Philosophical Literature:
From Plato to Pangloss
Grab your RAW Book for Writing Workout 1:
Respond to one or all of the quotations below…
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the
reason why so few engage in it.” ~ Henry Ford
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in
overalls and looks like work.” ~ Thomas Edison
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me.
Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful...
that's what matters to me.” ~ Steve Jobs
What do you think about? What opportunities will you pursue,
even if it means hard work? What wonderful things are you
going to do before you end up in the cemetery?
Plato’s ALLEGORY
Allegory: The rhetorical strategy of extending
a metaphor through an entire narrative so that
objects, persons, and actions in the text are equated with
meanings that lie outside the text
As we read “The Allegory of the Cave” out loud, attempt to
DRAW what you hear with your partner/group. The rules:
1) You may not TALK about what you’re drawing.
2) You must be drawing something the entire time.
Claymation Version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTWwY8Ok5I0&feature=related
Connections to The Matrix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRNMZEDOBrM&feature=related
Panels illustrated by James Kurtz III: http://www.jameskurtz.com/allegory-of-the-cave/
symbols within the allegory
Cave: ignorance
Prisoners: US!
Chains: the man, our own perceptions,
deceptions/what others expect of you
Shadows:
what we believe to be true (the
man, society, corporations, the system, ourselves)
Sun:
enlightenment, knowledge, truth
Questions to ponder
as we move forward…
What do each of the objects/characters in “The Allegory of the
Cave” represent?
Can we apply this idea of being inside of a cave to Whale Rider?
Who was inside of a cave? What was holding that character
back? Are there any significant objects in Whale Rider that might
have meaning?
As we read Candide, who is telling the truth? Or at least, what is
their reality/what is their illusion? How is Candide an allegorical
tale?
Writing Workout
It was a terrible, horrible,
no good, very bad day.
Reminders:
Write ¾ a page or more.
You may write about your own experiences, fiction,
or “bad days” in general.
Develop your VOICE through diction, imagery,
details, etc.
Tone: If you don’t get the tone, you
just don’t get it!
Consider the differences in tone:
Sincere: That was a brilliant idea.
Sarcastic: That was a brilliant idea.
Contemptuous: That was a brilliant idea.
Effusive: That was a brilliant idea.
Presumptuous: That was a brilliant idea.
Curt: That was a brilliant idea.
Understated: That was a brilliant idea.
A little heads up about Candide:
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It’s satire.
That means it’s FUNNY.
Satire = intellectual comedy.
Through humor, we get closer to the truth.
Voltaire never really states plainly what his truth is,
but we are led to it by process of elimination
(everything else is ridiculous).
• If you don’t get the TONE, you won’t “get” the joke,
and you wont’ “get” the novel.
• In Candide, several bad things happen! The big
question: WHY do bad things happen in this world?
The novel uses humor to convey philosophical ideas.
Why do authors utilize HUMOR?
• “Against the assault of laughter, nothing can
stand.” ~ Mark Twain
• “A joke is a very serious thing.” ~ Winston
Churchill
• “Common sense and a sense of humor are the
same thing, moving at different speeds. A
sense of humor is just common sense,
dancing.” ~ William James
What is SATIRE?
• “Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do
generally discover everybody's face but their
own.” ~ Jonathan Swift
• “Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough
time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to
satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you
think about it.” ~ Lenny Bruce
• “I have never made but one prayer to God, a very
short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.
And God granted it.“ ~ Voltaire
A quick look at
TECHNIQUES OF HUMOR:
• Satire = the use of wit, irony, or sarcasm to
explore human vices and follies with the
intent of holding them up for scrutiny and
social criticism
or the short version: making fun of idiotic
things in order to inspire change
What do satirists attack?
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7 Deadly Sins:
Pride
Greed
Violence
Laziness
Lust
Jealousy
Gluttony
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Other Vices:
Stupidity
Poor decision making
Prejudice
Self-centeredness
Selfishness
Corruption
Wastefulness
Hypocrisy
Dishonesty
Types of SATIRE:
• Horatian (named after Horace) = gentle,
sympathetic, light-hearted, smiling  we laugh
at ourselves as much as the characters or
situation described (Gulliver’s Travels, A
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Simpsons)
• Juvenalian (named after Juvenal) = biting,
bitter, angry (A Clockwork Orange, Borat, A
Modest Proposal)
A couple of clips for your
viewing pleasure:
• http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=CZGIn9bpALo
• http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=7bznJf6_u4w
SATIRE is often achieved through:
• Exaggeration: enlarging, increasing, or
representing something beyond normal bounds so
that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be
seen (hyperbole, caricature, burlesque)
• Incongruity: presenting things that are out of
place or absurd in relation to the surroundings
(understatement, logical fallacies)
• Reversal: presenting the opposite of the normal
order (irony)
• Parody: imitating the techniques or style of a wellknown piece
Caricature: exaggerating features
Caricature in writing:
• Mr. Chadband is a large yellow man, with a fat
smile, and a general appearance of having a good
deal of train oil in his system. Mrs. Chadband is a
stern, severe-looking, silent woman. Mr.
Chadband moves softly and cumbrously, not
unlike a bear who has been taught to walk
upright. He is very much embarrassed about the
arms, as if they were inconvenient to him, and he
wanted to grovel; is very much in a perspiration
about the head; and never speaks without first
putting up his great hand, as delivering a token to
his hearers that he is going to edify them.
Burlesque: a broad and grotesque
distortion of a literary form
Don Quixote was a mock-heroic burlesque of
medieval romance
Understatement: a contrast between
what is being said and reality;
understatement is funny because of
what is NOT being said
We’ve had a bit of rain today.
It’s just a flesh wound.
Everything in this room is eatable. Even I'm eatable.
But that is called cannibalism, my dear children, and is
in fact frowned upon in most societies.
Reversal: presenting the opposite of
expected, “normal” order (chronology,
heirarchies, role reversal, etc.)
What a country!
Parody: an imitation of a well-known
work , person, event
(it offers the comfort of recognition
and the delight of subversion)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebexx89y
ohE&feature=related
• http://www.nbc.com/saturday-nightlive/video/new-claritin/1423666/
• http://www.nbc.com/saturday-nightlive/video/mokiki/1423635/
Understanding the backdrop of Candide
Philosophical Differences
Leibniz:
Voltaire:
Optimism (the philosophy, not
the mood): the best of all
possible worlds -- how
would an all-powerful God
create anything different?
Principle of contradiction: if a
proposition is true, then it’s
negation is false
Principle of sufficient reason:
There must be a sufficient
reason [often known only to
God] for anything to exist,
for any event to occur, for
any truth to obtain.
Skepticism: as a final and
complete philosophical
stance
Party of humanity: waging war
against fanaticism and
superstition
Deist: there was a creator, but
no intervention from God
now (God as clockmaker)
Lisbon Earthquake
• Nov. 1, 1755
• Seismologists say the earthquake would have
been an 8.5-9.0 on current scales
• Fires and tsunamis followed the quake
• Death tolls are unclear: 10,000-100,000 in
Lisbon alone  certainly one of the most deadly
earthquakes in history
But it all starts off in a lovely little
place, at the beginning of what will
turn out to be a VERY. BAD. DAY.
bildungsroman = a coming-of-age story that
focuses on the psychological or moral
development of a youth entering adulthood