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justiste-blog · 5 years ago

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Can u tell us more abt voltaires claim of csa?

I’d love to. It’s something most biographers tend to leave out but is obviously a pretty big deal. Also, I’m sorry if this is a much longer response than what you expected, but I feel strongly about this and there’s a lot to cover.

And I’ll just put a tw: discussion of child sexual abuse (CSA) in case anyone needs it.

So the main claim was during his exile in England. He was having dinner with Alexander Pope and his mother, Mrs Pope. During the dinner, Voltaire fell into a fit of complaining about his poor health (which he often did). In an effort to try and calm him, Mrs Pope asked him how his health got so bad if he’s still so young (32). Voltaire responded with, “those damned Jesuits, when I was a boy, buggered me to such a degree that I shall never get over it as long as I live.” Mrs. Pope, as a Catholic, seemed to have been offended and left the room.

Voltaire never outright mentions this again and there’s no definitive proof of whether or not it happened. From what I’ve read, most historians don’t believe it him (I can’t speak for non-english biographies though) but if I’m being honest, most historians don’t take the time to actually weigh the facts and come up with a justified conclusion. Some of the reasons people give against believing Voltaire’s claim is that Voltaire often told edgy jokes especially at the expense of the religious, so this can easily be one of his jokes. This theory is helped by two major points: 1) Voltaire never repeated the accusation, and 2) Voltaire’s English was defective and he made the accusation in English (he possible meant to say something not so drastic, or the joke may have had a better delivery and been more clearly satire if he had said it in his native language). Now, David Wootton does a good job at refuting these points. (Wootton has a whole essay on this topic that I’ll link at the bottom of this post as I reference him a lot here. I highly suggest reading it if you’re interested in Voltaire.) Wootton points out that although the accusation itself is never repeated, Voltaire does allude to the theme of childhood trauma repeatedly in his writing; and Voltaire’s English at the time he made the accusation was good enough for him to write a book in English, let alone properly speak one sentence. This doesn’t completely refute that is was a joke but it is compelling.

Now, what are the facts?

Well when Voltaire blames the Jesuits, he’s talking about the administration of Lycée Louis-le-Grand, the Jesuit school he attended and lived in from ages 9 to 17. It just so happens that this school has had reports of teachers sexually abusing students (during this time, not now, since the school still exists). In fact, an investigation into the school was done when Voltaire was 14. The report of the investigation instructs the staff to at least not “embrace” the students in public even if they can’t help doing it in private. The school was also anonymously burnt down the same day Deschauffours was burnt for sodomy performed by a Jesuit (Desfontaines) on underaged boys (Voltaire retells the incident as: “The abbé Desfontaines was on the point of being roasted in the Place de Grève for having taken advantage of some little climbing boys who were sweeping his chimney”), meaning someone felt the need to make a public connection between Louis-le-Grand and csa. On a related note, Sade also attended LLG (almost 50 years after Voltaire enrolled) and makes similar vague claims: he attributes his penchant to sodomy to the Jesuits and possibly details the abuse he faced. I talk more about that here. There’s a bit more to say on that matter than what’s on that post, but I’ll leave this focused on Voltaire.

The next fact involves d'Olivet, Voltaire’s prefect in LLG who was 12 years older than him. Prefects were usually assigned to groups of 5-7 children with whom they shared a room. d'Olivet and Voltaire stayed lifelong friends, Voltaire never really said anything bad about him except on one occasion: Voltaire claimed to a friend that d'Olivet “took pleasure in beating boys”. According to Aldridge’s bio d'Olivet “frequently administrated corporal punishment to Voltaire’s backside during the latter’s fourteenth year”. (But according to Nemeth there’s no record of Voltaire ever being punished, of course that doesn’t mean it never happened, he was there for 8 years, and he was a bit of a smart ass). Most alarmingly, upon observing Voltaire and d'Olivet’s close friendship as adults, Voltaire’s good friend, D'Alembert, felt the need to warn him that d'Olivet was a bad friend who hates everyone and “does not love you more than anyone else”. Of course this is all very vague, looking at only this, you can’t properly conclude that d'Olivet abused Voltaire, I’ve never seen any historian even suggest that. But I (in my very unprofessional and meaningless opinion) can’t help but feel like there’s something there. Though I might just be reading into this way too much. In his later life d'Olivet recalls a terribly harsh winter during his LLG years. He reminds Voltaire how the two of them needed to huddle near the fire to keep warm. Now that’s a completely innocent memory as far as I can tell, but reading that with the above information in mind and our modern knowledge of occurrences like grooming, it’s hard to shake the uncomfortable feeling.

Pearson’s biography even includes this spiel about the possible relationships between students and prefects (then goes on to dismiss Voltaire’s allegation without any reason):

[Voltaire Almighty by Roger Pearson]

(Sometime last year I tried to find any more information on the accusations and investigations on LLG during the Jesuit control of the school, but I couldn’t find anything concrete. So I tried looking up the teachers, particularly Father Le Jay who is mentioned in passing in Pearson’s bio. Le Jay was Voltaire’s rhetoric teacher (who apparently also wrote the school plays) and really the only teacher that disliked him. Really disliked him. For his intelligence and love of learning, Voltaire was very well liked among the rest of the staff:

[Life of Voltaire, Vol. 2 by James Parton]

This might be entirely irrelevant but it’s all I was able to find through the scant information I have access to.)

This is unrelated to Voltaire’s exact claim since he blames the Jesuits, but I still think it’s worth mentioning. As a teenager, Voltaire frequented Libertine circles, though he seemed to do so only to familiarize himself with aristocratic literary societies since he avoided any involvement in the sex and heavy drinking that was a regular occurrence. One club, in particular, was the Sociéte du Temple. Its members are described as:

[Voltaire’s Tormented Soul by Alexander J. Nemeth]

Nemeth later goes on to acknowledge how “his association with members of the debauched Société du Temple would not portend well for [Voltaire’s] character development.”

