Misc. Catch Up and Candide/Enlightenment (late but see my note below)

 Well, first of all, I want to say sorry to everyone for missing a week and not landing on anyone else’s blog pages.  I have been very sick with the flu this past week and a half and am finally able to sit down and coherently produce sentences and responses.  I also found out that after May of this year I will be having a career/life change, so it has been a little crazy to say the least. I will catch up with another entry for this week again and I will land on your blogs.

However, I am feeling much better about everything…..and in actuality pretty psyched about my plans to go ahead with my dual M.A. petition in the English department and my application to be a GTA in the English department this fall. That means I will be a full-time student without any responsibilities non-university related and I will be able to focus on getting into all aspects of the university in relation to teaching, studying, and the overall ambience.  Wow, is it possible I will actually be able to read, write, and (heaven forbid) REVISE and RETHINK a draft or drafts before they are due??  I don’t know about many of you, but as a full time teacher in secondary, I don’t find any time to really think, rethink, rewrite, start over, etc.  We just read, think (a little) and then write.  Will I read a book that is related to my major but not assigned by the professor?  THE HORROR!  And PLEASE forget seminars, conferences, lectures, and presentations that happen during the day on a university campus.  Grad school and working full time in a public school(just like my first time through)has been too rushed and now that I can afford it, I am going to change that.  It will be cool.

 

My Spanish prof from last semester told me this past week that if I want to get my Ph D and work in a university one day that most places put very little emphasis in how much secondary education teaching experience I have.  Rather, they look at my university experience which sits at 0 right now at age 36 (that’s embarrassing to me….the lack of university experience not my age haha).   It really opened my eyes and I appreciate her being the first person who has honestly told me how it is without sugar coating it.  Thanks Dr. Seminet.  Speaking with the grad advisor in the English department, I found out that they also have real strength and depth in gender and sexuality studies, so life is definitely looking better now.  I can still do interdepartmental studies between Spanish and English to bring out the strengths of the faculty in the areas I want to study from both departments and be better prepared for doctoral studies.

 

Speaking of life and how one ends up in different predicaments, I must comment on Candide and the original connections I made to the reading.  First, I haven’t laughed aloud in a LONG time as much as I did with this book (the people in the lunchroom at work thought I was just a tad crazy).   Voltaire’s overall style of writing something horrendously crazy or funny like cutting off butt cheeks in order to live is awesome.  However, the impact in this novel that he makes is not related to the 101 craziest lines or actions that occur.  Rather, it is the tongue in cheek style that he uses to put these seemingly ludicrous ideas out there. Then, BOOM, he moves on so effortlessly, so painlessly that as a reader, you do not even realize he has moved on until BOOM another one hits you. 

 

There were many one liners and multiple sections of the book that referred to the conditions of France and the world at this time in view of the Englightenment.  (I butchered a couple of them in the response paper last week as I hallucinated on codeine).  However, upon reviewing the entire work, the following lines hit me so hard that I honestly could have just read them, closed the book, and been totally satisfied with what Voltaire was saying.  In my book on page 110 after the group has already settled and started farming, they reflect (as they do throughout) on what they believe, etc.  As Martin gave his pessimistic bored to death or living in the bowels of hell philosophy, Candide does not agree but since he is pictured throughout the novel as relying on what someone else says, he “affirmed nothing.”  In other words, he doesn’t have an original thought on the matter (as usual).  However, the part that sticks with me now and for the rest of my life is what is written about Pangloss:  “Pangloss admitted that he had always suffered horribly, but, having maintained that all was for the best, he still maintained it, without believing it.”  Wow, that’s some strong stuff!  Are we (I am including myself as an accomplice violator of this) so strong-willed, so pig-headed that deep inside, we KNOW that we have been wrong about XYZ and yet, we never change, never admit that we were wrong, or that we have come to our own enlightenment???  (It doesn’t matter what XYZ is…you can fill it in with your own situation)  Pangloss knew he had been shit on, he knew that his theory was rubbish, but because “that’s the way I have always believed or that’s the way we have always done it,”  he stays with his original theory (knowing inside himself that it is crap).  What have we come to when we doggedly and dogmatically cling to ideologies, religions, and philosphies of life when we know that they are not truly correct or the best for us?

 In essence, Voltaire is reflecting the Englightenment concept of THINK FOR YOURSELF…don’t allow people and others to fill your mind with conventions, traditions, beliefs, and habits that turn you into a Pangloss who knew better but “stayed the course” (no political degradation intended) simply because well…………. that’s what he had always believed…………

 

…………and while you are at it make sure you know the world is actually flat, God can only speak to you in King James English and won’t respond if you use any reference apart from masculine He or Him, everyone who looks Mexican in Texas speaks fluent Spanish and are illegal immigrants although they won’t admit it, all lesbians drive pick-up trucks, cut their hair short, and refuse to wear make-up while all gays convert to sex-maniacs and/or drag queens by night, the USA is the only country that can “save” the world from destruction, and of course, all that happens in life is REALLY for the best………you get the point.