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Translating 2: On Sorrow
One thing that rings true throughout Montaigne’s essays is his sincerity. When he has mixed feelings about a subject, he finds a way to offer counterpoints. But this essay displays Montaigne in a very unusual place: stating a very strong opinion about sorrow that, given all the storytelling that follows, feels hard to believe. He…
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Henry, come on
Earlier this week I promised to return to Lana Del Rey’s new single “Henry, come on.” I didn’t feel comfortable just jumping into thought about the song, but I did identify its spiritual cousin, “How to Disappear,” from the “Norman Fucking Rockwell” album. As noted in that last essay, “How to Disappear” is one of…
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Hearts
The audition seems unusual. It appears to be in someone’s home, a very beautiful, well-appointed home decorated in with items of gold, maroon and muted green, the familiar palate of the film. An older woman who personally fits this palate, especially with her red hair, sits at a piano and plays out notes of the…
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Translating 10: Of Eloquence and Labored Speech
This essay is valuable to the Montaigne corpus for three reasons. First, it is the only essay to open with a quote from Etienne de la Boetie. This makes it one of the most obvious pieces in Montaigne’s original mission to place la Boetie’s work center stage in his project. But the essay is also…
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Project Goals
In the past year, I have self published three books. My current goal, as articulated yesterday evening, is to publish four more by the end of this year. It’s fair to ask — what’s the point of all this? At this juncture, I have no solid evidence that anyone is reading my work, other than…
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Four Projects?
About a week ago, I was feeling a bit down, thinking I didn’t have any projects making forward progress. But now I have a concept for four different projects I can work on in the coming months: The Severance Project. It may move slowly, but I do have a clear idea of what I want…