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103-527: The book's title, in the original German and in translation, uses a phrase that was well known at the time in many European cultures and had specific meaning. One of its earliest literary uses is in Rabelais 's Gargantua and Pantagruel ("gai sçavoir"). It was derived from a Provençal expression ( gai saber ) for the technical skill required for poetry-writing. Johann Gottfried Herder elaborated on this in letters 85, 90, and 102 (1796) of his Letters for

206-668: A Master of Requests . Between 1545 and 1547 François Rabelais lived in Metz , then a free imperial city and a republic, to escape the condemnation by the University of Paris . In 1547, he became curate of Saint-Christophe-du-Jambet in Maine and of Meudon near Paris. With support from members of the prominent du Bellay family , Rabelais had received approval from King Francis I to continue to publish his collection on 19 September 1545 for six years. However, on 31 December 1546,

309-570: A Roman Catholic , Rabelais was a humanist , and favoured classical Antiquity over the "barbarous" Middle Ages, believing in the need for reform to return science and arts to their classical blossoming, and theology and the Church to their original Evangelical form as expressed in the Gospels. In particular, he was critical of monasticism . Rabelais criticised what he considered to be inauthentic Christian positions by both Catholics and Protestants, and

412-399: A Greek manuscript from the printer. Gryphius published Rabelais' translations and annotations of Hippocrates , Galen and Giovanni Manardo . In 1537 he returned to Montpellier to pay the fees to obtain his licence to practice medicine (April 3) and obtained his doctorate the following month (May 22). Upon his return to Lyon in the summer, he gave an anatomy lesson at Lyon's Hôtel-Dieu using

515-472: A chance of making better decisions next time around. The earliest version of the novel, however, did not include the magician, and ended on "a totally pessimistic note". The revolution in Ouspensky's thoughts on recurrence – the idea that change is possible – took place after he became a disciple of the mystic George Gurdjieff , who taught that a person could achieve a higher state of consciousness through

618-467: A demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' The book mentions an occurrence of

721-488: A fat Swiss guy on a cannon. In the Prologue to Gargantua the narrator addresses the: "Most illustrious drinkers, and you the most precious pox-ridden—for to you and you alone are my writings dedicated ..." before turning to Plato's Banquet . An unprecedented syphilis epidemic had raged through Europe for over 30 years when the book was published, even the king of France was reputed to have been infected. Etion

824-584: A fellow Franciscan, and corresponded with Guillaume Budé , who observed that he was already competent in law. Following Erasmus ' commentary on the original Greek version of the Gospel of Luke , the Sorbonne banned the study of Greek in 1523, believing that it encouraged "personal interpretation" of the New Testament. As a result, both Lamy and Rabelais had their Greek books confiscated. Frustrated by

927-418: A finite number of combinations, and each series of combinations must eventually repeat in the same order, thereby creating "a circular movement of absolutely identical series". However, scholars such as Neil Sinhababu and Kuong Un Teng have suggested that the reason this material remained unpublished was because Nietzsche himself was unconvinced that his argument would hold up to scrutiny. A third possibility

1030-434: A heterodox version of the doctrine, noting that some Stoics suggest that "there is a slight and very minute difference between one period and the events in the period before it". This was probably not a widely-held belief, as it represents a denial of the deterministic viewpoint which stands at the heart of Stoic philosophy. Christian authors attacked the doctrine of eternal recurrence on various grounds. Origen argued that

1133-404: A hypothetical question rather than postulating it as a fact. Many readings argue that Nietzsche was not attempting to make a cosmological or theoretical claim i.e. saying that eternal recurrence is a true statement about how the world works. Instead, the emotional reaction to the thought experiment serves to reveal whether one is living life to the best. According to Heidegger, the significant point

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1236-466: A large enough quantity of matter would be capable of an infinite number of possible combinations. According to Ouspensky, everyone is reborn again into the same life at the moment of their death, and many people will indeed continue to live the exact same lives for eternity, but it is also possible to break the cycle and enter into a new plane of existence. The Poincaré recurrence theorem states that certain dynamical systems , such as particles of gas in

1339-415: A list of the most notable works of French literature, noting with surprise and indignation that Rabelais was placed behind Charles de Gaulle 's war memoirs, and was denied the "aura of a founding figure! Yet in the eyes of nearly every great novelist of our time he is, along with Cervantes , the founder of an entire art, the art of the novel". In the satirical musical The Music Man by Meredith Willson ,

1442-531: A manuscript containing eleven chapters and ending mid-sentence in Lyon on his way to Rome to work as Cardinal du Bellay's personal physician in 1548. According to Jean Plattard, this publication served two purposes: first, it brought Rabelais some much-needed money; and second, it allowed him to respond to those who considered his work blasphemous. While the prologue denounced slanderers, the following chapters did not raise any polemical issues. Already it contained some of

