The Essays of Michel de Montaigne, on cannibalism, and more – another take on this chef d’oeuvre is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/07/from-thelist-of-top-100-works-in-world.html - 10 out of 10

 

The Essays of Michel de Montaigne, on cannibalism, and more – another take on this chef d’oeuvre is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/07/from-thelist-of-top-100-works-in-world.html  

10 out of 10

 

 

The Essays of Michel de Montaigne is one of The Top 100 Books of All Time, as compiled by The Norwegian Book Club – you find it on The Guardian site and elsewhere – when they have asked some of the luminaries of our age, Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco, John Irving, Nadine Gordimer with others, who listed the books they esteem most, Don Quixote (not a favorite here) coming up on top, at number one

 

Michel de Montaigne offers in this magnum opus insight into a variety of subjects, one could say there is no domain that is not explored, with 1344 pages, it may sound as if it is conceivable, and we have to consider that so many centuries ago, the knowledge of humanity was limited and perhaps we have most of it in The Essays

A gentleman with interesting genes, his father was in the fish and wine business, while his mother had Jewish and Spanish descent (the Spanish part – I am not so sure of it) he was easy going, there is this passage (or is it a whole essay) on etiquette and politeness, where he says that he does not care so much about it

 

Yes, the ‘gentilhomme’ respected rules – William Golding  http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/10/lord-of-flies-by-william-goldingralph.html author of the quintessential Lord of The Flies said that if you have no rules, you have nothing, that was the main theme of the classic – but he was relaxed and open minded

He writes about the assumption that one has to wait in the castle for the guest, while others are of the opinion that it is good manners to come outside to welcome, then there is the habit of the lesser people waiting for the important ones, and we have examples and quotes (that is one of the merits of the masterpiece, one line that comes to mind is from Petrarque http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/11/note-2-on-poetry-of-petrarca.html ‘one who knows about the fire, does not know the burning’ or words to that effect) of emperors and popes in these circumstances

 

One emperor has a pope waiting, another allows for rest and preparation, and we could see this whole paraphernalia and decorum from the opposite angle, it is the powerful that will have the hoi polloi come to him, he (it was almost always a man, as we know, women have been dominated and discriminated through history, in the brilliant, buoyant History Boys http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/history-boys-by-alan-bennett-really.html by Alan Bennett we have  this commentary “History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket…”) does not travel to see the lesser humans

 

The look at cannibals is of interest now, as The Society of The Snow is one of the best films of last year, 2023, and it is a new adaptation of the story told in Alive http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/alive-based-on-book-by-piers-paul-read.html the real tragedy of a plane crash, in which a rugby team from Uruguay and their staff falls on top of the Andes, in their plane, some die on the spot, while others survive

But there is a rule of three, one survives for three minutes without air, three days without water (and they have the snow), and three weeks without food, and seeing that the latter is missing, they have to eat the corpses of the dead passengers to survive, or else they have to starve, since there is no alternative

 

Aside from some gruesome subjects, which sage, wise Michel de Montaigne approaches with an open mind, he does not condemn easily, without reason, he understands different customs, the rules of another time – in ancient Greece, homosexuality was somehow more important than other practices, young men would have a mentor, who would most often be a sexual partner, apparently – and he has an arcadian take

What is striking, is the reaction people have in some circumstances – one is pulling out his hair, and the comment is ‘do you think baldness solves problems’, another is worried on the road to the execution that he will meet someone he owes money to, another does not drink after the executioner, for he does not want to get a disease

 

There are examples of men that have been given the option to take a wife, which will save them from the death penalty, one refused because the woman has a thin nose, another was also unhappy with the choice and preferred death, while others, when told of the meeting with God, would rather postpone it

Which brings us to Dostoyevsky, who was sentenced to death, and had three minutes left, in front of the firing squad, which he divided into three, one minute to say goodbye to family and friends, another to pass his life in front of him, and the last to admire a ray of sunshine falling on a bell tower nearby

 

As it happens, he is pardoned in the last minute – or the czar had not wanted anything but to scare him from the start – and then he writes in his magnum opera http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-death-of-ivan-ilych-by-leo-tolstoy.html how in front of death, the prisoner would rather survive on a bare rock, in the middle of the ocean than die, which is also what we get from watching Alive, or just reading about the survivors of the crash in the Andes (or elsewhere) that have determined that they want to live, ad hence, if eating human flesh was the only option, they took it…Victor Frankl has written a classic of psychology, Man’s Will To Meaning, which looks at his ordeal in the Nazi extermination camps, where he saw that the ones that lost their will died – where there is a will, there is a way…

 

Now for my standard closing with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”