Footnotes in the Age of E-Reading

Like many people, I have long since given in to the attractions of various e-readers. Several birthdays ago my parents bought me a Kindle, and more recently I've started reading on my iPhone as well. They're great in a lot of ways. The Kindle is great for reading long, cumbersome novels like Anna Karenina without have to heft around the actual book, and also for reading outside--no pages to get blown and very little glare on the screen. On the other hand, the iPhone reader, I've found, is excellent for shorter works, stories and poems. It almost makes me look forward to the security line in airports because it gives me just the right amount of time to whip out my phone and read through something. But whether it is the romantic in me or the traditionalist, I still do value the traditional model of reading... You know, books. And I sympathize with those who fear for that mode's future, whether it's from a publisher's perspective, author's, or just the loss of reading texture that many feel the e-reader heralds.

Good news: I have found at least one kind of literature that seems nearly irreconcilable with the e-format, and that is the one which relies heavily on footnotes.

I remember when I first read A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallce, all of the sudden I could not resist populating my own writing with footnotes. They were irresistible, providing the perfect opportunity for me to include those clever asides that occurred to me but which didn't actually fit inside the story. As it were, they provided a convenient excuse for me not to have to "kill my darlings" so I've since given them up, but nevertheless, when Wallace uses them they are fun and hilarious, and it's tough to imagine a lot of his work without them.

I read Infinite Jest too as a book and thought the same thing. Although once I started utilizing the iPhone reader and brainstorming things I could buy to read ion it, I made the mistake of purchasing Consider the Lobster as an e-text, and let me tell you about cumbersome.... You have to click on each of the footnotes and it will transport you to the text in question, then once you are finished reading it transports you back. Anyone who has read Wallace knows that sometimes his footnotes go on for multiple pages, and become stories in their own right, and I am not sure why but for some reason reading this way is so much more disorienting than relying on one's eye to shift back and forth. I cannot imagine reading Infinite Jest on an e-reader, and the book I'm reading now, House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski, would also be nearly impossible, I think.

Groundbreaking as e-texts are, it is comforting to know that there are still effects that can only be accomplished on paper.