Here's the Scoop: Footnotes
Aye, the lovely little footnote. Those things that force you to find the matching number/letter at the bottom of the page to get more information on what exactly you are filling your brain with. There are goods and bads of footnotes, so let's explore these, shall we?
Now then.
Footnotes can be really helpful things, especially if one has to do research on a topic. It can tell you a short little extra information that could be just what you need, or it could also tell you where to find more information that is related to that topic. It's really quite helpful if you needed just a squick more info, and you were having the hardest time finding it, and then BAM! Footnote! Sometimes this happens when you're stuck, and the footnote leads you to a related topic that you would have never thought to check out before the said footnote came along. So these footnotes can be a huge help when you need that little oomph to keep your information flowing.
Then there are the ever-present bads.
Footnotes can often be distracting. When you're trying to read about the albino spider monkey, you don't want to stop in the middle of the sentence to look for a footnote that goes with the corresponding number/letter. At least I don't. Sometimes the footnote really isn't related to the topic by more than a sliver of the information. Let me put it this way. Say the albino spider monkey eats mushrooms. I don't want to know the average life-span of a mushroom, little footnote. So you see, the mushroom and the monkey are hardly the same topic, yet the footnote tells me about the mushrooms it eats. Lovely.
Now what on earth made me think of this topic for a post? One word. No, scratch that. Two.
Bartimaeus.
Books.
Yes. Jonathon Stroud's Bartimaeus books have many multiple footnotes scattered amongst its pages. As much as I love the witty humor that is in the footnotes, the little number that links to the footnote comes at such an awkward time usually. Sometimes it's the middle of a sentence, other times middles of paragraphs. And seeing as it's me we're talking about, I can't just skip over the number, I just gotta look at the footnote that goes with it. So I suppose it's my own fault, eh?
We shall see if I have time to do a review on Mr. Stroud's books. We shall see.
<3 Seana
Now then.
Footnotes can be really helpful things, especially if one has to do research on a topic. It can tell you a short little extra information that could be just what you need, or it could also tell you where to find more information that is related to that topic. It's really quite helpful if you needed just a squick more info, and you were having the hardest time finding it, and then BAM! Footnote! Sometimes this happens when you're stuck, and the footnote leads you to a related topic that you would have never thought to check out before the said footnote came along. So these footnotes can be a huge help when you need that little oomph to keep your information flowing.
Then there are the ever-present bads.
Footnotes can often be distracting. When you're trying to read about the albino spider monkey, you don't want to stop in the middle of the sentence to look for a footnote that goes with the corresponding number/letter. At least I don't. Sometimes the footnote really isn't related to the topic by more than a sliver of the information. Let me put it this way. Say the albino spider monkey eats mushrooms. I don't want to know the average life-span of a mushroom, little footnote. So you see, the mushroom and the monkey are hardly the same topic, yet the footnote tells me about the mushrooms it eats. Lovely.
Now what on earth made me think of this topic for a post? One word. No, scratch that. Two.
Bartimaeus.
Books.
Yes. Jonathon Stroud's Bartimaeus books have many multiple footnotes scattered amongst its pages. As much as I love the witty humor that is in the footnotes, the little number that links to the footnote comes at such an awkward time usually. Sometimes it's the middle of a sentence, other times middles of paragraphs. And seeing as it's me we're talking about, I can't just skip over the number, I just gotta look at the footnote that goes with it. So I suppose it's my own fault, eh?
We shall see if I have time to do a review on Mr. Stroud's books. We shall see.
<3 Seana
Yes! *laughs triumphantly* I knew when I saw the title. That trilogy is definitely worth all the grief and annoyance footnotes can give, and the footnotes are often more interesting than the action. Footnotes are part of Stroud's distinctive style.
ReplyDeleteAnd the footnotes through Romeo and Juliet are quite intriguing. Just saying.
True. I did so love learning about Bartimeaus's Evasive Cartwheels. xD.
DeleteRomeo and Juliet footnotes, eh? I didn't know you were a Shakespeare fan!
Indeed, indeed.
DeleteWhat, you haven't noticed? *polishes "Wherefore art thou staring?" T-shirt* I like Shakespeare a lot, mostly for his tragedies. And the words he uses are great, as with the syllabication, etymology and iambic pentameter. I love it all.
So I see!
DeleteAnd, of course, you do realize that "wherefore" means "why"?
DeleteYes. I am actually quite proud of myself for translating that word from the old English to modern.
DeleteThat's good. I'm surprised at how many times I managed to misunderstand dear old Billy before I actually looked at the context to see the definition. It's clear once you hear that soliloquy of Juliet's.
DeleteOh yes. The context is always essential.
Delete