Musing; Introspective; Rambling
Hold Onto Your Hats
What makes up a musing writing style, exactly? Think about your middle-school diary. You can't help but pack in every minor detail about the Friday night dance, even though you know that no one else is likely to care as much as you. That's why it's a diary, for cryin' out loud. Rousseau brings up minor events and turns them over and over in his brain, letting the reader into his innermost thoughts. "When I trace my nature back this way to its earliest manifestations, I find features which may appear incompatible," he writes (1.1.22). Yep, that's Rousseau for you.
When we say that Rousseau rambles on, we don't mean it in a negative sense. Think of the guy tracing every part of himself back to his childhood in an effort to be totally transparent. You may not want to hear what your neighbor has to say about his childhood, but Rousseau has a way of making even the mundane seem fascinating.