above image of Montaigne is in the public domain
I am not going to go on at length… but I could. Here is something that stuck in my head as the result of listening to an interview with an author about their newly published book; Michel de Montaigne was the original blogger. Could this be true? I have done some digging and some pondering and I disagree with this, sort of.
I am not trying to make the case that he was not the archetype of the ‘original blogger’ – it is just that he was so much more than that. It is akin to saying that Leonard Bernstein was a decent conductor. OK, yes – but that limited description is more lie of omission than truth (conductor, composer, activist, and so on). Montaigne busted open a whole new space for literature. When he wrote Essays, the universe of literature, and especially French literature, was formal and rigid. If you read his Essays, it is akin to a conversation you might have with an insanely interesting person in an airport bar while both of you are waiting for your plane to board. It is a long way from formal or rigid. As such it is also much easier to approach and enjoy. At 400+ years old, the work still has fresh fruit to pick. And better still, it is one of those works that you can re-read and enjoy as much or even much more than you did the first time.
Another thing that I find really interesting is the quotation that Montaigne had inscribed in his working chamber / library when he retired to work on his writing.
“In the year of Christ 1571, at the age of thirty-eight, on the last day of February, his birthday, Michael de Montaigne, long weary of the servitude of the court and of public employments, while still entire, retired to the bosom of the learned virgins, where in calm and freedom from all cares he will spend what little remains of his life, now more than half run out. If the fates permit, he will complete this abode, this sweet ancestral retreat; and he has consecrated it to his freedom, tranquillity, and leisure.”
If you have not had the chance to pick these up and read a few – I would heartily recommend them. They are not long, taken as individual essays (a genre that he basically created with this work) you can find a short one that you could read in 20 minutes or less. You likely will find yourself nodding quietly. I did.
Lastly, and rather importantly, I would like to point out the outrageously sporting van dyke that this gent rocked. Excellent work bro.