Are You Old Enough Yet to Be Annotated?
I know I am.
What famous author would you choose to write your life?
There are two ways to think about this. One is that you might want a True Story about your life. The other is you’re okay with a Romance or Fantasy or maybe even a Mystery (preferably Cozy).
Imagine holding this book in your hands!
I’d love to see the cover art and the table of contents. Do you dare look at the last page? If mine’s Nonfiction I hope it has an Index, which I always check for. Or maybe, surprise!, your book will turn out to be Fiction. In any case, will it be Annotated?
And what in the world will be … the title ?
I’ve always enjoyed an annotated book. It’s like a book inside a book. Petals within petals, a flower of a book.
Even nonfiction can be annotated, where the author’s “facts” are enlarged upon. For example, I once had an annotated edition of Thoreau’s Walden; or, life in the woods. Our county library has it, Adult Nonfiction, 818 THO.
In Jeffrey M. Cramer’s annotations he remarks on Thoreau’s famous opening line of Chapter 1, “Economy”. Thoreau begins:
When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived by myself alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had build myself, on the shore of Walden Pond…
There’s a footnote after “Pond” that refers to a sidebar where the editor tells us that Irish railroad workers lived well within a mile of Thoreau’s cabin. Though the railroad was finished by then, shanties still stood and some were occupied. Cramer notes:
As late as December 31, 1851, Thoreau [wrote that he] “observed this afternoon the old Irishwoman at the shanty in the woods.”
Thoreau himself said about his apparently true account, “It is the height of art …”. (Chapter 1, Note 5).
So you see how annotated nonfiction can be a bit controversial. But annotated fiction is a lovely, clear mix of fact and fiction, which seems to suit me well right now.
My Annotated Alice by Lewis Carroll features John Tenniel’s original illustrations with notes by Martin Gardner. Remember the Mad Hatter’s famous riddle in Chapter VII, “A Mad Tea-Party”?
“Your hair wants cutting,” said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.
“You should learn not to make personal remarks,” Alice said with some severity: “It’s very rude.”
The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
When the book first came out, there was “much parlor speculation” about the answer to the Hatter’s riddle. Gardner says that in a later edition Carroll gave his own answer to the riddle, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
Enquiries have been so often addressed to me … I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer, viz: “Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat …”
It was only a few years ago that I finally caught on to Jane Austen (1775-1817). This week I’ve been reading an annotated version of Pride and Prejudice. It’s a brief escape into a milder and simpler world than the one I’ll read about the next day in the Washington Post.
I realize that the seeds of great human trouble are to be found in Volume 1, Chapter 1. But they’re still just seeds, easily regarded as just part of a quaint plot.
The new tenant of Netherfield Park, three miles from the Bennets and their five girls, is being discussed by Mr. and Mrs. Bennet.
“What is his name?” [asks Mr. Bennet]
“Bingley.” [Mrs. Bennet replies]
“Is he married or single?”
“Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune, four or five thousand a year.”
Footnote 7 says that Mrs. Bennet is talking about Mr. Bingley’s investment income in pounds. In our early 21st century that would be about $300,000. But the editor David M. Shapard reminds us that goods and labor were relatively much cheaper in 1800 than they are now. He writes,
In addition, the average income in this period, when adjusted for inflation, was much lower than in our time, so Bingley’s income represents a far sharper deviation from the norm than its current equivalent. … Hence, Bingley, however one calculates it, is a truly rich man and a highly desirable matrimonial prospect.
So, if you were interested in reading your life as a book, I ask you:
What well-known author would you hire to write your real life?
What well-known author would you hire to write your fantasy life?
If they’re the both same author — lucky you!
P.S. But are you old enough to be annotated yet? (I’m pretty sure I am!)
I am not sure who would write it, but the title would be "Judy Would and Did"
Much food for though. Oh to see ourselves as others see us…perhaps not. As you write or think, do you sometimes have a view from outside? Or above? I think of it as keeping myself company. 🧙♀️💁🏼