“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.” ― Voltaire, Candide
It's funny because it's a character that says it in the book but somehow Voltaire makes it very clear when he's speaking his mind THROUGH a character and when a character is talking for an alternative purpose
@@merrittanimation7721 No irony I fear. Just a trademark clean stab into the idiot populist 'heart'. It's candid, simple and fair. More power to his elbow in these dark times. ( That was irony ).
I always took the ending to be neither pessimistic nor optimistic but pragmatic: "Let us be productive with what little we have." Also, you missed highlighting the most timeless exchange in the entire book: “How many plays have been written in France?' Candide asked the abbe. 'Five or six thousand.' 'That's a lot,' said Candide. 'How many of them are good?' 'Fifteen or sixteen,' replied the abbe. 'That's a lot,' said Martin.”
I think that the line let us go cultivate our garden means that the problems of the world are going to exist no matter what. The only true happiness you can find in it is by working on yourself and what you love, and that searching and searching for a utopia, or pretending the world you live in is one. Ultimately this novel is a criticism of several philosophers' views on life and what makes a good life, and I think that Voltaire gives both the simplest, and truest example by this quote. That a good life is one where you do what you are good at to the best of your abilities.
Monica Moon - I’m a BIG advocate of teachers guiding students through literature. I read Candide in a college French literature class, so I had a bit more time to learn about things like philosophy and The Enlightenment. If I had read it in high school, I would have missed a lot of the meaning. Fortunately, Candide is great on many levels (as you know). It’s a serious shame your teacher didn’t provide proper context.
I found throughout the book that Candide and others are constantly trying to go somewhere so they can be happy. As if all that is stopping them from happiness is their location. In El Dorado Candide sees a perfect location and is surprised that he is unhappy. He expects happiness to happen to him. It is only when they retire to the farm that Candide and the others start to actively create their own happiness. Another theme I found was that of the importance of relationships. Candide is happiest when traveling with friends, but he doesn't value these friendships until the farm. I took "cultivate our garden' to partially refer to their family. All is well because they are together. A third theme seems to follow "idle hands are the Devil's play things". Whenever Candide is busy, he seems content, but when he gets bored, crazy things happen. In the end, he finds joy in using his hands to create something, rather than just sit and think about his plight.
It's basically the end of Fast & the Furious 6, where after all the globetrotting adventures what Dom Toretto and the crew believe will make them happy more than anything is to go back to their house in Los Angeles and say grace over a barbecue.
It would be a pretty optimistic world if everyone just had their own garden they could go cultivate. My entire life is just a long uphill struggle to obtain a little garden to cultivate.
The garden is figurative for space, but in any case: you need space to put your bucket full of dirt in, and space for yourself to occupy next to that bucket, space to stand or sit or lay down when you get too tired to stand anymore, and space for your gardening tools (not that you would need much to "garden" a bucket), etc. And even if you had all of that, you're not going to last long "tending your own garden" if that garden is a mere bucket.
I dunno, when I read the book for a class I read the ending differently. I saw it more like an idea that in order to effect change in the world we must work on ourselves first and understand how our actions contribute to the evil in the world. Not that we need to shut ourselves away in a selfish way.
lamarriere yes! Voltaire's response to Leibniz wholly denounces the means of fate being in the hands of an omnipotent, perfect creator that dictates the balance of good and evil (read: consequence/circumstance, essentially) and Candide saying "our garden" I thought too was more of a nod to the entire ensemble of characters finally escaping their violently changing circumstances (going in and out of comfortable nobility, to begging, to being soldiers, engagement to upper class society, prostitution, becoming a jesuit, etc etc) by working together as a means to dictate their fate-thus disproving Liebniz/Pangloss in their optimism theory. John's response to the end was really surprising, for me lol (I much prefer Bernstein's takeaway, if you ever have the time to find it on youtube)
"To cultivate our own garden" means introspection. Know Thyself. If you want to change the world to a better place, start by changing yourself (BE the change), and the rest will follow, if you just try to change the others, nothing will ever happen.
Probably a message too revolutionary for Crash Course! I can't believe they thought that an illuminist as Voltaire was referring to the Bible and the Garden of Eden...
Well, John Green says: "But as a conclusion of this particular novel, it does seem weirdly conservative? I mean, the ending is a return to a garden.What's more Biblical than that?". This is what Voltaire thought about the bible and christians: "It is characteristic of fanatics who read the holy scriptures to tell themselves: God killed, so I must kill; Abraham lied, Jacob deceived, Rachel stole: so I must steal, deceive, lie. But, wretch, you are neither Rachel, nor Jacob, nor Abraham, nor God; you are just a mad fool, and the popes who forbade the reading of the Bible were extremely wise." Voltaire was a revolutionary, not a conservative. Gardens are found in every culture, not only the bible.
I took the "our" garden to be akin to everyone working together on our communal garden, the Earth, and that it was more a statement reminding the reader that we too need to work together on our part so that the overall whole is better for it. That is just my reading of the line though! It is super cool to hear others! :D
Candide has to _repeatedly_ state that "we must cultivate our garden" as a gentle reminder to Pangloss every time he starts off on another lecture of Leibnizian optimism. To me, it seems really clear in that context that it was meant to be read as Starlessbooks wrote. Something along the lines of, "yeah, yeah, this world is perfect, but regardless of what you choose to believe, as a matter of pragmatism we're going to suffer if we don't invest effort in fixing it, so you can keep talking but please grab a trowel."
I always thought of it as 'Pangloss, philosophy is nice and all, but tot stay alive we need to actually work and do stuff, not just sit and think about life.'
I don't agree with his opinion on the ending. Voltaire meant to convey what Alan Watts and several spiritual leaders in the east have said, that you should not talk or worry yourselves to death what you cannot control, rather focus on what you can do and do it to the best of your ability. If everyone did that, the world would eventually become a much better place. It also, rather passively warns about unnecessary activism and hypocrisy that we see in our modern society. Focus on your work, and when you can, help others. That's the secret of a peaceful life. That's what he wanted to say.
