About Hal’s Quotes & Notes: Index Pages

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Q&N introduction:
general
index pages
topical chains
sources
accessibility
selections
language/content
accuracy
typography
graphics
page data
Hal

Index pages:
authors
titles
categories
topics
translators

The major index pages, of several types, are linked from almost every page in the collection. Each may grow to multiple pages; when that happens, you can use the alphabetical links at the top of each page to find the section you want, regardless of which page it is on. The entrance page collects all the alphabetical links.

Entries in the author index link to either:

  • the single location of quotes from the author, or
  • an index page devoted to the author.
See below for more detail about author listings.

The title index lists most sources: books, plays, stories, articles. A few items, such as book and story introductions and newspaper material (editorials, cartoons, and columns) aren’t included because they lack a permanent title; they can be found via the author index. Other items, known by multiple titles, may be listed more than once.

Each category index entry links to a single page, or a separate index, for a group of works by multiple authors, identified by genre (e.g., science fiction), subject (history), form (drama), or even the association of the authors (the Inklings). Some are subsets of larger categories. A single work may appear in multiple categories.

The topics index lists and cross-references chains of quotes, all on the same topic, taken from different authors. There’s also an expanded topical index with cross-references between topics. For a full explanation, see the topical chains page.

The translator index, like the author index, may link directly to quotes from the translation, or to an index page devoted to the translator. (If the translator also appears as an author, one index page encompasses both roles.)

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Author index: details

Although called the “author index,” it also lists the subjects of biographies and obituaries.

Traditionally (and, in some cases, challenged) attributed authors are listed (e.g., those for some books of the Bible).

Several author names appear in quotation marks. This may indicate any one of several things.

  • It may indicate the author is only known by an adopted persona, e.g. “Dionysius the Areopagite” (also listed, without quotes, as pseudo-Dionysius), a fifth- or sixth-century writer taking the name of a first-century walk-on in the Book of Acts—as well, apparently, as a later imitator who improved the impersonation by adding letters to first-century figures.

    Aside from such exceptional cases, quotes are not used for pseudonyms, e.g. Mark Twain, Lewis Padgett, Lewis Carroll, Miss Manners, and Cordwainer Smith, all of whom appear (and some of whom are double-listed with their real names, if those are also well-known).

  • Alternatively, it may indicate the “author” is a fictional construct, with the real author cast in an editing role, e.g. “Howard W. Campbell, Jr.” and “S. Morgenstern.”

    This usage is independent of first-person narrative; you won’t find listings for Oscar Gordon, Huckleberry Finn, Adso of Melk, or John H. Watson, M.D. It implies some distance, in point of view rather than space or time, between the real and fictional authors; none of the hobbit “authors” of the Red Book of Westmarch are listed, either.

  • Another variant is the fictional author of a fictional work, wholly or partially interpolated in a larger narrative. In this case, the fictional work may appear in the title index as well: e.g., “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism” by “Emmanuel Goldstein” has both entries.

Generally, such listings are matched by a more accurate, non-quoted listing, and explained in a note.

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Background graphic copyright © 2004 by Hal Keen