4 ms·

I cannot imagine reading this book and skipping the footnotes.

by boucher 4y ago

iggldiggl 4y ago
You just need a second bookmark, and then you're good to go…
- boucher 4y ago
  Yeah, or read it on a Kindle like I did and the jumping is pretty easy.
jbmny 4y ago
I've been roughly halfway through the book for years, so take this for what it's worth, but if they were actually footnotes I might have read them. Instead they are endnotes, meaning you have to pick up a solid pound of book and flip to the end each time you encounter one. And there are many. I just found that dehumanizing. Lol
- JonathanMerklin 4y ago
  The endnotes are fundamental to the experience. There are some key plot points divulged or hinted at there first (and sometimes there exclusively, IIRC). Pemulis' funniest moments are back there. I still find my mind drifting to the description of Cage III: Free Show from J.O.I.'s filmography from time to time. If nothing else, I once read a comment somewhere online that noted that the constant back-and-forth from text to endnotes and back is physically analogous to a back-and-forth in a tennis match. If thematic consistency in the third dimension was actually something DFW was going for, it's a shame you're only seeing half of the court.
- numlocked 4y ago
  DFW said somewhere (I can't recall where) that he wanted the reader to have the physical experience of moving back and forth, and that the process of moving and flipping sort of echoed the jumping between the years of the chapters and story. Or something :) I found it annoying initially, but after I read that (when I was maybe 1/3 through), I did come to appreciate it a bit more. Maybe I'm just impressionable.
- nemo44x 4y ago
  Cut the book in half, literally. Or even just cut the footnotes out and make them a separate book.
rintakumpu 4y ago
I was so immersed in the book on my first read-through I ended up skipping the footnotes because I found jumping between them and the main text a bit jarring. At that point I was certain I’d read this one again so it was also fun to have something saved up for later!

I cannot imagine reading this book and skipping the footnotes.

iggldiggl 4y ago

You just need a second bookmark, and then you're good to go…

boucher 4y ago
Yeah, or read it on a Kindle like I did and the jumping is pretty easy.

jbmny 4y ago

I've been roughly halfway through the book for years, so take this for what it's worth, but if they were actually footnotes I might have read them. Instead they are endnotes, meaning you have to pick up a solid pound of book and flip to the end each time you encounter one. And there are many. I just found that dehumanizing. Lol

JonathanMerklin 4y ago
The endnotes are fundamental to the experience. There are some key plot points divulged or hinted at there first (and sometimes there exclusively, IIRC). Pemulis' funniest moments are back there. I still find my mind drifting to the description of Cage III: Free Show from J.O.I.'s filmography from time to time. If nothing else, I once read a comment somewhere online that noted that the constant back-and-forth from text to endnotes and back is physically analogous to a back-and-forth in a tennis match. If thematic consistency in the third dimension was actually something DFW was going for, it's a shame you're only seeing half of the court.
numlocked 4y ago
DFW said somewhere (I can't recall where) that he wanted the reader to have the physical experience of moving back and forth, and that the process of moving and flipping sort of echoed the jumping between the years of the chapters and story. Or something :) I found it annoying initially, but after I read that (when I was maybe 1/3 through), I did come to appreciate it a bit more. Maybe I'm just impressionable.
nemo44x 4y ago
Cut the book in half, literally. Or even just cut the footnotes out and make them a separate book.

rintakumpu 4y ago

I was so immersed in the book on my first read-through I ended up skipping the footnotes because I found jumping between them and the main text a bit jarring. At that point I was certain I’d read this one again so it was also fun to have something saved up for later!