"Voltaire's racism and misogyny might reflect his times, but his pseudoscientific justifications for them are worth noting in our times" Couldn't agree more.
Cunegonde is a Persian play on words. Voltaire could speak Persian or at least was familiar with it. In Persian, "cun" means anus and "gonde" means huge or corpulent. Thus, Cunegonde means huge butt in Persian.
A thought on Voltaire's final message, I imagine he sees this as a universal rule. That, if everyone just worried about their own garden, they wouldn't have much time for evil deeds.
I loved this book. To be honest; everything important is in the the first and last paragraphs. I would have loved it if you would have touched the topic of the burden of knowledge.
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"Let us cultivate our garden" can also refer to stop worrying about what happens in the "best possible world" and focus in our own. In that sense, it is completely in line with what you suggest at the end of the video. Also, working in our garden can mean setting ourselves to our tasks, which does include involvement with the world: the task of living and mastery. I can definitely see a critique to overthinking and idleness; such questions, such as one that judges as good or evil the nature of existence, when given a too predominant importance tends to a dispersion of thinking and focus. Maybe this is Voltaire telling us to stop complaining and speculating so much about everything, and do something with our life.
I studied Voltaire at school and from what I learned, Voltaire wasn't racist he was just extremely sarcastic. I believe you can find a bit of truth in that in a chapter of Candide: Candide and slavery as well as other texts of his denouncing slavery.
I was really hoping to see some red sheep. Introducing Voltaire, I think you should have said a word or two about Jansenism, since Voltaire's father and brother were Jansenists, and Voltaire was reacting against that, as well as Leibniz. Also, it's worth noting that at the end of his life, Voltaire devoted himself to being a good seigneur over the extensive land his wealth had bought him. He was cultivating his garden, which included the lives of all the people who lived and worked on those lands. And finally, if you are going to read this in English translation, find the Norton Critical Edition.
Senpai God Yes! And Waiting for Godot would be great too, if we're tackling French literature. Les Mis is such a superb book and musical that has really stood the test of time. 😄
@Rashmika the Artsy: I don't know how interesting you can make _Waiting for Godot._ I've never read it, but I've had an English teacher who hated it. From what I know of it, it literally has no plot; the main characters are just waiting for and constantly talking about this Godot person who never appears. I'm not sure how you can make a play that has no plot sound interesting.
Senpai God yeah as someone that I looking at les mis from several different way The book in literature analysis The film in film studies The play as a performance as stage manager There are so many things that are interesting that never made it into the musical(s) And the order of it changes in every version: Broadway vs Westend Original vs tour vs current Film vs stage School adaptation vs original Musical vs book Very version has a different order and that impact how you see the characters if they do x before y then it changes their motivation and reactions As much as I don't think he would talk about it but it would be nice to look at it from a why orders change in adaptations and how does it change the characters In short agree would love to watch an episode on Les mis
Share our vegetables with others? You commie! :P (Author's Note: This comment was satire of people who don't know the difference between communism and socialism, and who are against both on the grounds that encouraging people to help others is terrible and immoral. It does not reflect the views of the commenter in any way.)
I'm not against all government social assistance, but I will point out that there is a difference between encouragement and government mandated "encouragement". Socialism is not the former.
bjr1822 I agree. Which is why I don't think you need to have any socialistic tendencies to agree with John's point, making the whole "parodying people who can't distinct socialism and communism" bit kind of out of place.
I had a totally different interpretation and the video missed my favorite part. My understanding was a critique of two pre-enlightenment ideas 1 - Everything happens for a reason and has it should be 2- leaders are worthy and people should live for the glory of their country, religion or identity. Voltaire or Candide's Statement that "we must take care of our garden" is to ignore those nationalist and religions philosophies and identities and take care of what is important. Garden means the real world, the one we live in. My favorite part was the meeting of former leaders gathered in a meeting all going through misery, showing that their former positions were purely arbitrary and meant nothing.
There are two primary hypotheses: one proposes that syphilis was carried to Europe from the Americas by the crew of Christopher Columbus as a byproduct of the Columbian exchange, while the other proposes that syphilis previously existed in Europe but went unrecognized. Syphilis might have been always present in the Old World but was not identified as a separate disease from leprosy before about A.D. 1500.
It's insightful, gruesome, and hilarious. How many other classic novels have references about noble women putting pipes in their butts, for instance? And don't forget they flying red sheep!!!
According to the footnotes of my copy of "Candide," Voltaire was experiencing financial problems and blamed it on Jewish bankers, like everyone did back then, unfortunately.
"I may not agree with the way you misattribute quotes in a way that can be easily refuted in one Google search, but I'll defend to the death your right to do so." -Volotaraire
fun fact: In French the title of Huxley's Brave New World is The Best of all Possible Worlds ("le Meilleur des Mondes"), I always thought the point was to have it be a literary reference that has the same relevance has the original title from Shakespeare's Tempest but would be more immediately recognizable by "learnt" French speakers but I haven't fact-checked that (and I guess it's quite hard to do, since text has why translators made a certain choice are hard to come by) Wikipedia says Voltaire was trying to satirize an expression originally from Liebniz but I didn't know of the Liebniz thing and always connected it with Voltaire, dunno about other French speakers.
Wow, I read this book once (in French) when I was in grade 7, clearly I missed out on most of the important stuff. I only knew that he ended up really rich from el dorado and eventually found his crush, even though she was uglier and older. 😅😅
Your ending seems weak. If Much of the evil in the work comes from people trying to till other peoples gardens ( saving heathens etc.) then it makes sense that you must tend to your own garden. Also realistically the Only actions you control are your own. that does not mean you cannot address social issues but you need to have your own garden well weeded first and be honest as to why you are 'helping'.
