This is a better analogy than I can think of. It has something to do with this post, just not sure what yet.

In Mistakes We Knew We Were Making, the appendix to A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers recalls a conversation with someone regarding the intentions of his appendix, said someone replies, “Oh, right, like Mary McCarthy.” The Mary McCarthy book in question is Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. Eggers notes that McCarthy’s self-correcting appendix shared his idea/goal of his unwritten appendix as writing that “afforded the opportunity to be completely factual about things that in the narrative had to be compressed or altered slightly so the book could continue apace.”

I’m looking at the master calendar for the school year, which is really more of a list. There are no boxes to write in or divisions of weeks and weekends. No place to make alterations or sort out a particular unit. Just dates, events and clarifications. It’s rather appendix-like, leaving one to wonder about future mistakes in classroom narratives made, purposely, in attempt to continue apace. Teachers need to be alright with such a task, if not apt.

–ALR

Appendix · Calendars · Dave Eggers · Mary McCarthy · Mistakes