The essays of Michel de Montaigne online
hyperessays.net
hyperessays.net
One of my favorite quotes of all time:
"’Tis an absolute and, as it were, a divine perfection, for a man to know how loyally to enjoy his being. We seek other conditions, by reason we do not understand the use of our own; and go out of ourselves, because we know not how there to reside. ’Tis to much purpose to go upon stilts, for, when upon stilts, we must yet walk with our legs; and, when seated upon the most elevated throne in the world, we are but seated upon our breech." — Michel de Montaigne, Essays, "Of Experience"
I like the contemporary translations floating around the web "even on the highest throne in the world, we still sit on our ass"
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The most striking things to me when I started reading the Essays, is how much it reads like... A blog.
Variety of topics, general consistency of theme, a tone that is surprisingly conversationnal... And the bombardment of references, in jokes, quotes, etc... that you use to create connivence with your reader.
Also, in the end, if you were asked what Montaigne was famous for, what he actually did, _beyond writing his blog_, you would be... hard pressed to answer.
Still, I would probably lurk his substack, and watch his stand up on Instagram.
When I started reading blogs, the format reminded me of his essays.
This is somewhat deceptive. The Essais were very personal, but not spontaneous at all. He spent a lot of time polishing them and rewriting them right until he died. Just like Rabelais, the apparent casual tone of the language is actually quite a lot of work.
In comparison, blog posts are quick to post and then just left as they are. They are closer to letters in that respect.
How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty, by Sarah Bakewell (2011)
is an incredible introduction to Montaigne. I greatly enjoyed it and recommend it fondly to anyone's interested in the man or what he had to say.
EDIT: my bad, this is not modern French
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If you're on Arc and have Boosts, I also recommend a darker background.
As a new magistrate or nobleman it’s a decent place to start winding up with something better than a Tesla and a Substack advising people how to inherit a monopoly.
But for us plebs, it’s about as compelling as any other bunch of dandies on a tennis court.
Or rather, only good philosophy works also when you don't have money and I enjoyed Montaigne a lot, when I was backpacking without money.
But the kind of agency attached to being quasi-Royal wealthy in the mid-sixteenth century France is not terribly useful to anyone under crushing debt peonage then, nor it’s resurgent beginning comeback now.
For truly catholic stoicism there are better sources. If I want to hear someone talk about inner will from atop a mountain I’ll go all the way back to Marcus Aurelius.
It’s good to see that Randian Objectivists are diversifying out of such a shitty brand, but it’s all boomers and their bootstraps to me, and I’ve read fucking ALL of it. Twice.
don't be idle, don't lie, don't make hasty decisions, build up your willpower, be courageous, be present, do what you say you will do, challenge customs (because people tend to choose custom over reason), learn through experience, be present, life is a delicate balance, and about 50 more
But this stuff at this stage of the game is somewhere between propaganda and Stockholm’s Syndrome.
Hackers have never been paid less, or had worse job security, or been more subject to being fucked with than in decades.
Getting funding or traction or press or customers has never been more insular and nepotistic and corrupt and numb in decades.
There is a season for de Montaigne and there is a season for Thomas Paine.
> I never yet saw that father, but let his son be never so decrepit or deformed, would not, notwithstanding, own him: not, nevertheless, if he were not totally besotted, and blinded with his paternal affection, that he did not well enough discern his defects: but that with all defaults, he was still his. Just so, I see better than any other, that all I write here are but the idle reveries of a man that has only nibbled upon the outward crust of sciences in his nonage, and only retained a general and formless image of them; who has got a little snatch of everything and nothing of the whole, à la Françoise.
This does not seem “updated” or “modern”.
Updating these old texts seems like a perfect use case for AI. Let’s give GPT 4o a shot:
> I have never seen a father, no matter how frail or deformed his son may be, who would not still claim him as his own. Yet, unless completely blinded by paternal affection, the father is fully aware of his son’s flaws. Despite those shortcomings, the son remains his child. In the same way, I am more aware than anyone else that what I write here is nothing more than the idle musings of someone who, in his youth, only skimmed the surface of knowledge. I have retained only a vague and incomplete impression of the sciences, having dabbled a little in everything but mastered nothing—true to the French way.
Much better!
> I am slowly replacing the Cotton/Hazlitt translation with a contemporary one and adding new notes
So I would assume that the essay you're talking about is from the earlier Cotton translation and has still not been replaced.
This is the first time I've seen AI being used to "modernize" old texts, and it works wonderfully in this case; though a bit of the old-timey charm is lost imo. I used to read a translation that I'd found in my university library which I enjoyed a lot. Very readable but still retained the "feel" of a 16th century book. I don't recall the translator unfortunately.
Except I hope the guy works through it and does a good job cause the original is a bit of a slog!
The use of AI here is really cool and I hope to see it applied to other older tomes
I wonder how those would compare. Translating the original would probably be the 'correct' thing to do, from a literary point of view. Poses some interesting question, though.