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Question:
Should every author
include a glossary?
Answer:
NO
Every reader should be equipped
with a good vocabulary
and a dictionary.
If that means
having to read
the book twice,
that doubles the chances
of understanding
the author
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Are you saying that an author
ReplyDeleteshould never include a glossary?
Thank you for waiting five days
Deletebefore asking this question
I would have had a different response
were your implication stated
on the day of the original post,
despite its ornery phrase "every author."
Yesterday, I started reading
a historical novel by Lindsey Davis,
whom I discovered from her serious research
about the Pythagorean Society.
Her mystery novels are set in ancient Rome
and it is prefaced with a glossary
that IS essential for me to appreciate
the setting and the characters of
her "mystery novel" featuring
the Emperor's informer,
MARCUS DIDIUS FALCO.
I have already posted a quote
from See Delphi and Die
and there will be more...
I have always had a fondness
for novelists who write convincingly
in first person from the opposite gender
How would your response have been different
Deleteif my first comment was posted earlier?
I believe a glossary
ReplyDeleteis a presumptuous thing to include
in a book so I created a page
that is more profound than accurate
and I am presently enjoying a novel
that proves how inaccurate I was.
Another thing is that Ms. Davis
has her glossary in front of the story
rather than after it is told or
—worse yet—in footnote form
on the bottom of every other page
Meaning that the glossary
Deleteof this novel reads like
an essential preface
or introductory chapter