1545-463: A misogynist or a feminist based on different episodes in his works. An article by Edwin M. Duvall in Études rabelaisiennes 18 (1985) sparked a debate on the prologue of Gargantua in the pages of the Revue d’histoire littéraire de la France as to whether Rabelais intentionally hid higher meanings in his work, to be discovered through erudition and philology, or if instead the polyvalence of symbols

1648-456: A number of sources in developing his own formulation of the theory. He had studied Pythagorean and Stoic philosophy, was familiar with the works of contemporary philosophers such as Dühring and Vogt, and may have encountered references to Blanqui in a book by Friedrich Albert Lange . He was also a fan of the author Heinrich Heine , one of whose books contains a passage discussing the theory of eternal return. Nevertheless, Nietzsche claimed that

1751-507: A rejection of the sacred truths themselves. Timothy Hampton writes that "to a degree unequaled by the case of any other writer from the European Renaissance, the reception of Rabelais's work has involved dispute, critical disagreement, and ... scholarly wrangling ..." In particular, as pointed out by Bruno Braunrot, the traditional view of Rabelais as a humanist has been challenged by early post-structuralist analyses denying

1854-414: A sealed container, will return infinitely often to a state arbitrarily close to their original state. The theorem, first advanced by Henri Poincaré in 1890, remains influential, and is today the basis of ergodic theory . Attempts have been made to prove or disprove the possibility of Poincaré recurrence in a system the size of a galaxy or a universe. Philosopher Michael Huemer has argued that if this

1957-422: A single consistent ideological message of his text, and to some extent earlier by Marxist critiques such as Mikhail Bakhtin with his emphasis on the subversive folk roots of Rabelais' humour in medieval " carnival " culture. At present, however, "whatever controversy still surrounds Rabelais studies can be found above all in the application of feminist theories to Rabelais criticism", as he is alternately considered

2060-447: A system of strict self-discipline. When Ouspensky asked about eternal recurrence, Gurdjieff told him: This idea of repetition ... is not the full and absolute truth, but it is the nearest possible approximation of the truth ... And if you understand why I do not speak of this, you will be still nearer to it. What is the use of a man knowing about recurrence if he is not conscious of it and if he himself does not change? ... Knowledge about

2163-404: A whole it exercises a baneful influence. Acknowledging both the sordid side of the work and its protean nature, Jean de La Bruyère in 1688 saw beyond that its sublimity: His book is an enigma, it is whatever you want to say, it is inexplicable, it is a chimera ….. a monstrous assembling of refined and ingenious morality and foul corruption. Either it is bad, sinking far below the worst, to have

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2266-412: Is an abstract one: whether Panurge should marry or not. Torn between the desire for a wife and the fear of being cuckolded, Panurge engages in divinatory methods, like dream interpretation and bibliomancy . He consults authorities vested with revealed knowledge, like the sibyl of Panzoust or the mute Nazdecabre, profane acquaintances, like the theologian Hippothadée or the philosopher Trouillogan, and even

2369-464: Is considered a Christian humanist . He was critical of medieval scholasticism, lampooning the abuses of powerful princes and popes, opposing them with Greco-Roman learning and popular culture. Rabelais is widely known for the first two volumes relating the childhoods of the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel written in the style of bildungsroman ; his later works—the Third Book (which prefigures

2472-520: Is misleading if it suggests natural sciences—clearly inappropriate in this case, where "scholarship" is preferable, implying humanities. The book is usually placed within Nietzsche's middle period, during which his work extolled the merits of science, skepticism , and intellectual discipline as routes to mental freedom. In The Gay Science , Nietzsche experiments with the notion of power but does not advance any systematic theory. The affirmation of

2575-516: Is more comprehensible to the modern reader given the contrasting modern English meanings of "gay" and "science". The German fröhlich can be translated "happy" or "joyful", cognate to the original meanings of "gay" in English and other languages. However Wissenschaft is not "wisdom" (wisdom = Weisheit ), but a propensity toward any rigorous practice of a poised, controlled, and disciplined quest for knowledge. The common English translation "science"

2678-408: Is that Nietzsche was attempting to create a new ethical standard by which people should judge their own behaviour. In one of his unpublished notes, Nietzsche writes: "The question which thou wilt have to answer before every deed that thou doest: 'is this such a deed as I am prepared to perform an incalculable number of times?' is the best ballast." Taken in this sense, the doctrine has been compared to

2781-540: Is that which hath been? It is that which shall be. And what is that which is done? It is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Who can speak and say, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us." Augustine denies that this has reference to the recurrence of specific people, objects, and events, instead interpreting the passage in a more general sense. In support of his argument, he appeals to scriptural passages such as Romans 6:9, which affirms that Christ "being raised from

