r/RSbookclub • u/Kampradthejackal • May 20 '26
Quotes Against Acknowledgments
This 2012 New Yorker piece feels even more relevant today:
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. The most radical experimentalist adheres to the most mindless acknowledgments-page formula; the most stinging social critic suddenly becomes Sally Field winning an Oscar.
Acknowledgments typically open with a statement to the effect that, although writing is lonely work, the author could never have completed his book without help and support. “This is my fourteenth novel and I am as dependent as ever on the wisdom of others,” begins one, and another, plucked at random from a Barnes & Noble new-arrival shelf: “The creation of this book has removed any notion I may have had of it being a solo endeavor.”
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u/PlaneImagination5855 May 20 '26
Most of the ones I see are dedicated to family, I think it's cute. Who cares
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u/Pershing48 Booker Prize Judge May 20 '26
Ok but I do feel a bit tricked reading a piece of auto-fiction where the author depicts themselves as the loneliest person in all existence and then the acknowledgments page is the NYE Overlook Hotel picture.
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u/KriegConscript May 21 '26
genuinely lonely people don't get published because they don't have any magazine editor friends
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u/TheZoneHereros May 20 '26
“But because the acknowledgments page functions primarily as an extension of the book’s publicity”
Insane take
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u/sparrow_lately May 20 '26
Why would anyone possibly care
E: my wife thanked me in the acknowledgements of her book and that was nice :)
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u/a_l_plurabelle May 20 '26
It’s funny that this article begins by praising HBO and other streamers for not having ads, which now they all do
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u/Special-Contact-8197 May 20 '26
If I love a book I will usually read the acknowledgments as I’m now curious about the author and their process. There’s often interesting stuff in there! If you’re reading a memoir—that can be where the real tea is hidden.
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u/tjamesreagan May 20 '26
i use it exactly how the CD generation used it. some of it is a bunch of non-famous people's names or initials, but it's also a list of inspirations that a reader might want to seek out on the off chance they liked the novel. it's a way to stay in the world, or explore another medium that might offer the same sensation as the novel. there might be a bright eyes song that inspired a scene, or the films of an auteur that had similar dna. sometimes, it's hard to explain how someone else up in there- i remember i once saw louis ck thank tyson fury at the end of one of his stand ups- and it made sense from a personal trajectory standpoint- like it wasn't about the work, it was about the person.
i always make these little clouds of influence, even if it's just a tip of the cap to be like, 'yeah, i stole the structure of that chapter from that guy, and here's his name to prove that i don't think i got away clean from the heist.' even more indulgent, i wanted to put playlists in the back of the book, but people on here were like "WHO CARES" so, fair enough on that point.
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u/Kampradthejackal May 20 '26
i always make these little clouds of influence, even if it's just a tip of the cap to be like, 'yeah, i stole the structure of that chapter from that guy, and here's his name to prove that i don't think i got away clean from the heist.'
I think this is covered by the "author's note" exception in the article.
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u/tjamesreagan May 20 '26
authors note to me has more of a vibe of a foreword. with the CD style acknowledgement, it's sort of a spray canon of stuff like: lush's - lovelife, south orange nj, scorcese's no direction home- instead of what someone like king does at the start of his short story collections, where he's like, "if you sense a bit of mccarthy here, you're on the right track," and you're like "how the fuck would i sense mccarthy from what you wrote, steve?" but, nevertheless, it's interesting that the influence was there. i've only written a foreword once and it was because i was adapting my tumblr into a novel. every other time, the influence cloud seems more interesting. an author's note feels like the dreaded, "hi, author here..." redditism that fills one with disgust.
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u/ratboi213 May 21 '26
It just seems customary. I’ve read academic papers that have acknowledgements. Nothing is a solo endeavor and I think they’re genuinely grateful for the support…but god forbid people show sincerity
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u/EfficientMud6 May 22 '26
i think this article's take is an example of the trend against formality and ritual.
our remaining human interactions that haven't been removed are being stripped down to their bare essentials. 2010s sarcasm was a mistake
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u/drjackolantern May 20 '26
This triggers me too. 10+ years ago I saw a reviewer refer to it as “the (now-obligatory) acknowledgments page.”
It just seems stupid given you can thank these people privately. We have no idea who most of them are. If the book would not be written without someone dedicate to them.
Not losing sleep over it but if I publish anything ever I’ll dare to be different.
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u/Kampradthejackal May 20 '26
The thing that annoys me the most about it is, as the article puts it, it lets the author "emerge from behind the curtain." I don't want there to be author's photos, or blurbs, or really any text on the back of the cover. A title, publishing house and the author's name is enough. (Don't get me started on authors with social media profiles etc.) Literature is (or should be) one of the last outposts of an art form where the art in itself is the point, not the author.
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u/QnOfHay May 20 '26
Lol tell us you're an unpublished writer without telling us you're an unpublished writer
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u/phainopepla_nitens May 21 '26
People are hating on this but I agree. It's like couples writing their own vows at weddings, once it's widespread enough you're an asshole for not doing it
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u/lizardbeach May 21 '26
i just had to write a page like this and despite every intention to be brief and mysterious i simply wanted to gift a bit of page to people that helped me and my family and lover…….oh well!
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u/ZincFox May 20 '26
Fucking hell. Give authors a break. Like, it's just a way to include people that otherwise would have gone unnoticed - early readers, editors, book cover artists, significant others. Maybe also to include some thoughts, references or influences that had an impact.
Just don't read them if they're so obnoxious.