"...try to work to change and improve this not yet best of all possible worlds." I'm right there with you John, making the "our" garden less personal, and more of the larger, grander, communal garden. Thank you for opening us up to inquiry. :)
Candide wasn't actually "bored" with the so-called Utopia of El-dorado, he was just too much infatuated with Cunégonde that he can't stop thinking about her and so he leaves the place to rescue her.
Jordan Peterson talks about a balance between chaos and order. In particular when there is too much order, like in El Dorado, Candide is bored and is yearning to leave. Peterson makes the argument that if humanity were ever placed in a situation of perfect order, we would tear it apart just so that something interesting would happen. We live on the border between order and chaos, not in either domain.
Well, to be fair it's Dostoyevsky who posits this originally in Notes from underground (the crystal palace), J.B.P references it constantly and we would highly recommend it as well.
One funny scene in the book is when Candide visits this Venetian senator and they discuss literature and the Senator goes on a page long tirade on how he hates Paradise Lost, much to Candide's bafflement
Well Voltaire does not at all argue for pessimism. Remember Martin, and most especially the italian, Poccocurante? I remember Candide said something of the latter like "Oh how wise this man is, for nothing in this world can please him!!" Voltaire demonstrates, especially right after Candide meets Martin, that the world is one of total chaos, but that being a pessimist is not going to accomplish anything at all. Thus Candide, in cultivating the garden, transcends the lunacy of both philosophers, Pangloss and Martin alike. Also, misogyny? Voltaire often defended women in that book. I remember Voltaire describing so well the struggle of a prostitute, also when Candide was in Italy, seemingly with so much empathy. Not to mention Poccocurante, which clearly was seen by Voltaire as less desirable, begins his scene by languishing about with his two servant women, speaking of them like they are his entertainment devices. And Candide just not at all wanting Cunegonde because she's ugly... surely this is a stab by Voltaire at fleeting male desires. Like, c'mon.
"best of all possible worlds"-was an satirical side punch against the philosophical point of view of the german Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; so in Candide we see Voltaire at his bests.
wow - Candide is one of the best of all possible literary works and has been celebrated through the centuries (just ask Kurt Vonnegut what he thinks of it!), but John Green is just 'meh' about that pesky lesson Voltaire was trying to teach us. lolz
Tending to garden is not a selfish act: it's a way of reconnecting with the world on a grassroots level and being sustainable. Growing one's own food is a way of feeding oneself with one's own hands and effort.
Rashmika the Artsy rt! Voltaire actually had a passion for gardening, so the symbolism throughout candide was thought to be a nod to his own preoccupation with such an efficient and self sustaining hobby :)
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS....Found a quote by Voltaire that I liked ("God is a comedian, playing to an audience tat is too afraid to laugh) ... and I am now trying to educate myself about this very important historical figure and prolific writer who knew Leibniz, Sir Isaac Newton (why was nothing mentioned about him during my schooling ?)....Your video is fast paced, thorough and amusing and has given me the connections to pursue other philosophical connections & people......and you have also prepared me for the time when my translation of 'Candide' arrives via Amazon...(.I hope I can stomach it.).......Great stuff..
I come from a very long line of Mennonites- scholars, preachers, and farmers. Yes, you share your tomatoes. You also helped your neighbors plant and bring in crops if he needed help, and if someone's barn burned down, everyone in the community showed up to help build a new one. Yes, you tend your own garden. But if something happens and ypur neighbor is in need, you are all better off if you all pitch in and help him.
Yes! Candide gets the idea that it would be good to tend his own garden while somebody else is being generous with him and sharing with him the fruits of their own garden. So helping your neighbor is definitely part of it. Socially engineering all of humanity? Playing the games national of international politics to achieve transcendental justice? Those, not so much. But sharing what you can with your neighbor (which requires you getting some for yourself), yes, definitely.
Just finished reading the book, and this video was insightful in digesting it. Voltaire does make a lot of good points throughout the book, but I did find the ending a little unsatisfying too. I agree that we don't live in the best of possible worlds, but just minding your own business and tending your own garden seems too passive a stance too.
Wouldn't the world be worse if we didn't have earthquakes? Earthquakes means that we have an active core... A core that is hot. If we did not have a core like this, we would not have our magnetic shielding that protects us from deadly cosmic rays. So, earthquakes are good and for the best possible options.
LONG AGO I READ A STORY FROM ANOTHER TIMELINE about a character named Candide. He also survived a harrowing series of misadventures and tragedies, then settled on a farm near Constantinople. Listening to a philosophical rant, Candide replied, "That is all very well, but now we must tend our garden." I have now arrived at that point in my own story. There is a metaphorical garden in the acts and attitudes of a person's life, and the treasures of that garden are love and respect. I have come to realize that the gathering of love and respect - from others and for myself - has been the real quest of my life. "Now we must tend our garden." If any RUSH fan can follow this up, be my guest. LYRIC CHAIN TIME!!! In this one of many possible worlds...
I red this book in its original french (wayy) back in High School. I gotta say that I wasn't mature enough to apreciate it then. It's one of my favs. now, and I **Love** to see that John Green is talking about it on CC literature!! DFTBA!! Big fan of CC literature! 💚💙
It was really nice getting to hear about this book again after having not gotten to talk about it myself since last year in school! I liked getting the crash course version to revisit it again and think about all it said while getting John's view at the end as well. Thanks for the video, Crash Course!
I like to think that cultivate our garden offers an alternative to Eden, the idea that one can better the earth rather than simply accept that this is as good as it gets. The idea of let us not accept that we have been excluded from paradise nor that we must find paradise but that we should build paradise.
Working in the garden is not specifically a biblical reference. I'm sure that Voltaire also had ex-emperor Diocletian in his mind. And the answer to evil and troubles are not solely to grow vegetables. I do not know that Voltaire really meant that. But it has a punch on later hippie philosophy. Still in times of sorrow it does help working with your hands. It just does not help other people (unless you are an evil emperor).
typograf62 I got the impression that growing the garden was a means to an end, which is to find your own happiness. Also did Diocletian really garden? I just remember him retiring.