2884-516: Is the burden imposed by the question of eternal recurrence, regardless of whether or not such a thing could possibly be true. The idea is similar to Nietzsche's concept of amor fati , which he describes in Ecce Homo : "My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati : that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely to bear what is necessary, still less conceal it ... but love it." On

2987-454: Is the ultimate liberator of the spirit... I doubt that such pain makes us 'better'; but I know that it makes us more profound. This is representative of amor fati , the general outlook on life that he articulates in section 276: I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who makes things beautiful. Amor fati : let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what

3090-436: Is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer. The book contains Nietzsche's first consideration of the idea of the eternal recurrence , a concept which would become critical in his next work Thus Spoke Zarathustra and underpins much of the later works. What if some day or night

3193-673: The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), other poets in the 14th century ameliorated and thus cultivated the gai saber or gaia scienza . In a similar vein, in Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche observed that, ... love as passion —which is our European speciality—[was invented by] the Provençal knight-poets, those magnificent and inventive human beings of the "gai saber" to whom Europe owes so many things and almost owes itself. The original English translation as Joyful Wisdom

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3296-591: The Book of Tobit whose canonical status was being debated at the Council of Trent —led Rabelais to dedicate the book to her before she wrote the Heptameron . In contrast to the two preceding chronicles, the dialogue between the characters is much more developed than the plot elements in the third book. In particular, the central question of the book, which Panurge and Pantagruel consider from multiple points of view,

3399-591: The Tiers Livre joined the Sorbonne's list of banned books. After the king's death in 1547, the academic élite frowned upon Rabelais, and the Paris Parlement suspended the sale of The Fourth Book, published in 1552, despite Henry II having accorded him the royal privilege. This suspension proved ineffective, for the time being, as the king reiterated his support for the book. Rabelais resigned from

3502-463: The University of Poitiers and then to the University of Montpellier to study medicine. In 1532 he moved to Lyon , one of the intellectual centres of the Renaissance, and began working as a doctor at the hospital Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon . During his time in Lyon, he edited Latin works for the printer Sebastian Gryphius , and wrote a famous admiring letter to Erasmus to accompany the transmission of

3605-445: The categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant . Once again, however, the objection is raised that no such ethical imperative appears in any of Nietzsche's published writings, and this interpretation is therefore rejected by most modern scholars. Russian esotericist P. D. Ouspensky (1878–1947) believed in the literal truth of eternal recurrence. As a child, he had been prone to vivid sensations of déjà vu , and when he encountered

3708-568: The grotesque , and for his larger-than-life characters. Both ecclesiastical and anticlerical , Christian and a freethinker , a doctor and a bon vivant , the multiple facets of his personality sometimes seem contradictory. Caught up in the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation , Rabelais treated the great questions of his time in his novels. Assessments of his life and work have evolved over time depending on dominant paradigms of thought. Rabelais admired Erasmus and like him

3811-463: The veracity of obviously fantastical elements of the story. The full version appeared in 1552, after Rabelais received a royal privilege on 6 Aug 1550 for the exclusive right to publish his work in French, Tuscan , Greek, and Latin. This, he accomplished with the help of the young Cardinal of Châtillon ( Odet de Coligny )—who would later convert to Protestantism and be excommunicated. Rabelais thanks

3914-438: The 19th century restarted the debate among scientists and philosophers about the ultimate fate of the universe, which brought in its train many questions about the nature of time. Eduard von Hartmann argued that the universe's final state would be identical to the state in which it had begun; Eugen Dühring rejected this idea, claiming that it carried with it the necessary consequence that the universe would begin again, and that

4017-500: The Advancement of Humanity . The expression proved durable and was used as late as 19th-century American English by Ralph Waldo Emerson and E. S. Dallas . It was also used in deliberately inverted form, by Thomas Carlyle in " the dismal science ", to criticize the emerging discipline of economics by comparison with poetry. The book's title was first translated into English as The Joyful Wisdom , but The Gay Science has become

4120-524: The Cardinal for his help in the prefatory letter signed 28 January 1552 and, for the first time in the Pantagruel series, titled the prologue in his own name rather than using a pseudonym. The French Renaissance was a time of linguistic contact and debate. The first book of French, rather than Latin, grammar was published in 1530, followed nine years later by the language's first dictionary. Spelling

4223-476: The Divine Bottle, in the subsequent episode, Pantagruel is content simply listening to the thawing words as they rain down on the boat, whereas Jeanneret observes that his companions focus instead on their colourful appearance while they are still frozen, hurrying to gather as many up as they can and offering to sell those they have collected. The pilot describes the words as evidence of a great battle, and

