Editing Michel (section)

==Explanation==
In this comic, two people are discussing Western literature. The first person's perspective is that Western literature has declined from the great {{w|Western canon}} to what it is today. He references such authors as {{w|Homer}}, author of the ''{{w|Iliad}}'' and ''{{w|Odyssey}}'', {{w|Dante Alighieri|Dante}}, author of ''{{w|Divine Comedy}}'', and {{w|William Shakespeare|Shakespeare}}, a famous Elizabethan-era English playwright. In contrast, the first person believes modern interests only extend to "trite observations on cats".

The second person replies with a quote in French. The first person's expression of delight when asking "What does that [mean]" implies he believes the second person agrees, and is contributing a learned reference to Western literature to build off of his point. However, the irony is that the quote is an insignificant thought about its writer's cat; when the second person translates the quote, he proves that modern obsession with cats is in fact a lasting phenomenon and was even a contemporary of the pillars of Western literature.

The French quote is from {{w|Michel de Montaigne}}, a famous philosopher of the French Renaissance. He is perhaps best known for his essay-writing, exemplified by his compilation ''{{w|Essays (Montaigne)|Essais}}'', from which the quote is sourced.

The second person's exclamation that "It's just cats [all] the way down" is a play on the phrase "{{w|Turtles all the way down}}", which alludes to infinite regress, demonstrated in the comic in the form of humanity's obsession with cats going back centuries.