Yes, it did sound like "go find your own happiness." And Diocletian wrote to the senators, who wanted him to return to power, that if they could see the cabbage (?) that he had planted with his own hands, then they would not suggest that. (As far as I remember.)
i think the bitter pill about candide is that it doesn't have any tolerance for growth. candide is naive in the beginning and is left to pursue a naive assumption at the end. misery is a symptom of tending to other people's gardens in this view. so you can never achieve utopia, because it is an actual, real place only attainable by physically arriving there, which is generally impossible. the bookish know it all with all the great quotes and intellectual supremacy has no more room for growth than candide does, and it's that same pursuit for unattainable growth that leaves pursuing your own garden as a circular truism of "it being what it is" or "you can only do what you can". In a sense that is a highly optimistic outlook that escaping misery is no further away than accepting your limitations. yet the book does seem to directly criticize being happy about that. that that sort of paradise can hardly be defined as such. so you grow, but fortunately candide ends with candide convinced of himself as the grower instead of the garden. the life cycle does after all deposits garden as food for gardens, so that classical romanticism perhaps can't be escaped intellectually. candide as a character depends on a lack of well-thought proactivism. i always thought his name could have been a reference to 'candid' thought, lacking general creativity and social planning. such as how he gives his money away expecting that to be the best social return on investment by people appreciating his generosity.
Trust me the real meaning of Life is to " Love God with all our heart mind and soul and to love our Neighbours as ourself"...nothing more nothing less.
Thanks to my french teacher , i really love this book because it shows that working on your own project is better than just talking and not doing anything
read it when I was sixteen and didn't really fully understand what the hell was going on. re-read it when I was 21 and really enjoyed it. it's a great little book.
.it woud be "tragic" to miss the point of the novel "Candide"! To miss the point "today" is to miss the difference between 1759 and 2022! Today "we" live in a world of mass communication, mass education, mass production etc. And the "masses" have understood the importance of having working class parties that stand up to the Ruling Class by working for the interests of the least priviliged! So the "modern" response to Voltaire's simple "cultivate our/your garden" is the great quote from Karl Marx: "workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!" . .
“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.”
― Voltaire, Candide
Irony
It's funny because it's a character that says it in the book but somehow Voltaire makes it very clear when he's speaking his mind THROUGH a character and when a character is talking for an alternative purpose
@@merrittanimation7721 No irony I fear. Just a trademark clean stab into the idiot populist 'heart'. It's candid, simple and fair.
More power to his elbow in these dark times. ( That was irony ).
"Cultivating our garden" is a nod to Epicureanism.
I found the beginning of this book to be similar in tone to Pinocchio.
Now we want to know the dirty name joke!
Please do a video on Of Mice and Men
Also end ur vids with diff memes every vid
I always took the ending to be neither pessimistic nor optimistic but pragmatic: "Let us be productive with what little we have."
Also, you missed highlighting the most timeless exchange in the entire book:
“How many plays have been written in France?' Candide asked the abbe.
'Five or six thousand.'
'That's a lot,' said Candide. 'How many of them are good?'
'Fifteen or sixteen,' replied the abbe.
'That's a lot,' said Martin.”
Voltaire's a series of unfortunate events
Redem10 Understatement of the 18th century
You should read the "misfortunes of virtue"
Q: How does Voltaire like his apples?
A: Candied
I'll see myself out...
good go mans corona go mans go
I wouldn't want to read a book about disembowelment.
I guess you can say I don't have the guts.
Waltham1892 gtfo
Waltham1892 badam-pam--pshhh
Thank you. Remember to tip your waitress, I'll be in town till Thursday!
you monster
Yes, I have a problem with words like chocolate and syphilis in the same sentence.....
I think that the line let us go cultivate our garden means that the problems of the world are going to exist no matter what. The only true happiness you can find in it is by working on yourself and what you love, and that searching and searching for a utopia, or pretending the world you live in is one. Ultimately this novel is a criticism of several philosophers' views on life and what makes a good life, and I think that Voltaire gives both the simplest, and truest example by this quote. That a good life is one where you do what you are good at to the best of your abilities.
Well said!
I loved reading candide in highschool but no teacher actually guided me through it. Like many other things in life, thanks for guiding me on this John
...Education at school, so often unsatisfactory....
Monica Moon - I’m a BIG advocate of teachers guiding students through literature. I read Candide in a college French literature class, so I had a bit more time to learn about things like philosophy and The Enlightenment. If I had read it in high school, I would have missed a lot of the meaning.
Fortunately, Candide is great on many levels (as you know). It’s a serious shame your teacher didn’t provide proper context.
I found throughout the book that Candide and others are constantly trying to go somewhere so they can be happy. As if all that is stopping them from happiness is their location. In El Dorado Candide sees a perfect location and is surprised that he is unhappy. He expects happiness to happen to him. It is only when they retire to the farm that Candide and the others start to actively create their own happiness.
Another theme I found was that of the importance of relationships. Candide is happiest when traveling with friends, but he doesn't value these friendships until the farm. I took "cultivate our garden' to partially refer to their family. All is well because they are together.
A third theme seems to follow "idle hands are the Devil's play things". Whenever Candide is busy, he seems content, but when he gets bored, crazy things happen. In the end, he finds joy in using his hands to create something, rather than just sit and think about his plight.
It's basically the end of Fast & the Furious 6, where after all the globetrotting adventures what Dom Toretto and the crew believe will make them happy more than anything is to go back to their house in Los Angeles and say grace over a barbecue.
Katniss Everdeen: my life is suffering!
Candied: Hold my beer
Candied XD
samanastrix Possibly Text-to-Speech.
*hold my sherbet drink .
Job: here they go again...
