{"id":26294,"date":"2012-02-21T13:00:56","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T18:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=26294"},"modified":"2014-01-05T23:41:54","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T04:41:54","slug":"the-tyranny-of-footnotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/21\/the-tyranny-of-footnotes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tyranny of Footnotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Although V. S. Naipaul is my favorite living writer, I resisted reading Patrick French\u2019s critically acclaimed biography of Sir Vidia<\/a>, published in 2008, until last month. The reviews alone presented a deeply unflattering picture: Naipaul as misogynist, racist, skinflint, serial adulterer, and Hindu nationalist. (And to think the biography was authorized!)<\/p>\n

But I had read nearly all of Naipaul\u2019s work and some of it, including his best novel, A Bend in the River<\/em><\/a> (from whose opening line, \u201cThe world is what it is,\u201d French takes his title), many times. So when I happened across the biography at my local library, I picked it up thinking it was as close to a new work of Naipaul\u2019s as I was likely to see.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a masterful effort, a nimble admixture of critical appreciation and salacious gossip. But there were no real surprises in the text; the reviews had limned the most revealing and unsettling episodes of Naipaul\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

There was, however, a surprise buried in French\u2019s acknowledgments. Among the hundred-odd names, sandwiched between Derek Walcott (Naipaul\u2019s fellow Trinidadian and rival of sorts) and Andrew Wylie (Naipaul\u2019s agent), was one Kanye West.<\/p>\n

Kanye West?<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s true that the rapper-producer\u2019s father is a former Black Panther, and Naipaul wrote an essay \u201cMichael X and the Black Power Killings in Trinidad.\u201d And West\u2019s late mother was an English professor. Was it possible that Naipaul and West shared a connection beyond their inflated egos?<\/p>\n

I e-mailed French. <\/p>\n

His coy response: \u201cHah, that\u2019s a good question. You would really need to ask Kanye to get the definitive answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alas, West was not available for comment.<\/p>\n

But a hint of French\u2019s intentions came in his sign-off in the form of a challenge: \u201cDid you spot my fake footnote?\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to the book. Note eighty from chapter twenty-three looked suspicious: a URL promising to reveal Anthony Powell\u2019s mutton curry recipe. But while the Web address was off, a quick Google search did reveal Powell\u2019s dish, which a relative of Powell\u2019s had told French was \u201cabsolutely disgusting, but we had to pretend we liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wrote again to French. Had I missed some Tupac reference?<\/p>\n

In response, French forwarded me his essay, \u201cTinkerty-Tonk!\u201d from the October 2006 issue of The Literary Review<\/em>. In it French discusses literary hoaxes and his own experiences with dubious sources as a biographer. He admits that in his 2003 book, Tibet, Tibet<\/em><\/a>, he \u201ctried hoaxing himself\u201d with a fake footnote. \u201cConvinced that nobody ever reads them, I added a transparently bogus note in the hope that someone would spot it and question me,\u201d he wrote. (Perhaps French was also nodding to Nabokov, who made great fictive use of footnotes in Pale Fire<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

The hoax citation: \u201cHungerwood, Dennis P, Early Tibetan Inscriptions on Hedge Sacrifice<\/em>, Novzhgyet Teklat Insteur, Bishkek Dot, Vol 19, Spring 1977, pp117\u2013139.\u201d French writes that in the three years since the book was published, nobody noticed. And he reproduced it, slightly altered, in The World Is What It Is<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I admit that when French sent me looking, I paused at the citation, asking the question that French had asked in his essay: \u201cHow would a Tibetan sacrifice a hedge?\u201d But the note came after a passage describing Columbus-era life in the New World, and I figured anything was possible. Besides, the citation was \u201cbulky\u201d and \u201ccod-academic\u201d (French\u2019s words)\u2014like so many other footnotes in academic literature. This, of course, was French\u2019s point, a subtle dig at \u201cthe tyranny of footnotes in contemporary publishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But with the acknowledgments French went too far, at least if you believe, as I do, that he was having a laugh. As the rapper no doubt would be happy to hear, the name Kanye West stands out. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul Wachter is the cofounder of the news aggregator againstdumb.com<\/a> and a contributor to several magazines.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although V. S. Naipaul is my favorite living writer, I resisted reading Patrick French\u2019s critically acclaimed biography of Sir Vidia, published in 2008, until last month. The reviews alone presented a deeply unflattering picture: Naipaul as misogynist, racist, skinflint, serial adulterer, and Hindu nationalist. (And to think the biography was authorized!) But I had read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":304,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[565,6047,6045,6044,1497,6046,6050,6041,6042,6043,5287,6051,6049,6048,976],"class_list":["post-26294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-andrew-wylie","tag-anthony-powell","tag-black-panthers","tag-derek-walcott","tag-kanye-west","tag-michael-x-and-the-black-power-killings-in-trinidad","tag-pale-fire","tag-patrick-french","tag-sir-vida","tag-the-bend-of-the-river","tag-the-literary-review","tag-the-world-is-what-it-is","tag-tibet","tag-tinkerty-tonk","tag-v-s-naipaul"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Tyranny of Footnotes by Paul Wachter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"February 21, 2012 \u2013 Although V. S. 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