infinite footnotes

[Bonnie Surfus (ENG)]

On Fri, 21 Jun 1996, Andrew Dinn wrote:

> Jeffrey Stadelman teases Bonnie with:
> 
> > "He gets back to the Casino just as big globular raindrops, thick as
> > honey, begin to splat into giant asterisks on the pavement, inviting
> > him to look down at the bottom of the text of the day, where
> > footnotes will explain all.  He isn't about to look.  Nobody ever
> > said a day has to be juggled into any kind of sense at day's end.
> > He just runs."  GR, Bantam p. 238
> 
> There's a lovely, ironic footnote to this riposte. Bonnie's first post
> to the list (at least the first one where she revealed her true
> colours) included this very quote. A fine note.
> 
> 
> Andrew Dinn
> -----------
> And though Earthliness forget you,
> To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
> To the rushing water speak:  I am.
> 
> 
Yipes!  My true colors?  Wha?

Anyhow, I do remember being dazzled by this passage.  I don't know what I
said then, but I recall thinking that this was one of those textual places
where readers drop-jawed just sit back and say "wow," realizing how
useless their attempts can be (my novel, by the way, is still going
nowhere, as if . . .).