"This novel is so dystopian that even the utopia sucks." Heh heh heh... You'd definitely go for a drink with Voltaire.
It would be a pretty optimistic world if everyone just had their own garden they could go cultivate. My entire life is just a long uphill struggle to obtain a little garden to cultivate.
If you got a bucket and some dirt, you have the makings of a garden. Don't let space stop you from achieving your dreams. :)
The garden is figurative for space, but in any case: you need space to put your bucket full of dirt in, and space for yourself to occupy next to that bucket, space to stand or sit or lay down when you get too tired to stand anymore, and space for your gardening tools (not that you would need much to "garden" a bucket), etc. And even if you had all of that, you're not going to last long "tending your own garden" if that garden is a mere bucket.
and gardening in a container is much easier, no back breaking digging...
Got a job? Because I’m pretty sure that would count.
I dunno, when I read the book for a class I read the ending differently. I saw it more like an idea that in order to effect change in the world we must work on ourselves first and understand how our actions contribute to the evil in the world. Not that we need to shut ourselves away in a selfish way.
lamarriere yes! Voltaire's response to Leibniz wholly denounces the means of fate being in the hands of an omnipotent, perfect creator that dictates the balance of good and evil (read: consequence/circumstance, essentially) and Candide saying "our garden" I thought too was more of a nod to the entire ensemble of characters finally escaping their violently changing circumstances (going in and out of comfortable nobility, to begging, to being soldiers, engagement to upper class society, prostitution, becoming a jesuit, etc etc) by working together as a means to dictate their fate-thus disproving Liebniz/Pangloss in their optimism theory. John's response to the end was really surprising, for me lol (I much prefer Bernstein's takeaway, if you ever have the time to find it on youtube)
"To cultivate our own garden" means introspection. Know Thyself. If you want to change the world to a better place, start by changing yourself (BE the change), and the rest will follow, if you just try to change the others, nothing will ever happen.
Yep that's we were told it ment in French High Schools...
Probably a message too revolutionary for Crash Course! I can't believe they thought that an illuminist as Voltaire was referring to the Bible and the Garden of Eden...
I don't think that's what they were implying, merely that it's an odd coincedence
Well, John Green says: "But as a conclusion of this particular novel, it does seem weirdly conservative? I mean, the ending is a return to a garden.What's more Biblical than that?". This is what Voltaire thought about the bible and christians: "It is characteristic of fanatics who read the holy scriptures to tell themselves: God killed, so I must kill; Abraham lied, Jacob deceived, Rachel stole: so I must steal, deceive, lie. But, wretch, you are neither Rachel, nor Jacob, nor Abraham, nor God; you are just a mad fool, and the popes who forbade the reading of the Bible were extremely wise." Voltaire was a revolutionary, not a conservative. Gardens are found in every culture, not only the bible.
Like Michael Jackson...'Man in the Mirror.....Lol !
I took the "our" garden to be akin to everyone working together on our communal garden, the Earth, and that it was more a statement reminding the reader that we too need to work together on our part so that the overall whole is better for it. That is just my reading of the line though! It is super cool to hear others! :D
I would agree with your statement but not your interpretation of the line.
a hellenic pagan :D
Candide has to _repeatedly_ state that "we must cultivate our garden" as a gentle reminder to Pangloss every time he starts off on another lecture of Leibnizian optimism. To me, it seems really clear in that context that it was meant to be read as Starlessbooks wrote.
Something along the lines of, "yeah, yeah, this world is perfect, but regardless of what you choose to believe, as a matter of pragmatism we're going to suffer if we don't invest effort in fixing it, so you can keep talking but please grab a trowel."
I always thought of it as 'Pangloss, philosophy is nice and all, but tot stay alive we need to actually work and do stuff, not just sit and think about life.'
The world is decent, but only if WE make it that way.
I don't agree with his opinion on the ending. Voltaire meant to convey what Alan Watts and several spiritual leaders in the east have said, that you should not talk or worry yourselves to death what you cannot control, rather focus on what you can do and do it to the best of your ability. If everyone did that, the world would eventually become a much better place. It also, rather passively warns about unnecessary activism and hypocrisy that we see in our modern society.
Focus on your work, and when you can, help others. That's the secret of a peaceful life. That's what he wanted to say.
"Voltaire's racism and misogyny might reflect his times, but his pseudoscientific justifications for them are worth noting in our times"
Couldn't agree more.
great response to past attitudes imo
I'm good too
Cunegonde is a Persian play on words. Voltaire could speak Persian or at least was familiar with it. In Persian, "cun" means anus and "gonde" means huge or corpulent. Thus, Cunegonde means huge butt in Persian.
A thought on Voltaire's final message, I imagine he sees this as a universal rule. That, if everyone just worried about their own garden, they wouldn't have much time for evil deeds.
This book was actually very fun to read. I couldn't put it down. One of the best pieces of literature I have ever read.
I loved this book. To be honest; everything important is in the the first and last paragraphs. I would have loved it if you would have touched the topic of the burden of knowledge.
"Let us cultivate our garden" can also refer to stop worrying about what happens in the "best possible world" and focus in our own. In that sense, it is completely in line with what you suggest at the end of the video.
Also, working in our garden can mean setting ourselves to our tasks, which does include involvement with the world: the task of living and mastery. I can definitely see a critique to overthinking and idleness; such questions, such as one that judges as good or evil the nature of existence, when given a too predominant importance tends to a dispersion of thinking and focus.
Maybe this is Voltaire telling us to stop complaining and speculating so much about everything, and do something with our life.
I studied Voltaire at school and from what I learned, Voltaire wasn't racist he was just extremely sarcastic. I believe you can find a bit of truth in that in a chapter of Candide: Candide and slavery as well as other texts of his denouncing slavery.
Yes, but I read that he did have a problem with Jews because of some bad dealings with moneylenders,.....but he didn't like Christians much either...
