Chuck LoPresti's Reviews > The Maxims: J. W. Willis Bund, M.A. LL.B and J. Hain Friswell

*I've realized I'm writing myself notes more than reviews at times. I'm logging this stuff for my kids mostly who are 6 and 2 at the time of this writing, (Hello M. and O. If I'm dead now it doesn't mean I didn't just see what you did and you should feel horrible about your behavior the moment you are done washing your hands - now go watch 12 Chaplins and get a good night's sleep), I hope I can at least convey some central themes in the book at hand that will justify their presence on this site.

Why not give this to every college student? These essential and concise observations on the nature on man and his shortcomings primarily are concise and useful. This knowledge is available in other places (among those e.g: Rabelais, Montaigne, Stendhal and as far back as Marcus Aurelius) but they appear in their distilled essence here. Something of a French Gilgamesh many years later - I've read that this is well known material among the majority of subsequent French writers - easy to understand why even at a glance.


R. himself posits that there's two motivating factors in gaining knowledge; one, to increase wisdom that might help us live better and the other, to know things that others don't know. This is essentially the mode of all the entries, to expose but somehow not humiliate humans being human. What results in this type of cynicism isn't the pedagogical guidance of Montaigne nor the bawdy insults of Panurge but something that instead works like a father - freed from mom for a few days putting your worm on your hook for you - but making you cast it out. With mom gone and a few beers in the bag there's no reason to not let fly with a bit of sugared venom - grandeur through a measured reduction in the pressure of restraint. Is it possible to be this cynical yet not bitter or off-putting?

I'd argue for a third operating factor that motivates this agnostic epistophiliac at least; the fear of missing out on something. This isn't really some crippling self-loathing - anyone knows the more you know the more you know there is to know...I'm fine with that...but I don't want to miss the essentials. Instead of self-deprecation this factor instead results in very visceral sense of joy when you feel those leaks close. This is very much one of those books. In it we find the keys to things like Zweig's Beware of Pity. Intended or not - this is a Maxim stretched out in narrative form. Life and Fate would also qualify as a Maxi-Maxim (ooofff) in that the goal is to define what really is great in man when all is said and done. Book after book kept coming to mind as I slowly made my way from these, on average, I'd guess two or three sentence concepts. There's fermentable fruit here for those willing to pick it up, smash it down, blow it full of bubbles , stir in some live culture and wait.

Best probably not to read this like other books, leave it in your pocket - a few bits at a time and go as slow as possible. Remember as much detail as you can and repeat as needed for pain.

The opening short essays that operate as self-portraiture and longer form prose are essential. If it's the skill of the translator or R. himself might be a point of distinction beyond my current comprehension but I hope my choice to shelve it near Sir Thomas Browne is deemed appropriate by the man that moves both at the same time one day. I'm dependent on images to provide a comparably elegant evisceration of flesh - let's go with Francis Bacon. I would have loved to know this man and would prefer him to hate me back because the salve of the words which he might have communicated such sentiments would quickly heal any damage that his derogatory opinion might have inflicted. otherwise.

Each Maxim is probably worthy of an essay and upon re-reads I will continue reactions here.