Similarly:

[Émilie du Châtelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment by Judith P. Zinsser]

Coming back to Nemeth’s analysis which I kinda ranted about earlier. A lot of the book tends to focus on his sex life, because, to be honest, it is unconventional. Voltaire openly admits to his partners throughout his life that he isn’t “made for the passions”:

[Voltaire’s Tormented Soul by Alexander J. Nemeth]

And several of his partners made outright complaints. Susanne de Livry (in Nemeth’s words) “found the poet’s lovemaking as chilly as a winter scene” (her exact word were “Monsieur Arouet était un amant à la neige”). When he was younger, Voltaire usually blamed his poor health for his lack of sex drive, followed by an apology to whoever he was currently courting. As he got older, he shifted the blame to erectile dysfunction. Given that he almost always had an excuse to not have sex, it’s likely that that’s what they were: excuses. This was also a major rift in his relationship with Émilie, who eventually ended up having an affair. In fact, most of his relationships resulted in his partner becoming frustrated with Voltaire’s excuses and having an affair, an affair he almost immediately pardoned: After Émilie explains to him the reason behind her infidelity, he responds “Ah! Madame! Of course you are in the right as usual” only requesting that she try not to continue the affair where he can clearly see (he had walked in on them the previous night). They then kissed and made up. Voltaire even apologized to Émilie’s lover, Saint-Lambert. That’s the same way he always addressed infidelity in his partners, understanding.

I think it’s safe to assume Voltaire didn’t like sex and he had excuses ready to go to politely turn down attempts. Obviously, it’s possible Voltaire was simply asexual but when his aversion to sex is put into the context of his accusation, it’s hard not to see it as a cause and effect. These two also aren’t mutually exclusive, he can still be ace and be sex repulsed as an effect of csa. Voltaire initially used his poor health as an excuse against sex, interestingly enough, during dinner with the Popes, he blames his poor health on the childhood rape. There are many theories about Voltaire’s poor health, if it was genuine, psychosomatic, exaggerated, hypochondria, etc. Many believe there was a mental factor to it, intentional or not. If not, then it’s possible that Voltaire correctly diagnosed himself: his constant physical illness, made worse by present mental illness is due to a childhood trauma. Psychology was merely in its infancy so the exact reasoning behind “I’m sick because I was raped” isn’t all there, but he was on to something and communicating it the best he could.

This can also be connected to his sexual orientation or at least his relationship with his orientation. Voltaire was bisexual. I can go into that more if someone wants me to, but to keep this short, just take my word for it here. Despite this, he has a complicated relationship with same-sex attraction. It can be most obviously seen in his entry on “So-called ‘Socratic Love’” in his Philosophical Dictionary. He bounces between calling it natural and unnatural, he blames its existence on being raised among only members of the same sex or on the climate, he denies that it was ever accepted in the ancient world, he insists it should not be illegal but should be frowned upon, and he says it’s harmless in childhood but a mistake in adulthood. He’s obviously confused.

Then there’s this:

[The Philosophical Dictionary for the Pocket by Voltaire (this version)]

Where he traces homosexuality to the privilege of “young gentlemen who had partaken of the education of child” and then “abused” that privilege.

Voltaire is also very dismissive of his own childhood, rarely thinking back and almost acting as if he was never a child. Not only that, but he refuses to look introspectively at all. Hell, his own memoirs, halfway through, turn into being all about Frederick. He mocks Pascal for advocating introspection, insisting that nothing can come from it. Wootton believes this is how he came to be a writer, specifically writing Candide. Candide, if you don’t know, is a wild story. I mean wild. It’s a comedy, but truly horrible things happen to the characters: rape, torture, death, cannibalism, you name it. Candide initially believes in the Leibniz philosophy the book is mocking: that we live in the best of all possible worlds. That everything happens for a reason and everything that happens is the best outcome. By the end of the book, Candide decides this is not true, that those terrible things happened to him because sometimes that’s just what happens. There no rhyme or reason, sometimes we suffer just because. He tells his remaining friends to “cultivate our garden”. Just make do, don’t dwell on what happened or why it did, just move forward and get to work doing something new. Voltaire wrote Candide while living in exile in Ferney, he was sixty years old and kicked out of both France and Prussia. Funny enough, he did a lot of gardening there, cabbages actually. Anyway, though Voltaire still had 20 more years to live, he was past all his major obstacles, for once he wasn’t moving around Europe, escaping authorities and making connections. He was happy in Ferney and Candide was indicative of that, he was cultivating his own garden.

[Unhappy Voltaire, or 'I Shall Never Get Over it as Long as I Live’ by David Wootton]

I think I’ll end it here for brevity’s sake. There’s more to be said about Voltaire’s bisexuality or his relationships as an adult but I’ll save that for another post. Like I said, I love/hate Nemeth’s book. He’s not a historian, he’s a psychologist (and I’m neither, so who am I to talk?), so he brings a whole new outlook on Voltaire’s life and obvious mental health issues. That being said, when he acknowledges that Voltaire must have had a childhood trauma to explain his adult behavior, then proceeds to cover every possible Freudian base except for the one Voltaire himself believed was the root of his health issues, it’s frustrating to say the least.

As promised, here’s the link to Wooton’s essay.

Sources not cited above: Voltaire in Love by Nancy Mitford and Voltaire and the Century of Light by A. Owen Aldridge

#tw: csa #tw: rape mention #can you believe i wrote this all on my phone?#anyway i have a lot to say about Voltaire #so sorry that this was DUMB long #just wanted to cover as much as i could #voltaire #anon ask #this post deserves more attention

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