Blog #3 - Montaigne & Orwell

These essays seem to be very different from the more contemporary ones. It was a little bit of a hard read for me mostly due to the language and purpose of the texts. Montaigne's and Orwell's essays seemed to be more focused on telling a story, whereas the other essays were very personal/individual/relating to the SELF.

In Montaigne's essay, he took the story of King Croesus, analyzed it, and gave his opinion about it. He concluded that a man's life should be judged/determined by the way he carried himself through his death. I think this essay was more about an opinion rather than a personal life experience. Instead of taking an idea and relating it specifically to the writer's life, like in "On Keeping a Notebook," Montaigne used a story to express his opinion on a certain situation about life and death.

Orwell's essay was a little more close to the contemporary essays than was Montaigne's. Although it also seems to be more based on telling a story, I do see some similar aspects in it from "Biography of a Dress." Orwell contemplates about what he did not know and what he should do next.

For example:

"I did not even know that the British Empire is dying, still less did I know that it is a great deal better than the younger empires that are going to supplant it. All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire."

"Would I please come and do something about it? I did not know what I could do, but I wanted to see what was happening and I got on to a pony and started out."

These phrases remind me of parts from "Biography of a Dress," when Kincaid reviews what she did not know then and what she does know now.

The elements that mark the voice in the more recent works as "contemporary" are:

- pertains to current ideas/situations
- use of object to represent life experiences
- is not just telling a story
- relates more to the writer/the self
- it is personalized rather than just an opinion

There are many reasons why these two essays are different from the modern essays. It seems that creative nonfiction was looked at in a different way before. The definition keeps changing and it might always change as time goes on, and people go through/learn more things.