Heh, I didn't know Martin was from Candide (I've never read it all the way through, which I know I need to do, I'll do it by this year's Yuletide, lol), thank you mildred_of_midgard! but I can tell you about the Manichaeism context!
"Best of all possible worlds," as I'm sure you know, refers to the question of "how can bad things happen if God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent?" and ends with the answer "well, this must be the best of all possible worlds!" But of course you could instead postulate that Good and Evil are dualistic and so therefore the answer to the question in this case would be, "well, Evil exists and does Evil Things, and Good is no more powerful than Evil, so that's why bad things happen."
(My very vague understanding/partial reading of Candide leads me to believe that this is also the context in which Martin appears.)
So Voltaire is saying here that omg, De Prades has betraaaaaayed Fritz, how could this possibly be the best of all possible worlds?? No, it can't be; Voltaire must therefore be a Manichaean and believe that evil is indeed a power in the world, that such things could happen.
I mean, it's all very tongue-in-cheek and rather mocking of Fritz for being upset about it (for two people who reacted to things pretty much the same way, they sure do both make fun of each other a lot for their reactions, geez), but I suppose you could stretch and say "dismayed" if you had to; I do think there is a kernel of dismay in there :)
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Re: The case of the indiscreet reader (the other one)
Date: 2020-01-23 03:53 am (UTC)"Best of all possible worlds," as I'm sure you know, refers to the question of "how can bad things happen if God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent?" and ends with the answer "well, this must be the best of all possible worlds!" But of course you could instead postulate that Good and Evil are dualistic and so therefore the answer to the question in this case would be, "well, Evil exists and does Evil Things, and Good is no more powerful than Evil, so that's why bad things happen."
(My very vague understanding/partial reading of Candide leads me to believe that this is also the context in which Martin appears.)
So Voltaire is saying here that omg, De Prades has betraaaaaayed Fritz, how could this possibly be the best of all possible worlds?? No, it can't be; Voltaire must therefore be a Manichaean and believe that evil is indeed a power in the world, that such things could happen.
I mean, it's all very tongue-in-cheek and rather mocking of Fritz for being upset about it (for two people who reacted to things pretty much the same way, they sure do both make fun of each other a lot for their reactions, geez), but I suppose you could stretch and say "dismayed" if you had to; I do think there is a kernel of dismay in there :)