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4326-682: The Hôtel Dieu de Lyon on 13 February 1535 after receiving his salary, disappearing until August 1535 as a result of the tumultuous Affair of the Placards , which led Francis I to issue an edict forbidding all printing in France. Only the influence of the du Bellays allowed the printing presses to run again. In May, Jean du Bellay was named cardinal, and still with a diplomatic mission for Francis I, had Rabelais join him in Rome. During this time, Rabelais

4429-458: The Lyon fairs in the early 1530s. In the first chapter of the earliest book, Pantagruel's lineage is listed back 60 generations to a giant named Chalbroth. The narrator dismisses the skeptics of the time—who would have thought a giant far too large for Noah's Ark —stating that Hurtaly (the giant reigning during the flood and a great fan of soup) simply rode the Ark like a kid on a rocking horse, or like

4532-511: The Madman who is searching for God. He accuses us all of being the murderers of God. "'Where is God?' he cried; 'I will tell you. We have killed him —you and I. All of us are his murderers..." Fran%C3%A7ois Rabelais François Rabelais ( UK : / ˈ r æ b ə l eɪ / RAB -ə-lay , US : / ˌ r æ b ə ˈ l eɪ / -⁠ LAY ; French: [fʁɑ̃swa ʁablɛ] ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553)

4635-407: The Provençal tradition (invoked through the book's title) is also one of a joyful "yea-saying" to life . Nietzsche's love of fate naturally leads him to confront the reality of suffering in a radical way. For to love that which is necessary demands not only that we love the bad along with the good, but that we view the two as inextricably linked. In section 3 of the preface, he writes: Only great pain

4738-536: The Stoics believed that the contents of each new universe would be one and the same with those of the previous universe, or only so similar as to be indistinguishable. The former point of view was attributed to the Stoic Chrysippus (c. 279 – c. 206 BC) by Alexander of Aphrodisias , who wrote: They hold that after the conflagration all the same things come to be again in the world numerically, so that even

4841-535: The abbot in commendam of the Saint-Maur Abbey , Rabelais arranged to be assigned there, knowing that the monks were to become secular clergy the following year. In 1540, Rabelais lived for a short time in Turin as part of the household of du Bellay's brother, Guillaume . It was at this time that his two children were legitimized by Paul III, the same year that his third child (Théodule) died in Lyon at

4944-399: The age of two. Rabelais also spent some time lying low, under periodic threat of being condemned of heresy depending upon the health of his various protectors. In 1543, both Gargantua and Pantagruel were condemned by the Sorbonne , then a theological college. Only the protection of du Bellay saved Rabelais after the condemnation of his novel by the Sorbonne. In June 1543 Rabelais became

5047-622: The ban, Rabelais petitioned Pope Clement VII (1523–1534) and obtained an indult with the help of Bishop Geoffroy d'Estissac  [ fr ] , and was able to leave the Franciscans for the Benedictine Order at Maillezais . At the Saint-Pierre-de-Maillezais abbey, he worked as a secretary to the bishop—a well-read prelate appointed by Francis I —and enjoyed his protection. Around 1527 he left

5150-458: The best-known episodes, including the storm at sea and Panurge's sheep. It was framed as an erratic odyssey, inspired in part by the Argonauts and the news of Jacques Cartier 's voyage to Canada, and in part by the imaginary voyage described by Lucian in A True Story , which provided Rabelais not only with several anecdotes, but also with a first-person narrator who regularly insisted on

5253-478: The bowels which Swift so malignantly hated. His was the true amor fati  : he accepted reality in its entirety, accepted with gratitude and delight this amazingly improbable world." George Orwell was not an admirer of Rabelais. Writing in 1940, he called him "an exceptionally perverse, morbid writer, a case for psychoanalysis ". Milan Kundera , in a 2007 article in The New Yorker , commented on

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5356-403: The case; although Ivan always knows in advance what the outcome of his actions will be, he is unable to keep himself from repeating those actions. Having re-lived his life up to the point of his conversation with the magician, Ivan asks in despair whether there is any way of changing the past. The magician answers that he must first change himself; if he works on improving his character, he may have

5459-618: The charm of the rabble. Or it is good, rising as far as exquisite and excellent, to be perhaps the most delicious of dishes. In his 1759–1767 novel Tristram Shandy , Laurence Sterne quotes extensively from Rabelais. Alfred Jarry performed, from memory, hymns of Rabelais at Symbolist Rachilde 's Tuesday salons , and worked for years on an unfinished libretto for an opera by Claude Terrasse based on Pantagruel. Anatole France gave lectures on Rabelais in Argentina. John Cowper Powys , D. B. Wyndham-Lewis , and Lucien Febvre (one of

