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on Gopher (inofficial)
URI Visit Hacker News on the Web
COMMENT PAGE FOR:
URI The essays of Michel de Montaigne online
ninalanyon wrote 27 min ago:
W. Carew Hazlittâs 1877 update of Charles Cottonâs translation is
on Project Gutenberg if you prefer, as I do, an epub copy.
URI [1]: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600
youssefabdelm wrote 1 hour 17 min ago:
Pro tip:
html {
-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
}
For a better reading experience.
If you're on Arc and have Boosts, I also recommend a darker background.
bambax wrote 1 hour 19 min ago:
This book
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.
ZacnyLos wrote 1 hour 30 min ago:
Here are his works on Wikisources (in 7 languages, public domain):
URI [1]: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Michel_de_Montaigne
billfruit wrote 1 hour 59 min ago:
There is already the excellent Screech translation and Frame
translation(which seems popular with Americans) available, how is this
different apart from being online.
phtrivier wrote 2 hours 38 min ago:
Great effort !
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.
bloak wrote 3 hours 37 min ago:
A translation into modern French might be an interesting addition.
edweis wrote 1 hour 20 min ago:
Here it is, 1907: [1] EDIT: my bad, this is not modern French
URI [1]: https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Essais/%C3%A9dition_Michaud,_...
benreesman wrote 4 hours 6 min ago:
Monsieur de Montaigneâs observations are highly above the average as
concerns wealthy people advising everyone what to do with a
noblemanâs time and resources.
As a new magistrate or nobleman itâs 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, itâs about as compelling as any other bunch of
dandies on a tennis court.
lukan wrote 17 min ago:
I think philosophy works when you have money, as well when you don't.
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.
benreesman wrote 3 hours 57 min ago:
You want some carcinogenic French thought? May I introduce you to
Julien Offray de La Mettrie.
melvinmelih wrote 4 hours 8 min ago:
One of the most life altering essays Iâve ever read is Montaigneâs
To Philosophize Is To Die ( [1] ) where he lays out the principle of
memento mori (âremember to dieâ). Fear of death is often very
debilitating, and a topic we all like to avoid but we all have to deal
with it, sooner or later. The sooner you accept it, the freer (and
happier) youâll feel.
URI [1]: https://hyperessays.net/essays/to-philosophize-is-to-learn-to-...
grozmovoi wrote 5 hours 13 min ago:
I've been working on writing essays to process my thinking for the last
few months. Glad to see this be on #1 of `new`.
tfolbrecht wrote 5 hours 32 min ago:
Thank you for your efforts.
One of my favorite quotes of all time:
"âTis 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. âTis 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." â 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"
wazoox wrote 1 hour 59 min ago:
Notice that the original does not mince words : "Et au plus eslevé
throne du monde, si ne sommes assis que sus notre cul".
seizethecheese wrote 6 hours 13 min ago:
Okay Iâll bite. The essay on raising children piqued my interest. The
first two paragraphs:
> 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 âupdatedâ or âmodernâ.
Updating these old texts seems like a perfect use case for AI. Letâs
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 sonâs 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 nothingâtrue to the French way.
Much better!
l3x4ur1n wrote 3 hours 42 min ago:
For a non native English speaker the "translation" is much more
readable and can convey more information to me. The old text is kind
of comprehensible to me, but I have to read really slow, re-read
parts and think a lot to understand.
a2800276 wrote 3 hours 49 min ago:
Did you translate the original French to modern English or modernize
the new translation?
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.
alldayhaterdude wrote 5 hours 16 min ago:
I disagree. This sucks.
octed wrote 5 hours 56 min ago:
The author of the website has mentioned that
> 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.
RobPfeifer wrote 5 hours 43 min ago:
Totally right. The art and science of translation is an age-old
debate and where AI isnât super well suited. Weâre not at a
point where it ends up more than a summary but the point is the
proper âtranslationâ of the tone, subtle intent and
idiosyncrasies of the author. That said, most human translators
take license (e.g. The Bible) and how do we counterweight against
their flaws, so thereâs not a great answer here.
Except I hope the guy works through it and does a good job cause
the original is a bit of a slog!
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