I do love footnotes. When I was in undergrad, I observed once to my favourite professor that "I sometimes think the footnotes are more interesting than the text," to which he responded, "Now you're getting it."
Of the various ancillary and supplemental posts I'm thinking of for this series -- the Discworld Map, L-Space, puns -- I'll almost certainly do one on footnotes.
One of my favorite essays was written essentially in response to a single footnote in a book on fandom/fanfiction! Notes are always worth reading (well, not so much in the citation styles that require bibliographic citation in a note plus a Works Cited page which just give me a headache)!
And novelists who do footnotes! (Joanna Russ also does fantastic footnotes).
And thus I must recommend Benjamin Dreyer's substack, "A Word About . . ." to you not only for the footnote love but for his comments on copyediting and style and literature and popular culture. Start with "Hill House, Not Sane." (why doesn't SS let us link in replies, WHY???????). https://substack.com/@benjamindreyer/p-144444770
Very much looking forward to the future Borges post. I'm enjoying your thoughts on the books, although I wish it was easier to navigate to and from the footnotes.
If you're reading on your computer, just hover over the footnote number with your mouse -- the footnote will appear in a box beside the main text. If you're on your phone, if you tap the number, the footnote will appear at the bottom of the screen. :-)
So happy I've got a Borges nerd following along! Now I'll need to bring my A game.
You and I, sir, are footnote soul mates!
And I share your love for the Luggage.
Am reading and responding on my phone so this must be short.
I do love footnotes. When I was in undergrad, I observed once to my favourite professor that "I sometimes think the footnotes are more interesting than the text," to which he responded, "Now you're getting it."
Of the various ancillary and supplemental posts I'm thinking of for this series -- the Discworld Map, L-Space, puns -- I'll almost certainly do one on footnotes.
One of my favorite essays was written essentially in response to a single footnote in a book on fandom/fanfiction! Notes are always worth reading (well, not so much in the citation styles that require bibliographic citation in a note plus a Works Cited page which just give me a headache)!
And novelists who do footnotes! (Joanna Russ also does fantastic footnotes).
And thus I must recommend Benjamin Dreyer's substack, "A Word About . . ." to you not only for the footnote love but for his comments on copyediting and style and literature and popular culture. Start with "Hill House, Not Sane." (why doesn't SS let us link in replies, WHY???????). https://substack.com/@benjamindreyer/p-144444770
Very much looking forward to the future Borges post. I'm enjoying your thoughts on the books, although I wish it was easier to navigate to and from the footnotes.
If you're reading on your computer, just hover over the footnote number with your mouse -- the footnote will appear in a box beside the main text. If you're on your phone, if you tap the number, the footnote will appear at the bottom of the screen. :-)
So happy I've got a Borges nerd following along! Now I'll need to bring my A game.