5562-614: The common translation since Walter Kaufmann 's version in the 1960s. Kaufmann cites The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1955) that lists "The gay science (Provençal gai saber ): the art of poetry." In Ecce Homo , Nietzsche refers to the poems in the Appendix of The Gay Science , saying they were ... written for the most part in Sicily, are quite emphatically reminiscent of the Provençal concept of gaia scienza —that unity of singer , knight , and free spirit which distinguishes

5665-467: The corpse of a hanged man, which Etienne Dolet described in his Carmina . It was through his work and scholarship in the field of medicine that Rabelais gained European fame. In 1532, under the pseudonym Alcofribas Nasier (an anagram of François Rabelais), he published his first book, Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes , the first of his Gargantua series , primarily to supplement his income at

5768-613: The curacy in January 1553 and died in Paris later that year. Gargantua and Pantagruel relates the adventures of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. The tales are adventurous and erudite, festive and gross, ecumenical, and rarely—if ever—solemn for long. The first book, chronologically, was Pantagruel: King of the Dipsodes and the Gargantua mentioned in the Prologue refers not to Rabelais' own work but to storybooks that were being sold at

5871-484: The danger of the Decretals." The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1911 declared that Rabelais was ... a revolutionary who attacked all the past, Scholasticism, the monks; his religion is scarcely more than that of a spiritually minded pagan. Less bold in political matters, he cared little for liberty; his ideal was a tyrant who loves peace. [...] His vocabulary is rich and picturesque, but licentious and filthy.[.....] As

5974-422: The dead dieth no more". Eternal recurrence ( German : Ewige Wiederkunft ) is one of the central concepts of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900). While the idea itself is not original to Nietzsche, his unique response to it gave new life to the theory, and speculation as to the correct interpretation of Nietzsche's doctrine continues to this day. The discovery of the laws of thermodynamics in

6077-813: The doctrine struck him one day as a sudden revelation, while walking beside Lake Silvaplana in Switzerland. The first published presentation of Nietzsche's version of the theory appears in The Gay Science , section 341, where it is proposed to the reader as a thought experiment . What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness, and say to you, "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in

6180-454: The famous formulation " God is dead "; this can be found in later works such as Thus Spoke Zarathustra . After Buddha was dead, people showed his shadow for centuries afterwards in a cave,—an immense frightful shadow. God is dead: but as the human race is constituted, there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people will show his shadow.—And we—we have still to overcome his shadow! Section 125 depicts The Parable of

6283-497: The first edition and by Henri II for the 1552 edition, The Third Book was condemned by the Sorbonne, like the previous tomes. In it, Rabelais revisited discussions he had had while working as a secretary to Geoffroy d'Estissac earlier in Fontenay–le–Comte, where la querelle des femmes had been a lively subject of debate. More recent exchanges with Marguerite de Navarre —possibly about the question of clandestine marriage and

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6386-648: The founders of the French historical school Annales ), all wrote books about him. James Joyce included an allusion to "Master Francois somebody" in his 1922 novel Ulysses . Mikhail Bakhtin , a Russian philosopher and critic, derived his concepts of the carnivalesque and grotesque body from the world of Rabelais. He points to the historical loss of communal spirit after the Medieval period and speaks of carnival laughter as an "expression of social consciousness". Aldous Huxley admired Rabelais' work. Writing in 1929, he praised Rabelais, stating "Rabelais loved

6489-453: The hospital. The idea of basing an allegory on the lives of giants came to Rabelais from the folklore legend of les Grandes chroniques du grand et énorme géant Gargantua , which were sold by colporteurs and at the fairs of Lyon  [ fr ] as popular literature in the form of inexpensive pamphlets. The first edition of an almanac parodying the astrological predictions of the time called Pantagrueline prognostications appeared for

6592-415: The jester Triboulet . It is likely that several of the characters refer to real people: Abel Lefranc argues that Hippothadée was Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples , Rondibilis was the doctor Guillaume Rondelet , the esoteric Her Trippa corresponds to Cornelius Agrippa . One of the comic features of the story is the contradictory interpretations Pantagruel and Panurge get embroiled in, the first of which being

6695-414: The members are defined positively, the text becomes more inviting: Honour, praise, distraction Herein lies subtraction in the tuning up of joy. To healthy bodies so employed Do pass on this reaction: Honour, praise, distraction The Thélèmites in the abbey live according to a single rule: DO WHAT YOU WANT Published in 1546 under his own name with the privilège granted by Francis I for

6798-428: The monastery without authorization, becoming an apostate until Pope Paul III absolved him of this crime, which carried with it the risk of severe sanctions, in 1536. Until this time, church law forbade him to work as a doctor or surgeon. J. Lesellier surmises that it was during the time he spent in Paris from 1528 to 1530 that two of his three children (François and Junie) were born. After Paris, Rabelais went to

