In honor of Father’s Day, I thought Of the affection of fathers for their children would offer up some good material. As it turns out, M. uses most of the essay to argue that elderly men should know when it’s time to withdraw from worldly affairs, then concludes that the great writers correctly treasured their books above their children. Seriously:
If [Epicurus] had had to choose between leaving behind a deformed and ill-born child and leaving behind a stupid and inept book, [would he] not rather have chosen, and not only he but any man of like ability, to incur the former misfortune than the other? It would perhaps be impiety in Saint Augustine, for example — if it were proposed to him on the one hand to bury his writings, from which our religion receives such great fruit, or else to bury his children, in case he had any — if he did not prefer to bury his children.
Wow. So I decided to backtrack and go with Of honorary awards instead. M.’s point in this one is that, the more you give out an award, the less value it has. It comes off as sour grapes, because he received a knighthood of the Order of Saint Michael only after it had become more commonplace.
But this essay gets my Father’s Day seal of approval because it manages to hearken the Montaigne of today, Chris Rock:
We do not note in commendation of a man that he cares for the education of his children, since this is a common action, however just.
and
N*****s will say some dumb shit like, “I take CARE of MY kids!”
You’re SUPPOSED to, you dumb motherf****r!
(For the full experience, go here and advance to the 2:20 mark.)
Next week: either Of books or Of cruelty.
Truly one of Chris Rock’s finest hours. I have that whole performance on CD, and hadn’t listened to it in eons. His rip on Marion Barry is excellent as well. He gets booed by the audience but just keeps going.