Editing Michel

{{comic
	| number    = 7110
	| date      = April 1, 2024
	| title     = michel
	| name      = Michel
	| image     = 1711998108-20240401.png
	| votey     = 171199817520240401after.png
	| titletext = For reasons related to current research projects, SMBC will be slowly switching over to obscure literary references for the foreseeable future. It's been nice knowing you.
}}
==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.
==Transcript==
:[Two people with glasses are talking.]
:Person 1: It drives me crazy! There's the entire Western canon - Homer, Dante, Shakespeare! And yet all anyone wants online is trite observations on cats!
:
:[Closeup on Person 2's face.]
:Person 2: "Quand je me joue à ma chatte, qui sait si elle passe son temps de moi, plus que je ne fais d'elle."
:
:[Person 1 responds happily.]
:Person 1: What does that-
:Person 2: "When I play with my cat, who knows if she's not passing time with me more than I'm passing time with her." '''''Michel de Fucking Montaigne''''', Essais, Book 2, 1580
:
:Person 2 [now yelling]: '''''It's cats! It's just cats alllllllll the way down!'''''
:Person 1 [in background]: '''NOOOO'''
==Votey Transcript==
:[A pencil sketch of Person 2's face.]
:Person 2: Also Chaucer had more anus-kissing than you might expect.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics tagged literature]][[Category:Comics tagged cats]]