Ian Brunskill’s review of Sarah Bakewell’s recent book about Montaigne ends with “Montaigne was happy in a way that no blogger ever could be. There is, in the end, something to be said for the little room behind the shop.” This seems to me exactly wrong (not to mention being insufferably presumptious about the feelings of others). In fact thousands of bloggers like me are quite happy in our own little rooms with neither expectation nor fear of being heard by others.
Postscript – Jan 2011 – Andrew Sullivan made the same point in one of his articles a couple of years ago. Thanks to Dan Finke for the post which brought that to my attention.