English 3 Lesson 25: Now that the section of Montaigne is finished, would I read any more of his essays? Why or why not?

I probably wouldn’t read any more of his essays mainly because I have better things to do right now in my life than to sit down and read something that I have mostly disagreed with. It was interesting at first, but then there were parts where I had to disagree with the author. There wasn’t a solid main point only because he scattered his thoughts all over the place. It was also hard to stay interested as well. If I’m not interested and I can’t afford to sit down reading all the essays, then there’s no point continuing with the essays. Instead of reading something I don’t find interesting anymore, I would rather be reading something such as philosophical stuff where I can still decipher the literature behind the writing and understand certain points that I can actually use in my current life today.

With Montaigne’s writing I wasn’t able to take something from it and apply to my life. Some paragraphs and sentences were too long that the author would sidetracked and distracted. those paragraphs tend to make little sense and many points he wrote would contradict themselves. There was nothing Montaigne wrote that could change my life or help me live it better. Not to mention that his writing is very dry.

Even in the beginning of his writing Gary North mentioned that Montaigne had no common theme, he refers to himself quite often, he uses historical examples to illustrate points, he doesn’t use arguments effectively, the essays aren’t carefully structured, readers losing attention because of the long sentences, and in general had poor writing right in the beginning. He was avidly skeptic about everything and had a way of expressing his views in an eloquent yet intelligible way for the average reader to understand. His essays cover a vast array of topics, each with its own uniqueness, analyzed and concluded through the ideas of skepticism.

What makes him skeptic is he tends to explain his aphorisms too much. He explained things way too often but he would have not have felt the need to explain things often if he had a main focus on his opinions in his writings. Another thing is he references Latin phrases (because his first language was Latin) but you will understand the references if you read (or spoke) in Latin and if you read Latin Literature.

There’s certain things I don’t agree with Montaigne, for example; Montaigne said that we shouldn’t blame God for our prosperity, but rather we should separate the two, but I personally believe that God is involved in everything, and he also says that God doesn’t punish or reward but does as He pleases, which is contrary to the Christian view of God.

In conclusion, I wouldn’t read Montaigne’s essays, because his writing is poor/dry, uninteresting, goes off topic, doesn’t stick to the main theme, has long sentences and paragraphs that don’t help us in our daily lives today, therefore reading them is very hard and that looses readers attention quickly.

Thanks for reading this essay. I hope you enjoyed it or learned something new. I’ll be posting more soon and have a great rest of your day!