6901-600: The names " Chaucer ! Rabelais! Balzac !" are presented by local gossips as evidence that the town librarian "advocates dirty books." Rabelais is a pivotal figure in Kenzaburō Ōe 's 1994 acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature . Eternal recurrence Eternal return (or eternal recurrence ) is a philosophical concept which states that time repeats itself in an infinite loop, and that exactly

7004-478: The narrator even wants to preserve some of the finest insults in oil. Jeanneret observes that Pantagruel considers the exchange of words to be an act of love rather than a commercial exchange, argues that their artificial preservation is superfluous, and "insinuates that books are petrified tombs, where the signs threaten to stop moving and, left to the devices of lazy readers, get shriveled down into simplistic meanings[,]" implying that "[a]ll writing carries within it

7107-447: The novel Gargantua permanently added more than 800 words to the French language. Most scholars today agree that Rabelais wrote from a perspective of Christian humanism . This has not always been the case. Abel Lefranc , in his 1922 introduction to Pantagruel , depicted Rabelais as a militant anti-Christian atheist. On the contrary, M. A. Screech , like Lucien Febvre before him, describes Rabelais as an Erasmian . While formally

7210-413: The other hand, Nietzsche's posthumously published notebooks contain an attempt at a logical proof of eternal return, which is often adduced in support of the claim that Nietzsche believed in the theory as a real possibility. The proof is based upon the premise that the universe is infinite in duration, but contains a finite quantity of energy. This being the case, all matter in the universe must pass through

7313-526: The paradoxical encomium of debts in chapter III. The Third Book , deeply indebted to In Praise of Folly , contains the first-known attestation of the word paradoxe in French. The more reflective tone shows the characters' evolution from the earlier tomes. Here Panurge is not as crafty as Pantagruel and is stubborn in his will to turn every sign to his advantage, refusing to listen to advice he had himself sought out. For example, when Her Trippa reads dark omens in his future marriage, Panurge accuses him of

7416-465: The philosophical novel) and the Fourth Book are considerably more erudite in tone. His literary legacy is such that the word Rabelaisian designates something that is "marked by gross robust humor, extravagance of caricature, or bold naturalism". According to a tradition dating back to Roger de Gaignières (1642–1715), François Rabelais was the son of seneschal and lawyer Antoine Rabelais and

7519-578: The praise of Pantagruelion, which combines properties of linen and hemp—a plant used in the 16th century for both the hangman's rope and medicinal purposes, being copiously loaded onto the ships. As a naturalist inspired by Pliny the Elder and Charles Estienne , the narrator intercedes in the story, first describing the plant in great detail, then waxing lyrical on its various qualities. Rabelais began work on The Fourth Book while still in Metz. He dropped off

7622-540: The problem whether the same time recurs, as some say, or not. "The same" has many senses: the same in form seems to occur as do spring and winter and the other seasons and periods; similarly the same changes occur in form, for the sun performs its solstices and equinoxes and its other journeys. But if someone were to believe the Pythagoreans that numerically the same things recur, then I also will romance, holding my staff, while you sit there, and everything else will be

7725-458: The protagonist learns to overcome his horror of the thought of eternal return. It is not known whether Nietzsche believed in the literal truth of eternal return, or, if he did not, what he intended to demonstrate by it. Nietzsche's ideas were subsequently taken up and re-interpreted by other writers, such as Russian esotericist P. D. Ouspensky , who argued that it was possible to break the cycle of return. There are hints in ancient writings that

7828-487: The repetition of lives will add nothing for a man ... if he does not strive to change himself in order to escape this repetition. But if he changes something essential in himself, that is, if he attains something, this cannot be lost. Ouspensky incorporated this idea into his later writings. In A New Model of the Universe , he argued against Nietzsche's proof of the mathematical necessity of eternal repetition, claiming that

7931-496: The same blind self-love ( philautie ) from which he seems to suffer. His erudition is more often put to work for pedantry than let to settle into wisdom. By contrast, Pantagruel's speech gains in weightiness by the third book, the exuberance of the young giant having faded. At the end of the Third Book , the protagonists decide to set sail in search of a discussion with the Oracle of the Divine Bottle. The last chapters are focused on

8034-535: The same events are exactly repeated in every cycle. The Stoics may have found support for this doctrine in the concept of the Great Year , the oldest known expression of which is found in Plato 's Timaeus . Plato hypothesised that one complete cycle of time would be fulfilled when the sun, moon and planets all completed their various circuits and returned to their original positions. Sources differ as to whether

8137-406: The same events will continue to occur in exactly the same way, over and over again, for eternity. In ancient Greece , the concept of eternal return was most prominently associated with Stoicism , the school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium . The Stoics believed that the universe is periodically destroyed and reborn, and that each universe is exactly the same as the one before. This doctrine

