Montaigne/Austen Essay

Montaigne Verses Austen

As stated in David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon", what bubbles up inside of us is far too complex to even try to explain; there's just too much to try to reason with. Montaigne is on the same page as Foster. By reading through Montaigne, you can easily tell that his mind just jumps all over the page with topics unfathomable, sometimes. Jane Austen, however, has a completely different style of writing than Montaigne.

It seems as though Montaigne's ideas connect with Foster's. Foster believes that it is almost impossible to discuss what crazy notions go on inside a human's mind. "What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words...". The way that Montaigne presents himself is also like this because his ideas are all over the place. Montaigne's style is a "window", so to say, because as you read, you see through his ideas, and come up with your own based off of what you are reading. It is quite interesting when you think about these things because it is like he is a trigger for the imagination. Everything that goes on in our minds is triggered by what we are reading as our eyes scan the pages of Montaigne's most inner, scattered thoughts.

Then there is Jane Austen. She is the epitome of a very organized, structured writer who understands how to prioritize her thoughts much differently than Montaigne. Of course, her novel was much less complicated than Montaigne's. One cannot even begin to compare any piece of writing with the ideas that flowed so abruptly throughout Montaigne's. Austen had the style that required old-fashioned ideas based on the lifestyle and time period her novel was taken from. Montaigne's ideas are timeless, churning new ideas in fresh minds every time someone else bites off a piece. As scattered and disconnected as Montaigne's thoughts were, they do serve a bigger purpose, to me, than Austen's novel that held its plot.

Overall, the ideas behind David Foster Wallace's and Montaigne's are extremely alike. They are connected in ways different and the same. Austen and Montaigne, however, are day and night. Organized plot verses messy ideas is as opposite as you can get! But Foster's statement gets me thinking, will it ever be possible to manage all the thoughts we conjure up inside of us?