Montaigne/Wallace Essay

    Imagine how many thoughts go through your head a day. Now the question is, would you write down all of those thoughts? Montaigne believes that you should write down all of the thoughts that run through your head everyday. David Foster Wallace once said that what goes on inside is too fast and huge for words to barley sketch the outlines of a little part of it. Michael Montaigne was the inventor of the essay and in his essays he would write down everything thought that ran through his head. It may be good to write down some of your thoughts so you won't forget them but at the same time, it is very hard because the mind thinks too fast. Both authors contradict each other and both have a valid point.

    Michael Montaigne believes in writing all of one's thoughts down on paper. Writing all of my thoughts down on paper would take me a long time and it would never end. Although this seems crazy, it could actually help. If we write down our thoughts, we could go back and read them to remember them. Writing down our thoughts could actually help us in the long run, especially if our thoughts could be worth money. Someone could think of an invention and write it down, go back to it and possibly make money. There has actually been times where I thought of an invention that I could get money for and forgot to write it down. Therefore, sometimes it might be useful to write your thoughts down so you don't forget them.

    Wallace has a very different approach. Wallace has a more realistic approach because he believes it is too hard to write down all of our thoughts down on paper. Wallace believes that it is difficult to focus on one thought, because of all of the other thoughts running through our heads. If we focus on one thought, that thought can turn into a very complex thought. Wallace basically says that our thoughts are all interconnected inside and we can't even understand the power complexity of our own thoughts. Although he says this, he also believes we should focus on one main idea and try to develop it as well as we can.

    While both authors contradict, they both hold valid points. I personally think if you have a great thought that could benefit you, write it down but if you try and write down all of the thoughts that run threw your head, you will just be struggling on rambling on about pointless thoughts. Whichever author you agree with, you have to realize that our minds work in mysterious ways and they are capable of many things.