Pratchett's "Witches Abroad": Footnote Hijinks

[enuddleyarbl]

EDIT: Aargh. Never mind. The footnote in the original is split from the previous footnote text and refers to that footnote's location. It's not one of Pratchett's nested footnotes. It's just a mistake. Sorry.

OP: Since the mods moved my other footnote problem question into this forum, I'll assume it's a good choice to ask another. This time, in Pratchett's "Witches Abroad" (which is, of course, an excellent book to read), the 3rd footnote is only partially present and doesn't seem to belong to the sentence that originates it.

I've checked the epub I'm editing, the epub first converted in Calibre and my archived azw3 as downloaded last year from Amazon. They all have the footnote originating very near the beginning where a certain person and her helper is putting up an effigy with mirror, hat and coat. The two single-sentence paragraphs before the footnote are:

"The piece of mirror gleamed between the darkness of the hat and the coat.

“Will it work?” he said."

The fragment of the footnote I actually have says: "are being whisked away on the roof-racks of stolen cars and loyal alsatians are choking on the fingers of midnight burglars. And they’re not confined to any one world. Hundreds of female Mercurian <i>jivpts</i> turn four tiny eyes on their rescuers and say, “My brood-husband will be livid—it was <i>his</i> travel module.” Urban myths are alive."

Does anyone have the full footnote text or know where it actually belongs?

[enuddleyarbl]

Actually, I'll bet that split footnote text is because someone faithfully reproduced an artifact of the the original dead-tree version. The footnote was probably too big, so they carried it over to the bottom of the next page. To do that with an epub, they probably just stuck another footnote sign on the first paragraph at the top of that next page and continued from there.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DaveLessnau

Actually, I'll bet that split footnote text is because someone faithfully reproduced an artifact of the the original dead-tree version. The footnote was probably too big, so they carried it over to the bottom of the next page. To do that with an epub, they probably just stuck another footnote sign on the first paragraph at the top of that next page and continued from there.

It's the same sort of thing in Wryd Sisters.

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's the same sort of thing in Wryd Sisters.

I didn't notice any problems with the footnotes in "Wyrd Sisters." Which one was odd in your book?

[Quoth]

Page 9 on my paperback edition from 1992.
Takes about 1/3rd page & is all on that page. The roof-racks is about 1/2 way in footnote.

* And people are wrong about urban myths. Logic and reaso


Oh sod it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DaveLessnau

I didn't notice any problems with the footnotes in "Wyrd Sisters." Which one was odd in your book?

There are some footnotes that link to other footnotes. It would be best to combine these footnotes (which I did).

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There are some footnotes that link to other footnotes. It would be best to combine these footnotes (which I did).

Until just this minute, I always thought Pratchett's nested footnotes were his being funny. But, perhaps those were just his way of getting a lot of footnote material to fit into the space available at the bottom of the page of old printed books.

I've seen him do nested footnotes, footnotes on succeeding sentences, and even pretend footnotes (they follow "true" footnotes and have superscripted characters for reference, but no id= or href= tags of their own). As I was moving them from their own chapters up to the referencing text, I tended to leave them in their existing format. Now that I think about it, I probably should have just combined those "split" footnotes into one lump.