August 24, 2012
AGAINST ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
"...just as television has grown more artistically refined, literature has tried to make itself more commercially visible. Authors are asked to promote not only their books but themselves, with book tours, book trailers, interviews, blogs, and an active social-media presence. And connected to these campaigns is the most irritating promotional addendum of all: the acknowledgments page.
A gratuitous supplement to the dedication page, acknowledgments can now be found at the conclusion of virtually every published novel, often running to as many as three pages and thanking scores of people. True, their existence is not entirely unprecedented. One earlier (and still used) form was called the Author’s Note. This typically appeared at the close of historical or autobiographical fiction, to account for any deviations from the factual record or to provide a shortlist of works consulted. These notes traditionally had an air of duress: “I find it obnoxious to have my methods questioned,” the writer seemed to be saying, “but my publisher wanted some clarification, so here it is.”
The point was that the novelist emerged from behind the curtain only reluctantly, in order to anticipate a query or assuage a qualm. What’s new about the current acknowledgments page is that it’s unsolicited—it appears like an online pop-up ad, benefiting no one but the author and his comrades. This is surely why these afterwords are often so garrulously narcissistic and strewn with clichés."
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/08/against-acknowledgments.html#ixzz24lhc5C9S
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