Just wanted to say thanks for being a channel that is entertaining and educational. I hope to show these videos to my children one day
I was really hoping to see some red sheep.
Introducing Voltaire, I think you should have said a word or two about Jansenism, since Voltaire's father and brother were Jansenists, and Voltaire was reacting against that, as well as Leibniz.
Also, it's worth noting that at the end of his life, Voltaire devoted himself to being a good seigneur over the extensive land his wealth had bought him. He was cultivating his garden, which included the lives of all the people who lived and worked on those lands.
And finally, if you are going to read this in English translation, find the Norton Critical Edition.
MakeMeThinkAgain Hey! I live in the village of Ferney-Voltaire, which is where Voltaire’s estate was. The garden is gorgeous.
Can you do Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. That book is deep.
Senpai God Yes! And Waiting for Godot would be great too, if we're tackling French literature. Les Mis is such a superb book and musical that has really stood the test of time. 😄
@Rashmika the Artsy: I don't know how interesting you can make _Waiting for Godot._ I've never read it, but I've had an English teacher who hated it. From what I know of it, it literally has no plot; the main characters are just waiting for and constantly talking about this Godot person who never appears. I'm not sure how you can make a play that has no plot sound interesting.
Senpai God yeah as someone that I looking at les mis from several different way
The book in literature analysis
The film in film studies
The play as a performance as stage manager
There are so many things that are interesting that never made it into the musical(s)
And the order of it changes in every version:
Broadway vs Westend
Original vs tour vs current
Film vs stage
School adaptation vs original
Musical vs book
Very version has a different order and that impact how you see the characters if they do x before y then it changes their motivation and reactions
As much as I don't think he would talk about it but it would be nice to look at it from a why orders change in adaptations and how does it change the characters
In short agree would love to watch an episode on Les mis
it's my favorite !!
PLEASE OMG
Share our vegetables with others? You commie! :P
(Author's Note: This comment was satire of people who don't know the difference between communism and socialism, and who are against both on the grounds that encouraging people to help others is terrible and immoral. It does not reflect the views of the commenter in any way.)
IceMetalPunk The last statement is somewhat inaccurate, as the commenter had to choose to deliver the satire first and foremost.
You don't have to be a socialist to think that kindness is good and that people should be encouraged to share what they have, you know.
I'm not against all government social assistance, but I will point out that there is a difference between encouragement and government mandated "encouragement". Socialism is not the former.
bjr1822
I agree. Which is why I don't think you need to have any socialistic tendencies to agree with John's point, making the whole "parodying people who can't distinct socialism and communism" bit kind of out of place.
I don't think there is a best world to live in, they all have their flaws.
I had a totally different interpretation and the video missed my favorite part.
My understanding was a critique of two pre-enlightenment ideas 1 - Everything happens for a reason and has it should be 2- leaders are worthy and people should live for the glory of their country, religion or identity.
Voltaire or Candide's Statement that "we must take care of our garden" is to ignore those nationalist and religions philosophies and identities and take care of what is important. Garden means the real world, the one we live in.
My favorite part was the meeting of former leaders gathered in a meeting all going through misery, showing that their former positions were purely arbitrary and meant nothing.
There are two primary hypotheses: one proposes that syphilis was carried to Europe from the Americas by the crew of Christopher Columbus as a byproduct of the Columbian exchange, while the other proposes that syphilis previously existed in Europe but went unrecognized. Syphilis might have been always present in the Old World but was not identified as a separate disease from leprosy before about A.D. 1500.
Man, now I feel obligated to actually read that copy of Candide that's been sitting on my shelf for 6 months... It sounds sooooo horribly cool!
Anna Mattos it really is
I'd advise having annotations if your copy lacks them. Lots of obscure 18th century reference
Second that Merritt, you'll miss a lot of the humour/satire without them.
You don't really need annotations to enjoy the novel. First copy I got was without them, second had them and only slightly added to the story.
It's insightful, gruesome, and hilarious. How many other classic novels have references about noble women putting pipes in their butts, for instance?
And don't forget they flying red sheep!!!
'Candide fruit', honestly? Nice one
Please do Catch 22 it's among the greatest antiwar books of all time and has great implications to current events.
It's also hilarious
Yes, it and Hitchhiker's Guide are my two favorite written comedies.
I'd put this book on the list as well of great comedic books
I up vote for that
Wish we could do Wilfred Owen for poetry.
As with many things, religious tolerance here meaning "except for the Jews"
David Lev
WHY DO PEOPLE HATE THE JEWS?! Why?
And has an amazingly long history. People have hated jews almost since jews have existed.
Kyononnon the bold Has something to do with banking
According to the footnotes of my copy of "Candide," Voltaire was experiencing financial problems and blamed it on Jewish bankers, like everyone did back then, unfortunately.
Hey Crash Coursers! You can read this WHOLE BOOK in less than two hours.
That's good to know...
I learned in these 12 mins more than I did in 4 months of French Literature class !
"with great power come great responsibility"-Volataire. Not spiderman
Salmaan Ali so Stan Lee was quoting Voltaire?
a hellenic pagan yh
"I may not agree with the way you misattribute quotes in a way that can be easily refuted in one Google search, but I'll defend to the death your right to do so." -Volotaraire
Mr. Wallet voluntaire
What's the dirty joke?
Please do The book thief or the butcher boy
Not sure if they’re classics but it will be interesting
fun fact: In French the title of Huxley's Brave New World is The Best of all Possible Worlds ("le Meilleur des Mondes"), I always thought the point was to have it be a literary reference that has the same relevance has the original title from Shakespeare's Tempest but would be more immediately recognizable by "learnt" French speakers but I haven't fact-checked that (and I guess it's quite hard to do, since text has why translators made a certain choice are hard to come by)
Wikipedia says Voltaire was trying to satirize an expression originally from Liebniz but I didn't know of the Liebniz thing and always connected it with Voltaire, dunno about other French speakers.
