And I think Fritz talks a lot about how hypochondriacal Voltaire is, so I think he has an impression of Voltaire as someone afraid of death. I'm not certain, but that may be relevant.
Oh absolutely. And Voltaire, with his insisting on being on death's door for decades, certainly was hypochondriacal as hell. But it's one of the interesting things about him: I'm sure he was as much afraid of death as the next non-suicidal person, and then some. And he certainly had no illusions about, say, being able to withstand torture, or anything like that. On the contrary, he was prone to cry out when his toes were tread on. BUT. He had no problem going up against the powerful - who could have squashed him easily - not just as a young man, when sharing the illusion of many young men that they're immortal, and all work out well - but throughout his long life. Intermittent stints in prison not withstanding. Yes, being a egomaniac presumably helped with that, but there are any number of egomaniacs who the first few times after being bruised decide to err on the side of caution. Especially those with a sound survival instinct, which he certainly otherwise had. And yet this man fights "J'Accuse" type of publicity campaigns till the very end when he's outraged about something. (That's utterly unrelated to him, one should add, given his readiness to keep up his grudges against good old Maupertuis.) (BTW, note to self: have discovered YouTube has a French movie on one of those late life cases, "Voltaire and Calas", must check out if the time allows.)
I mean, the whole story about his dying has all those facets. Going to Paris int he first place when he knew that he wasn't likely to come back alive (authorial vanity/pride, longing for that long ago left birthplace and city of cities), going to the trouble of bamboozling a priest (because he'd rather not be flung on the dungheap; you'd think a deist wouldn't care that much what happens to his dead body, but nope, Voltaire wants a proper burial) but avoiding actually taking communion; and then when the clergy comes back in greater numbers and armed with an ultimatum, throwing them out, which not only meant no absolution (whether or not he believed that meant anything at this point) but definitely meant no proper burial (as far as he could know, unless the nephews had promised him they'd make it happen regardless). Something else Fritz and Voltaire shared besides flaws and love of literature and satire was the ability to bend under pressure but maintain an inner core that could not be reached and carried them through the extremes.
Tangentially, I also recall a late letter in which Fritz, in reply to Voltaire's nth "I'm old and practically at death's door" says no, I'm old. You won't just survive us all, but amazingly you've managed to stay young through your mind. And there is something to it, in the sense that Voltaire managed to be himself right to the end, argumentative, witty, creative (he kept writing till his last months, too), simultanously very self centred and looking out for others. (He got the news about the success of his final campaign literally on his deathbed.) For all his earlier digs and fears, Fritz must have been glad about that.
Re: Henri de Catt Unplugged - I
Oh absolutely. And Voltaire, with his insisting on being on death's door for decades, certainly was hypochondriacal as hell. But it's one of the interesting things about him: I'm sure he was as much afraid of death as the next non-suicidal person, and then some. And he certainly had no illusions about, say, being able to withstand torture, or anything like that. On the contrary, he was prone to cry out when his toes were tread on. BUT. He had no problem going up against the powerful - who could have squashed him easily - not just as a young man, when sharing the illusion of many young men that they're immortal, and all work out well - but throughout his long life. Intermittent stints in prison not withstanding. Yes, being a egomaniac presumably helped with that, but there are any number of egomaniacs who the first few times after being bruised decide to err on the side of caution. Especially those with a sound survival instinct, which he certainly otherwise had. And yet this man fights "J'Accuse" type of publicity campaigns till the very end when he's outraged about something. (That's utterly unrelated to him, one should add, given his readiness to keep up his grudges against good old Maupertuis.) (BTW, note to self: have discovered YouTube has a French movie on one of those late life cases, "Voltaire and Calas", must check out if the time allows.)
I mean, the whole story about his dying has all those facets. Going to Paris int he first place when he knew that he wasn't likely to come back alive (authorial vanity/pride, longing for that long ago left birthplace and city of cities), going to the trouble of bamboozling a priest (because he'd rather not be flung on the dungheap; you'd think a deist wouldn't care that much what happens to his dead body, but nope, Voltaire wants a proper burial) but avoiding actually taking communion; and then when the clergy comes back in greater numbers and armed with an ultimatum, throwing them out, which not only meant no absolution (whether or not he believed that meant anything at this point) but definitely meant no proper burial (as far as he could know, unless the nephews had promised him they'd make it happen regardless). Something else Fritz and Voltaire shared besides flaws and love of literature and satire was the ability to bend under pressure but maintain an inner core that could not be reached and carried them through the extremes.
Tangentially, I also recall a late letter in which Fritz, in reply to Voltaire's nth "I'm old and practically at death's door" says no, I'm old. You won't just survive us all, but amazingly you've managed to stay young through your mind. And there is something to it, in the sense that Voltaire managed to be himself right to the end, argumentative, witty, creative (he kept writing till his last months, too), simultanously very self centred and looking out for others. (He got the news about the success of his final campaign literally on his deathbed.) For all his earlier digs and fears, Fritz must have been glad about that.