of building characters.

Recommended only for those who embrace chaos or would like to experiment with literature.

The Plague by Albert Camus

The Plague by Albert Camus

                       …and his choice would be to believe everything,
                           so as not to be forced into denying anything

Ofcourse, when there is Camus, there is always detachment. And yet in detachment, there is a sense of fairness, of meaning and at the cost of being inaccurate, of life. Individual miseries mean nothing in the face of collective misery and perhaps…they mean nothing in the face of a common death for everyone.

'The plague' is set in Oran in 1940s. One day multitudes of rats suddenly come out of manholes and of corners and start dying. Eventually, so do people. Dr. Rieux, possibly the protagonist (but not clearly so, as was the case of Mersault in 'The stranger') is one of the first people to notice and raise alarm in the city.

The first reaction of administration is denial, then acceptance with a certain degree of optimism and finally a flickering hope. As soon as it is confirmed that the epidemic is plague, city gates are closed and everyone is cutoff from the outside world. Soon, warm and loving letters are forced to be telegrams- every feeling that felt real is now an 'abstraction'. In the following months, people sometimes exaggerate their emotions while realizing this 'abstraction' from the reality. Even the religion of plague is not the regular religion. We see a priest watching his world collapsing and bordering on heresy while preaching sermons. But we also see heroes, who would not like to be called heroes- Dr. Rieux and Tarrou who continue to help people even though they do not understand why- these men have been always been aware of this plague..this executioner within themselves and yet they treat it with 'abstraction'

Dr. Rieux seems much like the absurd hero (like Mersault of 'The stranger'). He feels disconnected with the world and yet finds some moments of honest feelings, as that of his friendship with Tarrou (which he realizes never grew into a friendship). And although Dr. Rieux does not have the same fate as Mersault in the exact sense, it seems that his fate is much the same allegorically- surrendering to the 'benign indifference' of the universe. Some critics claim that 'The plague' could be an allegorical depiction of French resistance to Nazi occupation during the world war two. This certainly seems like an interesting perspective and the reader would be able to interpret it as such if they put their minds to it.

All in all, 'The plague' is nothing less than 'The stranger'- both are masterpieces! One can feel Camus's absurdism and hopelessness coupled with irrational optimism as one sifts through the pages of the novel.Highly recommended!

The lady with the Dog and other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekov

The lady with the Dog and other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekov

       …How soft, how snug, how warm, how comfortable—and how bored you are!

It is difficult to think of another short story writer besides Chekov, except perhaps Wilde, whom I've been moved by so much. I was not surprised when I read that he is widely known as one of the best short story writers in the world.

Chekov's stories are often stagnant, unfulfilling and eccentric- this seems to me either a reflection of the melancholy and idiosyncrasies of the life in Russia in times of Chekov or Chekov's own melancholy. His stories have diverse themes- from infidelity and passionate disconnectedness of the lady with the dog to pubescent guilt and wavering self-esteem of Volodya.

There is also an undercurrent of the supernatural or metaphysical doubt in Chekov's stories- the philosophically well-founded boredom of Orlov in An anonymous story gives way to the conspicuous enlightenment of Kovrin in the Black Monk. It seems that Chekov has a penchant for portraying the unusual in the usual to create a certain discomfort…a certain dissonance in the mind of the reader. This dissonance amidst sheer honesty, disgust and jealous joy creates a sort of plausibility in the tales that further makes Chekov's stories closer to the real world than, say, Gogol's stories are. While there are twists in Chekov's stories, the thrills are not without significance. They are but a reflection of our insecurities, our repression, our societal conformity.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who has a taste for slightly eccentric works but is not looking for a cheap thrill.