As research for an upcoming article, I'm reading Leonard Wolf's
The Annotated Dracula. It's a facsimile of the first edition of Bram
Stoker's classic novel with copious sidebar notations. (Highly
recommended, by the way.)
I like to read the notes for the upcoming chapter, then go back
and read the novel's text. I realized while doing so that this
simulates having knowledge I lack. During everyday reading,
when we come upon a reference or allusion, our brains fill in the
knowledge, thereby adding depth to the text and expanding our
understanding of it. People who are ignorant about the references
either have a poorer experience or don't understand the text at all.
Take, for instance, this reference from my article on my
100th blog:
...and most go by without even a notice (100th Big Mac
eaten, 100th sunset stopped and watched, 100th time you kissed
someone special) unless you're OCD.
You either know that OCD stands for "obsessive compulsive
disorder" and have some understanding of what that disorder entails,
or that entire piece of text sails right by you in a haze of
misunderstanding.
Well, what's a 22nd century American boy supposed to do reading a
19th century British novel? Where would I have acquired the
tidbit, "...in Stoker's day transfusion needles were larger than they
are now and induced considerable pain," had a 100 year-old crusty
sailor's yabblins, kirk-garth, bacca-box dialogue translated
for me, obtained the background on John Sheppard's escapes, or read the
original advertisement for and contemporary medical reference on a
popular remedy of the day? What would I make of "...such books of
reference as... the'Red' and 'Blue' books..." or "...in the
simple style of the London cat's-meat..." or "I had the honour
of seconding your father at Windham"?
Enter the annotated text. By reading the notes ahead of the text, I
now have a point of reference for and understanding of the allusions.
My brain is able to fill in the knowledge as if I'd had it all along.
I get the same effects of added depth and expanded understanding as a
highly knowledgeable person reading the first printing in 1897. It's
"simulated intelligence" turned into real knowledge.
What a marvelous thing it is to be so enriched and made smarter than I
should be by reading a few notations.