Dear Mary... you leave me speechless in admiration for all you have accomplished, all you still accomplish with so much passion and beauty. Puccini's Tosca I saw at the Sydney Opera House in 1998, it was the last thing I did the evening before leaving Australia, the evening I remember with such clarity it still causes a lump in my throat... thank you for this emotional tribute to your father and reminder of that night. x
More familiar with the use of footnotes (always appreciated them as study-guides to say Mornings in Mexico by D.H. Lawrence or Ulysses and indispensable if somewhat infuriating in essays by David Foster Wallace) than the story behind the Puccini opera. Needless to say whatever drama the singer experienced looks (and sounds!) to have been on a par with what a day Moses has. xo
Oh, to have the energy for such side quests! Never heard of the book, but then I didn't go to school in the States.
I did learn from the Freshman English class I took when I transfered to Seattle U from Mexico - the one it turned out later I didn't need to have taken.
I believe footnotes legitimize what they decorate. They belong there.
That's the same edition of the Turabian that I bought in 1978 as a college freshman! I don't like formatting footnotes, but they serve a useful purpose. I enjoyed this tribute to your father and what you learned from footnotes.
Thanks for this. It was fun. And the footnotes--yes. Love them too. They captured me in college reading Eliot's "The Wasteland"--there's an entire course on world literature there.
Love this! I too read the footnotes in the siddur. My Hebrew is terrible (still on the to-do list) but the footnotes of the great sages are the depth I seek.
Mary, this is simply lovely, a beautiful tribute to your father. I am one of those people who loves to travel the paths of footnotes. They take me to the hill country with its hidden lakes, sunlight streaming through the forest, and fields of flowers. The footnote, in other words, is our guidebook for exploring a topic, the "new country" where we can sit with those the author sat with, debated, and learned from. In the footnotes, we become participants in the deeper discussion. I am discouraged by the number of scholarly book publishers that are abandoning both footnotes and endnotes.
Charles, You may be one who recalls Auden's use of footnotes in his essays _The Dyer's Hand_ and Updikes in his marvel of a memoir _Self_Consciousness_.
Dear Mary... you leave me speechless in admiration for all you have accomplished, all you still accomplish with so much passion and beauty. Puccini's Tosca I saw at the Sydney Opera House in 1998, it was the last thing I did the evening before leaving Australia, the evening I remember with such clarity it still causes a lump in my throat... thank you for this emotional tribute to your father and reminder of that night. x
PS I love footnotes!
More familiar with the use of footnotes (always appreciated them as study-guides to say Mornings in Mexico by D.H. Lawrence or Ulysses and indispensable if somewhat infuriating in essays by David Foster Wallace) than the story behind the Puccini opera. Needless to say whatever drama the singer experienced looks (and sounds!) to have been on a par with what a day Moses has. xo
Indeed! What words you bring to this essay, what insight! Love to you, Appleton!
Gorgeous, Mary.
Thank you so, @Adrian P Conway
Thought this was a note, Adrian. xx 💕
I love a good footnote, Mary. Thank you for bringing them to life in this way. And I love that Bernstein quote!
Me too, Jeffrey, on the music!. An F Sharp strikes the hear!
I adore a cleverly used footnote in particular.
And I adore this tribute to your father, Mary.
🥰
Holly, what sweet heart you have!
Super special thank you for you, who gives her all when she reads something worthy. You can’t even imagine what she’s tried to do for this: https://marytabor.substack.com/p/who-by-fire-novel
Oh, to have the energy for such side quests! Never heard of the book, but then I didn't go to school in the States.
I did learn from the Freshman English class I took when I transfered to Seattle U from Mexico - the one it turned out later I didn't need to have taken.
I believe footnotes legitimize what they decorate. They belong there.
Me too! You never know what you will find!
That's the same edition of the Turabian that I bought in 1978 as a college freshman! I don't like formatting footnotes, but they serve a useful purpose. I enjoyed this tribute to your father and what you learned from footnotes.
I probably bought the Turabian before you did as I went to university at (horrors!) barely age 16, if you can believe it.
I was a nontraditional college student. I started when I was 21.
I love this, Liz. Brave too!
Thanks, Mary!
Thanks for this. It was fun. And the footnotes--yes. Love them too. They captured me in college reading Eliot's "The Wasteland"--there's an entire course on world literature there.
So agree: "April is the cruelest month."
Love this! I too read the footnotes in the siddur. My Hebrew is terrible (still on the to-do list) but the footnotes of the great sages are the depth I seek.
So true: Actually, the beginning of my life as a writer: late-boomer though I had to be for reasons I explain here: https://marytabor.substack.com/p/masterclass-fiction-memoir-personal
Mary, this is simply lovely, a beautiful tribute to your father. I am one of those people who loves to travel the paths of footnotes. They take me to the hill country with its hidden lakes, sunlight streaming through the forest, and fields of flowers. The footnote, in other words, is our guidebook for exploring a topic, the "new country" where we can sit with those the author sat with, debated, and learned from. In the footnotes, we become participants in the deeper discussion. I am discouraged by the number of scholarly book publishers that are abandoning both footnotes and endnotes.
Charles, You may be one who recalls Auden's use of footnotes in his essays _The Dyer's Hand_ and Updikes in his marvel of a memoir _Self_Consciousness_.