Kenneth Burke's Footnote on Footnotes

from the Introduction to Attitudes Toward History

When this book first appeared, one reviewer objected to the profusion of footnotes. We grant that they are a blemish. But they were necessary. For the material "radiated" in various directions, and these "radiations" could not have been traced in any other way.

Another reader, who preferred the footnotes to the text, suggested that we should try writing a book that was nearly all footnotes, with but the barest minimum of central text.

Of the two extremes (either no footnotes or all footnotes), the second would certainly be the better suited to this material. And, looking again, perhaps we might discover that the last and longest section, on the "pivotal terms," is in effect one continuous series of footnotes alphabetized.

The problem of "radiations" forced us to consider repeatedly the labyrinthine way in which one term involves others. And after all, as you progress along a traffic-laden avenue, sometimes it's easier to see down the side-streets than up and down the avenue. Nor should we forget that all those side routes have their ways of connecting with one another, in the labyrinthine city of a terminology. --Kenneth Burke, 1955

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