*This post was written when I discovered – after 10 years of using Microsoft Word – that there is, indeed, a keyboard shortcut for footnoting.
I have written hundreds of pages on Microsoft Word over the years. Not only that, but I have incessantly footnoted each one of those pages. Partly because it is necessary but mostly because I love footnotes. If there is an interesting idea, source, or controversy that is not directly relevant to my work, I make a point to footnote it. Is there an argument in another book which challenges the tangential arguments of my current topic? Footnote it. Is there an interesting connection to another work which would be great to discuss but would distract from the main argument? Footnote it. Are there interesting and/or funny anecdotes which bring life to the context and concepts in discussion? Definitely footnote it.
But once I get going on a footnote it is hard to stop. Do you have this problem? Writing isn’t always easy for me. I find that I can communicate myself verbally much more clearly than I can through the written word. (I’ve often thought of buying one of those mini tape recorders to record myself saying what I want to say, and then writing it down.) But this is not true when it comes to footnotes. When I footnote, I am like Annie Dillard describing the way a bug is floating on top of a water in the cool of a spring day. When I footnote, I am Wendell Berry on a hot Sabbath, walking along the Kentucky River gazing the grandeur of God while walking on the sin of man. When I footnote, I am like Karl Barth at the beginning of the Church Dogmatics – thousands of blank pages in front of me just waiting to be filled with prayerful theological investigation.
OK, maybe I’m not actually like that – in fact, I am definitely not like that – but I feel like it! I’m not sure what exactly it is about a footnote that is so life-giving:
- Perhaps it is the endless amount of contingency with each idea. Every idea comes from somewhere, and each has its fair share of battles to fight.
- Perhaps it is the story of how ideas came to be that is endlessly interesting. Each idea, and each person who develops an idea, is wrapped up in a story that is so much bigger than any one person can experience or imagine. Footnotes remind us how connected the world of ideas is.
- Perhaps it is the freedom to not footnote a footnote. A footnote cannot have a sub-footnote (as far as I know). This means that whatever is said in a footnote is the final word for that paper. Its like confession: the ability to get something off your chest before moving forward in grace is an act of freedom.
- Maybe its the humble reminder that our ideas never rest upon us, but rest upon the shoulders and minds of many, many giants (and regular people) who have come before us. There is no such thing as an original thought and the footnote allows us to remember that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Once this realization is made, we are free to have a bit of fun and maybe even improvise a bit.
Whatever it is, I will forever love the footnote and the portal that they open to new worlds, both in our own work and through the work of others.
ha ha. i think this may indicate your destiny as an academic. or at least an editor – although i think you’ll need the freedom to express your own thoughts in footnotes, not just read others. THAT might yield the risk of perpetual annoyance with those who have weaker footnote abilities (we won’t mention any names).