Neite None That's interesting.
Very interesting.....
Wow, I read this book once (in French) when I was in grade 7, clearly I missed out on most of the important stuff. I only knew that he ended up really rich from el dorado and eventually found his crush, even though she was uglier and older. 😅😅
Your ending seems weak. If Much of the evil in the work comes from people trying to till other peoples gardens ( saving heathens etc.) then it makes sense that you must tend to your own garden. Also realistically the Only actions you control are your own. that does not mean you cannot address social issues but you need to have your own garden well weeded first and be honest as to why you are 'helping'.
each time I watch John Green I learn !!! and I love learning
"This novel is so dystopian that even the utopia sucks!" I don't know why I laughed so hard at this comment 😂
"...try to work to change and improve this not yet best of all possible worlds." I'm right there with you John, making the "our" garden less personal, and more of the larger, grander, communal garden. Thank you for opening us up to inquiry. :)
WHEN ONE
DISMISSES
THE REST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS
ONE FINDS
THAT THIS IS
THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS
*overture riff*
Candide wasn't actually "bored" with the so-called Utopia of El-dorado, he was just too much infatuated with Cunégonde that he can't stop thinking about her and so he leaves the place to rescue her.
Jordan Peterson talks about a balance between chaos and order. In particular when there is too much order, like in El Dorado, Candide is bored and is yearning to leave. Peterson makes the argument that if humanity were ever placed in a situation of perfect order, we would tear it apart just so that something interesting would happen. We live on the border between order and chaos, not in either domain.
Well, to be fair it's Dostoyevsky who posits this originally in Notes from underground (the crystal palace), J.B.P references it constantly and we would highly recommend it as well.
When are you guys going to talk about Doki Doki Literature Club?
fafaffu2 i know it is a joke but damn the plot of this game is the best i've seen in a time now
One funny scene in the book is when Candide visits this Venetian senator and they discuss literature and the Senator goes on a page long tirade on how he hates Paradise Lost, much to Candide's bafflement
John Green over here acting like gardening isn't an ongoing adventure.
Well Voltaire does not at all argue for pessimism. Remember Martin, and most especially the italian, Poccocurante? I remember Candide said something of the latter like "Oh how wise this man is, for nothing in this world can please him!!"
Voltaire demonstrates, especially right after Candide meets Martin, that the world is one of total chaos, but that being a pessimist is not going to accomplish anything at all. Thus Candide, in cultivating the garden, transcends the lunacy of both philosophers, Pangloss and Martin alike.
Also, misogyny? Voltaire often defended women in that book. I remember Voltaire describing so well the struggle of a prostitute, also when Candide was in Italy, seemingly with so much empathy. Not to mention Poccocurante, which clearly was seen by Voltaire as less desirable, begins his scene by languishing about with his two servant women, speaking of them like they are his entertainment devices.
And Candide just not at all wanting Cunegonde because she's ugly... surely this is a stab by Voltaire at fleeting male desires. Like, c'mon.
I've read this book many times and never liked it. Your summary was much more entertaining😄
Candide and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Any chance there could be a Brave New World crash course? Being as we're talking about dystopian fiction and whatnot. Please?
I'm still so confused
"best of all possible worlds"-was an satirical side punch against the philosophical point of view of the german Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; so in Candide we see Voltaire at his bests.
I just realized that Candide by Leonard Bernstein was based on the novel. I wondered why it sounded familiar.
wow - Candide is one of the best of all possible literary works and has been celebrated through the centuries (just ask Kurt Vonnegut what he thinks of it!), but John Green is just 'meh' about that pesky lesson Voltaire was trying to teach us. lolz
hearing the word 1st time 'empericism' i identify with. I go with fact, not religion
Tending to garden is not a selfish act: it's a way of reconnecting with the world on a grassroots level and being sustainable. Growing one's own food is a way of feeding oneself with one's own hands and effort.
Rashmika the Artsy rt! Voltaire actually had a passion for gardening, so the symbolism throughout candide was thought to be a nod to his own preoccupation with such an efficient and self sustaining hobby :)
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS....Found a quote by Voltaire that I liked ("God is a comedian, playing to an audience tat is too afraid to laugh) ... and I am now trying to educate myself about this very important historical figure and prolific writer who knew Leibniz, Sir Isaac Newton (why was nothing mentioned about him during my schooling ?)....Your video is fast paced, thorough and amusing and has given me the connections to pursue other philosophical connections & people......and you have also prepared me for the time when my translation of 'Candide' arrives via Amazon...(.I hope I can stomach it.).......Great stuff..
Constantinople? I thought it was Istanbul, not Constantinople.
That's nobody's business but the Turks!
Oh my gosh that was probably one of the best videos i've ever seen on the internet!
Thank yoo so much!!!
ok who wants me to explain what the girl's name means 😂
I come from a very long line of Mennonites- scholars, preachers, and farmers. Yes, you share your tomatoes. You also helped your neighbors plant and bring in crops if he needed help, and if someone's barn burned down, everyone in the community showed up to help build a new one.
Yes, you tend your own garden. But if something happens and ypur neighbor is in need, you are all better off if you all pitch in and help him.
That's nice..I love the scenes i the Harrison Ford film WITNESS, where everyone helps to build a barn in a few hours......
Yes! Candide gets the idea that it would be good to tend his own garden while somebody else is being generous with him and sharing with him the fruits of their own garden. So helping your neighbor is definitely part of it. Socially engineering all of humanity? Playing the games national of international politics to achieve transcendental justice? Those, not so much. But sharing what you can with your neighbor (which requires you getting some for yourself), yes, definitely.
The Castle by Franz Kafka, it would be great if you would explain it.
Lisbon! I had no idea that there was a book that mentioned the 1755 earthquake. Thank you so much
I literally have a final on Candide tomorrow, so the timing couldn’t have been better!
