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How the index helps us to understand, categorise and engage with the world
- asplake 5y agoFurther to the opening paragraph, a claim to fame: I once folded (former British prime minister) Harold Macmillan’s underpants. Long retired and Lord Stockton by then.
- niccl 5y agoKurt Vonnegut reportedly sat next to an indexer on a plane once, who convinced him of the value of indexes. After that he made sure his novels had indexes
- cleansingfire 5y agoAlmost: This anecdote is in the novel _Cat's Cradle_. His subsequent novels did not have indexes that I recall.
- wolverine876 5y agoOne of the first things I bookmark in every PDF I read is the index. When it's a click away, it becomes especially valuable.
- j_d_b 5y agoThe ultimate ode to the index would be Nabokov's "Pale Fire", in which the rereader is encouraged to have three books open, one for the index, one for the place where you are, and another for your lookups.
- twobitshifter 5y agoDiscussed previously at this review https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/the-radical-power-of-the-book-index-history-review https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/the-radica...