“The Rhapsodic Grace Note”–On Its Way Out?

 

My siblings and I were raised in a family enamored of the footnote. But then, we had the latest copy of the Oxford English Dictionary at any given moment in time—all twenty volumes, when I was growing up—and we tend toward the digressive in our intrafamilial conversations.

So it goes without saying that we talk a lot these days about the death of the footnote as an inevitable outcome of the advent and growing popularity of e-books. My brother forwarded a charming New York Times article on this subject by Alexandra Horowitz (from last Friday 7 October 2011, link above).

From my own POV, I’m not so worried about the death of the traditional “rhapsodic grace note.” After all, what is the hyperlink but a glorified footnote with endless possibility for digression?

Check in next week for more digressions from TFCB!

[footnote photo: Wikimedia Commons]