Lol look up the cousin’s name. Let’s just say it’s a fun pun in French and Latin 😂
I read Candide, amazing, made me fall in love with Voltaire.
Candide sounds like the kind of book i'd like to read but wouldn't be able to read the whole way through.
Just finished reading the book, and this video was insightful in digesting it. Voltaire does make a lot of good points throughout the book, but I did find the ending a little unsatisfying too. I agree that we don't live in the best of possible worlds, but just minding your own business and tending your own garden seems too passive a stance too.
Wouldn't the world be worse if we didn't have earthquakes?
Earthquakes means that we have an active core... A core that is hot. If we did not have a core like this, we would not have our magnetic shielding that protects us from deadly cosmic rays.
So, earthquakes are good and for the best possible options.
After reading Leibniz, I think Voltaire just didn't understand what Leibniz meant.
Leibniz really does get done dirty by Candide. His core logical argument is much more robust than Pangloss suggests.
LONG AGO I READ A STORY FROM ANOTHER TIMELINE about a character named Candide. He also survived a harrowing series of misadventures and tragedies, then settled on a farm near Constantinople. Listening to a philosophical rant, Candide replied, "That is all very well, but now we must tend our garden."
I have now arrived at that point in my own story. There is a metaphorical garden in the acts and attitudes of a person's life, and the treasures of that garden are love and respect. I have come to realize that the gathering of love and respect - from others and for myself - has been the real quest of my life.
"Now we must tend our garden."
If any RUSH fan can follow this up, be my guest.
LYRIC CHAIN TIME!!!
In this one of many possible worlds...
I red this book in its original french (wayy) back in High School. I gotta say that I wasn't mature enough to apreciate it then. It's one of my favs. now, and I **Love** to see that John Green is talking about it on CC literature!!
DFTBA!!
Big fan of CC literature! 💚💙
Random but I'd love to see a Crash Course on the history of radio, especially radio drama. Orson Welles to Night Vale.
It was really nice getting to hear about this book again after having not gotten to talk about it myself since last year in school! I liked getting the crash course version to revisit it again and think about all it said while getting John's view at the end as well. Thanks for the video, Crash Course!
Live life at Benny Hill freakout speed.
Why it ended, u explained it so well, keep the good work continue.
Dudes! I _just_ had a discussion in class on Candide! You couldn't have uploaded this a day earlier?
Same thing happened with Gilgamesh...
I like to think that cultivate our garden offers an alternative to Eden, the idea that one can better the earth rather than simply accept that this is as good as it gets. The idea of let us not accept that we have been excluded from paradise nor that we must find paradise but that we should build paradise.
wait I'm confused what does disembowelment have to do with anything
Working in the garden is not specifically a biblical reference. I'm sure that Voltaire also had ex-emperor Diocletian in his mind.
And the answer to evil and troubles are not solely to grow vegetables. I do not know that Voltaire really meant that. But it has a punch on later hippie philosophy. Still in times of sorrow it does help working with your hands. It just does not help other people (unless you are an evil emperor).
typograf62 I got the impression that growing the garden was a means to an end, which is to find your own happiness. Also did Diocletian really garden? I just remember him retiring.
Yes, it did sound like "go find your own happiness." And Diocletian wrote to the senators, who wanted him to return to power, that if they could see the cabbage (?) that he had planted with his own hands, then they would not suggest that. (As far as I remember.)
@@typograf62 Yeah Diocletian very famously grew cabbages in his retirement.
i think the bitter pill about candide is that it doesn't have any tolerance for growth. candide is naive in the beginning and is left to pursue a naive assumption at the end. misery is a symptom of tending to other people's gardens in this view. so you can never achieve utopia, because it is an actual, real place only attainable by physically arriving there, which is generally impossible. the bookish know it all with all the great quotes and intellectual supremacy has no more room for growth than candide does, and it's that same pursuit for unattainable growth that leaves pursuing your own garden as a circular truism of "it being what it is" or "you can only do what you can".
In a sense that is a highly optimistic outlook that escaping misery is no further away than accepting your limitations. yet the book does seem to directly criticize being happy about that. that that sort of paradise can hardly be defined as such. so you grow, but fortunately candide ends with candide convinced of himself as the grower instead of the garden. the life cycle does after all deposits garden as food for gardens, so that classical romanticism perhaps can't be escaped intellectually.
candide as a character depends on a lack of well-thought proactivism. i always thought his name could have been a reference to 'candid' thought, lacking general creativity and social planning. such as how he gives his money away expecting that to be the best social return on investment by people appreciating his generosity.
Interesting..
Trust me the real meaning of Life is to " Love God with all our heart mind and soul and to love our Neighbours as ourself"...nothing more nothing less.
Thanks to my french teacher , i really love this book because it shows that working on your own project is better than just talking and not doing anything
I was waiting for him to say goodbye to Hank in the outro
Clearly I've been watching too much vlogbrothers videos ._.
My teacher sent us a link to this during our online class and I was so proud and happy she sent us John’s video explaining the lecture :))
Les Misérables for the next season.
So... did “Me from the past” graduate?
Am I the only one upset at the lack of Bernstein music?
Probably a problem with copyright law. I saw the musical Candide with William Schallert as Dr. Pangloss/Martin/Storyteller ("Any questions?)
read it when I was sixteen and didn't really fully understand what the hell was going on. re-read it when I was 21 and really enjoyed it. it's a great little book.
.it woud be "tragic" to miss the point of the novel "Candide"! To miss the point "today" is to miss the difference between 1759 and 2022! Today "we" live in a world of mass communication, mass education, mass production etc. And the "masses" have understood the importance of having working class parties that stand up to the Ruling Class by working for the interests of the least priviliged! So the "modern" response to Voltaire's simple "cultivate our/your garden" is the great quote from Karl Marx: "workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!" . .
Could you do one for “like water for chocolate”?
☼ Chapo called Pinker Dr Pangloss
thank you