8240-501: The same forms would repeat themselves eternally, a doctrine which Dühring viewed as dangerously pessimistic. Johann Gustav Vogt  [ de ] , on the other hand, argued in favour of a cyclical system, additionally positing the spatial co-existence of an infinite number of identical worlds. Louis Auguste Blanqui similarly claimed that in an infinite universe, every possible combination of forms must repeat itself eternally across both time and space. Nietzsche may have drawn upon

8343-633: The same peculiarly qualified individual as before exists and comes to be again in that world, as Chrysippus says in his books On the World . On the other hand, Origen (c. 185 – c. 253 AD) characterises the Stoics as claiming that the contents of each cycle will not be identical, but only indistinguishable: To avoid supposing that Socrates will live again, they say that it will be some one indistinguishable from Socrates, who will marry some one indistinguishable from Xanthippe, and will be accused by men indistinguishable from Anytus and Meletus. Origen also records

8446-400: The same succession and sequence" ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine." Nietzsche expanded upon this concept in the philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra , later writing that eternal return

8549-403: The same, and it is plausible to say that the time will be the same. The Stoics, possibly inspired by the Pythagoreans, incorporated the theory of eternal recurrence into their natural philosophy. According to Stoic physics , the universe is periodically destroyed in an immense conflagration ( ekpyrosis ), and then experiences a rebirth ( palingenesis ). These cycles continue for eternity, and

8652-568: The second novel, Gargantua , M. Alcofribas narrates the Abbey of Thélème, built by the giant Gargantua. It differs markedly from the monastic norm, since it is open to both monks and nuns and has a swimming pool, maid service, and no clocks in sight. Only the good-looking are permitted to enter. The inscription at the gate first specifies who is not welcome: hypocrites, bigots, the pox-ridden, Goths, Magoths, straw-chewing law clerks, usurious grinches, old or officious judges, and burners of heretics. When

8755-710: The study of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic before moving on to the quadrivium , which dealt with arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. In 1623, Jacques Bruneau de Tartifume wrote that Rabelais began his life as a novice of the Franciscan Order of Cordeliers , at the Convent of the Cordeliers, near Angers ; however there is no direct evidence to support this theory. By 1520, he was at Fontenay-le-Comte in Poitou where he became friends with Pierre Lamy,

8858-460: The theologians but brought them popular success and the admiration of later critics for their focus on the body. This first book, critical of the existing monastic and educational system, contains the first known occurrence in French of the words encyclopédie , caballe , progrès, and utopie , among others. The book became popular, along with its 1534 prequel , which dealt with the life and exploits of Pantagruel's father Gargantua, and which

8961-488: The theory of eternal return in the writings of Nietzsche, it occurred to him that this was a possible explanation for his experiences. He subsequently explored the idea in his semi-autobiographical novel, Strange Life of Ivan Osokin . In this story, Ivan Osokin implores a magician to send him back to his childhood and give him the chance to live his life over again. The magician obliges, but warns Ivan that he will be unable to correct any of his mistakes. This turns out to be

9064-448: The theory of eternal return may have originated with Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC). According to Porphyry , it was one of the teachings of Pythagoras that "after certain specified periods, the same events occur again" and that "nothing was entirely new". Eudemus of Rhodes also references this Pythagorean doctrine in his commentary on Aristotle 's Physics . In a fragment preserved by Simplicius , Eudemus writes: One might raise

9167-535: The theory was incompatible with free will (although he did allow the possibility of diverse and non-identical cycles). Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) objected to the fact that salvation was not possible in the Stoic scheme, arguing that even if a temporary happiness was attained, a soul could not be truly blessed if it was doomed to return again to misery. Augustine also mentions "certain philosophers" who cite Ecclesiastes 1:9–10 as evidence of eternal return: "What

9270-618: The wonderful early culture of the Provençals from all equivocal cultures. The very last poem above all, "To the Mistral", an exuberant dancing song in which, if I may say so, one dances right over morality, is a perfect Provençalism. This alludes to the birth of modern European poetry that occurred in Provence around the 11th century, whereupon, after the culture of the troubadours fell into almost complete desolation and destruction due to

9373-421: The year 1533 from the press of Rabelais' publisher François Juste. It contained the name "Maître Alcofribas" in its full title. The popular almanacs continued irregularly until the final 1542 edition, which was prepared for the "perpetual year". From 1537, they were printed at the end of Juste's editions of Pantagruel . Pantagruelism is an "eat, drink and be merry" philosophy, which led his books into disfavor with

