Word: panglossed
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...Candide. Voltaire used the Lisbon affair to demolish the fashionable interpretation of the Leibnitz philosophy by which every happening was necessary and therefore good. Candide and Dr. Pangloss had a terrible time in the earthquake, despite their good characters; only a "brutal sailor" did well out of the disaster, happy in the ruins with loot, wine and women. Thus Voltaire derided the notion that those who have bad luck must deserve it. Some men as sensible as Voltaire, and more charitable, recalled what Jesus said on the occasion of a mishap in the Holy Land: "Those eighteen, upon whom...
...famous 18th century satire against facile optimism and idealism, Voltaire had guileless young Candide's tutor, Dr. Pangloss, teach him that this is the best of all possible worlds. Chanting his faith, he and his tutor and his sweetheart Cunegonde are catapulted from one misfortune to the next, witnessing or enduring in 20 pages more crime, misery and calamity than exist in all Greek tragedy; in fact, Candide himself, "the mildest man in the world," is constantly killing people. At long last he is led from idealism to the commonsense of keeping strictly to his own concerns, of cultivating...
...book and lyrics are a travesty, the actors are talented, and courageous. In the double role of the pedant Dr. Pangloss ("thrice graduated from Heidelberg"), and the pessimist Martin, Max Adrian has the play's best, and worst, lines. Confronting his roles with a scraggly singing voice and an enormous confidence, he is the star of the show. In the more innocuous part of Candide, Robert Rounseville acts stiffly but has a powerful and accurate singing voice. Barbara Cook as Cunegonde is an appealing actress with a good voice, and stops the show with one number, "Glitter...
School Superintendent Alexander Jerry Stoddard of Los Angeles is a genial, ruddy-faced man with the patience of Penelope and the optimism of Dr. Pangloss. Last week, as he stepped down as the head of one of the nation's largest school systems, he could claim a record of sorts. Few U.S. superintendents have sailed through quite so many tempests-or managed to weather them quite so well...
...such a resolution is important as a sign of the times. Historians say it is only natural that an era of international skepticism should follow one when the universal brotherhood of man was so loudly proclaimed. Even so, liberal minded people cannot console themselves with the philosophy of Doctor Pangloss that everything must happen as it does and that all is for the best...