Men, Women, and Gods, and Other Lectures, by Helen H. Gardener

Scarbo · Post by **Scarbo** » June 26th, 2020, 5:44 pm

http://gutenberg.org/files/30207/30207-h/30207-h.htm

Helen H. Gardener was part of the freethought movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Men, Women, and Gods is a series of freethought lectures particularly addressing the position of women in the church. She does not hold back, and her wit makes me chuckle at times.

One complicating factor if this work were to be adopted is that it has copious references to appendices and other footnotes throughout the text, including asterisks in the middle of sentences linking to lengthy footnotes. I imagine that that situation has been dealt with before for other works though.

Scarbo · Post by **Scarbo** » November 10th, 2020, 5:35 pm

I'm musing on the idea of BCing this. I've read the relevant documentation on BCing and am aware of the investment of time and attention, and I have some experience with recording for group projects and DPLing. But before I dive in, I wanted to get some input as to whether it would be wise to start off with a text that's a bit complex when it comes to footnotes and appendices, though I have a basic plan on how to handle them. If anyone thinks it would be best for me to hold off for now and try BCing something else first, I defer to your judgment!

Post by **mightyfelix** » November 10th, 2020, 8:09 pm

This would be easier to do as a solo than as a group project, I think, because of its complexity. But it wouldn't be impossible as a group project. It would just meant lots more planning and organization up-front, as far as deciding where to split or combine sections, what to include, what to omit, etc. As a soloist, you're free to make these decisions on the fly, so to speak, as you go along.

As far as footnotes, we generally tell readers to continue reading to the end of a sentence, then pause. Say, "Footnote." Read the footnote. Say, "End of footnote." Then continue with the text. Of course, if the sentence is extremely long and convoluted, you could stop at the first convenient comma or something instead. Keep in mind that as a BC, you're probably going to be answering the same questions on this front over and over from different readers, so you should be prepared for those kinds of questions.

Scarbo · Post by **Scarbo** » November 11th, 2020, 6:08 pm

Thanks for your input! I haven't really seriously considered doing a solo project so far because the editing process is pretty work-intensive for me for various reasons, but I'll give both options some thought.

Post by **TriciaG** » November 11th, 2020, 6:18 pm

You can decide whether or not to include the footnotes at all. Since they (and appendices, etc.) are not part of the main body of text, they're optional.

My general question when deciding whether or not to include footnotes is, are they interesting? If not (if they're mostly reference material / bibliographical, for instance), I leave them out.