A.’s Reviews > Essays > Status Update

“On glory,” 6.5/10. Basically, be good even when nobody is watching and for goodness’s sake, not because people will be impressed.

“How difficulty increases desire”, 7.5/10.

"How our mind tangles itself up", 6/10. A loosie on how if two choices were equally appealing, the only logical thing would be to do nothing.

"On judging someone else's death", 8/10. As it turns out, Montaigne is not easily impressed by death. It can often be yet another venue for arrogance. The Roman emperor who designed gold-coated ropes and jewel-studded poison capsules so he could commit suicide glamorously. People hiring servants to kill them.

Skipped completely over Raymond Sebond. Didn't actually read any of it LOL

“On Cruelty”. The difference between being good—easy—and being virtuous—grueling, because it can only be done against adversity. Montaigne himself spurns most vices. In particulsr, cruelty. A surprising ode to the rights of animals. A pretty good essay.

“On books”. Montaigne professes to read for pleasure, and to have a low attention span; he reviews his books after he reads them and clearly would have loved goodreads. His favorite authors are Plutarch and Seneca.

“On the amor of the Parthians”. A loosie about armor so heavy it’s practically useless.

“On the affection of fathers for their children”. The parts where Montaigne talks about how he hopes toraise his own children, how he wants them to like him and to make his love for themobvious—sublime, wonderful, revealing. Whenhe talks about women, wills, or books as children? Blech.

“On rewards for honor”. It took 500 pages but Montaigne is heating up—fever example scrapbooks, more blind reasoning. Honorifics are worthless except by virtue of their rarity.