9476-815: Was "the fundamental idea of the work". In this novel, the titular Zarathustra is initially struck with horror at the thought that all things must recur eternally; ultimately, however, he overcomes his aversion to eternal return and embraces it as his most fervent desire. In the penultimate chapter of the work ("The Drunken Song"), Zarathustra declares: "All things are entangled, ensnared, enamored; if you ever wanted one thing twice, if you ever said, 'You please me, happiness! Abide, moment!' then you wanted all back ... For all joy wants—eternity ." Martin Heidegger points out that Nietzsche's first mention of eternal recurrence in The Gay Science presents this concept as

9579-553: Was a French writer who has been called the first great French prose author. A humanist of the French Renaissance and Greek scholar , he attracted opposition from both Protestant theologian John Calvin and from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church . Though in his day he was best known as a physician, scholar, diplomat, and Catholic priest , later he became better known as a satirist for his depictions of

9682-541: Was a poetic device meant to resist the reductive gloss . Michel Jeanneret  [ fr ] suggests that Panurge's description (in the Papimane Island episode in The Fourth Book ) of the ill-effects of the pages of decretals being used as toilet paper, targets, cones, and masks on whatever they touch was due to their misuse as material objects. As the merry crew sail on from the island towards

9785-466: Was a prolific reader, who wrote a great deal about bodies and all they excrete or ingest. His fictional works are filled with multilingual, often sexual, puns, absurd creatures, bawdy songs and lists. Words and metaphors from Rabelais abound in modern French and some words have found their way into English, through Thomas Urquhart 's unfinished 1693 translation, completed and considerably augmented by Peter Anthony Motteux by 1708. According to Radio-Canada,

9888-404: Was also working for Geoffroy d'Estissac's interests and maintained a correspondence with him through diplomatic channels (under royal seal as far as Poitiers). Three letters from Rabelais have survived. On 17 January 1536, Paul III issued a papal brief authorizing Rabelais to join a Benedictine monastery and practice medicine, as long as he refrained from surgery. Jean du Bellay having been named

9991-601: Was attacked and portrayed as a threat to religion or even an atheist by both. For example, "at the request of Catholic theologians, all four Pantagrueline chronicles were censured by either the Sorbonne , Parlement, or both". On the opposite end of the spectrum, John Calvin saw Rabelais as a representative of the numerous moderate evangelical humanists who, while "critical of contemporary Catholic institutions, doctrines, and conduct", did not go far enough; in addition, Calvin considered Rabelais' apparent mocking tone to be especially dangerous, since it could be easily misinterpreted as

10094-462: Was born at the estate of La Devinière in Seuilly (near Chinon ), Touraine in modern-day Indre-et-Loire , where a Rabelais museum can be found today. The exact dates of his birth (c. 1483–1494) and death (1553) are unknown, but most scholars accept his likely birthdate as being 1483. His education was likely typical of the late medieval period: beginning with the trivium syllabus that included

10197-443: Was far less codified. Rabelais, as an educated reader of the day, preferred etymological spelling—preserving clues to the lineage of words—to more phonetic spellings which wash those traces away. Rabelais' use of Latin, Greek, regional and dialectal terms, creative calquing , gloss , neologism and mis-translation was the fruit of the printing press having been invented less than a hundred years earlier. A doctor by trade, Rabelais

10300-508: Was fiercely criticised by Christian authors such as Augustine , who saw in it a fundamental denial of free will and of the possibility of salvation. The global spread of Christianity therefore brought an end to classical theories of eternal return. The concept was revived in the 19th century by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche . Having briefly presented the idea as a thought experiment in The Gay Science , he explored it more thoroughly in his novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra , in which

10403-559: Was more infused with the politics of the day and overtly favorable to the monarchy than the preceding volume had been. The 1534 re-edition of Pantagruel contains many orthographic, grammatical, and typographical innovations, in particular the use of diacritics (accents, apostrophes, and diaereses ), which was then new in French. Mireille Huchon ascribes this innovation in part to the influence of Dante 's De vulgari eloquentia on French letters. No clear evidence establishes when Jean du Bellay and Rabelais met. Nevertheless, when du Bellay

10506-463: Was sent to Rome in January 1534 to convince Pope Clément VII not to excommunicate Henry VIII , he was accompanied by Rabelais, who worked as his secretary and personal physician until his return in April. During his stay, Rabelais found the city fascinating and decided to bring out a new edition of Bartolomeo Marliani 's Topographia antiqua Romae with Sebastien Gryphe in Lyon. Rabelais quietly left

10609-410: Was the first giant in Pantagruel's list of ancestors to suffer from the disease. Although most chapters are humorous, wildly fantastic and frequently absurd, a few relatively serious passages have become famous for expressing humanistic ideals of the time. In particular, the chapters on Gargantua's boyhood and Gargantua's paternal letter to Pantagruel present a quite detailed vision of education. In

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