Montaigne/Wallace Essay
How many thoughts does the average human have a day? Some people say between 50,000-70,000 thoughts a day. Now imagine if every single thought, that came to our minds, we had to right down, or say out loud. We would be doing that all day. David Foster Wallace said that what goes on inside is too fast and huge for words to barley sketch the outlines of a little part of it. This contradicts what Michel Montaigne believed in, becuase he was the inventor of the essay, and would literally write everything that came to his head. Both these author's contradict, and both have them have valid arguments. I think it's good to write about your thoughts, but at the same time, you won't be able to write down most of them, because or minds think so fast. I think there's some sort of middle ground between these two authors in which an author can write down their thoughts, but make sure they get only good ones, and ones that aren't random and off topic. Wallace believes that we shouldn't just right down our thoughts because it's almost impossible to capture two or more thoughts, while Montaigne believes that all of our thoughts should be written down no matter what they are.
Wallace is more realistic when it comes to this topic. It's hard to capture our thoughts and put them down on paper, just because we think of so many different and random things. I know when I'm writing or reading, I try to tune out my separate thoughts so that they don't interfere and I don't get lost. Now, Wallace also thinks that its hard for us to think about one thought, and then develop the whole thing, while focused on that thought. If you have one main idea that comes to your mind, and we spend all your time and energy on that, then you can make it into a complete and complex thought. Wallace claims that everything that goes on inside of us are interconnected and that we can't even fathom the power and complexity of our own thoughts. Thus, he believes that we should focus only on one main idea, and try to develop that as well as we can.
Montaigne takes a much more different approach to this topic. If I write down every or even most of my thoughts down on a piece of paper, I would have a long essay, that just rambles on and on. However, I think that is smart to try and right down most of our thoughts because this enables us to write them down, and not forget about them. By doing this, we can come back to those ideas and try to develop them more and more. Montaigne's writing is hard to read, just because he rambles so much and talks about ideas that aren't relevant to his topic. But, I think it is smart to try and write most of your thoughts, so that you can come back to them later.
I don't really agree with either authors, but I think there is some sort of middle ground. Both Montaigne and Wallace have two valid arguments that you can go with either way. Whether you agree with Wallace, or Montaigne, our minds are capable of accomplishing many things, and maybe our thoughts benefit us in ways that we didn't think possible. This is just simply one author's perspective verse another who both have credible arguments.
Wallace is more realistic when it comes to this topic. It's hard to capture our thoughts and put them down on paper, just because we think of so many different and random things. I know when I'm writing or reading, I try to tune out my separate thoughts so that they don't interfere and I don't get lost. Now, Wallace also thinks that its hard for us to think about one thought, and then develop the whole thing, while focused on that thought. If you have one main idea that comes to your mind, and we spend all your time and energy on that, then you can make it into a complete and complex thought. Wallace claims that everything that goes on inside of us are interconnected and that we can't even fathom the power and complexity of our own thoughts. Thus, he believes that we should focus only on one main idea, and try to develop that as well as we can.
Montaigne takes a much more different approach to this topic. If I write down every or even most of my thoughts down on a piece of paper, I would have a long essay, that just rambles on and on. However, I think that is smart to try and right down most of our thoughts because this enables us to write them down, and not forget about them. By doing this, we can come back to those ideas and try to develop them more and more. Montaigne's writing is hard to read, just because he rambles so much and talks about ideas that aren't relevant to his topic. But, I think it is smart to try and write most of your thoughts, so that you can come back to them later.
I don't really agree with either authors, but I think there is some sort of middle ground. Both Montaigne and Wallace have two valid arguments that you can go with either way. Whether you agree with Wallace, or Montaigne, our minds are capable of accomplishing many things, and maybe our thoughts benefit us in ways that we didn't think possible. This is just simply one author's perspective verse another who both have credible arguments.
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