Index (publishing) - References in Popular Culture

References in Popular Culture

In "The Library of Babel", a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, there is an index of indexes that catalogues all of the books in the library, which contains all possible books.

Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle includes a character who is a professional indexer and believes that "indexing a thing that only the most amateurish author to do for his own book." She claims to be able to read an author's character through the index he created for his own history text, and warns the narrator, an author, "Never index your own book."

Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pale Fire includes a parody of an index, reflecting the insanity of the narrator.

Mark Danielewski's novel House of Leaves contains an exhaustive 200 page index of words in the novel, including even large listings for inconsequential words such as the, and, and in.

Read more about this topic:  Index (publishing)

Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:

    Popular culture entered my life as Shirley Temple, who was exactly my age and wrote a letter in the newspapers telling how her mother fixed spinach for her, with lots of butter.... I was impressed by Shirley Temple as a little girl my age who had power: she could write a piece for the newspapers and have it printed in her own handwriting.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

    Like other secret lovers, many speak mockingly about popular culture to conceal their passion for it.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    The aggregate of all knowledge has not yet become culture in us. Rather it would seem as if, with the progressive scientific penetration and dissection of reality, the foundations of our thinking grow ever more precarious and unstable.
    Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)