Nothing is as it seems.

"--It is clear, said [Pangloss], that things cannot be otherwise than they are, for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves the best end."
Voltaire, Candide

I remember reading French literature in one on my classes, and enjoyed it very much. I really liked Voltaire and Moliere. Tartuffe was really amusing and had a slapstick quality to it, and when I saw the play at the Arena Stage I laughed my head off. Candide was rather gory in retrospect, but Voltaire pulled it off in such a way he may as well been writing about a little league game or, say, My Little Pony.

This is NOT the best of all possible worlds, by the way. I think Pangloss was a loopy asshole for saying that. Not by a long shot. Every day on the news there's just another report or breaking story to just disgust and depress the hell out my faith in humanity. I hate people. I really do. I hate the ones who commit crimes against living creatures. I don't even bother to read the papers any more, other than the Style section of the Washington Post. Why should I? It's not going to change anything. Although I'm still holding on to my dream of having an official cat rescue one day. It keeps me partly sane and viable.